Systems and methods for quote extraction

• US 9,558,180 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2014
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Media, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Maria Renhui, D'Aloisio-Montilla, Nicholas, Lu, Qichu
• Primary Examiner(s): Dang, Tnanh-Ha
• Application Number:
  US14/147,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20150193495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 707/748
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized to analyze a content item comprising text to identify: a quote, a named entity that is the source of the quote (e.g., a person or organization such as a company), and identification information for the named entity (such as a title of the person giving the quote). Quotes may also be ranked to determine, for example, the best quotes to include in an article.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, a content item containing text;

analyzing, by the computer system, the text of the content item to identify;

a quote, a named entity that is the source of the quote, and identification information for the named entity, wherein the identification information for the named entity includes first information that is descriptive of the named entity and second information that is descriptive of the first information;

wherein analyzing the text of the content item further comprises;

analyzing the text of the content item to identify a first quote, a first named entity that is the source of the first quote, and first information regarding the first named entity;

analyzing the text of the content item to identify a second quote, a second named entity that is the source of the second quote, and second information regarding the second named entity; and

ranking the first quote and the second quote, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote, the ranking of the first quote and the second quote based at least partially on respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the content item, wherein the respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the content item comprise respective placements of the first quote and the second quote within the content item, and wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is based at least partially on a number of respective occurrences of the first quote and the second quote within content items other than the received content item; and

communicating, by the computer system for display, based on the ranking of the first quote, the first quote, first named entity, and first information regarding the first named entity to a user through a user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the quote, the named entity, and the identification information is provided to the user via one or more of:

a display screen, a printout, a file saved in a memory of the computer system, and a transmission from the computer system to a computing device operated by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information includes a position of the named entity within an organization associated with the named entity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second information includes a name of the organization associated with the named entity.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the text of the content item to identify third information that is descriptive of the second information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first information includes a position of the named entity within a first organization, wherein the second information includes a name of the first organization, and the third information includes a name of a second organization associated with the first organization.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information for the named entity includes a geographical location associated with the named entity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first named entity and the second named entity are identical, and wherein the first information regarding the first named entity and the second information regarding the second named entity are identical.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is based at least partially on respective lengths of the first quote and the second quote.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote based at least partially on the length of the first quote being longer than a predetermined number of words and being shorter than the length of the second quote.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is based at least partially on respective amounts of information regarding the first named entity and the second named entity.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the named entity includes performing a coreference resolution on the text of the content item.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the named entity includes identifying all available information pertaining to the named entity contained within the content item.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the named entity includes selecting a subset of available information pertaining to the named entity contained within the content item.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the named entity includes obtaining information from a source other than the content item.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing computer program instructions capable of being executed by a processor, the computer program instructions defining the steps of:

receiving, by the processor, a content item containing text;

analyzing, by the processor, the text of the content item to identify;

a quote, a named entity that is the source of the quote, and identification information for the named entity, wherein the identification information for the named entity includes first information that is descriptive of the named entity and second information that is descriptive of the first information;

wherein analyzing the text of the content item further comprises;

analyzing the text of the content item to identify a first quote, a first named entity that is the source of the first quote, and first information regarding the first named entity;

analyzing the text of the content item to identify a second quote, a second named entity that is the source of the second quote, and second information regarding the second named entity; and

ranking the first quote and the second quote, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote, the ranking of the first quote and the second quote based at least partially on respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the content item, wherein the respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the content item comprise respective placements of the first quote and the second quote within the content item, and wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is based at least partially on a number of respective occurrences of the first quote and the second quote within content items other than the received content item; and

communicating, by the processor for display, based on the ranking of the first quote, the first quote, first named entity, and first information regarding the first named entity to a user through a user interface.

17. A system comprising:

a processor;

a storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising;

content item receiving logic executed by the processor for receiving a content item containing text;

text analyzing logic executed by the processor for analyzing the text of the content item to identify;

a quote, a named entity that is the source of the quote, and identification information for the named entity, wherein the identification information for the named entity includes first information that is descriptive of the named entity and second information that is descriptive of the first information;

wherein the text analyzing logic for analyzing the text of the content item further comprises;

first quote text analyzing logic executed by the processor for analyzing the text of the content item to identify a first quote, a first named entity that is the source of the first quote, and first information regarding the first named entity;

second quote text analyzing logic executed by the processor for analyzing the text of the content item to identify a second quote, a second named entity that is the source of the second quote, and second information regarding the second named entity; and

ranking logic executed by the processor for ranking the first quote and the second quote, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote, the ranking of the first quote and the second quote based at least partially on respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the content item, wherein the respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the content item comprise respective placements of the first quote and the second quote within the content item, and wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is based at least partially on a number of respective occurrences of the first quote and the second quote within content items other than the received content item; and

communicating logic executed by the processor for communicating, for display, based on the ranking of the first quote, the first quote, first named entity, and first information regarding the first named entity to a user through a user interface.