Abstract: A technique including receiving a search query; identifying a first original query term based on the query; identifying a first expanded query term related to the first original query term; determining a first lexical distance between the first original query term and the first expanded query term; determining a first weight for the first expanded query term based on the determined first lexical distance; identifying a plurality of documents, from among a corpus of documents, as each relevant to the search query, the plurality of documents including a first document identified based on its inclusion of the first expanded query term; ranking the plurality of documents, with the ranking of the first document being based upon the calculated first weight; and generating a response to the search query identifying two or more of the plurality of documents, ordered according to the ranking.

Abstract: A dynamic portal generation system includes an indexing module that indexes structured and unstructured data in a database. The database includes information residing in associated standalone applications having documents from information sources, and a name-entity repository that includes name entities and their corresponding name-entity types. A search module searches the information residing in the indexed information to obtain a search result. A name-entity extraction module extracts a matching name-entity that corresponds to a name-entity in the name-entity repository. A portal generation module dynamically generates a portal triggered by the search query.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for conversion of information provided on public and/or private networks and managing that information by categories and offering services relating to that information; and particularly to a system and method for offering services related to maintaining an easy to use consumer site which searches golf courses and provides accurate tee time and other information related to golfing services and collects revenue based on those services.

Abstract: A system embodiment receives a query from the user. The query is processed by a search infrastructure which may return a set of results. Results may then be estimated for quality by a quality estimator. The quality estimator may determine an initial quality estimation of the search result(s). A query re-issuer generates re-issued query information based on the initial quality estimation of the search result(s) for the initial query. A query modifier then receives the re-issued query information and generates a modified re-issued query in accordance with the query re-issue information. A method embodiment modifies and re-issues a query to the search infrastructure. The method includes determining an initial quality estimation of the search result, generating re-issued query information based on at least an initial quality estimation of the search result for the initial query, receiving the re-issued query information and generating a modified re-issued query in accordance with the re-issued query information.

Abstract: Browsing sequence phrase identification technique embodiments are presented that generally extract topically-related phrases from the pages visited by a user in a browsing session. The topically-related phrases can be used for a variety of purposes, including aiding a user in re-finding previously visited sites. This phrase identification task is performed by considering not just the pages of a user's browsing sequence individually, but also pages visited immediately before and immediately after each page. In this way, phrases found in a page can be analyzed in the context in which the page was viewed, rather than in isolation. The identified phrases are further filtered by picking those that appear on a pre-populated topic list, and then clustering to find the most informative ones.

Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for invoking a non-search action based on a search query. A server system receives a search query from a remote computing device. The server system determines whether the search query includes reserved text that indicates an intent by a user that provided the search query to the remote computing device to perform a non-search messaging action instead of or in addition to obtaining search results. The server system provides to the computing device, in response to determining that the search query includes the reserved text, code for causing the remote computing device to display a draft communication that includes at least the search query without the reserved text, and for allowing the user to edit the draft communication before transmitting the draft communication for receipt by recipient users.

Abstract: A method and a system for providing snippets of source documents of an answer to a fact query are disclosed. Snippets of source documents may be provided in response to a user request for the source documents from which the fact answer to a fact query was extracted. The snippets include the terms of the fact query and terms of the answer. The snippets may be displayed along with Uniform Resource Locators (URL's) of the source documents.

Abstract: A system for identifying digital content related to a portion of a block of text receives, automatically or via input by a user, an indication of one or more words included in the block of text. The system searches a database of digital content based on the one or more words and retrieves from the database one or more digital content items or identifiers of digital content items that are related to the one or more words. The system provides the retrieved digital content items or identifiers to the user, and receives a selection of one or more of the provided items or identifiers from the user. The system associates for display or replay the one or more selected digital content items with the one or more words in the block of text. Other embodiments of the system are also disclosed.

Abstract: This invention relates to an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network. The machine receives, from a user, a search request including a search argument corresponding to the desired information and searches, based upon the received search argument, a first database having data network related information to generate search results. It also correlates the received search argument to a particular advertisement in a second database having advertisement related information. The search results together with the particular advertisement are provided by the machine to the user.

Abstract: A search engine provides efficient and scalable search queries for documents using a document summaries index file structure. The document summaries index file structure comprises an index portion and a records portion. The index portion contains a plurality of document identifiers, each of which is linked to a record in the record values portion. The records portion includes a document summary that may include a number of fields, including a name-length, name, type, and value-length, and value. Each record value is searched to determine if the contents matches criteria in the search request. The document summaries index file can be modified to add new indexable criteria in a scalable and efficient manner.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a computer implemented method is illustrated as including receiving selection data generated by a media player application, the selection data being related to digital content. Additionally, generating an instruction set that includes the selection data, the instruction set being formatted based upon a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schema. Inserting the instruction set into a query portion of a URI. A method is also illustrated as including receiving a URI associated with digital content, the URI containing an instruction set in a query portion of the URI. Parsing the instruction set to retrieve selection data relating to the digital content. Further, the method may include retrieving the digital content based upon the selection data. Moreover, the method may include generating a data stream including the digital content. Additionally, the method may include transmitting the data stream including the digital content.

Abstract: A method for creating a hidden text data index for ranking computerized query search results that includes generating a render tree based on a document object model (DOM) tree for a web page. The render tree includes nodes that correspond to text that will be visually displayed by a client device when executed. The method includes comparing nodes corresponding to text of the DOM tree with the nodes corresponding to text of the render tree to identify the nodes in the DOM tree that will not be visually displayed when executed by the client device. The method also includes creating a hidden text data index for the nodes corresponding to text of the DOM tree not in the render tree. The hidden text data index identifies nodes corresponding to text of the DOM tree as hidden that will not be visually displayed when executed by the client device.

Abstract: An online search result formatting system and method. The system receives the results of an online search conducted by a user. A view assignment module selects a view template from a plurality of predefined view templates. A content templating module formats the results per the chosen template. An image request system obtains an image representing each search result from the image generation, delivery, and management system. A content population module prepares the content with the results and images in accordance with the selected view template for ultimate display in the user's graphical user interface. The user may select from among the plurality of predefined view templates to alter the display accordingly.

Abstract: An extensible offer inventory database of offers in a domain is established. Further, an offer ontology is generated based on the extensible offer inventory database. The offer ontology provides an extensible vocabulary that correlates to categories in the offer inventory database. In addition, offers are automatically located. The offers are also semantically analyzed to generate semantic analysis data. Further, user data is obtained. In addition, an optimal offer match is automatically determined based upon the semantic analysis data and the user data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing advertisement on a mobile communication device is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a primary keyword and at least one secondary keyword are identified in a list or a body of text at the mobile communication device. A compound keyword is formed from the primary keyword and the at least one secondary keyword. At least one advertising resource link is associated with the formed compound keyword, and the formed compound keyword is visually distinguished.

Abstract: A method for migrating information, and a migrator for migrating information, are disclosed. The method may include extracting organizational information from at least two service providers, accessing a first at least one of the at least two service providers upon selection of a migration selection interface by the user, receiving of a first plurality of information related to the user from one of the service providers, accessing a second at least one of the at least two service providers, and writing the first plurality of information to the second at least one of the at least two service providers.

Abstract: Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for open-domain voice-enabled searching that is speaker sensitive. Techniques include using speech information, speaker information, and information associated with a spoken query to enhance open voice search results. This includes integrating a textual index with a voice index to support the entire search cycle. Given a voice query, the system can execute two matching processes simultaneously. This can include a text matching process based on the output of speech recognition, as well as a voice matching process based on characteristics of a caller or user voicing a query. Characteristics of the caller can include output of voice feature extraction and metadata about the call. The system clusters callers according to these characteristics. The system can use specific voice and text clusters to modify speech recognition results, as well as modifying search results.

Abstract: This invention relates to an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network. The machine receives, from a user, a search request including a search argument corresponding to the desired information and searches, based upon the received search argument, a first database having data network related information to generate search results. It also correlates the received search argument to a particular advertisement in a second database having advertisement related information. The search results together with the particular advertisement are provided by the machine to the user.

Abstract: Methods and systems for efficient query rewriting and the like are described here. One such described method comprises: offline mapping frequently-seen search queries to rewritten queries that may be better for searching; offline caching the mapping in a cache memory; and upon receiving a search query from a user similar to one of the mapped search queries, obtaining a corresponding rewritten query from the mapping in the cache memory based on predetermined conditions, and issuing a search of the rewritten query to the backend data system in order to avoid having to issue a search query to the backend data system twice while the user is online.

Abstract: Provided are a speech search device, the search speed of which is very fast, the search performance of which is also excellent, and which performs fuzzy search, and a speech search method. Not only the fuzzy search is performed, but also the distance between phoneme discrimination features included in speech data is calculated to determine the similarity with respect to the speech using both a suffix array and dynamic programming, and an object to be searched for is narrowed by means of search keyword division based on a phoneme and search thresholds relative to a plurality of the divided search keywords, the object to be searched for is repeatedly searched for while increasing the search thresholds in order, and whether or not there is the keyword division is determined according to the length of the search keywords, thereby implementing speech search, the search speed of which is very fast and the search performance of which is also excellent.

Abstract: A system that associates audio and/or video data with one or more calls for action, and manages, queries and displays the audio and video associated with a call for action based on defined or predefined criteria related to the audio and video data. The system selectively updates media files and Metadata from Meta tags, or Metadata feeds. The system spiders the Metadata or Metadata feeds for new Metadata to automate the submission and programming the audio and video data over a network. The system provides users with other call to action options including click to call, literature, order forms, and/or applications. The system optionally schedules audio and video media to target users by time of day, location, device, and other parameters to offer a call to action to different user audiences.

Abstract: A system for targeting advertising content includes the steps of: (a) receiving respective requests for advertising content corresponding to a plurality of mobile communication facilities operated by a group of users, wherein the plurality includes first and second types of mobile communication facilities with different rendering capabilities; (b) receiving a datum corresponding to the group; (c) selecting from a first and second sponsor respective content based on a relevancy to the datum, wherein each content includes a first and second item requiring respective rendering capabilities; (d) receiving bids from the first and second sponsors; (e) attributing a priority to the content of the first sponsor based upon a determination that a yield associated with the first sponsor is greater than a yield associated with the second sponsor; and (f) transmitting the first and second items of the first sponsor to the first and second types of mobile communication facilities respectively.

Abstract: The present invention utilizes an aggregator for searching, packaging and delivering content. The aggregator processes requests, searches, provides search results and acquires content. The aggregator, operating in a communications network, includes a request and results processing server, a search engine server coupled to the request and results processing server and a content acquisition server coupled to the request and results processing server. A request and results processing server receives a request for content, the search engine server searches for the content and the content acquisition program acquires content for delivery to the user. The request and results processing server includes a search request processor that receives information related to a user's search request and provides the information to a search results form builder that creates an electronic search request.

Abstract: A mobile device, system, and method are directed towards managing social networking information by employing a reverse matching search to identify those members of the social network that may have another person's identifier in their contact lists. The person may initially visit the social network site and provide an identifier either automatically or through a directed action by the person. A reverse search may be performed on members' contact lists to determine which contact lists include the identifier. If a match is found in a member's contact list, selected information about that member may be provided to the person. The reverse matching search may also be performed at various subsequent times to provide members information about new members to the social network.

Abstract: A system for targeting advertising content includes the steps of: (a) receiving respective requests for advertising content corresponding to a plurality of mobile communication facilities operated by a group of users, wherein the plurality includes first and second types of mobile communication facilities with different rendering capabilities; (b) receiving a datum corresponding to the group; (c) selecting from a first and second sponsor respective content based on a relevancy to the datum, wherein each content includes a first and second item requiring respective rendering capabilities; (d) receiving bids from the first and second sponsors; (e) attributing a priority to the content of the first sponsor based upon a determination that a yield associated with the first sponsor is greater than a yield associated with the second sponsor; and (f) transmitting the first and second items of the first sponsor to the first and second types of mobile communication facilities respectively.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program for generating and exploiting an approximate language model are provided. The method comprises generating a language model according to an approximate hashing technique. The language model comprises a plurality of event sequences in a target language, and each member of the plurality of the event sequences is associated with at least one count. The language model is queried for a member of the plurality of event sequences. A probability associated with the member of the plurality of event sequences is determined based on results of the query.

Abstract: System and method for storing a dataset of image tiles.

Abstract: Method, system, and programs for presenting query results are disclosed. An input is received from a user related to a search query. A first set of query results and a second set of query results are then obtained based on the search query. A query intent is detected based on the search query. A first presentation style associated with the detected query intent is determined for the first set of query results. The first and second sets of query results are provided to the user. The first set of query results are presented in the first presentation style.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for determining the emotional content of an electronic correspondence to route or prioritize the information, to set the expectations of a customer support worker, to flag those workers who are using inappropriate language with the customer, or to determine another best course to send the correspondence. In a preferred embodiment, a customer sends an electronic correspondence to a company via email. Emotionally charged words or symbols in each sentence are detected. The message is then given an emotional ranking which is used to determine what future action is most appropriate for the correspondence.

Abstract: A user interest pattern modeling server includes a history collection unit, a keyword extraction unit, a time pattern extraction unit, a keyword extension unit, a time pattern analysis unit and a pattern modeling unit. The history collection unit collects a user's use history of a content. The keyword extraction unit extracts a keyword from the use history of the content. The time pattern extraction unit extracts a first time pattern of the keyword. The keyword extension unit extracts an extended keyword through searching related words of the keyword. The time pattern analysis unit analyzes a second time pattern of the extended keyword based on the first time pattern. The pattern modeling unit models a user interest pattern for the keyword and the extended keyword based on the first and second time patterns.

Abstract: An affinity server estimates an affinity between two different time based media events (e.g., TV, radio, social media content stream), between a time based media event and a specific topic, or between two different topics, where the affinity score represents an intersection between the populations of social media users who have authored social media content items regarding the two different events and/or topics. The affinity score represents an estimation of the real world affinity between the real world population of people who have an interest in both time based media events, both topics, or in a time based media event and a topic. One possible threshold for including a social media user in a population may be based on a confidence score that indicates the confidence that one or more social media content items authored by the social media user are relevant to the topic or event in question.

Abstract: Displaying relevant data subsets of at least one data collection includes providing an input data subset, determining a plurality of partial relevance values for different characteristics of each of the plurality of data subsets of the at least one data collection with respect to the input data subset according to a term frequency of terms in the input data subset and term in each of the plurality of data subsets of the at least one data collection and according to an inverse document frequency of the terms, determining a relevance of each of the plurality of data subsets of the at least one data collection based on the partial relevance values of the different characteristics, and displaying at least a portion of the data subsets of the at least one data collection in order of relevance.

Abstract: An input handler may receive natural language input associated with a command from a user through a user interface, and a language parser may parse the natural language input to determine parsed natural language input. A context monitor may receive context information associated with the user, and a context parser may parse the context information to obtain parsed context information associated with the natural language input and with the command. A command interpreter may interpret the parsed natural language input, using the parsed context information, to thereby determine the command.

Abstract: In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for dynamically suggesting answers to questions submitted to a portal of an online service. These mechanisms and methods for dynamically suggesting answers to questions submitted to a portal of an online service can enable embodiments to provide help document suggestions with limited user input. The ability of embodiments to provide help document search term suggestions with limited user input can enable users to quickly and efficiently find useful help documents.

Abstract: There are provided methods and systems to retrieve search result information and digital content. The system receives input information identifying a plurality of data sources from which to retrieve digital content. Next the system retrieves search result information, over the network, from the plurality of data sources based on the input information. Next the system retrieves the digital content, over the network, from at least one of the data sources based on the search result information. Finally, the system communicates digital content to a client machine.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for presenting video as at least a portion of the background of search engine home pages are provided. Upon receiving a request for presentation of a search engine home page, a static image is transmitted for presentation as at least a portion of the background for the search engine home page. Also transmitted is a streaming video file. The static image may or may not be associated with the streaming video file. After a predetermined amount of time, play of the streaming video file is initiated without user action, the streaming video file replacing the static image as at least a portion of the background of the search engine home page. In this way, the user receives a seamless transition from a static image to a video presentation and is provided a rich, immersive experience at the search engine home page.

Abstract: The Travel Star Online Web Portal Application is a new concept through design and functionality that allows any mobile or PC user by I Phone, internet connection or any other mobile or PC device without any specific software to gain access to the portal and find existing applications for the user to access through the portal instead of searching the internet for one specific application.

Abstract: A data repository includes information for multiple data systems, which can each control data in this and a number of other domains. A business process can be launched by one of the data systems to update the target data and any related data in the repository or any other related repository. Any request to update data is intercepted and the business process can launch workflows and apply policies as needed to process the request. Workflows can be associated with the fields being updated or process being executed, such that any update to the target data is also accurately reflected in any other related system. Further, launching a workflow allows processes to be run before the data is updated, such that the data can be modified, added to, rejected, or otherwise processed before being added to the appropriate repositories.

Abstract: System and method is provided to improve searching on the Internet or similar networks and especially improved MetaNews and/or improved automatically generated newspaper. The present invention solves the problem by creating recursive clustering, so that preferably at any level in the tree the user can preferably either choose a specific news item from the cluster or from the shown sub-clusters or continue in the tree. Another improvement is that searching the Meta News by keywords can generate an automatic newspaper in a way similar to the original automatically generated newspaper. Many additional improvements to the concept of automated newspapers and/or news MetaSearch are also shown. Other improvements are suggested for improved shareware MetaSearch, improved Web pages search, and other types of searches.

Abstract: A method (300 or 400) of key press prediction on a touch-based device or an apparatus (501) can entail registering (302, 402) a position of a touch press attempt on an icon among a plurality of icons presented on the touch-base device, calculating (304, 404) a distance from a center of the icon, calculating (306, 406) a psychomotor probability for each icon in the plurality of icons, calculating (312, 408) a linguistic probability for each icon in the plurality of icons, calculating (314, 410) a predictive index for each icon in the plurality of icons based on the psychomotor probability and the linguistic probability, and registering (310,416) as a user selected icon, an icon with one among a highest predictive index (316, 412) or a probability higher than a predetermined absolute value (308).

Abstract: In one embodiment, one or more computing devices determine a confidence score between a user node and a concept node of a social graph based on similarity numbers associated with edges between the user node and the concept node in one or more hops between them on the social graph.

Abstract: The ownership or control of a website is verified. In one implementation this includes providing a verification identifier and determining whether the verification identifier appears in a first resource or a first location. Enhanced search engine services are provided after verifying ownership or control of the website. Examples of enhanced services includes providing analytics associated with the website; providing an electronic shopping cart or checkout mechanism associated with the website; providing a financial status indicator associated with the website; providing a custom search engine associated with the website; and providing a custom toolbar associated with the website.

Abstract: A system and method for searching content. The method comprises receiving from a first user metadata relating to generating a guide for content. A guide is generated relating to the content. The guide facilitates navigation of the content on a device. The metadata is forwarded to a metadata analyzer where the metadata is processed to produce processed metadata. The processed metadata is forwarded to an index server. An index is generated for the content based on the metadata at the index server. A query is received from a second user, the index is searched and a result is forwarded to the second user in response to the query. The result includes at least a uniform resource identifier relating to at least some of content. The second user may add additional metadata relating to the content.

Abstract: Searching for documents using different sources includes receiving a search statement containing information for the documents, and determining a search strategy based on the search statement. The search strategy includes first and second search activities for searching first and second sources, respectively, where the first and second search activities are weighted. The first and second sources are searched using the first and second search activities, respectively, where an order in which the first and second search activities are performed is dictated by weightings of the first and second search activities.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides user-interface methods and systems for submitting search requests to search engines and presenting search results therefrom customized using content preferences learned about a user, comprising sending query information to at least two search engines, including a query identifying desired content, and user information, including context information describing the environment in which the query information is being sent, and a user signature representing content preferences learned about the user; receiving at least one set of a search result and auxiliary information from the at least one search engine in response to sending the query information, including information describing attributes of the search result that led to the search result being chosen by the at least one search engine; ordering the at least one search result based at least in part on the auxiliary information; and presenting the ordered search results to the user.

Abstract: Method/system for visualizing biological information. The system receives a user query relating to biological information and determines which database contains related biological information. A database query is sent to the database and the result indicates biological/chemical entities and relations. A network is created based on the result; biological/chemical entities are mapped to network nodes and relations to network connections. A distance matrix indicates a multi-dimensional distance for several pairs of network nodes. A dimensionality reduction function is adjusted based on a research context, to bias the search toward a relevant focus. The number of dimensions in the distance matrix is lowered by the dimensionality reduction function. Neighbors of a selected node are searched (2-18) based on the distance matrix to elucidate a biological role of the selected node. A re-created network is visualized (2-20) based on the adjusted dimensionality reduction function.

Abstract: Consumer data that is submitted through a company's website is tagged and then monitored to assure that the consumer data is not used for unauthorized purposes. A filtering program is capable of identifying pre-authorized users and routing the consumer data only to those pre-authorized users. A banner logo or seal is used to identify websites that comply with pre-determined standards for maintaining the security and privacy of website submissions. The banner logo or seal is automatically removed from a company's website for the failure of the company to maintain compliance with security and privacy standards of consumer data.

Abstract: User-submitted content (e.g., stories) may be associated with descriptive metadata (intersection metadata), such as a timeframe, location, tags, and so on. Story content is presented in a virtual space, such as a forum, chatroom, or the like. Users submit collaborative content as the story is presented in the virtual space. The collaborative content is synchronized to presentation of the story. An author may replay the presentation and synchronized collaborative content and/or select portions of the collaborative content for inclusion in the story.

Abstract: A first apparatus, which does not mount any metadata generation unit generating metadata used to specify image data from the image data, and a second apparatus, which mounts the metadata generation unit, are connected via a network in the image processing system. The first apparatus stores image data. The first apparatus requests the second apparatus to generate metadata associated with the stored image data, and the metadata generation unit mounted in the second apparatus generates metadata. The first apparatus requests the second apparatus to retrieve image data using the generated metadata, and a retrieval unit mounted in the second apparatus executes a high-level retrieval.

Abstract: A system receives a request from a client relating to an account associated with the client, and values associated with a set of parameters relating to the request. The system matches the values to a structure that includes cases of the set of parameters to determine one or more cases similar to the values associated with the set of parameters. The system accesses information for the account based on routing information corresponding to the determined one or more similar cases.