Token Metadata for Forward Indexes on Online Social Networks

One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

• receive, from a client system associated with a user of the online social network, a search query comprising one or more n-grams;
• search a reverse index to identify one or more objects having one or more tokens that match one or more of the n-grams of the search query;
• access a forward index having a plurality of records, wherein each record of the forward index corresponds to an object posted to the online social network, and wherein each record comprises:
• a first field corresponding to one or more tokens of user-inputted content of the object corresponding to the record;
• and
• one or more second fields corresponding to one or more types of metadata associated with each of the tokens in the first field;
• score each identified object based at least in part on the record from the forward index corresponding to the identified object, wherein the score for each identified object is calculated based on the metadata associated with each of the tokens in the first field that match an n-gram of the search query;
• and
• send, to the client system in response to the received search query, instructions for presenting one or more search results corresponding to one or more of the identified objects, respectively, wherein each search result corresponds to an identified object having a score greater than a threshold score.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and a non-transitory memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to:
• receive, from a client system associated with a user of the online social network, a search query comprising one or more n-grams;
• search a reverse index to identify one or more objects having one or more tokens that match one or more of the n-grams of the search query;
• access a forward index having a plurality of records, wherein each record of the forward index corresponds to an object posted to the online social network, and wherein each record comprises:
• a first field corresponding to one or more tokens of user-inputted content of the object corresponding to the record;
• and
• one or more second fields corresponding to one or more types of metadata associated with each of the tokens in the first field;
• score each identified object based at least in part on the record from the forward index corresponding to the identified object, wherein the score for each identified object is calculated based on the metadata associated with each of the tokens in the first field that match an n-gram of the search query;
• and
• send, to the client system in response to the received search query, instructions for presenting one or more search results corresponding to one or more of the identified objects, respectively, wherein each search result corresponds to an identified object having a score greater than a threshold score.