Federated search
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsAnoop Sinha, Chetan V. Kale, Jason Lee Douglas, Kelvin So, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy Konda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus that generates a plurality of ranked query results from a query over a plurality of separate search domains. In this embodiment, the device receives the query and determines a plurality of results across the plurality of separate search domains using the query. The device further characterizes the query. In addition, the device ranks the plurality of results based on a score calculated for each of the plurality of results determined by a corresponding search domain and the query characterization, where the query characterization indicates a query type.
Claims24
A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to generate a plurality of ranked query results from a query over a plurality of separate search domains, the method comprising:
- receiving the query;
- determining a plurality of query completions across the plurality of separate search domains using the query, each separate search domain having a pre-determined search domain type;
- sending the plurality of query completions to a vocabulary service,
- for each query completion in a subset of the plurality of query completions at the vocabulary service,
- comparing at least some of the content of the query completion to a knowledge base, wherein the knowledge base maps at least some of the content of the query completion to a pre-determined category of information from a plurality of pre-determined categories of information, and
- determining a query completion type based at least in part on the comparison, wherein the query completion type indicates the pre-determined category of information that the query completion is querying for;
- sending the query completions to the plurality of separate search domains;
- receiving a plurality of query results from each search domain, wherein each query result corresponds to at least one query completion and at least one search domain;
- for each query result,
- determining a score for that query result, and
- boosting the score for that query result when the at least one query completion corresponding to the query result has a query completion type that matches the search domain type of the at least one search domain corresponding to the query result;
- and
- ranking the query results based on at least scores of the query results.
A method to generate a plurality of ranked query results from a query over a plurality of separate search domains, the method comprising:
- receiving the query;
- determining a plurality of query completions across the plurality of separate search domains using the query, each separate search domain having a pre-determined search domain type;
- sending the plurality of query completions to a vocabulary service;
- for each query completion in a subset of the plurality of query completions at the vocabulary service,
- comparing at least some of the content of the query completion to a knowledge base, wherein the knowledge base maps at least some of the content of the query completion to a pre-determined category of information from a plurality of pre-determined categories of information, and
- determining a query completion type based at least in part on the comparison, wherein the query completion type indicates the pre-determined category of information that the query completion is querying for;
- sending the query completions to the plurality of separate search domains;
- receiving a plurality of query results from each search domain, wherein each query result corresponds to at least one query completion and at least one search domain;
- and
- for each query result,
- determining a score for that query result, and
- boosting the score for that query result when the at least one query completion corresponding to the query result has a query completion type that matches the search domain type of the at least one search domain corresponding to the query result;
- and
- ranking the query results based on at least scores of the query results.
A device to generate a plurality of ranked query results from a query over a plurality of separate search domains, the device comprising:
- at least one processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor though a bus;
- and
- a process executed from the memory by the processor that causes the processor to receive the query, determine a plurality of query completions across the plurality of separate search domains using the query, each separate search domain having a pre-determined search domain type, sending the plurality of query completions to a vocabulary service, for each query completion in a subset of the plurality of query completions at the vocabulary service, comparing at least some of the content of the query completion to a knowledge base, wherein the knowledge base maps at least some of the content of the query completion to a pre-determined category of information from a plurality of pre-determined categories of information, and determining a query completion type based at least in part on the comparison, wherein the query completion type indicates the pre-determined category of information that the query completion is querying for, sending the query completions to the plurality of separate search domains, receiving a plurality of query results from each search domain, wherein each query result corresponds to at least one query completion and at least one search domain, for each query result, determining a score for that query result, and boosting the score for that query result when the at least one query completion corresponding to the query result has a query completion type that matches the search domain type of the at least one search domain corresponding to the query result;
- and ranking the query results based on at least scores of the query results.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.