Unsupervised boosting of unique search results in a metasearch environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10061819-B2
Application number	US-201514974360-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2015
Priority date	Dec 18, 2015
Publication date	Aug 28, 2018
Grant date	Aug 28, 2018

Abstract

A search query is received from a user. Multiple search results in response to the search query are received from multiple search engines. Each of the search engines provides one or more search results of the multiple search results. One or more features relating to the uniqueness of the multiple search results of each of the search engines are determined. A ranking of the multiple search results is determined based on the one or more features. The multiple search results are displayed to the user based on the ranking.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing search results, the method comprising:
receiving, by one or more computer processors, a search query from a user;
receiving, by one or more computer processors, a plurality of search results in response to the search query from a plurality of search engines, wherein the plurality of search engines provides one or more search results of the plurality of search results;
determining, by one or more computer processors, one or more features relating to a uniqueness of the one or more search results of the plurality of search engines;
calculating, by one or more computer processors, a ranking of the plurality of search results based on the one or more features, wherein the calculating further comprises:
determining, by one or more computer processors, a first score for the search result of the plurality of search results;
determining, by one or more computer processors, the search result of the plurality of search results that is unique to only one search engine of the plurality of search engines;
determining, by one or more computer processors, a second score for the search results unique to the search engine, wherein the second score comprises the first score of the search results unique to the search engine multiplied by a number of search results that are unique to a remaining search engines of the plurality of search engines and divided by a total number of search results that are provided by the remaining search engines, and wherein the remaining search engines do not include the search engine; and
determining, by one or more computer processors, a ranking of the plurality of search results based on an order of increasing score of the plurality of search results, wherein the score is the second score of the plurality of search results or the first score of the plurality of search results if there is no second score, and wherein the order of increasing score includes a highest ranking for a search result with a highest score; and

outputting, by one or more computer processors, the plurality of search results based on the ranking to be used by the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more features relating to the uniqueness of the one or more search results of the plurality of search engines include one or more of following: the one or more search results that is unique to a search engine of the plurality of search engines, a number of search results that are unique to a remaining search engines of the plurality of search engines, wherein the remaining search engines do not include the search engine, and a number of search results that are provided by both the search engine and at least one of the remaining search engines.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein outputting the plurality of search results according to the ranking comprises:
displaying, by one or more computer processors, the plurality of search results in an order of decreasing ranking of the plurality of search results, wherein the order of decreasing ranking includes the search result with the highest ranking as first.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second score further comprises the first score of the search results unique to the search engine multiplied by the square root of a number of search results that are provided by both the search engine and at least one of the remaining search engines.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the first score comprises:
receiving, by one or more computer processors, a first score for the plurality of search results from a search engine of the plurality of search engines; and
determining, by one or more computer processors, the first score based on, at least in part, one of the following approaches: CombMNZ, CombSUM, CombMIN, or CombMAX.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
normalizing, by one or more computer processors, the first score to account for differences in scoring approaches among the plurality of search engines.

7. A computer program product for providing search results, the computer program product comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media; and
program instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to receive a search query from a user;
program instructions to receive a plurality of search results in response to the search query from a plurality of search engines, wherein the of the plurality of search engines provides one or more search results of the plurality of search results;
program instructions to determine one or more features relating to a uniqueness of the one or more search results of the of the plurality of search engines;
program instructions to calculate a ranking of the plurality of search results based on the one or more features, wherein to calculate further comprises:
program instructions to determine a first score for the search result of the plurality of search results;
program instructions to determine the search result of the plurality of search results that is unique to only one search engine of the plurality of search engines;
program instructions to determine a second score for the search results unique to the search engine, wherein the second score comprises the first score of the search results unique to the search engine multiplied by a number of search results that are unique to a remaining search engines of the plurality of search engines and divided by a total number of search results that are provided by the remaining search engines, and wherein the remaining search engines do not include the search engine; and
program instructions to determine a ranking of the plurality of search results based on an order of increasing score of the plurality of search results, wherein the score is the second score of the plurality of search results or the first score of the plurality of search results if there is no second score, and wherein the order of increasing score includes a highest ranking for a search result with a highest score; and

program instructions to output the plurality of search results to the user based on the ranking.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the one or more features relating to the uniqueness of the one or more search results of the plurality of search engines include one or more of following: the one or more search results that is unique to a search engine of the plurality of search engines, a number of search results that are unique to a remaining search engines of the plurality of search engines, wherein the remaining search engines do not include the search engine, and a number of search results that are provided by both the search engine and at least one of the remaining search engines.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the program instructions to output the plurality of search results according to the ranking comprise:
program instructions to display the plurality of search results in an order of decreasing ranking of the plurality of search results, wherein the order of decreasing ranking includes the search result with the highest ranking as first.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the second score further comprises the first score of the search results unique to the search engine multiplied by the square root of a number of search results that are provided by both the search engine and at least one of the remaining search engines.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the program instructions to determine the first score comprise:
program instructions to receive a first score for the plurality of search results from a se

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Cohen Doron
• Roitman Haggai

Classifications

• G06F17/30554

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30864

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F16/24578 Primary

  using ranking · CPC title