US Patent:
20060161520, Jul 20, 2006
Inventors:
Brett Brewer - Sammamish WA, US
Eric Watson - Redmond WA, US
Eric Brill - Redmond WA, US
James Dai - Redmond WA, US
Oliver Hurst-Hiller - Seattle WA, US
Robert Ragno - Kirkland WA, US
Assignee:
Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA
International Classification:
G06F 17/30
Abstract:
A system and related techniques accepts user search or query terms over of the Internet or other network or connection. In addition to presenting regularly generated search results, according to embodiments of the invention the search engine and related logic may examine the search string for suggested refinements or improvements to the search terms, to attempt to derive improved results or results closer to the user's search intent. According to embodiments of the invention in one regard, the alternative search logic may attempt to extract related or more meaningful search terms from sources including past usage patterns by users, and other data. That alternative search logic may thus examine the user's search terms to determine a substring match to prior searches, for instance stored by the search host for all users. In embodiments, the alternative search logic may likewise present user search extensions or refinement paths selected by prior users running the same search, as an indicator of likely content or source relevance. In further embodiments, the alternative search logic may perform a reverse query lookup to trace queries which resulted in the same Web site or other hit, as the present search and present those other queries as possible alternatives for the user to pursue. These and other search refinements may be performed, taking advantage of usage patterns and other information to improve search quality beyond straightforward spelling-type correction.