Method and system for quantifying the quality of search results based on cohesion

A computer-implemented method for generating a set of meta-search results comprising,

• for each set of search results in a plurality of sets of search results:
• (a) representing the set of search results as a set of vectors,
• (b) computing a centroid vector based on the set of vectors, wherein said centroid vector represents a prototype search result,
• (c) computing a cohesion metric, based on the set of vectors and the centroid vector, that quantifies the quality of the set of search results, wherein said cohesion metric represents the similarity between the set of search results to the prototype search result, and
• (d) storing the cohesion metric in volatile or non-volatile memory;
• generating a set of meta-search results comprising one or more search results from the sets of search results based on the cohesion metric computed for each set of search results.

A machine-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• representing a set of search results associated with a search engine as a set of vectors;
• computing a centroid vector based on the set of vectors, wherein said centroid vector represents a prototype search result;
• computing a cohesion metric, based on the set of vectors and the centroid vector, that quantifies the quality of the set of search results, wherein said cohesion metric represents the similarity between the set of search results to the prototype search result;
• and
• storing the cohesion metric in volatile or non-volatile memory.

A machine-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• for each set of search results in a plurality of sets of search results:
• (a) representing the set of search results as a set of vectors,
• (b) computing a centroid vector based on the set of vectors, wherein said centroid vector represents a prototype search result,
• (c) computing a cohesion metric, based on the set of vectors and the centroid vector, that quantifies the quality of the set of search results, wherein said cohesion metric represents the similarity between the set of search results to the prototype search result, and
• (d) storing the cohesion metric in volatile or non-volatile memory;
• generating a set of meta-search results comprising one or more search results from the sets of search results based on the cohesion metric computed for each set of search results.