Abstract: A method for information retrieval with unified search between heterogeneous objects includes indexing a first object as a document in a search index; referencing a second object related to the first object in a facet of the document; and storing a relationship strength between the first and second objects in the facet of the document in the search index. Multiple heterogeneous objects can be related to the first object and referenced in multiple facets of the document, each with its relationship strength to the first object. Scoring an indirect object by indirect relation to a query object can be carried out by aggregating the relationship strengths between the indirect object and the retrieved objects multiplied by the retrieved objects' direct scores of relationship strength to the query object.

Abstract: A method for gathering and recording temporal information for a linked entity, the method including identifying a link related activity within a linked source entity, and recording a time stamp in association with the link related activity.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for detection of authors across different types of information sources such as across documents on the Web. The method includes obtaining a compression signature for a document, and determining the similarity between compression signatures of two or more documents. If the similarity is greater than a threshold measure, the two or more documents are considered to be by the same author. Scored pairs of documents are clustered to provide a group of documents by the same author. The group of documents by the same author can be used for user profiling, noise reduction, contribution sizing, detecting fraudulent contributions, obtaining other search results by the same author, or mating a document with undisclosed authorship to a document of known author.

Abstract: Information retrieval with unified search between heterogeneous objects is described. The method includes: indexing a first object as a document in a search index; referencing a second object related to the first object in a facet of the document; and storing a relationship strength between the first and second objects in the facet of the document in the search index. Multiple heterogeneous objects can be related to the first object and referenced in multiple facets of the document, each with its relationship strength to the first object. Scoring an indirect object by indirect relation to a query object can be carried out by aggregating the relationship strengths between the indirect object and the retrieved objects multiplied by the retrieved objects' direct scores of relationship strength to the query object.

Abstract: A dynamic index may list physical items in the changing vicinity of a user or a generator of the index. The vicinity may be within the same space as the user or the generator, such as a store, a library, a shelf, an aisle, within a given radius, a street, a city, a campus, a building, an area and a park. The index may store information about the physical items near the user or generator, such as content found on tags associated with the physical items. The content might be a description of the physical items and their locations. The present invention also includes a system and method to generate such a dynamic index.

Abstract: A method for evaluating a media stream, the method includes: calculating, for each user out of multiple users and in response to media stream commands generated by the user, a user viewing value; wherein the user viewing value represents a relative part of the media stream viewed by the user; and determining an interest value of the media stream in response to user viewing values of each of the multiple users.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for detection of authors across different types of information sources such as across documents on the Web. The method includes obtaining a compression signature (303) for a document, and determining the similarity (304) between compression signatures of two or more documents. If the similarity is greater than a threshold measure (305), the two or more documents are considered to be by the same author. Scored pairs of documents are clustered (308) to provide a group of documents by the same author. The group of documents by the same author can be used for user profiling, noise reduction, contribution sizing, detecting fraudulent contributions, obtaining other search results by the same author, or mating a document with undisclosed authorship to a document of known author.

Abstract: A system for monitoring search performance and user interaction is provided in the form of a utility (300) including a plurality of monitoring components (302), each for dynamic monitoring of an aspect of searching a collection of documents. An analyzer module (303) analyzes the dynamic monitoring and identifies problems or difficulties in the search performance or user interactions. An output (301), which may be in the form of a display interface, provides information regarding the search performance and user interaction including one or more of: reasoning, improvement suggestions, reports, and problem alerts. The analyzer module (302) compares the dynamic monitoring to benchmark search engine conduct and document collection state.

Abstract: A method for document annotation includes providing a contextual framework extending over multiple electronic documents. Annotations are input to a computer by a user with respect to two or more of the documents, while the user views the documents on a computer screen. Each of the annotations is stored together with respective context information in a memory of the computer, the context information including multiple fields defined by the framework. The annotations are sorted with respect to the two or more documents according to one or more of the multiple fields of the respective context information, and the sorted annotations are output for viewing by the user.

Abstract: A method for extracting information from a corpus of data includes specifying a topic and a query term associated with the topic, and defining adjunct terms which may occur in the corpus in a context of the query term, the adjunct terms comprising one or more off-topic terms. Occurrences of the query term are found in the corpus, the occurrences including at least one occurrence of the query term together with at least one of the off-topic terms in the context of the query term. The at least one occurrence of the query term is classified as non-relevant to the topic responsively to the occurrence of the at least one of the off-topic terms in the context of the query term.

Abstract: A method and system for assessing the quality of one or more search engines are provided. The method and system monitor reformulation sessions by users (201) of a search engine (308, 402, 403) by retrieving data from a query log (307, 407, 408), wherein a reformulation session is a series of at least two queries to a search engine (308) issued by a user (201) to satisfy a single information need. The method and system then determine a reformulation session parameter for the search engine (308, 402, 403) and analyse the reformulation session parameter. The reformulation session parameter may be a rate of query reformulations in a reformulation session or a reformulation session duration. Analysing the reformulation session parameter for a single search engine may determine if the parameter changes with time or may determine the parameter with different settings in a single search engine.

Abstract: A method includes finding content-rich text in a document by identifying areas of narrative in the document. An apparatus includes a detector and a content-rich text indicator. The detector detects linguistic parameters which characterize narrative text in an input document and the content-rich text indicator provides the locations of narrative text in the input document.

Abstract: A method and system for determining the focus of a document are provided. Candidate topics in the form of topic nodes in a hierarchy of topics are input into a focus determining algorithm. For each candidate topic node, a score is allocated to the topic of each level of the hierarchy of the topic node , the scores for each topic are summed and one or more topics are determined to be the focus of the document based on the scores. The scores allocated to the topic of each parent level of the hierarchy of the topic node are progressively lower for the topic of each parent level of the hierarchy. The candidate topics may be provided by identifying occurrences of references to a topic in a document, providing a plurality of possible topics in the form of topic nodes in a hierarchy of topics, and, for each identified occurrence of a reference to a topic, determining the appropriate topic node and adding the topic node to the candidate topics.

Abstract: A search system includes a search engine to search through an index of documents and an index enhancer to enhance the index with at least some user queries. The index may include a listing of terms found in documents to be indexed and at least in user queries used to find said documents and a listing at least of how frequently such terms occurred in the documents and user queries.

Abstract: A dynamic index may list physical items in the changing vicinity of a user or a generator of the index. The vicinity may be within the same space as the user or the generator, such as a store, a library, a shelf, an aisle, within a given radius, a street, a city, a campus, a building, an area and a park. The index may store information about the physical items near the user or generator, such as content found on tags associated with the physical items. The content might be a description of the physical items and their locations. The present invention also includes a system and method to generate such a dynamic index.

Abstract: A method for extracting information from a corpus of data includes specifying a topic and a query term associated with the topic, and defining adjunct terms which may occur in the corpus in a context of the query term, the adjunct terms comprising one or more off-topic terms. Occurrences of the query term are found in the corpus, the occurrences including at least one occurrence of the query term together with at least one of the off-topic terms in the context of the query term. The at least one occurrence of the query term is classified as non-relevant to the topic responsively to the occurrence of the at least one of the off-topic terms in the context of the query term.

Abstract: A method for document annotation includes providing a contextual framework extending over multiple electronic documents. Annotations are input to a computer by a user with respect to two or more of the documents, while the user views the documents on a computer screen. Each of the annotations is stored together with respective context information in a memory of the computer, the context information including multiple fields defined by the framework. The annotations are sorted with respect to the two or more documents according to one or more of the multiple fields of the respective context information, and the sorted annotations are output for viewing by the user.

Abstract: A method for gathering and recording temporal information for a linked entity, the method including identifying a link related activity within a linked source entity, and recording a time stamp in association with the link related activity.