Re-ranking search results based on lexical and ontological concepts

• US 9,177,057 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2010
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Vadlamani, Viswanath, Srikanth, Munirathnam, Srivastava, Abhinai, Najm, Tarek, Surendran, Arungunram Chandrasekaran, Ali, Mahbubul Alam, Midgley, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Reyes, Mariela
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US12/796,127
• Publication Number:
  US 20110302156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,974 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/723.1/1, 707/3, 707/771, 707/749, 707/736, 707/708, 707/4, 707/5, 707/652, 707/613
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Search result re-ranking is provided by employing a concept graph from a metabase. When a search query is received, a query context of the search query is analyzed to identify dominant concepts for the search query. The dominant concepts are expanded by identifying the dominant concepts within a concept graph and identifying additional concepts having a strong relationship with the dominant concepts within the concept graph. A set of search results for the search query is analyzed to determine strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts. The search results are re-ranked based on the strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts and the strength of relationship of each expanded concept to the dominant concepts.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to provide a plurality of search results, the method comprising:

receiving a search query;

identifying one or more dominant concepts from the search query;

expanding the one or more dominant concepts with a plurality of expanded concepts having a relationship with the one or more dominant concepts in a metabase;

receiving a plurality of search results based on the search query;

analyzing the search results using the expanded concepts, wherein analyzing the search results using the expanded concepts comprises identifying a strength of relationship of at least one search result to at least one expanded concept;

varying a prominence of the search results such that one or more higher ranked search results are included within a listing on a search results page and one or more lower ranked search results are included in one or more tabs on the search results page, wherein varying the prominence of the search results comprises providing the lower ranked search results within the one or more tabs based on the strength of relationship of the one or more lower ranked search results to the at least one expanded concept and a strength of relationship of the at least one expanded concept to the one or more dominant concepts, wherein the one or more lower ranked search results are associated with a first ranking lower than a second ranking associated with the one or more higher ranked search results; and

providing the one or more higher ranked search results listed on the search results page and the one or more lower ranked search results within the one or more tabs on the search results page.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search query is received in response to an end user submitting the search query.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search query comprises one or more search terms and the one or more dominant concepts are identified based at least in part on the one or more search terms.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the one or more dominant concepts are identified by analyzing the one or more search terms using the metabase.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the one or more dominant concepts are identified using query context information in addition to the one or more search terms.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metabase is built by identifying concepts and relationships among concepts within electronic documents available on the world wide web and the metabase is dynamically updated as new content is published on the world wide web.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search results are provided in conjunction with the search query.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search results comprises multiple separate sets of search results from a plurality of sources.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of sources comprises one or more selected from the following:

general web search results, news, and photos.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a strength threshold for the plurality of expanded concepts having a relationship with the one or more dominant concepts and selecting expanded concepts that are above the established strength threshold.

11. One or more computer-readable media not a signal per se storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method comprising:

receiving a search query;

identifying a query context for the search query;

analyzing the query context to identify one or more dominant concepts;

identifying a location of each of the one or more dominant concepts within a concept graph;

identifying a plurality of additional concepts having a relationship with the one or more dominant concepts within the concept graph;

assigning a first weight to each additional concept representing a strength of relationship of each additional concept to the one or more dominant concepts within the concept graph;

selecting a subset of the additional concepts based on the assigned weights to provide a set of expanded concepts;

receiving a plurality of search results for the search query;

analyzing each search result to determine whether each search result includes one or more of the expanded concepts;

assigning one or more second weights to each search result representing a strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts;

varying a prominence of the search results such that one or more higher ranked search results are included in a listing on a search results page and one or more lower ranked search results are represented by one or more tabs on the search results page based on a combination of the first weights and second weights; and

providing the one or more tabs for presentation in the search results page with the listing of the one or more higher ranked search results in the search results page.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the search query includes one or more search terms and the query context includes the one or more search terms.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the query context includes information in addition to the one or more search terms.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the search query comprises a null query.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the one or more dominant concepts are identified by analyzing the query context using the concept graph.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the concept graph is built by identifying concepts and relationships among concepts within electronic documents available on the world wide web

and the concept graph is dynamically updated as new content is published on the world wide web.

17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the plurality of search results are provided in conjunction with the search query.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the plurality of search results comprises multiple separate sets of search results from a plurality of sources.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the plurality of sources comprises one or more selected from the following:

general web search results, news, and photos.

20. A system including one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media storing computer-useable components, the computer-useable components comprising:

a query context analysis component that analyzes a query context of a received search query to identify one or more dominant concepts for the search query;

a query expansion component that expands the one or more dominant concepts to a plurality of expanded concepts using a concept graph from a metabase;

a search result analysis component that analyzes a plurality of search results to determine a strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts; and

a search result presentation component that varies a prominence of the plurality of search results based on the strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts and a strength of relationship of each expanded concept to the one or more dominant concepts such that a first search result associated with a first strength is displayed in a search results list within a search results page and a second search result associated with a second strength, lower than the first strength, is represented by one or more tabs on the search results page, wherein the second search result is only presented upon selection of the one or more tabs.