Keyword search method using visual keyword grouping interface

• US 9,372,895 B1
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RINA Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: RINA Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Zamansky, Leo, Dai, Yan
• Primary Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abraham, Ahmed
• Application Number:
  US14/043,398
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/727, 707/728, 707/729, 707/730, 707/732
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence

Abstract

A method of forming a keyword based search query that uses a plurality of keywords, in which the keywords of the query are arranged into groups of purpose-related keywords, in which each keyword is associated with a designation of its relative importance. The keywords of a group may be identified manually by the searcher, or existing keywords in a group may be used to suggest or automatically add additional related keywords to the group. The keywords of a group need not be semantically related, but only related to a common purpose of the keyword group. Additional keywords can be suggested to the searcher, or automatically added to the groups. Suitable additional keywords may be identified by reference to previous searches in which the existing keywords were grouped with those additional keywords. Keywords may also be derived from text designated by the searcher, using all or portions of one or more documents or text blocks that the user identifies as describing a concept of interest to the searcher. The searcher may also select sources to search and may designate the importance of sections of those sources.

Claims

1. A method of forming a keyword based search query, comprising:

receiving a plurality of search keywords that comprise the query from a searcher, each search keyword representing a keyword group;

for each keyword group, visually presenting a user interface in response to a selection of the keyword group, the user interface including;

a list of a plurality of purpose-related keywords belonging to the keyword group,

a plurality of suggested keywords derived from one or more of the purpose-related keywords in the keyword group, each of the suggested keywords selectable by the searcher to add to the list of purpose-related keywords in the keyword group,

a field for receiving an entry of a keyword from the searcher to add to the purpose-related keywords in the keyword group, and

for each purpose-related keyword in the keyword group, a searcher weight control for assigning a weight to the purpose-related keyword, each weight representing a searcher-defined relative importance setting for the purpose-related keyword;

for each keyword group, receiving from the searcher via the user interface an assignment of a weight to at least one purpose-related keyword in the keyword group from a searcher weight control associated with the at least one purpose-related keyword, the assigned weight identifying a relative importance of the at least one purpose-related keyword relative to at least one other purpose-related keyword in the keyword group;

receiving from the searcher via the user interface a group importance weight for each keyword group of the plurality of the keyword groups;

performing the keyword based search using the purpose-related keywords in the keyword groups of the query;

removing a keyword from a keyword group in response to an indication received from the searcher;

generating a score for each of a plurality of results of the search, the score based on the weight of each purpose-related keyword in the plurality of keyword groups and the group importance weight for each of the keyword groups; and

sorting the results using the score for each result.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a purpose-related keyword weight of 0 means the keyword is ignored in the keyword based search.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes at least one single control for assigning a weight to multiple purpose-related keywords in a keyword group.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the weight of each purpose-related keyword is assigned an initial default value that can be changed by the searcher weight control for the keyword.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher interface further includes a critical control for each keyword group to mark the keyword group as critical, which indicates that each search result must contain at least one of the purpose-related keywords in the keyword group if the keyword group is marked as critical.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher interface includes a keyword group importance weight control that is a slider control graphically representing and permitting adjustment of the relative importance setting of the keyword group importance.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the ordering of the keyword groups does not affect the search results.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher weight control is a bar graph graphically representing and permitting adjustment of the relative importance setting.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher weight control is a color wheel graphically representing and permitting adjustment of the relative importance setting.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher weight control is a numeric selection from numeric range representing and permitting adjustment of the relative importance setting.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher weight control is a text entry control permitting text entry of the relative importance setting.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating search results, wherein, all else equal, the presence in a result of a keyword with a higher relative importance setting yields a higher ranking of the result in the search results than the presence in the result of a keyword with a lower relative importance setting.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the group is associated with a group importance control that visually presents the relative importance weight of the group relative to other groups.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein a searcher designates one or more documents describing a concept of interest, and the designated documents are used to develop at least some of the purpose-related keywords for the query using a word frequency analysis of words in the designated documents.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein a searcher designates a block of text describing a concept of interest, and the designated block of text is used to develop the suggested keywords derived from the keyword, using a word frequency analysis of words in the designated block of text.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the suggested keywords are related to synonyms of one or more purpose-related keywords in the keyword group.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the suggested keywords are identified using a thesaurus or other index for identifying keywords that are semantically related to the existing purpose-related keywords.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the suggested keywords are identified from a previous search in which the suggested keywords were grouped with the existing purpose-related keywords.

19. The method of claim 18 in which the previous search was performed by the searcher forming the query with the existing purpose-related keywords.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein suggested keywords related to the existing purpose-related keywords are automatically included in the search query.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the suggested keywords are identified using a thesaurus or other index for identifying suggested keywords that are semantically related to the existing purpose-related keywords.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the suggested keywords are identified from a previous search in which the suggested keywords were grouped with the existing purpose-related keywords.

23. The method of claim 22 in which the previous search was performed by the searcher forming the query with the existing purpose-related keywords.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the searcher designates the importance of fields of documents to be searched, and the designated importance of the field in which a document includes matches to a keyword in the query is used in identifying the relevance of the document to the query.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein a query developed according to the method is saved and later retrieved and re-executed.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein a query developed according to the method is delivered through an application service provider interface to a search engine at a remote location to generate query results.

27. A system comprising:

a first graphical user interface (GUI) configured for;

receiving query from a user, the query comprising a plurality of search keywords, each representing a keyword group,

receiving a selection of a keyword group for editing, and

receiving a keyword group importance setting;

a second GUI configured for editing a selected keyword group, the second graphical user interface comprising;

a keyword field comprising a list of a plurality of purpose-related keywords belonging to the keyword group;

a suggested keyword field for displaying a plurality of suggested keywords derived from the purpose-related keywords in the keyword field, the second GUI further configured to;

receive a selection of one or more of the suggested keywords,

add the one or more selected keywords to the keyword field, and

update the suggested keyword field based on the selected keywords added to the keyword field;

a keyword input field for receiving an entry of a keyword from the user, the second GUI further configured to;

add the received keyword entry to the keyword field, and

update the suggested keyword field based on the selected keywords added to the keyword field;

a keyword removal control to remove a purpose-related keyword from the group; and

a weight control field for displaying a user weight control associated with each purpose-related keyword in the keyword field, the second GUI further configured to;

receive a weight from each user weight control, and

assign the received weight to the associated purpose-related keyword, each received weight representing a searcher-defined relative importance setting for the purpose-related keyword; and

a search engine configured to;

perform a keyword based search using the plurality of keyword groups in the query and purpose-related keywords in the plurality of keyword groups;

calculate a score for each of a plurality of search results, the score based on the weight of each purpose-related keyword in the plurality of keyword groups and the group importance setting for each of the keyword groups; and

sort the results using the score for each result.