Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for providing documents related to a search request. The search request may include a search query of one or more keywords, or the search request may be a demographic search query including one or more demographic attributes. An index containing data crawled from publisher's websites, demographic information of registered users, along with the search history of the registered users can be created. Once a search request is received, the search request can be compared to the information stored in the index, and one or more documents related to the request can be provided.

Abstract: Techniques including systems and methods for facilitating transactions in connection with electronic trading cards. A finite number of electronic cards are created and associated with owners. Electronic cards are allowed to be bought, sold, traded, gifted, and/or otherwise involved in transactions. Card-related transactions may be conducted in connection with a social network. In one embodiment, publishers provide content for electronic trading cards and determine the timing and manner in which the cards are distributed.

Abstract: Graphical user interfaces, methods, and computer-storage media for navigating relationships among entities are provided. The method is executed by a computer system that generates a graphical user interface having entities associated with a query. The query is issued to a search engine that searches multiple sources to locate results. The computer system extracts the entities from the results. In turn, a graph is added to the graphical user interface to group the entities. The graph links the query and the entities and provides a visual overview of the results for the query.

Abstract: Graphical user interfaces, methods, and computer-storage media for navigating dominant concepts are provided. The method is executed by a computer system that generates a graphical user interface having dominant concepts associated with a contextual query. The contextual query is issued to a search engine that searches multiple sources to locate results. The computer system extracts the dominant concepts from the results. In turn, a graph is added to the graphical user interface to group the dominant concepts. The graph links the contextual query and the dominant concepts and provides controls that dynamically alter dominant concepts displayed by the graphical user interface. The graphical user interface and the dominant concepts displayed are updated based on control manipulations.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-storage media for identifying dominant concepts are provided. The system includes a search engine connected to various sources, an entity extraction component, a metabase, and a ranking component. The search engine receives a contextual query and provides results in response to the contextual query. The entity extraction component parses the results and identifies entities included in the results. The metabase provides a distance between the entities included in the results and the query terms included in the contextual query. The ranking component ranks the entities based on the provided distance and selects dominant concepts within the results based on the ranks assigned to entities.

Abstract: Search result re-ranking is provided by employing a concept graph from a metabase. When a search query is received, a query context of the search query is analyzed to identify dominant concepts for the search query. The dominant concepts are expanded by identifying the dominant concepts within a concept graph and identifying additional concepts having a strong relationship with the dominant concepts within the concept graph. A set of search results for the search query is analyzed to determine strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts. The search results are re-ranked based on the strength of relationship of each search result to the expanded concepts and the strength of relationship of each expanded concept to the dominant concepts.

Abstract: Combinatorial advertisements are provided based on textual advertisements and rich media advertisements. A textual advertisement and rich media advertisement are identified as matching. Based on identifying the textual advertisement and rich media advertisement as matching, a combinatorial advertisement is generated. The combinatorial advertisement includes a text portion derived from text from the textual advertisement. Additionally, the combinatorial advertisement includes a rich media portion derived from rich media from the rich media advertisement.

Abstract: Advertisements are selected for presentation on a search results page based on the presence or absence of user activity within the search results page. When a search results page is provided to an end user, the search results page is tracked for user activity. If user activity is detected, a user context is identified and new advertisements are selected for presentation on the search results page based on the user context. In some embodiments, the search results page provides search results in clusters, and the user context corresponds with a search result cluster selected by an end user. In some embodiments, dominant concepts in the user context are identified and used to select advertisements. Alternatively, if user activity is not detected within a predetermined period of time, new advertisements are selected based on the absence of user activity within the search results page.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-storage media for presenting answers are provided. The system includes a search engine to receive user queries and contexts, a query understanding component to provide results, and an answer generator to present answers to the user queries. The answers may include a link to a browser that provides a graph, table, or cluster for the results, where nodes of the graph are associated with a confidence level.

Abstract: Electronic documents are analyzed to identify assertions, which are inverted to generate questions that may be answered by the assertions. A document or a corpus of electronic documents may be analyzed to identify entities and relationships among entities within the text of the document(s). Assertions are identified based on the entities and relationships among the entities. Each assertion represents a fact about an entity, and a group of assertions represents a summary of the document or document corpus. The assertions are inverted to generate questions that may be answered by the assertions. The questions may be further analyzed to identify relevant concepts and topics and to cluster the questions around the concepts and topics. A combined graph may also be generated that facilitates traversal among topics, concepts, questions, assertions, document summaries, and documents.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-storage media for generating lateral concepts are provided. The system includes a search engine to receive user queries, a storage to store content and its associated categories, and a lateral concept generator. The lateral concept generator is connected to both the search engine and storage. The lateral concept generator selects lateral concepts from categories associated with the content based on similarity scores for the stored content.

Abstract: Advertisements are selected for presentation on search result pages and web pages based on phrases generated from lateral concepts and topics identified for the search result pages and web pages. A search query or an indication of a web page is received for which advertisements are to be provided. Lateral concepts and topics are identified based on the search query or content of the web page. The lateral concepts and topics are used as phrases for selecting advertisements from an advertisement inventory. Selected advertisements are provided for presentation on a search results page in response to a search query or on a web page initially identified.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-storage media for generating contextual queries are provided. The system includes a search engine to receive user queries and contexts, a query understanding component to generate a semantic representation of the query, and a data source command generator to transform the semantic representation into commands for multiple data sources. The data source command generator is connected to the query understanding component. The data source command generator selects data source commands based on lexical information associated with each data source.

Abstract: A table of contents is generated for search results in response to a search query by identifying semantic concepts as topics for inclusion within the table of contents. When a search query is received, a search is performed to identify search results. The search results are compared to an ontology of topics to identify relevant topics. Additionally, search results are compared to an ontology of partial topics to identify relevant partial topics, which are named. Independent key-phrases are further generated from search results and identified as key-phrase topics. The identified topics, named partial topics, and key-phrase topics are ranked, and topics are selected for inclusion within a table of contents. A search results page is returned in response to the search query that includes search results and the generated table of contents.

Abstract: Systems and methods for determining the value of bids placed by content providers for placement positions on a page, e.g., a web page, rendered according to a given context, for instance, the search results listing for a particular query initiated on a search engine web site, are provided. Additionally, systems and methods are provided for determining placement of content items, e.g., advertisements and/or images, on a rendered page relative to other content items on the page based upon bid value.

Abstract: Review and filtering of search results is facilitated by providing additional types of results beyond links to existing documents can be provided in addition to or in place of links to existing documents. These additional results can facilitate modifying a search request to filter out unwanted documents. The additional results, when in the form of content display objects and/or application display objects, can also provide the user with varying levels of information detail. In some preferred embodiments, an ontology based knowledge base can be leveraged in order to facilitate providing and filtering the results.