Apparatus and method for searching information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10409871-B2
Application number	US-201314100466-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2013
Priority date	Dec 12, 2012
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for searching information. The method is for, in response to receipt of a keyword from a search user of a plurality of users, searching in an information repository to obtain one or more information items to be returned; and returning the information item to the search user based on an importance of each information item of the one or more information items. With the method, it is possible to fully leverage various objective internal relationships between search users, information items and creators and thus improve the search accuracy.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing search results to a user within an organization, the organization having a repository of information, comprising:
in response to receipt of a keyword from a search user of a plurality of users, searching in the information repository to obtain one or more information items, wherein use of the information repository is enabled to create a historical interest of items within the information repository to correlate items within the information repository;
ordering according to relevance the plurality of information items by evaluating on an information item-by-information item basis an interrelationship between each of:
(a) the search user and the plurality of users within the organization;
(b) a creator of the information item being evaluated and a plurality of creators within the organization;
(c) the information item being evaluated and the plurality of information items;
(d) the search user and the information item being evaluated;
(e) the search user and the creator of the information item being evaluated;
(f) the creator of the information item being evaluated and the information item being evaluated; and
(g) the historical interest of the item being evaluated; and
providing an ordered plurality of information items to the search user.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein ordering according to relevance further comprises evaluating a creator weight of the information item being evaluated a historical interest of the plurality of users in the one or more information items, or an impact of the creator of the information item being evaluated on the plurality of information items.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the creator weight is determined based on one or more of: the creator's department, position, domain expertise, geographical location, a clicks ratio of each information item created by the creator, and a historical review of each information item created by the creator.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the relevance between the creator of the information item being evaluated and the search user is built based on one or more of: department relevance, position relevance, cooperation relationship, domain expertise relevance, and geographical location relevance between the creator of the information item being evaluated and the search user.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the relevance between the search user and other users of the plurality of users is built based on a search history relationship between the search user and the other users.

6. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the historical interest of the plurality of users in the one or more information items is built based on a click history of the plurality of users on the information item and/or a review history of the plurality of users on the information item.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein while building the historical interest, historical interest in one information item in a set of information items having relevance to each other is determined as historical interest in other information items in the set of information items.

8. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the impact of the creator of the information item being evaluated on the plurality of information items is built based on time which the creator spends in creating the information item being evaluated.

9. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the relevance among the one or more information items is built based on content relevance among the one or more information items.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the relevance of the information item being evaluated is determined by users, machine learning and/or a classification tool.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the searching in an information repository to obtain one or more information items to be returned further comprises:
taking a part of all search results for the keyword that are most closely related to the keyword as the one or more information items to be returned.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein providing an ordered plurality of information items to the search user further comprises providing returning the information item to the user, creator information for each of the plurality of information items to the user.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the information item comprises a document.

14. A system for providing search results to a user within an organization, the organization having a repository of information, comprising:
a processor;
memory coupled to the processor; and
computer-executable program logic encoded in memory of one or more computers enabled to search for information using the processor and memory, wherein the computer-executable program logic is configured for the execution of:
in response to receipt of a keyword from a search user of a plurality of users, searching in the information repository to obtain one or more information items, wherein use of the information repository is enabled to create a historical interest of items within the information repository to correlate items within the information repository;
ordering according to relevance the plurality of information items by evaluating on an information item-by-information item basis an interrelationship between each of:
(h) the search user and the plurality of users within the organization;
(i) a creator of the information item being evaluated and a plurality of creators within the organization;
(j) the information item being evaluated and the plurality of information items;
(k) the search user and the information item being evaluated;
(l) the search user and the creator of the information item being evaluated;
(m)the creator of the information item being evaluated and the information item being evaluated; and
(n) the historical interest of the item being evaluated; and

providing an ordered plurality of information items to the search user.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein ordering according to relevance further comprises evaluating a creator weight of the information item being evaluated, a historical interest of the plurality of users in the one or more information items, or an impact of the creator of the item being evaluated on the plurality of information items.

16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the computer-executable program logic is further configured for the execution of:
determining the creator weight based on one or more of: the creator's department, position, domain expertise, geographical location, a clicks ratio of each information item created by the creator, and a historical review of each information item created by the creator.

17. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable program logic is further configured for the execution of:
building the relevance between the creator of the information item being evaluated and the search user based on one or more of: department relevance, position relevance, cooperation relationship, domain expertise relevance, and geographical location relevance between the creator of the information item being evaluated and the search user.

18. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the computer-executable program logic is further configured for the execution of:
building the relevance between the search user and other users of the plurality of users based on a search history relationship between the search user and the other users.

19. The system according to claim 15 , wherei

Assignees

• Emc Corp
• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Chen Chao
• Zhong Qianjie
• Guo Feng
• Chen Qiyan
• Liu Jingjing

Classifications

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/5866

  using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information · CPC title

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title