Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for providing alternative query suggestions. For example, a spoken natural language expression may be received and converted to a textual query by a speech recognition component. The spoken natural language expression may include one or more words, terms, and/or phrases. A phonetically confusable segment of the textual query may be identified by a classifier component. The classifier component may determine at least one alternative query based on identifying at least the phonetically confusable segment of the textual query. The classifier may further determine whether to suggest the at least one alternative query based on whether the at least one alternative query is sensical and/or useful. When it is determined to suggest the at least one alternative query, the at least one alternative query may be provided to and displayed on a user interface display.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for providing alternative query suggestions. For example, a spoken natural language expression may be received and converted to a textual query by a speech recognition component. The spoken natural language expression may include one or more words, terms, and/or phrases. A phonetically confusable segment of the textual query may be identified by a classifier component. The classifier component may determine at least one alternative query based on identifying at least the phonetically confusable segment of the textual query. The classifier may further determine whether to suggest the at least one alternative query based on whether the at least one alternative query is sensical and/or useful. When it is determined to suggest the at least one alternative query, the at least one alternative query may be provided to and displayed on a user interface display.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for detecting entity information contained within search results. The detected entity information can be used to determine a category of entity as well as a specific entity within the search results. Entity information can be extracted from the documents associated with the search results. This information can be used as part of the information for an entity card, which can be displayed to a user in conjunction with and/or in place of the search results.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for detecting entity information contained within search results. The detected entity information can be used to determine a category of entity as well as a specific entity within the search results. Entity information can be extracted from the documents associated with the search results. This information can be used as part of the information for an entity card, which can be displayed to a user in conjunction with and/or in place of the search results.

Abstract: Methods are provided for re-ranking documents based on user-specific features. Search results are received from a non-contextual ranking system such that the search results are not specific toward a particular user, such as the user who submitted the search query. Contextual signals are received and provide user-specific features that are used to re-rank documents so that the most important and relevant documents are listed at the top of the list of search results. Each of the user-specific features are evaluated and compared to determine a new position of each document. A set of contextual search results is then generated based on the new positions.

Abstract: Methods and computer-readable media are provided for interleaving multiple sets of blended search results to identify a preferred set of blended search results for a search query or for a category of search queries. A search query is received and routed to multiple ranking systems, which return search results that are blended into sets of blended search results. Interleaving experiments are performed to determined, based on user preferences, which set of blended search results are preferred for that particular search query. Based on the outcome, a preferred blending algorithm is identified.

Abstract: Inferring query intent in information retrieval is described. In an example reformulations of an initial query by a user are used to create a query neighborhood. In the example, the query neighborhood is used to identify a set of possibly related queries. First and higher order reformulations of the initial query may be used to expand the query neighborhood. In an example precision can be improved by reducing the query neighborhood to more closely related queries for example, two queries can be connected if they are often clicked for the same document. In an example two queries can be connected using a random walk and all pairs of queries that are not connected by a random walk of less than a fixed threshold are removed. The connected queries can be used to form clusters and weights can be applied in order to determine the most likely related queries.

Abstract: Methods are provided for re-ranking documents based on user-specific features. Search results are received from a non-contextual ranking system such that the search results are not specific toward a particular user, such as the user who submitted the search query. Contextual signals are received and provide user-specific features that are used to re-rank documents so that the most important and relevant documents are listed at the top of the list of search results. Each of the user-specific features are evaluated and compared to determine a new position of each document. A set of contextual search results is then generated based on the new positions.

Abstract: Methods and computer-readable media are provided for improving the efficiency of the interleaving process. Once it is determined that a search query is to be used in an interleaving experiment, a primary ranking system and a secondary ranking system are analyzed to determine whether their respective search results for that search query would be identical. If the search results would be identical, the search query is routed only to the primary ranking system and not the secondary ranking system. If, however, it is determined that the search results would not be identical, both the primary ranking system and the secondary ranking system receive the search query for processing.

Abstract: Methods and computer-readable media are provided for improving the efficiency of the interleaving process. Once it is determined that a search query is to be used in an interleaving experiment, a primary ranking system and a secondary ranking system are analyzed to determine whether their respective search results for that search query would be identical. If the search results would be identical, the search query is routed only to the primary ranking system and not the secondary ranking system. If, however, it is determined that the search results would not be identical, both the primary ranking system and the secondary ranking system receive the search query for processing.

Abstract: Methods and computer-readable media are provided for interleaving multiple sets of blended search results to identify a preferred set of blended search results for a search query or for a category of search queries. A search query is received and routed to multiple ranking systems, which return search results that are blended into sets of blended search results. Interleaving experiments are performed to determined, based on user preferences, which set of blended search results are preferred for that particular search query. Based on the outcome, a preferred blending algorithm is identified.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for detecting entity information contained within search results. The detected entity information can be used to determine a category of entity as well as a specific entity within the search results. Entity information can be extracted from the documents associated with the search results. This information can be used as part of the information for an entity card, which can be displayed to a user in conjunction with and/or in place of the search results.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for detecting entity information contained within search results. The detected entity information can be used to determine a category of entity as well as a specific entity within the search results. The entity information can be used to alter the style and/or format of the presented results based the detected entity category.

Abstract: Inferring query intent in information retrieval is described. In an example reformulations of an initial query by a user are used to create a query neighborhood. In the example, the query neighborhood is used to identify a set of possibly related queries. First and higher order reformulations of the initial query may be used to expand the query neighborhood. In an example precision can be improved by reducing the query neighborhood to more closely related queries for example, two queries can be connected if they are often clicked for the same document. In an example two queries can be connected using a random walk and all pairs of queries that are not connected by a random walk of less than a fixed threshold are removed. The connected queries can be used to form clusters and weights can be applied in order to determine the most likely related queries.

Abstract: A system and method for formulating a related content query are provided. A search engine receives queries having terms for content items and stores the queries and user interaction data in a query log. Also, the search engine provides a collection of content items and related content item queries for each content item within the collection of content items, in response the queries. Each content item in the collection of content items includes terms that match the received queries. The related content item queries are generated by an advisor engine that processes the query log and each content item in the collection of content items to select query terms, different from the received query terms, which previously resulted in a specified content item being accessed or selected.

Abstract: A system and method for formulating a related content query are provided. A search engine receives queries having terms for content items and stores the queries and user interaction data in a query log. Also, the search engine provides a collection of content items and related content item queries for each content item within the collection of content items, in response the queries. Each content item in the collection of content items includes terms that match the received queries. The related content item queries are generated by an advisor engine that processes the query log and each content item in the collection of content items to select query terms, different from the received query terms, which previously resulted in a specified content item being accessed or selected.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer-readable media are disclosed for providing images in a ranked order. The system can include an aggregation component for aggregating a plurality of images with corresponding text. Additionally, the system can include a name detector a name detector for detecting names within a search query. Moreover, the system can include a ranking component for ranking the aggregated images based on whether the name detector detects a name.