System and method for facilitating presentation of subject categorizations for use in an on-line search query engine

A method for facilitating presentation of subject categorizations for use in an on-line search query engine, comprising:

• building a synonym list comprising a set of synonym entries, each synonym entry comprising a synonym name and a heading code, the synonym list being arranged in order of synonym name;
• accepting a search query from a user on the on-line search query engine;
• normalizing the search query into a standardized word form with at least one word in the standardized word form matching one of the synonym names in the synonym list;
• retrieving each of the synonym entries in the synonym list having at least one synonym name matching the at least one word in the standardized word form;
• accessing a heading list comprising a set of heading entries, each heading entry comprising a heading name and a heading code, the heading list being arranged in order of heading code;
• and
• presenting as subject categorizations the heading names from each entry in the heading list having a heading code matching one of the heading codes in each of the retrieved synonym list entries.

A computer-readable storage medium holding instructions for facilitating presentation of subject categorizations for use in an on-line search query engine, comprising:

• a synonym list comprising a set of synonym entries, each synonym entry comprising a synonym name and a heading code, the synonym list being arranged in order of synonym name;
• a heading list comprising a set of heading entries, each heading entry comprising a heading name and a heading code, the heading list being arranged in order of heading code;
• and
• a search query engine accepting a search query from a user and including:
• a normalization module normalizing the search query into a standardized word form with at least one word in the standardized word form matching one of the synonym names in the synonym list;
• a retrieval module retrieving each of the synonym entries in the synonym list having at least one synonym name matching the at least one word in the standardized word form;
• and
• a presentation module presenting as subject categorizations the heading names from each entry in the heading list having a heading code matching one of the heading codes in each of the retrieved synonym list entries.

A system for automatically locating headings in an on-line directory listing service responsive to a user search query, comprising:

• a heading list comprising a set of heading entries each of which comprises a heading name;
• a synonym list comprising a set of synonym entries each of which comprises a synonym name, each heading entry in the heading list having a one-to-many relationship with one or more synonym entries in the synonym list with each synonym name in the one or more synonym entries comprising a synonym of the heading name in the heading entry;
• and
• a search query engine accepting a search query from a user requesting information from the on-line directory listing service, parsing the search query for individual terms, finding each synonym entry in the synonym list with each found synonym entry matching one or more of the individual terms from the search query, and retrieving the heading name from each heading entry in the heading list for each heading entry that is related to each of the found synonym entries from the synonym list.

A method for automatically locating headings in an on-line directory listing service responsive to a user search query, comprising:

• accessing a heading list comprising a set of heading entries each of which comprises a heading name;
• accessing a synonym list comprising a set of synonym entries each of which comprises a synonym name;
• forming a one-to-many relationship between each heading entry in the heading list and one or more synonym entries in the synonym list with each synonym name in the one or more synonym entries comprising a synonym of the heading name in the heading entry;
• accepting a search query from a user requesting information from the on-line directory listing service;
• parsing the search query for individual terms;
• finding each synonym entry in the synonym list with each found synonym entry matching one or more of the individual terms from the search query;
• and
• retrieving the heading name from each heading entry in the heading list for each heading entry that is related to each of the found synonym entries from the synonym list.

A computer-readable storage medium holding instructions for automatically locating headings in an on-line directory listing service responsive to a user search query, comprising:

• a heading list comprising a set of heading entries each of which comprises a heading name;
• a synonym list comprising a set of synonym entries each of which comprises a synonym name, each heading entry in the heading list having a one-to-many relationship with one or more synonym entries in the synonym list with each synonym name in the one or more synonym entries comprising a synonym of the heading name in the heading entry;
• and
• a search query engine accepting a search query from a user requesting information from the on-line directory listing service, parsing the search query for individual terms, finding each synonym entry in the synonym list with each found synonym entry matching one or more of the individual terms from the search query, and retrieving the heading name from each heading entry in the heading list for each heading entry that is related to each of the found synonym entries from the synonym list.

A system for automatically locating headings using structured query language (SQL) in an on-line directory listing service responsive to a user search query, comprising:

• a heading table comprising a set of heading records each of which comprises a heading field storing a heading name and a synonym field storing one or more synonym names, each synonym name in the synonym field comprising a synonym of the heading name in the heading field;
• an SQL server accepting a search query from a user requesting information from the on-line directory listing service, including:
• a natural language module parsing the search query for individual terms;
• and
• the SQL server finding each heading record in the heading table having a synonym name in the synonym field matching one or more of the individual terms from the search query;
• and retrieving the heading name from each heading field for each of the found heading records in the heading table.

A method for automatically locating headings using structured query language (SQL) in an on-line directory listing service responsive to a user search query, comprising:

• accessing a heading table comprising a set of heading records each of which comprises a heading field storing a heading name and a synonym field storing one or more synonym names, each synonym name in the synonym field comprising a synonym of the heading name in the heading field;
• accepting a search query from a user requesting information from the on-line directory listing service;
• parsing the search query for individual terms;
• finding each heading record in the heading table having a synonym name in the synonym field matching one or more of the individual terms from the search query using an SQL query;
• and
• retrieving the heading name from each heading field for each of the found heading records in the heading table.