Automatic query suggestion generation using sub-queries
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsJIANPING LU, DONGHUI ZHANG, HOWARD SHI KIN WAN
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Abstract
Query suggestions can be generated by identifying desirable sub-queries. Search engine data can be accumulated to determine usage characteristics for various queries. Potential sub-queries can be generated and ranked based on the usage data. After ranking potential sub-queries, the rankings can be used to select sub-queries when a search request is received. The selected sub-queries can be used directly as query suggestions, or the sub-queries can be used as input for another query suggestion engine.
Claims20
One or more computer readable media containing computer executable instructions that, when executed, provide a method for generating query suggestions, comprising:
- obtaining a query logfile;
- identifying queries contained in the query logfile that have at least 4 query elements;
- determining sub-queries for each identified query;
- matching the determined sub-queries to queries in the query logfile;
- calculating a ranking for each matched sub-query, the ranking being based on a number of distinct users, page view data, a number of query elements in the sub-query, and a number of parent queries for the sub-query;
- receiving a search query;
- determining search sub-queries for the received search query, at least one of the search sub-queries corresponding to a matched sub-query having a calculated ranking;
- selecting one or more search sub-queries based on the corresponding calculated ranking of the selected one or more search sub-queries;
- and
- providing one or more suggested queries based on the selected one or more search sub-queries.
A method for generating query suggestions for queries in a character-based written language, comprising:
- obtaining a query logfile containing queries having query elements corresponding to characters in a character-based written language;
- identifying queries contained in the query logfile that have at least 4 query elements;
- determining sub-queries for each identified query;
- matching the determined sub-queries to queries in the query logfile;
- calculating a ranking for each matched sub-query, the ranking being based on a number of distinct users, page view data, a number of query elements in the sub-query, and a number of parent queries for the sub-query;
- receiving a search query;
- determining search sub-queries for the received search query, at least one of the search sub-queries corresponding to a matched sub-query having a calculated ranking;
- selecting one or more search sub-queries based on the corresponding calculated ranking of the selected one or more search sub-queries;
- and
- providing one or more suggested queries based on the selected one or more search sub-queries.
One or more computer readable media containing computer executable instructions that, when executed, provide a method for automatically generating a sub-query ranking list, comprising:
- obtaining a query logfile;
- identifying queries contained in the query logfile that have at least 4 query elements;
- determining sub-queries for each identified query;
- matching the determined sub-queries to queries in the query logfile;
- calculating a ranking for each matched sub-query, the calculation comprising:
- calculating a number of parent queries for each sub-query;
- calculating a frequency for each sub-query based on a number of distinct users and page view information;
- calculating one or more normalized weighted frequency values for each sub-query based on the number of query elements in the sub-query, the number of query elements in a parent query, a number of queries in the query logfile, and a number of parent queries for the sub-query, wherein a number of normalized weighted frequency values calculated for a sub-query corresponds to the number of parent queries for the sub-query;
- and
- calculating an average normalized weighted frequency value for a sub-query based on the one or more normalized weighted frequency values for the sub-query and the number of parent queries for the sub-query;
- and
- generating a ranking list of sub-queries based on the average normalized weighted frequency values for the sub-queries.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.