Chain understanding in search

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016321345-A1
Application number	US-201514701486-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 30, 2015
Priority date	Apr 30, 2015
Publication date	Nov 3, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and systems for generating and storing entity chain information, and for responding to search queries according to the entity chain information is presented. As a service obtains information regarding geographic entities, a plurality of entity records corresponding to each of a plurality of geographic entities is created (or updated) in an entity store. The service then analyzes the plurality of geographic entities (via the entity information in each of the entity records) to identify geographic entities that belong to an entity chain. Information regarding the identified entity chains are then also stored in the entity store.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A computer-implemented method for generating entity chain information, the method comprising each of the following as implemented on a computing device including at least a processor, a memory, and a data store:
obtaining entity information regarding a plurality of geographic entities; identifying entity data from the entity information corresponding to each of the plurality of geographic entities and storing the identified entity data of each geographic entity of the plurality of geographic entities in an entity record corresponding the geographic entity in a data store; generating one or more groups of geographic entities from the plurality of entity records corresponding to geographic entities in the data store; for each of the generated one or more groups of geographic entities:
determining a retaining similarity score for each of the geographic entities of a generated group of geographic entities, the retaining similarity score corresponding to the similarity of a geographic entity to the generated group of geographic entities to which it is grouped;
for each geographic entity of a group of geographic entities:
removing a geographic entity from the group of geographic entities where the retaining similarity score for the geographic entity falls below a predetermined threshold of similarity for retaining the geographic entity in the predetermined group of geographic entities; and

establishing an entity chain in the data store for the generated group of geographic entities comprising to the geographic entities remaining in the generated group of geographic entities.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein generating one or more groups of geographic entities from the plurality of entity records corresponding to geographic entities in the data store comprises:
determining a grouping similarity score between a first and a second geographic entity; determining the grouping similarity score between the first and the second geographic entity exceeds a predetermined threshold of similarity for grouping geographic entities into a group; and including the first geographic entity in a group of geographic entities with the second geographic entity.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein determining the grouping similarity score between the first and the second geographic entities comprises:
accessing a plurality of entity attributes corresponding to each of the first and the second geographic entities from the data store; and determining the grouping similarity score between the first and the second geographic entities according to the plurality of entity attributes.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of entity attributes includes any one or more of an entity name, an entity phone number, an entity category, an entity web site, and descriptive n-grams based on the keywords used in the entity's web sites of the first and second geographic entities.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining dominant entity attributes of the generated group of geographic entities; and
wherein determining a retaining similarity score for each of the geographic entities of a generated group of geographic entities comprises determining retaining similarity score for each of the geographic entities of a generated group of geographic entities with regard to the dominant entity attributes of the generated group of geographic entities.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the dominant entity attributes of the generated group of geographic entities comprise any one or more of a dominant entity name, a dominant phone number, and a dominant entity category.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the dominant entity attributes of the generated group of geographic entities further comprises a plurality of dominant entity names, a plurality of dominant phone numbers, or a plurality of dominant entity categories.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the retaining similarity score is an aggregate retaining similarity score, the aggregate retaining similarity score being generated according at least two of the dominant entity attributes of the generated group of geographic entities.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein establishing an entity chain in the data store for the generated group of geographic entities comprises establishing an entity chain in the data store for the generated group of geographic entities upon determining that the generated group of geographic entities includes at least two geographic entities.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein establishing an entity chain in the data store for the generated group of geographic entities further comprises, for each of the at least two geographic entities, indicating in an entity record corresponding to a geographic entity in the data store that the geographic entity belongs to the entity chain.

11 . A computer-implemented method of a search engine for responding to a search query from a computer user, the method comprising each of the following as implemented on a computing device upon which the search engine operates, including at least a processor, and a memory:
providing an entity store, the entity store storing information regarding a plurality of geographic entities, and further comprising information regarding a plurality of entity chains, each entity chain comprising at least two geographic entities; receiving a search query from a computer user, the search query identifying a query intent for which relevant search results are requested; determining a set of search results relevant to the query intent of the search query from a content store of the search engine, the set of search results being an ordered set of search results; determining whether the query intent of the search query is directed to a geographic entity, and upon determining that the query intent of the search query is directed to a geographic entity:
determining whether the geographic entity is part of an entity chain according to information from the entity store, and upon determining that the geographic entity is part of an entity chain:
obtaining information regarding the entity chain of which the geographic entity is a part; and
reordering the set of search results according to the obtained information regarding the entity chain;
generating a search results page according to the set of search results; and returning the generated search results page in response to the search query.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein providing an entity store comprises:
obtaining entity information regarding a plurality of geographic entities; identifying geographic data from the entity information corresponding to each of the plurality of geographic entities and store the identified entity data of each geographic entity of the plurality of geographic entities in an entity record corresponding the geographic entity in the entity store; generating one or more groups of geographic entities from the plurality of entity records corresponding to geographic entities in the entity store; for each of the generated one or more groups of geographic entities:
determining a retaining similarity score for each of the geographic entities of a generated group of geographic entities, the retaining similarity score corresponding to the similarity of a geographic entity the generated group of geographic entities to which it is grouped;
for each geographic entity of a group of geographic entities:
removing a geograp

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Todic Nikola
• Borisyuk Fedor Vladimirovich
• Neborisevic Nikola
• Jandrlic Andrija
• Marsenic Nemanja
• Nevrekar Siddhika

Classifications

• G06Q30/0201 Primary

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title

• G06F17/30598 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30554

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30589

  Physics · mapped topic