Abstract: A system and method are directed towards a free-form search query of user reviews using user profile, location information, and/or social networks, to obtain a result having an associated universal aggregated rating. The user may enter in free-form a search query that may then be transparently modified using the user's profile, social network, and/or current physical location. The search results may then be presented to the user along with aggregated weighted ratings. The user may also enter products and/or services into a data store, including comments, and a universal rating. In one embodiment, the user may provide a tag to another reviewer's comments that may be useable to aggregate ratings. In one embodiment, the user's profile, location, and/or social networking information may be used to further annotate the user's inputs.

Abstract: Exemplary methods and apparatuses are provided which may be used to provide or otherwise support segment sensitive query matching based on segmented portions of web pages and/or providing related information for use in information extraction and/or information retrieval systems.

Abstract: A sponsor-based advertising apparatus and method using an extracted affect is provided. The advertising apparatus may extract an affect from received data, and select an advertisement to be inserted based on the affect of the received data and whether a sponsor corresponding to a keyword. The advertising apparatus may select an advertisement based on location information as well as the affect and the sponsor.

Abstract: A search engine determines a set of other images that are similar to a user-selected image, and presents those other images to the user. In determining whether two images are sufficiently similar to each other to merit presentation of one, the search engine determines a Euclidean distance between separate feature vectors that are associated with each of the images. Each such vector indicates diverse types of information that is known about the associated image. The types of information included within such a vector may include attributes that reflect visual characteristics that are visible in an image, verbal tags that have been associated with the image users in a community of users, concepts derived from those tags, coordinates that reflect a geographic location at which a camera that produced the image was when the camera produced the image, and concepts related to groups with which the image is associated.

Abstract: Even when the operation of web page referencing or search is discontinuous and implicit, relativity between web pages is extracted. A web relativity extraction unit is executed as a program by the processing unit of a recommendation server. The web relativity extraction unit extracts relativity between web pages about a search term related to the web pages. Further, it considers a user's information search model based on the process of accessing between web pages and quantitatively evaluates a relativity degree indicating the intensity of relativity and thereby extracts relativity between the web pages.

Abstract: A system and method for generating text data from graphical image information of a first data form and passing the generated text data to another data form is disclosed. The system comprises a computer-based platform configured to obtain search criteria data from a current data form of interest and search an operating system of the computer-based platform for at least one other data form having first data that match the search criteria data to identify any matching data forms. The computer-based platform is further configured to perform an image capture operation on at least one predefined area of any matching data forms to form at least one captured image. An optical character reading operation is performed on the at least one captured image to generate at least one instance of second data and the at least one instance of second data is passed to the current data form of interest.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for managing access to an abstract database are provided. The abstract database may include a data abstraction model comprising a plurality of logical field definitions, each of the definitions comprising a logical field name, and an access method maps the logical field to a physical data field. Collectively, the physical data fields provide an indirection layer logically disposed between the data abstraction model and the underlying physical database. By providing this layer of indirection using the physical data fields, a number of enhancements to the data abstraction model may be provided. This includes providing enhancements to the security, administration, and usability of an abstract database.

Abstract: Techniques are described for logically comparing strategies. In one aspect the strategies can be compared by receiving a request to compare a first strategy to a second strategy, the first strategy graphically represented by a first set of linked nodes, the second strategy graphically represented by a second set of linked nodes, each set of linked nodes linking a root node to at least one action node; identifying a subset of linked nodes from at least one of the first set of linked nodes and the second set of linked nodes based on an equivalence of a first subset of the first set of linked nodes to a second subset of the second set of linked nodes; and, providing a visual depiction of the identified subset of the linked nodes to a user, the visual depiction corresponding to the equivalence of the first subset to the second subset.

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: Multi-dimensional models are discriminated, or distinguished, based on difference distribution histograms. One or more models having multiple attributes are received. Each model includes at least one non-spatial attribute, such as a physical, chemical, and/or dynamic attribute. A sampling function is selected and applied to the received models to generate difference distribution histograms that represent the models. Once multiple difference distribution histograms have been generated, two or more histograms are compared by applying a distribution test function to the histograms. Based on the comparison, the similarity of the models represented by the histograms may be determined.

Abstract: A query-centric system and process for distributing reverse indices for a distributed content system. Relevance ranking techniques in organizing distributed system indices. Query-centric configuration subprocesses (1) analyze query data, partitioning terms for reverse index server(s) (RIS), (2) distribute each partitioned data set by generally localizing search terms for the RIS that have some query-centric correlation, and (3) generate and maintain a map for the partitioned reverse index system terms by mapping the terms for the reverse index to a plurality of different index server nodes. Indexing subprocess element builds distributed reverse indices from content host indices. Routines of the query execution use the map derived in the configuration to more efficiently return more relevant search results to the searcher.

Abstract: A text summarizer identifies relevant terms in a document, weights the terms and extracts one or more segments to produce a summary or abstract. The various terms in a particular are weighted in relation to an existing document collection. A term weight computer computes term weights for terms in the document, and a threshold comparator compares the term weights to determine if the corresponding terms are relevant to the document collection. Next, a term weight summer adds the term weights for each occurrence of each relevant term in the various segments of the document, and a summation comparator compares the summations to identify a text summarization segment representative of the document. Optionally, relevant terms can be highlighted in the term summarization segment.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for selectively determining privacy guarantees. For example, a first class of data may be guaranteed a first level of privacy, while other data classes are only guaranteed some lesser level of privacy. An amount of privacy is guaranteed by adding noise values to database query outputs. Noise distributions can be tailored to be appropriate for the particular data in a given database by calculating a “diameter” of the data. When the distribution is based on the diameter of a first class of data, and the diameter measurement does not account for additional data in the database, the result is that query outputs leak information about the additional data.

Abstract: Functionality is described for identifying a discussion topic based on user interest information. The user interest information may originate from one or more sources, such as the user's search-related behavior. The functionality then provides an opportunity for the user to engage in a communication exchange associated with the identified discussion topic.

Abstract: A method for non-text-based identification of a selected item of stored music. The first broad portion of the method focuses on building a music identification database. That process requires capturing a tag of the selected musical item, and processing the tag to develop reference key to the same. Then the tag is stored, together with the reference key and an association to the stored music. The database is built by collecting a multiplicity of tags. The second broad portion of the method is retrieving a desired item of stored music from the database. That process calls for capturing a query tag from a user, and processing the query tag to develop a query key to the same. The query tag is compared to reference keys stored in the database to identify the desired item of stored music.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for image matching. The method includes receiving a query image at a query-server. Further, the method includes, sending a request to one or more image-matching servers of a set of distributed image-matching servers to conduct an image-search corresponding to the query image. Furthermore, the method includes receiving at the query-server, a list of identified matches from the image-matching servers corresponding to the query image, wherein the list of matches is identified based on the image-search at the image-matching servers. Moreover, the method includes selecting one or more matches from the list of identified matches based on a score corresponding to the identified matches.

Abstract: A system and method is disclosed for generating a user profile. The method discloses: receiving a user profile request from a profile requester; identifying profile fragments with a profile mediator, from existing profiles in a profile corpus which are responsive to the user profile request; aggregating the identified profile fragments into the user profile response; and transmitting the user profile response to the profile requestor. The system discloses various means and modules for effecting the method.

Abstract: In one implementation, a method is provided for increasing relevance of database search results. The method includes receiving a subject query string and determining a trained edit distance between the subject query string and a candidate string using trained cost factors derived from a training set of labeled query transformations. A trained cost factor includes a conditional probability for mutations in labeled non-relevant query transformations and a conditional probability for mutations in labeled relevant query transformations. The candidate string is evaluated the for selection based on the trained edit distance. In some implementations, the cost factors may take into account the context of a mutation. As such, in some implementations multi-dimensional matrices are utilized which include the trained cost factors.

Abstract: Provided are, among other things, systems, methods and techniques for identifying target images in the following manner. Keypoints at different locations within a sample image and descriptor vectors for the keypoints are obtained, the descriptor vectors describing local image information around the keypoints. Features are generated based on hashes of data vectors that include at least one of the descriptor vectors, and an image-feature database is searched for the features. Target images are retrieved and provided based on the number of the features for which corresponding features exist in individual database images whose features are represented in the image-feature database. The foregoing hashes are performed using a hash function for which a probability that the hash of an arbitrary first vector corresponds to the hash of an arbitrary second vector is a function of an angle between the first vector and the second vector.

Abstract: A text summarizer identifies relevant terms in a document, weights the terms and extracts one or more segments to produce a summary or abstract. The various terms in a particular are weighted in relation to an existing document collection. A term weight computer computes term weights for terms in the document, and a threshold comparator compares the term weights to determine if the corresponding terms are relevant to the document collection. Next, a term weight summer adds the term weights for each occurrence of each relevant term in the various segments of the document, and a summation comparator compares the summations to identify a text summarization segment representative of the document. Optionally, relevant terms can be highlighted in the term summarization segment.

Abstract: In a computer including a controller, a storage unit, an input unit, and a display unit, the controller displays, on the display unit, a similar shape search screen for searching a partial shape (second shape) similar to a partial shape (first shape) which composes an analysis model. When the first shape is specified using the input unit, the controller searches a feature shape database of the storage unit for the second shape similar to the first shape, and displays the search result on the display unit. The controller specifies geometric information of the first shape corresponding to geometric information of the searched second shape, deforms the analysis model based on the specified geometric information and the deformation pattern information of the second shape stored in the feature shape deformation database of the storage unit, and displays the analysis model after the deformation on the display unit.

Abstract: A search query is received from a single input field of a user interface. A keyword search is performed based on the search query to generate keyword search results. A natural language search is performed of a frequently-asked question (FAQ) database based on the search query to generate FAQ search results. The keyword search results and the FAQ search results are combined in a display page.

Abstract: A method includes receiving input from a user via a keypad of the communication device and searching a database and a cache to identify a word or web site identifier based on the received input. The word or web site identifier may correspond to a word or web site identifier that the user intends to input. The method may also include providing the word or web site identifier via a display of the communication device.

Abstract: The number of ads potentially relevant to search query information may be increased by relaxing the notion of search query keyword matching. This may be done, for example, by expanding a set of ad request keywords to include both query keywords (or derivatives of a root thereof) and related keywords. The related keywords may be words with a relatively high co-occurrence with a query keyword in a group of previous search queries (e.g., search queries in a session). The scores of ads with keyword targeting criteria that matched words related to words in a search query, but not the words from the search query, may be discounted. That is, the scores of ads served pursuant to a relaxed notion of matching may be discounted relative to the scores of ads served pursuant to a stricter notion of matching. This may be done by using a score modification parameter, such as an ad performance multiplier (for cases in which an ad score is a function of ad performance information).

Abstract: In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method, in a computer network, for generating social index scores associated with key terms within web-based social network sites. Generally, the method comprises the steps of receiving an input of the key terms from a user, generating search queries from the key terms, providing the generated search queries to the web-based social network sites, capturing search results received from the web-based social network sites in response to the provided search queries, generating, from the captured search results, the social index scores using a processing algorithm, storing the generated social index scores in at least one database, and, providing at least one representation of the generated social index scores to the user in one or more of numerical, visual, and printed form.

Abstract: The present invention can include a data processing system-implemented method or a data processing system readable media having software code for carrying out the method. The method can comprise formulating queries, searching for a plurality of information objects, or a combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, an original query with at least one keyword can be automatically expanded to an expanded query that includes at least one keyword that is not in the original query. The expanded query may be used to search for information objects that are relevant to the expanded query.

Abstract: A method and a system of displaying related keywords are provided. The method includes: receiving a primary keyword inputted by a user and a request for retrieving keywords related to the primary keyword; recording a frequency of the retrieving request corresponding to the primary keyword; selecting a candidate group of related keywords based on the frequency from the groups of related keywords corresponding to the primary keyword; and displaying the related keywords in the candidate group of related keywords. The system includes: an interface unit, a recording unit, an acquiring unit and a displaying unit. The disclosed method and system retrieve different groups of related keywords based on the frequency of the request for retrieving keywords related to a certain primary keyword, and display the retrieved related keywords in a rotating manner and allow a user to obtain the related keywords in an easier and more complete way.

Abstract: Particular embodiments provide home network use recommendations to a user. The home network use recommendations may involve recommendations on items, which may include devices, applications, and/or services. When users connect an item (e.g., a device) to a home network, information associated with the item may be received. Metadata for the information is generated that describes the information. The metadata may be stored in storage in a user profile for the user. The user profile may then be analyzed to determine home network use recommendations. For example, recommendations may be how to use or configure the home network.

Abstract: A method for generating a dynamic help document involves obtaining question-answer pairs associated with a client-server application, determining rankings of the question-answer pairs based on user feedback about the question-answer pairs, and determining a first preferred question-answer pair based on rankings of question-answer pairs. The method further involves generating the dynamic help document using the first preferred question-answer pair, updating rankings of the question-answer pairs based on additional user feedback about the question-answer pairs, determining a second preferred question-answer pair based on updated rankings of the question-answer pairs, and updating the dynamic help document by replacing the first preferred question-answer pair with the second preferred question-answer pair.

Abstract: In registering a new document file in an index, the accumulated percentage of the number of registered keys A from registered keys associated with one posting data, including registered data, is computed. The posting data of a registered key associated with the number of posting data items, which is at most a threshold N, is stored in a leaf page of a balanced-plus tree constituted of the registered keys, and the posting data of a registered key associated with the number of posting data items, which is greater than the threshold N, is stored in a page of a posting-storing unit. When the accumulated number i of registered documents is a predetermined document number, the threshold N of the number of posting data items is changed to the maximum number of the posting data items that are associated with a registered key where the accumulated percentage is less than 60 percent.

Abstract: A system and method for query expansion allows the refinement and expansion of a keyword query search by combining a key concept with semantically related concepts proposed by the system and associated with that key concept. The semantically related concepts may be grouped together in a cluster, which is then presented to the user in the form of a tooltip. Once a semantically related concept is selected from the cluster, a new search is launched. This new search may use as query terms the combination of at least part of the key concept and the selected semantically related concept to thereby expand the original search.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for an object and activity query language wherein an object is a data type representing a thing or a being with a visual shape in an image or video frame and said activity is a data type representing an action or an event visually shown in an image or video or video frame, the method comprising the steps of storing a plurality of items in a raw data storage, said items comprising images and/or videos, processing said items in a processor and to generate and/or segment annotated information from said items and to extract object, activity and/or metadata information from said items in said first data storage, storing said annotated information in a secondary data storage, storing said extracted object, activity, and/or metadata information and said annotated information in a primary data storage, executing on a processor an identify function, wherein given a query item said identify function identifies said query item and/or finds a list of items similar to said first item; and a s