DETERMINING RELATED KEYWORDS BASED ON LIFESTREAM FEEDS

• US 20120102058A1
• Filed: 01/04/2012
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kothari, Pankaj, Sahni, Saurabh, KUMAR, Mani
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,908 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/759
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536

Abstract

Embodiments are directed towards providing related keywords determined to be relevant to a search term using life-streaming data to identify the related keywords. Relevancy is determined by performing the related keyword analysis when life-stream services have been updated. Related keywords may be identified for a given search term using a combination of an aggregated life-stream analysis, a user profile based analysis, and/or a community based life-stream analysis. Each of these mechanisms identify a subset of updated life-streams or profiles to be analyzed to identify keywords that co-occur within each life-steam along with the given search term. The resulting co-occurring keywords may then be ordered based on a frequency of occurrence for the subset of life-streams. A weighted combination of the identified related keywords may be used to display related keywords to a user for use in modifying a search query.

Claims

1. A network device, comprising:

a transceiver to send and receive data over a network; and

a processor that is operative to perform actions, including;

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

identifying a plurality of life-stream updates across a plurality of different users;

searching each of the updated plurality of life-stream updates to identify a subset of life-streams having the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of life-streams to identify a first set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term;

identifying a subset of user profiles within a plurality of user profiles that include the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of user profiles to identify a second set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term within updated user profile content; and

providing at least some keywords from the first or second set of keywords such that the provided keywords are selectable to modify the search query.

2. The network device of claim 1, wherein the updated user profile content within the subset of user profiles is associated with at least one life-stream update.

3. The network device of claim 1, wherein providing at least some keywords further comprises displaying the at least some keywords at a client device, such that the displayed keywords can be selected and combined with the search query to generate a modified search query.

4. The network device of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to perform actions, further including:

identifying a subset of community based life-stream updates that include the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of community based life-stream updates to identify a third set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term; and

providing at least some keywords from the third set of keywords such that the provided keywords are also selectable to modify the search query.

5. The network device of claim 1, wherein identifying keywords co-occurring with the at least one search term further comprises searching for tags or other information that a user adds about their interests, or data or other information that can be derived from activities of the user.

6. The network device of claim 1, wherein providing at least some of the keywords further comprises providing the keywords based on an ordering by frequency of occurrence.

7. A system, comprising:

one or more processors configured to provide a plurality of updates to life-stream feeds; and

one or more other processors configured to perform actions, including;

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

identifying a plurality of life-stream updates across a plurality of different users;

searching each of the updated plurality of life-stream updates to identify a subset of life-streams having the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of life-streams to identify a first set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term;

identifying a subset of user profiles within a plurality of user profiles that include the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of user profiles to identify a second set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term within updated user profile content; and

providing at least some keywords from the first or second set of keywords such that the provided keywords are selectable to modify the search query.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the updates to life-stream feeds are examined virtually in real time such that the identified keywords are determined to have a time relevancy.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more other processors perform actions, further including:

determining a frequency of occurrence for the keywords in the first and second set of keywords;

sorting the keywords based on the determined frequencies of occurrence; and

providing at least some of the keywords further comprises providing at least a first set of sorted keywords having a frequency of occurrence over a threshold value.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more other processors are operative to perform actions, further including:

identifying a subset of community based life-stream updates that include the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of community based life-stream updates to identify a third set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term; and

providing at least some keywords from the third set of keywords such that the provided keywords are also selectable to modify the search query.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein providing at least some keywords further comprises providing at least one keyword associated with an advertiser'"'"'s product or service.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein providing the at least some keywords further comprises providing the at least some keywords to a client device with a display of the search query, such that when a keyword within the provided at least some keywords is selected, the display of search query is modified to include the selected at least some keywords.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more other processors configured to perform actions, further including:

employing a sliding time window to phase out at least one keyword within the first or second set of keywords.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device having computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions configured to perform actions, comprising:

executing on one or more processors to perform actions, including;

receiving a search query having at least one search term;

identifying a plurality of life-stream updates across a plurality of different users;

searching each of the updated plurality of life-stream updates to identify a subset of life-streams having the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of life-streams to identify a first set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term;

identifying a subset of user profiles within a plurality of user profiles that include the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of user profiles to identify a second set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term within updated user profile content; and

displaying at a client device at least some keywords from the first or second set of keywords such that the displayed keywords are selectable to modify the search query.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the one or more other processors perform actions, further including:

determining a frequency of occurrence for the keywords in the first and second set of keywords;

sorting the keywords based on the determined frequencies of occurrence; and

displaying at least some of the keywords further comprises, displaying at least a first set of sorted keywords having a frequency of occurrence over a threshold value.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the one or more other processors configured to perform actions, further including:

employing a sliding time window to phase out at least one keyword within the first or second set of keywords.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein providing the at least some keywords further comprises providing the at least some keywords to a client device with a display of the search query, such that when a keyword within the provided at least some keywords is selected, the display of search query is modified to include the selected at least some keywords.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein the processor is operative to perform actions, further including:

identifying a subset of community based life-stream updates that include the at least one search term;

analyzing each of the subset of community based life-stream updates to identify a third set of keywords that co-occur with the at least one search term; and

displaying at least some keywords from the third set of keywords such that the displayed keywords are also selectable to modify the search query.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 14, displaying at a client device at least some keywords further comprises displaying at least one keyword that is associated with an advertiser'"'"'s product or service.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 14, wherein analyzing each of the subset of user profiles to identify a second set of keywords further comprises identifying keywords that identify a topic for which a user might be interested in or a topic for which the user might post articles.