Search engine interface

• US 7,089,236 B1
• Filed: 10/13/1999
• Issued: 08/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Conversant, LLC (Publicis Groupe SA)
• Original Assignee: Search 123.com Incorporated
• Inventors: Stibel, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): HWANG, JOON H
• Application Number:
  US09/419,005
• Time in Patent Office: 2,491 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

The invention provides, inter alia, front ends to a database search engine or engines, that process a user query to generate a new search request that will more effectively retrieve information from the database that is relevant to the query of the user. To this end, in one embodiment the systems can be realized as computer programs present to a user interface to a user and which prompt the user to enter one or more key phrases that are representative of a user search request or user query. The user interface can collect the key phrases provided by the user and can analyze these key phrases to identify at least one meaning that can be associated with this user query. The systems can then process the user query and the identified meaning to generate an expanded search request that can be represented as a boolean search strategy. This boolean search strategy can then be processed to create one or more expanded user queries that can be presented to a search engine to collect from a search engine information that is relevant to the interest of the user.

Claims

1. A process for aiding a user in developing a search request, comprising

presenting to the user an interface for collecting from the user a keyphrase representative of a user search request,

analyzing said user search request to identify at least one meaning associated with said user search request,

processing said user search request and said at least one meaning to generate an expanded search request represented as a boolean search strategy, wherein the expanded search request includes related terms not defined or chosen by the user, the related terms being amended to the user search request and the one meaning in a weighted string;

and

providing said expanded search request to a search engine capable of identifying information associated with said expanded search request.

2. The process according to claim 1, wherein presenting to the user an interface includes providing a source of profile data representative of information that is displayed to the user for guiding the user to supply information for refining the user search request.

3. The process according to claim 2, wherein providing said source of profile data includes providing category information capable of being selected by the user to identify a topic associated with the user search strategy.

4. The process according to claim 3, wherein providing said source of profile data includes providing subcategory information capable of being displayed to the user in response to the user selection of category and capable of providing information for refining the user search strategy.

5. The process according to claim 1, wherein analyzing said user search request includes determining whether a plurality of meanings is associated with said user search request.

6. The process according to claim 1, wherein analyzing said user search request includes

matching a portion of said keyphrase to a linguistic database to identify a list of associated meanings.

7. The process according to claim 6, including an act

processing said list of associated meanings to generate a display that presents to the user a plurality of meanings associated with said keyphrase to aid the user in disambiguating between said plural meanings.

8. The process according to claim 6, including an act of processing said list of associated meanings to generate a menu of choices that is selected by the user to assign at least one of said associated meanings to said keyphrase.

9. The process according to claim 6 wherein analyzing said user search request includes

adjusting said user interface as a function of said associated meaning to present to the user a request for information for refining said user search request.

10. The process according to claim 1, wherein analyzing a search request includes generating a user linguistic database for the user, wherein the linguistic database is separate from a knowledgebase, and wherein the linguistic database is representative of keyphrases and associated user-defined meanings.

11. The process according to claim 1, wherein analyzing a search request includes accessing demographic information associated with the user for generating said expanded search request.

12. The process according to claim 1, wherein processing said user search request and said at least one meaning to generate an expanded search request, includes

accessing a linguistic knowledgebase having information representative of a list of sense signals, each sense signal being information for describing a linguistic meaning, and a list of words.

13. The process according to claim 12, including employing said keyphrase to access said user linguistic knowledgebase and identify a sense signal associated with said keyphrase.

14. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the expanded search includes a NOT operator in association with a related term.

15. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the related terms are weighted in accordance with the relevance of the related term to the search request and the one meaning.

16. A system for aiding a user in developing a search request, comprising

a linguistic knowledgebase having information representative of a list of sense signals, each sense signal being information for describing a linguistic meaning, and a list of weighted and unweighted words, wherein weighted words are weighted in relation to a potential query term;

a controller for generating an interface for collecting from the user a keyphrase representative of a user search request, and for employing said keyphrase to access information from said linguistic knowledgebase to generate an expanded search request, and

a query mechanism for processing said expanded search request to generate a set of boolean search requests, each said boolean search request associated with at least one preselected search engine, wherein each of the boolean search requests corresponds to the expanded search request; and

for providing each said boolean search request to a respective preselected search engine.

17. The system according to claim 16, further including

a controller for adjusting the interface, as a function of information accessed from said linguistic knowledgebase, for guiding the user in disambiguating between meanings for the keyphrase.

18. The system according to claim 16, further comprising:

a mechanism for generating a user linguistic database for the user, wherein the user linguistic database is separate from the linguistic knowledgebase, and wherein the user linguistic database is representative of keyphrases and associated user-defined meanings.

19. The system according to claim 16, further comprising

means for identifying demographic information associated with said user and for employing said demographic information for expanding said user search request.

20. The system according to claim 16, wherein said controller further includes

means for accessing flag signals from said linguistic knowledgebase, wherein the flag signals are associated with a sense signal and identify a condition of use of words associated with the sense signal in the generation of the expanded search request.

21. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein each boolean search request is formatted in accordance with the respective preselected search engine.

22. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the query mechanism receives search results from each preselected search engine, and further comprising:

a merger module, wherein the merger module processes the search results received from each preselected search engine for presentation to the user, wherein each entry in the search results is weighted based upon the relevance of the entry in relation to the terms of the original expanded search request.