ALGORITHMICALLY GENERATED TOPIC PAGES

• US 20090282013A1
• Filed: 05/06/2008
• Published: 11/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Joshi, Deepa, Wexler, Mike, Shukla, Ashish, Lestiyo, Ingrid
• Granted Patent: US 9,798,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A method and system for generating a topic page for a search query on a search webpage includes receiving a query at the search webpage on a client. The query is transmitted from the search webpage on the client to a search engine on a server. A topic page generator available to the search engine analyzes the query to identify a plurality of dimensions. One or more content modules that match one or more of the dimensions are selected from a plurality of sources based on a weight associated with each of the content modules. The weight defines the ranking of a content module. The content modules for the plurality of dimensions are glued together and presented on the topic page in the order of the corresponding weight of the content modules. The order of presentation identifies the relevancy of the content modules to the query. The presented topic page provides the most relevant content modules for the query, and for a user located in a specific geo location.

Claims

1. A method for generating a topic page for a query, comprising:

(a) analyzing the query to identify a plurality of dimensions;

(b) selecting one or more content modules from a plurality of sources that match one or more of the plurality of dimensions; and

(c) generating the topic page with the selected content modules.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

processing as a batch, a plurality of query terms, through operations (a)-(c);

saving identification of the selected content modules for the topic page.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the batch is processed periodically.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising,

receiving a query;

if the query is one of the plurality of query terms that were processed as the batch, referencing the saved identification of the selected content modules for a topic page that is related to the received query; and

presenting the topic page in response to the received query.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of query terms that were processed as the batch are selected from one of user logs, query logs or session logs, and the plurality of query terms are updated periodically to define new batches of processed query terms.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing of (a)-(c) is performed in a batch process for a plurality of query terms, wherein the batch process is run periodically.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting content modules further including,

assigning weight to the one or more content modules, the weight defining the ranking of the content modules;

and

identifying the content modules for the query that match the one or more plurality of dimensions based on the associated weight of the one or more content modules.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the topic page further including,

identifying the weight of the selected one or more content modules;

and

presenting the selected content modules in a topic page template in an order based on the corresponding weight of the content modules, the order indicating relevancy of the content modules to the query, the topic page template stored in a module gallery for future query.

9. A method for generating a topic page for a search query on a search webpage, comprising:

receiving a query at the search webpage;

analyzing the query to identify a plurality of dimensions;

selecting one or more content modules from a plurality of sources that match one or more of the plurality of dimensions, the selection of the content modules based on a weight associated with each of the content modules, the weight defining the ranking of the content modules; and

generating the topic page with the selected content modules, the order of presenting of the content modules based on the corresponding weight of the content modules, the order indicating relevancy of the content modules to the query.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising,

actively tracking statistical data at each of the content modules presented in the topic page, the statistical data identifying popularity of the corresponding content modules;

dynamically determining a current weight of each of the content modules from a plurality of sources based on the statistical data, the current weight defining the current ranking of the content modules;

selecting the content modules from the plurality of sources based on the current ranking; and

presenting the content modules on the topic page, the selection and order of presentation of the content modules reflecting the adjusted ranking of the content modules in the topic page.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the query by identifying a plurality of dimensions further including,

determining a geo location associated with the query, the geo location driving the selection of the content modules;

determining a topic of the query; and

identifying one or more intents for the topic, the intent defining a purpose for the query.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each query may be associated with a geo location, a topic and one or more intents for the topic.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the modules are selected based on the geo location of the query thereby providing relevant search results in response to the query.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting the plurality of content modules includes,

weighing each of the content modules for each of the plurality of dimensions based on one or more weighting attributes;

ranking the content modules based on an overall weight associated with each of the content modules for each of the plurality of dimensions; and

identifying the content modules with the highest ranking for rendering on the topic page.

15. The method of claim 14, further including selecting one or more content modules with lower ranking as fallback content modules, the fallback content modules used in place of the content modules with higher ranking in the topic page when the content modules with higher ranking encounter problems during the rendering on the topic page.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the sum of the weights of the content modules in each of the plurality of dimensions is equal to 1.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the weighting attributes include one or more of credibility of a source providing the content module, relevancy of a source with respect to one or more dimensions, quality of content within the content module, and frequency of updates to a content of the content module.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the content modules from a plurality of dimensions are combined to match the query, the combination considering the weight of the content modules under each of the plurality of dimensions.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the statistical data includes one or more of type of user interaction with a content module, number of user interactions with a content module, and number of times a content module gets included in any topic page.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the user interaction at the topic page includes one or more of adding one or more content modules, removing one or more content modules, re-arranging one or more content modules, wherein the user interaction is associated with customization of the topic page, the customization performed dynamically and is available for the query at the geo location, wherein the customization of the topic page modifying the rankings of the content module rendered therein.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein the topic page includes one or more links to related content pages, the related content pages obtained using sessions data and ranked according to corresponding weight, the related content pages provided as a navigation bar on the topic page.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of dimensions is ranked and selected based on geo location, the ranking and selection based on knowledge of user interactions for the corresponding dimension at the geo location and is performed by analyzing user data obtained from user logs, session logs, and query data.

23. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving a query at the search webpage, analyzing the query to identify a plurality of dimensions, selecting one or more content modules from a plurality of sources that match one or more of the plurality of dimensions, and generating the topic page with the selected content modules are performed in a batch process, the batch process performed periodically, wherein the generated topic page is stored in a module gallery for future data mining.

24. A system for generating a topic page for search queries on a search webpage, comprising:

a client configured to generate a query and render a topic page;

a server configured to receive the query from the client, the server including,

a topic page generator having,

a categorizer module configured to analyze the query and identify a plurality of dimensions, wherein the plurality of dimensions includes a geo location associated with the query, a topic based on the geo location and one or more intents for the topic defining the purpose of the query at the geo location;

a module selector configured to select a plurality of content modules from a plurality of sources that match one or more of the plurality of dimensions; and

a module placer configured to identify placement of the plurality of content modules in the topic page, the placement of the content modules defined by metadata associated with each of the content modules.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the topic page generator further includes a module ranker configured to actively track and receive user interactions from the topic page on the client, the user interaction including customization of the topic page, wherein the module ranker uses the user interaction to dynamically rank the content modules and update the rank of the content modules in the metadata of the content modules.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein content modules include dynamic content that are updated periodically at the corresponding source.

27. The system of claim 24, further including a module gallery at each of the plurality of sources for storing one or more content modules, the module gallery associated with a specific geo location.

28. A method for generating a topic page for a search query (query) on a search webpage, comprising:

requesting content modules for a query, the query defined by a plurality of dimensions;

receiving a plurality of content modules matching one or more of the plurality of dimensions of the query from a plurality of sources; and

rendering the content modules on the topic page in response to the request, the rendering of the content modules based on weight associated with each of the content modules, the weight defining the ranking of the content module within the topic page,

wherein during the rendering, the method includes analyzing the plurality of content modules in the topic page to identify and resolve any conflict associated with the content modules, the resolution of the conflict enriching quality of the topic page rendered on the search results webpage.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein requesting content modules for a search query further including,

receiving a query at the search webpage;

analyzing the query to identify a plurality of dimensions, wherein the plurality of dimensions include a geo location associated with the query, a topic and one or more intents; and

identifying one or more content modules from a plurality of sources that match one or more of the plurality of dimensions.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein each of the content modules includes metadata defining the rendering attributes of the content module on the topic page, wherein the rendering attributes include one or more of display size, preferred location, location where the content module should not be placed, content type, author, source, weight, and display flag.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein analyzing the plurality of content modules further including,

identifying a content module on the topic page having a conflict, wherein the conflict reduces the quality of the topic page, the identification of the content module is by analyzing the metadata associated with the content module;

identifying a fallback content module at the source corresponding to the content module with the conflict;

replacing the content module having the conflict with the fallback content module from the corresponding source, the replacement redefining the metadata associated with the content module and the fallback content module, the replacement enriching the quality of the topic page.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein redefining the metadata associated with the content module and the fallback content module further including resetting the display flag of the respective content modules.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the conflict associated with the content module includes one or more of failure to render, slow rendering speed, heavy content for rendering due to rich content, and poor quality for rendering.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein analyzing the plurality of content modules further including,

evaluating the conflict associated with the content module;

when the conflict associated with the content module is one of slow rendering, heavy content due to rich content, lack of fallback content module, or poor quality of fallback content module,

re-configuring the topic page by moving the content page with the conflict below a fold of the topic page, the re-configuring enabling the topic page to be rendered without conflict, the re-configuring of the topic page re-setting the metadata associated with the content page.

35. The method of claim 28, wherein identifying the topic for the query further including,

obtaining user interactions at a content module rendered on the topic page, the user interaction identifying a source;

and

identifying a topic category for the content module through a mapping file of the source, the mapping file storing an identity of the source with associated topic, the identity of the source mapped to the identity of the content module to obtain the associated topic of the source.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein when the mapping file does not include an associated topic for the source, the identifying of the topic of the query further including,

providing a directory tree of the source, wherein the source is a leaf of the directory tree;

moving up the tree to identify a parent node of the source; and

identifying a topic category of the parent node to determine the topic category of the source and the content module.