Identifying related entities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10248732-B2
Application number	US-201514922274-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2015
Priority date	Jan 23, 2012
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-storage media having computer-usable instructions embodied thereon for identifying related entities are provided. One or more entities may be identified from a search query. The one or more entities may include any identifiable term having related information associated therewith. An entity store may be referenced to identify one or more related entities related to the entity. The one or more related entities, along with their relationship(s) to the entity (and one another, perhaps) may then be ranked and displayed to a user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:
identifying an entity within a search query;
identifying mined criteria comprising one or more related entities related to the entity, wherein the one or more related entities are identified based on a distance of each of the one or more related entities from the entity, wherein the distance is a number of connections away from the entity for each of the one or more related entities,
wherein the mined criteria further comprises at least one of (a) historical session data of a plurality of users and (b) at least two URLs that occur together in a user session, wherein the historical session data includes a set of URLs clicked by a user within a given time period;
ranking the one or more related entities based on the distance of each of the one or more related entities from the entity, wherein a first related entity having a fewer number of connections from the entity than a second related entity is ranked higher than the second related entity; and
providing at least one of the one or more related entities in a condensed display simultaneously with one or more search results responsive to the search query such that review of each of the one or more search results is avoided.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the entity within the search query is one or more of a person, a company, or a location.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the one or more related entities and a relationship of each of the one or more related entities to the entity within the entity store.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distance from the entity is identified from an entity graph stored in the entity store.

5. One or more computer storage devices storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method, the method comprising:
identifying an entity within a search query;
identifying mined criteria comprising one or more related entities related to the entity, wherein the one or more related entities are identified based on a distance of each of the one or more related entities from the entity, wherein the distance is a number of connections away from the entity for each of the one or more related entities,
wherein the mined criteria further comprises at least one of (a) historical session data of a plurality of users and (b) at least two URLs that occur together in a user session, wherein the historical session data includes a set of URLs clicked by a user within a given time period;
ranking the one or more related entities based on the distance of each of the one or more related entities from the entity, wherein a first related entity having a fewer number of connections from the entity than a second related entity is ranked higher than the second related entity; and
providing at least one of the one or more related entities in a condensed display simultaneously with one or more search results responsive to the search query, wherein the condensed display provides the one or more related entities separate from the one or more search results such that review of each of the one or more search results is avoided.

6. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 5 , wherein the entity within the search query is one or more of a person, a company, or a location.

7. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises storing the one or more related entities and a relationship of each of the one or more related entities to the entity within the entity store.

8. A system for identifying related entities, the system comprising:
a computing device associated with one or more processors and one or more computer-readable storage devices;
an entity store coupled with the computing device; and
an entity engine that:
identifies an entity within a search query;
identifies mined criteria comprising one or more related entities related to the entity, wherein the one or more related entities are identified based on a distance of each of the one or more related entities from the entity, wherein the distance is a number of connections away from the entity for each of the one or more related entities,
wherein the mined criteria further comprises at least one of (a) historical session data of a plurality of users and (b) at least two URLs that occur together in a user session, wherein the historical session data includes a set of URLs clicked by a user within a given time period;
ranks the one or more related entities based on the distance of each of the one or more related entities from the entity, wherein a first related entity having a fewer number of connections from the entity than a second related entity is ranked higher than the second related entity; and
provides at least one of the one or more related entities in a condensed display simultaneously with one or more search results responsive to the search query, wherein the condensed display provides the one or more related entities separate from the one or more search results such that review of each of the one or more search results is avoided.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the mined criteria is mined from an entity graph within the entity store.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Zhiyanov Dmitry
• Chen Deqing
• Ke Yan

Classifications

• G06F16/5838

  using colour · CPC title

• G06F16/951 Primary

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/248

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F16/2465

  Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases · CPC title

• G06F16/9537 Primary

  Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries · CPC title