Blending search results on online social networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10534824-B2
Application number	US-201715456241-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2017
Priority date	Apr 3, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2020
Grant date	Jan 14, 2020

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a search query input comprising one or more n-grams; parsing the search query input to identify keywords; generating query commands for the keywords. Each query command may specify: a particular object-type; one or more identifiers of one or more objects that match the search query input; and one or more types of relationships with respect to the objects. The method may further include searching a particular vertical that stores objects of the particular object-type having a relationship of the type of relationship with respect to one or more of the objects; generating a plurality of search-result modules corresponding to the query commands, each search-result module comprising references to objects of the particular object-type specified by the query command; and sending, to a client device, instructions for presenting an interface comprising one or more of the search-result modules.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search query input comprising a plurality of n-grams;
generating a plurality of query commands based on the search query input, wherein each query command specifies:
a particular object-type, based on the search query input, of a plurality of object-types; and
one or more identifiers of one or more objects, respectively, matching one or more of the n-grams of the search query input;

searching, for each query command, a particular vertical that stores objects of the particular object-type for one or more objects matching the search query input and having identifiers specified by the respective query command;
generating a plurality of search-result modules corresponding to the plurality of query commands, respectively, wherein:
each search-result module is directed to the particular object-type specified by the respective query command, and
each search-result module comprises a respective set of search results referencing the matching objects of the particular object-type specified by the respective query command;

calculating, for each generated search-results module, a score for each search result in the respective set of search results;
calculating, for each search-results module, a module score based on the score of each search result in the respective set of search results; and
sending, to the client device responsive to the search query, instructions for presenting an interface comprising the plurality of the search-result modules, wherein the search results corresponding to each search-result module are grouped together to be presented within the respective search-result module, and wherein the search-results modules are organized within the interface based on their respective module scores.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
classifying the search query input based on one or more of the plurality of n-grams of the search query input; and
wherein the calculated score for each search-result module is further based on the classification of the search query input.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein classifying the search input is based at least in part on information of the first user.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the score for each search result is based on the classification of the search query input.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of query commands are generated by a sub-request generator of the online social network.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular vertical stores objects of a single object-type.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the object-type stored by the particular vertical is selected from a group consisting of: user, photos, posts, webpages, applications, locations, or user groups.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular vertical is from a plurality of verticals, wherein each vertical of the plurality of verticals stores objects of a different object-type.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to the first user; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of objects associated with the online social network, respectively.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein each search-result module corresponds to a structured query comprising references to one or more nodes and one or more edges, the structured query being based on the query command corresponding to the search-result module.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search query input comprises a user-generated character string received from the client device, and wherein the user-generated character string is entered by the first user in a query field and rendered at the client device as each character of the character string is entered by the user.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein searching the particular vertical comprises using one or more string matching algorithms to match the one or more of the plurality of n-grams with a string of characters associated with each of one or more of the objects.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the client device, an indication of a selection of one of the plurality of search results of one of the search-result modules by the first user; and
sending, to the client device responsive to the selection, the object corresponding to the selected search result for presentation to the first user.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein each query command includes one or more social-graph constraints that comprises references to particular social-graph elements in a social graph associated with the user.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein one of the social-graph constraints is a constraint that the first user be connected to the objects in the search-result module by at most two degrees of separation within the social graph.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the query command further specifies one or more types of relationships within a social graph with respect to the one or more objects having identifiers specified by the respective query command; and
searching, for each query command, the particular vertical further comprises searching, for each query command, the particular vertical for one or more objects matching the search query input and having a relationship within the social graph of the type of relationship with respect to the objects.

17. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
receive, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search query input comprising a plurality of n-grams;
generate a plurality of query commands based on the search query, wherein each query command specifies:
a particular object-type, based on the search query input, of a plurality of object-types; and
one or more identifiers of one or more objects, respectively, matching one or more of the n-grams of the search query input;

search, for each query command, a particular vertical that stores objects of the particular object-type for one or more objects matching the search query input and having identifiers specified by the respective query command;
generate a plurality of search-result modules corresponding to the plurality of query commands, respectively, wherein:
each search-result module is directed to the particular object-type specified by the respective query command, and
each search-result module comprises a respective set of search results referencing the matching objects of the particular object-type specified by the respective query command;

calculate, for each generated search-results module, a score for each search result in the respective set of search results;
calculate, for each search-results module, a module score based on the score of each search result in the respective set of search results; and
send, to the client device responsive to the search query, instructions for presenting an interface comprising the plurality of the search-result modules, wherein the search results corresponding to each search-result module are grouped together to be presented within the respective search-result module, and wherein the search-results modules are organized within the interface based on their respective module scores.

18. A system comprising:

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Girish
• Kesten Yuval
• Li Xiao
• Lopiano Fabio

Classifications

• G06F16/3338

  Query expansion · CPC title

• G06F16/248

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F16/90344

  by using string matching techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/245 Primary

  Query processing · CPC title

• G06F16/24578 Primary

  using ranking · CPC title