US 10,380,193 B2Granted

Result prominence in search

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsChristina Colcernian, Yinghua Yao, Anh Quynh Ly, Britt H. Hansing, William James Wagner, Elia Karagiannis, Nathan Chalmers

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Abstract

Architecture that computes a definitive answer to a user's top intent of a search query, and positions the top intent answer in a prominent way and at a prominent location of a results page or other search user interface, where the user is most likely to see the top intent answer in an expeditious manner. This may be at the top-most position of the page, above the search results and advertisements, but below the page header and search box. Additionally, the definitive and prominently-placed answer can be presented with an interactive, animated, and/or visually rich element that supplements the original intent. The top intent location can be the boldest element on the page, extend at least one full dimension of the page, use larger fonts and bolder colors than the rest of the search results, and which makes finding the answer easier and faster for the user to locate.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a hardware microprocessor, and a memory device that stores computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions executed by the microprocessor to cause the microprocessor to enable:
a promotion component configured to compute a promotion value for candidate responses to a received query, wherein the promotion value indicates a likelihood that the candidate responses are a definitive answer to the received query based on an evaluation of a determined intent of the received query and an evaluation of data associated with the candidate responses;
a prominence region component configured to generate a prominence region that presents, in a results page, content for a candidate response in a separate region from a search results listing and advertising content, wherein generation of the prominence region comprises:
ranking the candidate responses based on the computed promotion value of the candidate responses, wherein the ranking comprises applying one or more machine learning models that selects the candidate response from a ranking of the candidate responses and provides a region indication for positional display of the prominence region based on the selected candidate response;
and
a user interface component configured to optimize presentation of a search user interface based on results provided by the prominence region component, wherein optimization of the search user interface comprises:
determining a position on the results page for display of the prominence region based on the region indication provided from the ranking,
generating the results page that comprises the prominence region located at the determined position, wherein the prominence region comprises content for the selected candidate response including rich interactive content, and
outputting, through the search user interface, the generated results page for display.

6 more elements

A computer-implemented method, comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a hardware processor cause the processor to perform acts of:

processing a query to derive intent;
receiving candidate answers that relate to the derived intent;
computing a promotion value for each candidate answer of the candidate answers, wherein the promotion value is a likelihood that the candidate answers are a definitive answer to the query based on an evaluation of the derived intent and an evaluation of data associated with the candidate answers;
ranking the candidate answers based on the computed promotion value of the candidate answers, wherein the ranking comprises applying one or more machine learning models that selects a candidate answer from a ranking of the candidate answers and provides a region indication for positional display of a prominence region based on the selected candidate answer;
determining a position on a results page where the prominence region is to be displayed, through a search user interface, based on the region indication provided from the ranking;
generating the results page for the search user interface, wherein the results page comprises the prominence region at the determined position in the results page separate from a results listing, and wherein the prominence region comprises content for the selected candidate answer including rich interactive content;
and
presenting, through the search user interface, the results page including the generated prominence region.

5 more elements

A computer-readable hardware storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a microprocessor, cause the microprocessor to perform acts of:

processing a query to derive intent;
receiving instances of candidate content that relate to the derived intent;
computing promotion values for the instances of candidate content, wherein the promotion value is a likelihood that the candidate content is a definitive answer to the query based on an evaluation of the derived intent and an evaluation of the candidate content;
ranking the candidate content based on the computed promotion value of the candidate content, wherein the ranking comprises applying one or more machine learning models that selects content for a response from a ranking of the candidate content and provides a region indication for positional display of a prominence region based on the selected content;
determining a position on a results page where the prominence region is to be displayed, through a search user interface, based on the region indication provided from the ranking;
generating the results page for the search user interface, wherein the results page comprises the prominence region at the determined position in the results page separate from a results listing and advertising content, and wherein the prominence region comprises rich interactive content for the selected content;
and
presenting, through the search user interface, the results page including the generated prominence region.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.