Search engine with natural language-based robust parsing for user query and relevance feedback learning
US6766320B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 24, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jul 20, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 23, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S707/99935
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A search engine architecture is designed to handle a full range of user queries, from complex sentence-based queries to simple keyword searches. The search engine architecture includes a natural language parser that parses a user query and extracts syntactic and semantic information. The parser is robust in the sense that it not only returns fully-parsed results (e.g., a parse tree), but is also capable of returning partially-parsed fragments in those cases where more accurate or descriptive information in the user query is unavailable. A question matcher is employed to match the fully-parsed output and the partially-parsed fragments to a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) stored in a database. The question matcher then correlates the questions with a group of possible answers arranged in standard templates that represent possible solutions to the user query. The search engine architecture also has a keyword searcher to locate other possible answers by searching on any keywords returned from the parser. The answers returned from the question matcher and the keyword searcher are presented to the user for confirmation as to which answer best represents the user's intentions whe…
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