Patent · US Expired

Ranking of query feedback terms in an information retrieval system

US6363378B1 · kind B1 · utility

309Cited by
4References
12Claims
0Family size

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Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 13, 1998
Grant dateMar 26, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 13, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99935
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An information retrieval system processes user input queries, and identifies query feedback, including ranking the query feedback, to facilitate the user in re-formatting a new query. A knowledge base, which comprises a plurality of nodes depicting terminological concepts, is arranged to reflect conceptual proximity among the nodes. The information retrieval system processes the queries, identifies topics related to the query as well as query feedback terms, and then links both the topics and feedback terms to nodes of the knowledge base with corresponding terminological concepts. At least one focal node is selected from the knowledge base based on the topics to determine a conceptual proximity between the focal node and the query feedback nodes. The query feedback terms are ranked based on conceptual proximity to the focal node. A content processing system that identifies themes from a corpus of documents for use in query feedback processing is also disclosed.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.