Abstract: A method includes accessing a document and generating a ranking score for each of a plurality of passages from external documents. The ranking score is based at least on a degree of semantic similarity of each passage with respect to a portion of the document. The method also includes modifying the document to include a footnote link for the portion of the document, the footnote link including a link to the external document having the highest ranked passage therein, if the ranking score of the highest ranked passage with respect to the portion of the document exceeds a threshold value. The document is not modified to include the footnote link for the portion of the document if the ranking score of the highest ranked passage with respect to the portion of the document does not exceed a threshold value.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for suggesting alternative query phrases based on query search results. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a search result for a query, the search result comprising a link to a resource, the resource including text, analyzing the text of the resource to identify a suggested query phrase in the text of the resource using a computed similarity measure, the similarity measure being a measure of similarity between the query and the suggested query phrase, the suggested query phrase being a phrase in the resource determined to be similar to the query and not identical to the query, and providing the search result, the suggested query phrase, and a user interface object for presentation to a user, the suggested query phrase and the user interface object provided in context in a section of contiguous text from the resource.

Abstract: Subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, computer program products and systems relating to speech-to-text conversion. A first spoken input is received from a user of an electronic device (an “original utterance”). Based on the original utterance, a first set of character string candidates are determined that each represent the original utterance converted to textual characters and a selection of one or more of the character string candidates are provided in a format for display to the user. A second spoken input is received from the user and a determination is made that the second spoken input is a repeat utterance of the original utterance. Based on this determination and using the original utterance and the repeat utterance, a second set of character string candidates is determined.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for retrieving documents. One of the methods includes receiving a search query that includes a first query term and an adjacent, second query term, and a substitute term for the first query term. A determination is made that the first query term and the substitute term satisfy one or more predetermined criteria and that a resource does not include the first query term. The resource is selected to be scored only if the substitute term occurs adjacent to the second term in the resource.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatuses, including computer program products, are provided for machine translation using information retrieval techniques. In general, in one implementation, a method is provided. The method includes providing a received input segment as a query to a search engine, the search engine searching an index of one or more collections of documents, receiving one or more candidate segments in response to the query, determining a similarity of each candidate segment to the received input segment, and for one or more candidate segments having a determined similarity that exceeds a threshold similarity, providing a translated target segment corresponding to the respective candidate segment.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying and scoring restricted-locality synonyms. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a search query including a query term and a synonym for the query term. The synonym is evaluated using one or more predetermined criteria and based on the evaluation is designated as a restricted-locality synonym. A first scoring model is selected that specifies how to score occurrences of restricted-locality synonyms in documents. A document is received that is identified as being responsive to the search query. A document score for the document is determined using the first scoring model.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatuses, including computer program products, are provided for machine translation using information retrieval techniques. In general, in one implementation, a method is provided. The method includes providing a received input segment as a query to a search engine, the search engine searching an index of one or more collections of documents, receiving one or more candidate segments in response to the query, determining a similarity of each candidate segment to the received input segment, and for one or more candidate segments having a determined similarity that exceeds a threshold similarity, providing a translated target segment corresponding to the respective candidate segment.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying and scoring restricted-locality synonyms. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a search query including a query term and a synonym for the query term. The synonym is evaluated using one or more predetermined criteria and based on the evaluation is designated as a restricted-locality synonym. A first scoring model is selected that specifies how to score occurrences of restricted-locality synonyms in documents. A document is received that is identified as being responsive to the search query. A document score for the document is determined using the first scoring model.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for suggesting alternative queries based on original query search results. In one aspect, a method includes receiving search results for a first query, where each search result refers to a respective resource and includes a snippet of content from the respective resource, receiving one or more suggested second queries, for each of the suggested second queries: selecting a set of words in one of the snippets to represent the suggested second query, associating the suggested second query with the set so that a user can interact with a word in the set to invoke the suggested second query, and marking the set so as to indicate that the user can interact with a word in the set to invoke the suggested second query, and transmitting the search results including each marked set to a client device for presentation to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for suggesting alternative queries based on original query search results. In one aspect, a method includes receiving search results for a first query, where each search result refers to a respective resource and includes a snippet of content from the respective resource, receiving one or more suggested second queries, for each of the suggested second queries: selecting a set of words in one of the snippets to represent the suggested second query, associating the suggested second query with the set so that a user can interact with a word in the set to invoke the suggested second query, and marking the set so as to indicate that the user can interact with a word in the set to invoke the suggested second query, and transmitting the search results including each marked set to a client device for presentation to the user.

Abstract: Various aspects can be implemented for providing parallel resources in search results. In general, one aspect can be a method that includes receiving a search query in a first language. The method also includes generating a search result based on the search query, the search result including a location reference to an identified resource in the first language. The method further includes identifying a parallel resource in a second language, the parallel resource including one or both of a high-quality translation of the identified resource, and an original resource originating in the second language on a similar topic as the identified resource. Other implementations of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.

Abstract: A system that detects incorrectly translated text in a document. During operation, the system determines a target language for the document. The system then identifies one or more terms in the document that are invalid terms for the language. Next, the system analyzes correlations between these invalid terms, and, based on these correlations, determines whether one or more of the invalid terms comprise incorrectly translated text.

Abstract: Various aspects can be implemented for providing parallel resources in search results. In general, one aspect can be a method that includes receiving a search query in a first language. The method also includes generating a search result based on the search query, the search result including a location reference to an identified resource in the first language. The method further includes identifying a parallel resource in a second language, the parallel resource including one or both of a high-quality translation of the identified resource, and an original resource originating in the second language on a similar topic as the identified resource. Other implementations of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.