Framework for selecting and presenting answer boxes relevant to user input as query suggestions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9396268-B2
Application number	US-201514802220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2015
Priority date	Aug 31, 2009
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for identifying answer boxes for presentation to a user. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of, while receiving an input entered in a search engine query input field by a first user, and before the first user has submitted the input as a search request, obtaining content for an answer box for the input and presenting the answer box to the first user. The answer box can be an answer box associated with a dominant query for the input, or can be an answer box identified from historical answer box data for the input.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at a user device, user input entered into a search engine query input field by a user;
while receiving the user input and prior to submitting the user input as a search request:
receiving, at the user device and from an answer box presentation system, an answer box that includes content associated with a particular input-answer box pair, the particular input-answer box pair associated with a text input and an answer box, wherein the particular input-answer box pair is selected from one or more candidate input-answer box pairs based on a presentation value for each candidate pair, wherein each of the one or more candidate input-answer box pairs are identified from a plurality of input-answer box pairs based on the text input for each of the one or more candidate input-answer box pairs matching the user input, wherein the text input for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is associated with the respective answer box if the respective answer box was presented by a search engine in response to a query beginning with an input matching the text input, and wherein the presentation value for each input-answer box pair for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is derived from a number of times the answer box in the pair was presented by the search engine in response to queries beginning with the input matching the text input in the pair, and wherein the content of the answer box of each input-answer box pair of the plurality of input-answer box pairs includes a summary of information that is determined to be responsive to a query beginning with an input matching the text input, and is different from the query and query suggestions for the query; and
presenting the answer box for display to the user at the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular input-answer box pair is selected based on an indication that the particular input-answer box pair was helpful to users who submitted queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the particular input-answer box pair.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, at the user device and from the answer box presentation system, a plurality of query suggestions for the user input, and wherein presenting the answer box further comprises presenting the query suggestions for display to the user at the user device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presentation value for each input-answer box pair for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is derived from a number of times the answer box in the pair was presented by the search engine in response to queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the pair divided by a total number of times queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the pair were received by the search engine.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presentation value for each input-answer box pair for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is derived from a number of times the answer box in the pair was presented by the search engine in response to queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the pair divided by a total number of times one or more users submitted queries for one or more query suggestions for the text input in the pair.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more users includes the user.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more users includes multiple users.

8. A system comprising one or more computers configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a user device, user input entered into a search engine query input field by a user;
while receiving the user input and prior to submitting the user input as a search request:
receiving, at the user device and from an answer box presentation system, an answer box that includes content associated with a particular input-answer box pair, the particular input-answer box pair associated with a text input and an answer box, wherein the particular input-answer box pair is selected from one or more candidate input-answer box pairs based on a presentation value for each candidate pair, wherein each of the one or more candidate input-answer box pairs are identified from a plurality of input-answer box pairs based on the text input for each of the one or more candidate input-answer box pairs matching the user input, wherein the text input for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is associated with the respective answer box if the respective answer box was presented by a search engine in response to a query beginning with an input matching the text input, and wherein the presentation value for each input-answer box pair for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is derived from a number of times the answer box in the pair was presented by the search engine in response to queries beginning with the input matching the text input in the pair, and wherein the content of the answer box of each input-answer box pair of the plurality of input-answer box pairs includes a summary of information that is determined to be responsive to a query beginning with an input matching the text input, and is different from the query and query suggestions for the query; and
presenting the answer box for display to the user at the user device.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the particular input-answer box pair is selected based on an indication that the particular input-answer box pair was helpful to users who submitted queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the particular input-answer box pair.

10. The system of claim 8 , the operations further comprising receiving, at the user device and from the answer box presentation system, a plurality of query suggestions for the user input, and wherein presenting the answer box further comprises presenting the query suggestions for display to the user at the user device.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the presentation value for each input-answer box pair for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is derived from a number of times the answer box in the pair was presented by the search engine in response to queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the pair divided by a total number of times queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the pair were received by the search engine.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the presentation value for each input-answer box pair for each of the plurality of input-answer box pairs is derived from a number of times the answer box in the pair was presented by the search engine in response to queries beginning with inputs matching the text input in the pair divided by a total number of times one or more users submitted queries for one or more query suggestions for the text input in the pair.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more users includes the user.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more users includes multiple users.

15. A non-transitory computer storage media encoded with one or more computer programs, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a user device, user input entered into a search engine query input field by a user;
while receiving the user input and prior to submitting the user input as a search request:
receiving, at the user device and from an answer box presentation system, an answer box that includes content associated with a particular input-answer box pair, the particular input-answ

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Effrat Jonathan J
• Lecomte David E
• Dhanaraj Christina R
• Hansson Othar

Classifications

• G06F17/30876

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30864 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30867

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3097

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30442

  Physics · mapped topic