Keyword-based search engine results using enhanced query strategies

• US 8,645,372 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fiver LLC
• Original Assignee: EVRI Incorporated
• Inventors: Koperski, Krzysztof, Reichhold, Jonathan, Liang, Jisheng, Diamond, Ted
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Black, Linh
• Application Number:
  US12/915,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20110119243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 707733-734, 707/784, 707/777, 707/999.005, 707765-767, 705/319
• US Class Current: 707/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Enhanced computer- and network-based methods, systems, techniques are provided for retrieving more accurate and responsive search results when searching content for a designated entity using an off-the-shelf keyword-based search engine. For example, the embodiments described herein may be used to improve search results by eliminating off-topic results when presenting queries to an existing keyword-based search engine invoked by means of an API from an intermediating application. Example embodiments provide a Keyword-Based Search Enhancement System (“KBSES”), which enables intermediating applications to obtain information more closely related to user queries by enhancing such queries, on behalf of the user, with disambiguating information when deemed necessary. Based upon a variety of rules and heuristics, which can be modified as well, the KBSES determines whether an entity name in a user'"'"'s query should be enhanced with additional disambiguating information, and to what extent, to prevent the retrieval of off-topic results.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for improving the relevance of search results retrieved from one or more keyword-based search engines, comprising:

receiving an indication of a designated entity having a name;

determining whether the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors when used in a keyword-based search by performing a test to determine if the name of the designated entity matches a word that is not an entity, the name of the designated entity is a substring of a different entity'"'"'s name, the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity having a facet that is not shared by the designated entity, or the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity with a facet that is shared with the designated entity;

when determined that the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors, determining whether the name of the designated entity should be enhanced with an entity-specific enhancement, a facet-specific enhancement, or both types of enhancements, to formulate an enhanced query strategy, wherein the enhanced query strategy comprises a plurality of automatically generated queries that include disambiguation information, wherein an entity-specific enhancement includes a name of an entity, action, or property value related to the designated entity or related through a facet of the designated entity, and wherein a facet-specific enhancement includes one or more terms related to a facet; and

when determined that the name of the designated entity is to be enhanced to formulate the enhanced query strategy,

using one or more query enhancer components of the computing system selected based upon the determination of whether the name of the designated entity is to be enhanced with the entity-specific enhancement and/or the facet-specific enhancement, automatically adding one or more entity-specific queries and/or one or more facet-specific queries to the name of the designated entity to generate the enhanced query strategy, wherein at least one of the enhancements is based upon one or more facets associated with the designated entity; and

forwarding the automatically generated query strategy to the one or more keyword-based search engines to generate on-topic information related to the designated entity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each query in the generated query strategy is reformulated by a result retriever to comply with an interface of the keyword-based search engine API.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more entity-specific queries generate an enhanced query as part of the query strategy with the name of the designated entity and a name of a related entity.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the enhanced query is generated when the related entity shares a facet with the designated entity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more entity-specific queries generate an enhanced query as part of the query strategy with a value of a property that relates to a facet of the designated entity.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the value of the property that relates to the facet of the designated entity is text or a name of an indicated entity.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more facet-specific queries generate an enhanced query as part of the query strategy with a name of the designated entity and a keyword identified as related to a facet of the designated entity.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the keyword is an entity name used as an approximation of one or more facets.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a category enhancer of the computing system to automatically add a category name as a category limit the generated query strategy, the category name associated with a facet of the designated entity; and

wherein the forwarding the automatically generated query strategy to the keyword-based search engine, generates a query using an API specifying the category name as a category limit to retrieved information related to the designated entity.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a source selection enhancer of the computing system to automatically add to the generated query strategy a named source of content to be included or excluded; and

wherein the forwarding the automatically generated query strategy to the keyword-based search engine, generates a query using an API specifying to include or exclude a named source of content when retrieving information related to the designated entity.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a result retriever to formulate and forward the enhanced queries in the automatically generated query strategy to the keyword-based search engine, wherein the enhanced queries are forwarded successively until sufficient on-topic information related to the designated entity is retrieved.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically generated query strategy is used with a keyword-based search engine API for searching images.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically generated query strategy is used with a keyword-based search engine API for web searching.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically generated query strategy is used with a keyword-based search engine API for searching videos.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically generated query strategy is used with a keyword-based search engine API for searching social network related messages.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatically generated query strategy with enhance queries is performed on behalf of a user.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the entity is at least one of a person, organization, location, concept, event, product, condition, organism, or substance.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more facets are associated with an ontology used to classify entity types.

19. A computing system comprising:

a memory;

a processor;

an enhancement level setter module stored in the memory and configured, when executed by the processor, to;

determine whether a name of a designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors when used in a search by performing a test to determine if the name of the designated entity matches a word that is not an entity, the name of the designated entity is a substring of a different entity'"'"'s name, the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity having a facet that is not shared by the designated entity, or the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity with a facet that is shared with the designated entity; and

when determined that the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors, determine an enhancement level for an initial query designated to be run against a keyword-based search engine API by performing a test to determine if a name of a designated entity matches a word that is not an entity, the name of the designated entity is a substring of a different entity'"'"'s name, the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity having a facet that is not shared by the designated entity, or the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity with a facet that is shared with the designated entity;

one or more enhancer modules stored in the memory and configured, when executed by the processor, to receive the determined enhancement level from the enhancement level setter module and produce a query strategy containing one or more subqueries that enhance the initial query using one or more of an entity-specific enhancement and/or a facet-specific enhancement to reduce ambiguity such that more on-topic results will be more likely to be produced; and

a result retriever module stored in the memory and configured, when executed by the processor, to;

receive the query strategy from the one or more enhancer modules and formulate enhanced subqueries in the syntax of the keyword-based search engine API;

run the formulated enhanced subqueries using the keyword-based search engine API until sufficient results are obtained; and

return the results.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the one or more enhancer modules include at least one of an entity-level enhancer, a facet-level enhancer, a category enhancer, an entity database enhancer, a source selection enhancer, and/or a related entity enhancer.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein each subquery the query strategy comprises one or more of root terms, enhancing keywords or phrases, content categories, and/or source limitations.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the keyword-based search engine API is an API for searching one or more of text, images, music, sound, video, objects, web pages.

23. The system of claim 19 further comprising instructions stored in the memory of the computing system that are executed by the processor to effectuate the actions of the enhancement level setter module, the one or more enhancer modules, and the result retriever module.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable memory medium containing content to control a computing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving an indication of a designated entity having a name;

determining whether the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors when used in a keyword-based search by performing a test to determine if the name of the designated entity matches a word that is not an entity, the name of the designated entity is a substring of a different entity'"'"'s name, the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity having a facet that is not shared by the designated entity, or the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity with a facet that is shared with the designated entity;

when determined that the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors, determining whether and how the name of the designated entity should be enhanced with an entity-specific enhancement, facet-specific enhancement, category enhancement, and/or source selection enhancement; and

when determined that the name of the designated entity is to be enhanced,

using one or more query enhancers of the computing system selected based upon the determination of how the name of the designated entity is to be enhanced, automatically adding one or more entity-specific queries, one or more facet-specific queries, one or more category restrictions and/or one or more source selections to the name of the designated entity used as a keyword, to generate an enhanced query strategy containing a plurality of sub-queries, wherein at least one of the enhancements is based upon one or more facets associated with the designated entity;

ordering the plurality of sub-queries into an order based upon likelihood of returning best on-topic information; and

forwarding the automatically generated query strategy to the keyword-based search engine to execute the plurality of sub-queries in the order until sufficient on-topic information related to the designated entity is generated.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to contain content for controlling a computing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving an indication of a designated entity having a name;

determining whether the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors when used in a keyword-based search by performing a test to determine if the name of the designated entity matches a word that is not an entity, the name of the designated entity is a substring of a different entity'"'"'s name, the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity having a facet that is not shared by the designated entity, or the name of the designated entity matches a name of a different entity with a facet that is shared with the designated entity;

when determined that the name of the designated entity is likely to lead to relevancy errors, determining whether the name of the designated entity should be enhanced with an entity-specific enhancement, a facet-specific enhancement, or both types of enhancements, to formulate an enhanced query strategy, wherein the enhanced query strategy comprises a plurality of automatically generated queries that include disambiguation information, wherein an entity-specific enhancement includes a name of an entity, action, or property value related to the designated entity or related through a facet of the designated entity and wherein a facet-specific enhancement includes one or more terms related to a facet; and

when determined that the name of the designated entity is to be enhanced to formulate the enhanced query strategy,

using one or more query enhancer modules of the computing system, selected based upon the determination of whether the designated entity is to be enhanced with the entity-specific enhancement and/or the facet-specific enhancement, automatically adding one or more entity-specific queries and/or one or more facet-specific queries to the name of the designated entity to generate the enhanced query strategy, wherein at least one of the enhancements is based upon one or more facets associated with the designated entity; and

forwarding the automatically generated query strategy to one or more keyword-based search engines to generate on-topic information related to the designated entity.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the storage medium is a memory of the computing system and the content are instructions that control a computer process to perform the method.