System and method for refining search results

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9858314-B2
Application number	US-201213686783-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2012
Priority date	Nov 27, 2012
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for refining search results is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of accepting a search query comprising one or more keywords, generating a first search result comprising one or more first search result members according to the search query, accepting a refinement command identifying one or more undesired first search result members, automatically refining the first search result to exclude the undesired first search result members and first search result members related to the undesired first search result members from the first search result, and providing the automatically refined search result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for refining a search result, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable/executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:
accepting, by the processor, a first search query comprising one or more keywords;
generating, by the processor, a first search result comprising a plurality of first search result members according to the first search query;
accepting, by the processor, a refinement command from a user selecting a plurality of undesired first search result members;
determining, by the processor, a singular scope for the selected plurality of undesired first search result members;
generating, by the processor, a second search result from the determined singular scope, the second search result comprising second search result members inferred from the determined singular scope, and wherein the generating of the second search result comprises:
determining which of the one or more keywords in the first search query is related to the selected undesired search result members;
determining a contextual annotation for each of the determined one or more keywords in the first search query; and
generating the second search result from the determined one or more keywords and the determined contextual annotation of each of the determined one or more keywords;

automatically refining, by the processor, the first search result using the second search result, wherein the refining comprises subtracting the second search result from the first search result; and
providing, by the processor, the automatically refined search result.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the refinement command is a delimeter proximate the undesired search result member.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein automatically refining the first search result comprises:
excluding the second search result members from the first search result members.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein automatically refining the first search result comprises:
generating, by the processor, a second search query from the one or more keywords and the one or more undesired search result members; and
modifying, by the processor, the first search query with the second search query to generate the refined search result.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein generating a second search query from the one or more keywords and the undesired search result member comprises:
determining, by the processor, which of the one or more keywords is related to the undesired search result;
determining, by the processor, a contextual annotation for each of the determined one or more keywords; and
generating, by the processor, the second search query to exclude the determined contextually annotated key words from the second search result.

6. An apparatus for refining a search result, comprising:
a server accepting a first search query comprising one or more keywords;
a search engine, performed by a processor, for generating a first search result comprising a plurality of first search result members according to the first search query;
wherein the server further accepts a refinement command from a user selecting a plurality of undesired first search result members;
wherein the server determines a singular scope for the selected plurality of undesired first search result members and generates a second search result from the determined singular scope, the second search result comprising second search result members inferred from the determined singular scope, and further wherein generating the second search result comprises:
determining which of the one or more keywords in the first search query is related to the selected undesired search result members;
determining a contextual annotation for each of the determined one or more keywords in the search query; and
generating the second search result from the determined one or more keywords and the determined contextual annotation of each of the determined one or more keywords;

wherein the search engine automatically refines the first search result using the second search result, wherein the refining comprises subtracting the second search result from the first search result; and
wherein the server provides the automatically refined search result.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the refinement command is a delimeter proximate the undesired search result member.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the search engine
automatically refines the first search result by excluding the second search result members from the first search result members.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the search engine automatically refines the first search result by:
generating a second search query from the one or more keywords and the one or more undesired search result members; and
modifying the first search query with the second search query to generate the refined search result.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein generating a second search query from the one or more keywords and the undesired search result member comprises:
determining which of the one or more keywords is related to the undesired search result;
determining a contextual annotation of each of the determined one or more keywords; and
generating the second search query to exclude the determined contextually annotated determined key words from the second search.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bhatt Dhruv A
• Mcneil Kristin E
• Patel Nita

Classifications

• G06F17/30867

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30554

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30424 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F16/248

  Presentation of query results · CPC title