Search fusion

• US 20060173817A1
• Filed: 12/29/2004
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pass, Gregory S., Chowdhury, Abdur R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

Search results are assigned scores based on visual aspects of surrogate representations of the search results which are to be displayed to a query submitter in a search results summary overview. That is, the surrogate representations are relatively short summaries or excerpts of the search results that may be presented in place of the search results themselves, thus enabling an overview of various search results to be perceived by a user concurrently. The search results are assigned scores based on the presence, position, and form of some or all of the query within the corresponding surrogate representations. The search results may be sorted or filtered based on the assigned scores. Assigning scores to the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representations mimics how a user may assess the relevance of the search results when viewing a search results summary page.

Claims

1. A method for sorting search results, the method comprising:

submitting a query received from a user to multiple search engines;

receiving a set of search results for the query from each of the multiple search engines;

accessing a surrogate representation for each of several of the search results;

assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto; and

merging the sets of search results based on the scores assigned to the search results.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein merging the sets of search results comprises creating a single list of search results that includes the search results in order of decreasing score.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on presence of query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on a distance between query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on an order of query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on a combination of presence of query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation, a distance between query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation, and an order of query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on an amount of the query present within the corresponding surrogate representation.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein assigning a score to the search result based on an amount of the query present within the corresponding surrogate representation comprises assigning a score to the search result based on a number of query terms present within the corresponding surrogate representation.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein assigning a score to the search result based on an amount of the query present within the corresponding surrogate representation comprises assigning a score to the search result based on a ratio of a number of query terms present within the corresponding surrogate representation to a number of query terms within the query.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on an amount of the corresponding surrogate representation reflecting query terms.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein assigning a score to the search result based on an amount of the corresponding surrogate representation reflecting query terms comprises assigning a score to the search result based on a ratio of a number of query terms present within the corresponding surrogate representation to a number of terms in the corresponding surrogate representation.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on locations of query terms in the corresponding surrogate representation.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the surrogate representation of the search result comprises at least one from the group consisting of a title, a hyperlink, a date, a description, a keyword, and metadata for the search result.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising filtering the search results based on the scores assigned to the search results.

15. A machine-accessible medium that when accessed, results in a machine performing operations for sorting search results, comprising:

submitting a query received from a user to multiple search engines;

receiving a set of search results for the query from each of the multiple search engines;

accessing a surrogate representation for each of several of the search results;

assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto; and

merging the sets of search results based on the scores assigned to the search results.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on presence of query terms within the corresponding surrogate representation.

17. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on an amount of the query present within the corresponding surrogate representation.

18. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15 wherein assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto comprises assigning a score to the search result based on locations of query terms in the corresponding surrogate representation.

19. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15 wherein the surrogate representation of the search result comprises at least one from the group consisting of a title, a hyperlink, a date, a description, a keyword, and metadata for the search result.

20. A system for sorting search results, the system comprising:

means for submitting a query received from a user to multiple search engines;

means for receiving a set of search results for the query from each of the multiple search engines;

means for accessing a surrogate representation for each of several of the search results;

means for assigning a score to each of the search results based on visual characteristics of the surrogate representation corresponding thereto; and

means for merging the sets of search results based on the scores assigned to the search results.