Rich content for query answers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9336318-B2
Application number	US-201414340727-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2014
Priority date	Dec 31, 2013
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing rich content with an answer to a question query. A method includes receiving a query determined to be a question query and a corresponding answer generated in response to the question query, generating a contextual query that includes an element relating to the question query and an element relating to the answer; submitting the contextual query to a rich content search process and receiving data specifying a first set of rich content items responsive to the contextual query, determining first rich content item in the first set of rich content items that meet a context condition that is indicative of a rich content item providing contextual information of both elements of the question query and the answer query; and preferentially selecting from the first content items relative to the second rich content items to be provided as one or more answer rich content items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by data processing apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving a query determined to be a question query and a corresponding answer generated in response to the question query, the answer determined to be responsive to the question query so that it is to be provided to a user device as an answer to the question query, wherein each of the question query and the answer has one or more terms;
in response to receiving the question query and the corresponding answer:
receiving a first set of rich content items in response to a search process and based on the question query and corresponding answer and ranked according to an order;
for each rich content item in the set of first rich content items, receiving data specifying rich content item labels for the rich content item;
determining each rich content item having labels that match terms of the answer and terms of the question query as first rich content items;
determining each rich content item having labels that match only the terms of the answer or that match only the terms of the question query as second rich content items;
demoting the second rich content items in the order in the first set relative to the first rich content items in the first set so that the rich content items in the first set are ranked according to a revised order;
selecting, according to the revised order, a rich content item as a selected rich content item to provide with the answer; and
providing, to a user device, the answer to the question query and the selected rich content item with the answer to the question query.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a first set of rich content items in response to a search process and based on the question query and corresponding answer comprises:
generating a contextual query that includes a first element relating to the question query and a second element relating to the answer; and
submitting the contextual query to a rich content search process and receiving data specifying a first set of rich content items responsive to the contextual query, the rich content items ranked according to an order that is indicative of the relevance of each rich content item to the contextual query.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating a contextual query that includes a first element relating to the question query and a second element relating to the answer comprises generating a context query that includes at least one or more terms from the question query and one or more terms from the answer.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting, from among the rich content items in the first set, one or more rich content items to be provided as one or more answer rich content items with the answer to a user device from which the question query was received, the selection based at least in part on the revised order.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each rich content item in the set of first rich content items, detecting entities depicted in the rich content item by use of rich content item processing;
determining each rich content item depicting entities that are described by both terms of the answer and terms of the question query as first rich content items; and
determining each rich content item depicting entities that are not described by both terms of the answer and terms of the question query as second rich content items.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rich content items are images.

7. A system, comprising:
a data processing apparatus; and
a memory storage apparatus connected to the data processing apparatus and storing instruction executable by the data processing apparatus that upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving a query determined to be a question query and a corresponding answer generated in response to the question query, the answer determined to be responsive to the question query so that it is to be provided to a user as an answer to the query, wherein each of the question query and the answer has one or more terms;
in response to receiving the question query and the corresponding answer:
receiving a first set of rich content items in response to a search process and based on the question query and corresponding answer;
for each rich content item in the set of first rich content items, receiving data specifying rich content item labels for the rich content item;
determining each rich content item having labels that match terms of the answer and terms of the question query as first rich content items;
determining each rich content item having labels that match only the terms of the answer or that match only the terms of the question query as second rich content items;
demoting the second rich content items in the order in the first set relative to the first rich content items in the first set so that the rich content items in the first set are ranked according to a revised order;
selecting, according to the revised order, a rich content item as a selected rich content item to provide with the answer; and
providing, to a user device, the answer to the question query and the selected rich content item with the answer to the question query.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein receiving a first set of rich content items in response to a search process and based on the question query and corresponding answer comprises:
generating a contextual query that includes a first element relating to the question query and a second element relating to the answer; and
submitting the contextual query to a rich content search process and receiving data specifying a first set of rich content items responsive to the contextual query, the rich content items ranked according to an order that is indicative of the relevance of each rich content item to the contextual query.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein generating a contextual query that includes a first element relating to the question query and a second element relating to the answer comprises generating a context query that includes at least one or more terms from the question query and one or more terms from the answer.

10. The system of claim 7 , further comprising selecting, from among the rich content items in the first set, one or more rich content items to be provided as one or more answer rich content items with the answer to a user device from which the question query was received, the selection based at least in part on the revised order.

11. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
for each rich content item in the set of first rich content items, detecting entities depicted in the rich content item by use of rich content item processing;
determining each rich content item depicting entities that are described by both terms of the answer and terms of the question query as first rich content items; and
determining each rich content item depicting entities that are not described by both terms of the answer and terms of the question query as second rich content items.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the rich content items are images.

13. A memory storage apparatus storing instruction executable by a data processing apparatus that upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving a query determined to be a question query and a corresponding answer generated in response to the question query, the answer determined to be responsive to the question query so that it is to be provided to a user as an answer to the query, wherein each of the question query and the answer has one or more terms;
in response to receiving the

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Chechik Gal
• Segalis Eyal
• Leviathan Yaniv
• Tzur Yoav

Classifications

• G06F17/30867 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30646

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30265

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30864

  Physics · mapped topic