Abstract: A method, system, and medium are provided to temporally bias items included in a search results webpage. The items include navigational links, search results, advertisements, or any other content or items included in a search results webpage. User engagement with the items via the search-engine results page and/or other webpages is tracked. A user-engagement score and an age of the items are determined. A temporal-bias factor is calculated using a decay function that increases in intensity with the age of the items. A rank score is calculated for each item based on the user-engagement score and the temporal-bias factor—the temporal-bias factor decreasing the rank score as a function of the age of the items. The items are ranked based at least in part on the rank score and one or more of the items are chosen for presentation in a search-engine results page.

Abstract: In a computer implemented method, a credibility rating is requested and received, or web activity is tracked, from a web user on a web page. A search request is received from a searcher, and a plurality of links is selected, including a link to the web page to display as search results to the searcher. The link to the web page is then displayed within the search results in an order based, at least in part, on the credibility rating or web activity. Multiple credibility ratings or user web activities on that web page from other users can also be received and stored, and the order of display can be based on these as well. The order of display may be based more on credibility ratings or web activity tracked from web users affiliated with the searcher in a social network.

Abstract: A control circuit collects content for on-line behavioral events for a plurality of discrete on-line participants and then uses this identifying information to parse and aggregate that content to provide parsed, aggregated behavioral-event content that can then be offered, for example, via an on-line auction. By one approach the identifying information can serve as a basis to parse the aggregated content by industry to thereby yield, for example, search queries conducted by a variety of persons working for a variety of companies as comprise a given industry. By ensuring a statistically-significant number of sources, and by withholding the identifying information when offering the resultant parsed, aggregated content, the identities of the sources are anonymized to thereby protect and preserve the privacy of these sources.

Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed that allow a linked-to web page to be provided using information about a linked-from web page. The linked-to web page, for example, may be provided with enhanced content, additional content, suggestion features, or searching features. Certain of the methods are useful in the context of a user using a search engine web page to search for and link to other web pages. An exemplary method can be performed by a server that provides such a linked-to web page. The server receives a request to provide the linked-to web page and parses the request to identify information, such as, search terms that were entered on the search engine web page. The server can use the search terms or other information associated with the linked-from web page to determine what content should be provided or how it should be provided for the linked-to web page.

Abstract: Provided is a technique for organizing content objects in an enterprise content management system. Auditing of the content objects is performed to identify one or more content objects that are to be re-classified. A content object is selected. A first category associated with the content object is obtained. A relevancy score is obtained for the first category. A list of candidate categories and relevancy scores for each of the candidate categories are obtained. In response to determining that the first category does not correspond to a candidate category or that the relevancy score does not exceed a threshold, the content object is identified as improperly categorized, and the candidate categories that have associated relevancy scores that exceed the threshold are provided in an audit report.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for extracting maximal information in the output of document searches by key word queries. The method is based on Shannon information theory for objective ranking of the results. The data base may be unlinked, such as documents distributed over directories on a PC, or linked, such as the world-wide web. Approximate expressions for the Shannon information are disclosed using the existing word-frequencies in the natural language. The method enables numerical ranking of a list of concordances with footnotes referencing their source documents. Relatively extended concordances may be used for display on computer screens, or relatively short concordances for display on mobile devices.

Abstract: A pattern matching engine and associated method for detecting one or more of headers, footers, watermarks, page numbering, page colors, and page borders appearing in a fixed format document. The pattern matching engine performs pattern matching across pages of the fixed format document to identify repeating patterns. Using heuristic analysis, repeating patterns meeting selected criteria are classified as headers, footers, or watermarks. Filtering removes repeating patterns unlikely to represent headers, footers, or watermarks. The information produced by the pattern matching engine allows the repeating elements to be properly reconstructed as flowable elements when converting a fixed format document into a flow format document.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide a system and method for prerendering of search result pages. A search engine may process search queries received from a client. The search engine may determine one or more search results in response to the search query. One or more of the search results may be associated with prerender instructions, such that when the search results are received by the client, the client prerenders the search results associated with the prerender instructions. Prerender instructions may be associated with the search results in various manners, including ranking the search results based on relevance, or ranking the search results based on the likelihood of selection. Metrics and analytical data may be collected from the client to improve the search result prerendering process.

Abstract: A method, system and computer readable medium for information handling within an operating system, including providing a record retrieval program; providing an input device within a window or screen of the operating system and configured to enter an execute command which initiates a record retrieval from local and remote information sources using the record retrieval program; using the record retrieval program to enter first information into search fields provided in the record retrieval program; entering the execute command using the input device after the step of entering the first information; searching, using the record retrieval program, the local and remote information sources for second information associated with the first information; and displaying the second information in the record retrieval program, when one of the local and remote information sources includes second information associated with the first information.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method and system for a user to find an email address using the Internet. The user inputs the information that he wants to be verified or completed. A seeking unit determines the missing fields in the input information. The seeking unit may determine the missing information in the email address from various sources on the Internet, using a set of rules. The rules may be specified by the user or present in the database. The obtained search results are ranked by a ranking unit, based on the relevance of the scores. The seeking unit may also display the found email information along with the ranks to the user. The user has the option to sort the email information. The user may then select the most accurate email information, according to him, which is then used to populate the field in the information.

Abstract: An Internet search engine with associated user interface is provided to facilitate use, particularly on devices with limited display size. Each search result is displayed using a graphical image associated with the result, and optionally associated text. Each result may be displayed using a significant portion of the total display area available. The amount of display area used to display a search result may vary depending upon the availability of significant images or relative importance of a search result to the underlying query.

Abstract: Technologies pertaining to providing completions to proffered prefixes are disclosed herein, A suggested completion to a proffered prefix is retrieved by walking nodes of a trie data structure, wherein a node includes one or more characters that are used to extend a character sequence represented by its parent. Each node in the trie data structure is assigned a score, wherein the score maps to a best score assigned to its descendants. The nodes of the trie data structure are sorted based upon score, and the nodes are walked based upon scores assigned thereto.

Abstract: A computer-automated method and system of providing a searchable knowledge base with decision-relevant attributes (including some subjective or sentiment-based attributes) for a plurality of individual items within a choice set are described. First, information (including texts) relevant to the plurality of individual items in the choice set is harvested from Internet sources. Next, normalized representations of statements are extracted from excerpts of the harvested texts that pertain to attributes of interest for the choice set, and corresponding scores for the attributes are derived from each of the normalized representations. The scores derived from the various harvested sources are aggregated for each attribute of each item. Finally, the knowledge base of the plurality of individual topics is generated.

Abstract: There is described a method and system for obtaining ranked search results including names of experts who are members of a social network and presenting the ranked search results to a user performing a search from a user interface of a user device. The user is registered on the social network and has connections thereon. The method comprises: indexing data representative of activities of the members on the social network to produce indexed activity data; receiving a search query relative to a subject along with a user identifier from the user device; using the search query and the user identifier, ranking members from the user's connections based on their activities on the social network related to the subject to obtain ranked experts for the subject; returning the names of ranked experts for the subject to the user device for presentation on the user interface.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer-readable storage medium for determining a crawling schedule. In an aspect, a method includes obtaining crawl history data for a Web site having Web pages, determining a status of the Web pages, determining a total quantity of Web pages that have a status of deleted, calculating a probability that another Web page of the Web site will be removed based on the total quantity, and storing data associating the calculated probability with the Web site. The method can further include determining, for a plurality of sets of the previous time periods, a respective crawl penalty as a combination of a penalty for crawling the Web site and a penalty for showing a deleted Web page based on the calculated probability, and determining a re-crawl schedule based on the crawl penalties.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method and system for presenting indexed search results from a social network, concurrently with customary search results returned by a search engine hosted on a website, to a user performing a search from a user interface of a user device using the search engine. The user is registered on the social network and has connections thereon. The method comprises: indexing data related to users registered on the social network to produce indexed data, the data obtained from the social network hosted on a website different from the website hosting the search engine; receiving a search query along with a user identifier; performing a search on the indexed data specific to the user's connections to obtain indexed search results specific to the user's connections on the social network; and returning to the user device the indexed search results for presentation on the user interface.

Abstract: Search ranking features are described that may be used by a search engine to rank items in a search result. Examples of such features include use of multiple linear ranking stages, use of BM25 and a full text index, use of a minimum span on ranking stages, pre-calculation of a plurality of ranking models, use of a dynamic rank, use of more than one BM25 definition per stage, date/time transformations, freshness transformations, raw value transformations, query property rank, social distance, and so on.

Abstract: Search engine optimization for all digital content of an entity, including category specific content such as images, videos, products, news, places, and other content, can change the entity's visibility on the internet, particularly on search engine result pages. A method for increasing search engine optimization of digital content can include performing a search and analyzing the search results to identify category specific search results. The method can further include determining an equivalent search engine ranking for each category specific search result that depends on one or more factors and making a recommendation on how to increase the search engine optimization of the entity's digital content.

Abstract: There is described a method implemented on a social search server for presenting names of members of a social network who shared information about a commercial item to a user performing a search from a user interface of a user device. The user is registered on the social network and has connections thereon. The method comprises: indexing data representative of activities of the members on the social network; extracting commercial items from the indexed activity data; receiving a search query along with a user identifier; identifying a commercial item within the search query; using the search query and the user identifier, performing a search on the extracted commercial items specific to the user's connections to obtain names of members who shared information about the commercial item; and returning the names of the members who shared information about the commercial item to the user device.

Abstract: The present document describes a method for presenting modified information obtained from the internet on an application on a mobile device. The mobile device is set to communicate with the internet through a proxy server. A user of the mobile device is registered on a social network from which indexed search content specific to the user's connections on the social network are obtained. The method comprises: modifying, based on the indexed search content specific to the user's connections, an output for the application from an internet server to produce a modified output for the application; and sending the modified output for the application to the mobile device for presentation in the application on the mobile device.

Abstract: An interactive session can be established between a crawling bot and a Web site. The crawling bot can defines a session state representing a user state for interacting with one or more Web sites, a set of conditions, and a set of scenarios to be selectively activated based on whether the set of conditions are satisfied. The crawling bot can receive content from the Web site during the interactive session. The crawling bot can parse the content from the Web site and can matching the parsed content against a previously defined set of items to determine whether the content matching condition is satisfied. If the content matching condition is satisfied and if the state condition is satisfied, the crawling bot, activating of the scenarios defined by the crawling bot can be active, which is not activated if the content matching condition and the state condition are not satisfied.

Abstract: One example includes a method of attributing revenue to keywords for an entity having an entity website. The method may include obtaining the keywords used in a secured search on a search engine that result in a visit to an entity website and determining a position or rank of a webpage of the website on a search results page resulting from searching the keyword. The method may further include estimating, based on the rank of the webpage, a number of visits to the website that result from secured searches of the keyword.

Abstract: An interactive session can be established between a crawling bot and a Web site. The crawling bot can defines a session state representing a user state for interacting with one or more Web sites, a set of conditions, and a set of scenarios to be selectively activated based on whether the set of conditions are satisfied. The crawling bot can receive content from the Web site during the interactive session. The crawling bot can parse the content from the Web site and can matching the parsed content against a previously defined set of items to determine whether the content matching condition is satisfied. If the content matching condition is satisfied and if the state condition is satisfied, the crawling bot, activating of the scenarios defined by the crawling bot can be active, which is not activated if the content matching condition and the state condition are not satisfied.

Abstract: Information from social networks may be used to identify a user's interests and predilections, and the information may be used to affect search results. In one example, social networks have pages that correspond to real entities, such as manufacturers and merchants. Entity pages in social networks are mapped to their corresponding real entities, and information that users leave on the pages (e.g., “likes”, or textual reviews) are extracted to determine users' sentiments about the entities. When users search for products with a search engine, user sentiment is then used to guide the results. Social networks' information about users (e.g., their affinities, such as schools, workplaces, interests) may be used to determine the relevance of specific users' sentiments—e.g., sentiments of users who went to a particular school may be used to influence search results, when the search is requested by someone who went to the same school.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for presenting interactive images associated with a search engine in association with a search engine results page (SERP) are provided. Upon receiving a search query at a search engine, it is determined that the search query content has a related interactive image associated with the search engine. An interactive image may be associated with the search engine, for instance, by having been previously presented as a background image for a search engine home page. A link to the interactive image may be presented as a search result on the SERP, the interactive image may be automatically presented as a background image of the SERP, or the interactive image may be determined to be related to an algorithmically-derived search result and a visual indicator thereof may be presented in association with the search result.

Abstract: The subject disclosure is directed towards evaluating search engine implementation performance using a task-based assessment metric. Logged user activities associated with the search engine implementation are processed into sessions and atomic events corresponding to the user activities within the sessions. The atomic events corresponding to the user activities are classified into tasks based on similarity of the queries within the user activities. After applying the task-based assessment metric to task information associated with the search engine implementation, an evaluation mechanism determines indicia of search engine implementation performance in terms of user behavior.

Abstract: Disclosed is a contents providing method of a computing apparatus. The contents providing method includes storing highlighted contents in a storage unit; searching the highlighted contents based on a search condition; reading the highlighted contents from the storage unit according to a search result; and providing the read highlighted contents to a user via a display unit.

Abstract: A collaborative search session is provided hosted by one or more computing devices. First query data is received from a first computing device in a collaborative search session. Further, second query data is received from a second computing device in the collaborative search session. A corpus of resources can be caused to be searched based at least in part on the first and second query data to identify a particular search result set for the collaborative search session. At least a portion of the particular search result set can be caused to be presented on each of the first and second computing devices participating in the collaborative search session.

Abstract: Various embodiments pertain to techniques that determine a perceived mood or personality that corresponds to a user and present a web page responsive to the determination. In some embodiments, the perceived mood or personality corresponding to a user can be determined according to a user's interaction with various colors presented on a web page. For example, responsive to a user hovering over a particular color presented on a web page, a perceived user characteristic, such as a perceived personality or mood corresponding to the user can be ascertained. A web page can be presented according to the perceived personality or mood. In various examples, style sheets can be used to present the web page in a way that corresponds to the perceived personality or mood corresponding to the user.

Abstract: An interactive session can be established between a crawling bot and a Web site. The crawling bot can defines a session state representing a user state for interacting with one or more Web sites, a set of conditions, and a set of scenarios to be selectively activated based on whether the set of conditions are satisfied. The crawling bot can receive content from the Web site during the interactive session. The crawling bot can parse the content from the Web site and can matching the parsed content against a previously defined set of items to determine whether the content matching condition is satisfied. If the content matching condition is satisfied and if the state condition is satisfied, the crawling bot, activating of the scenarios defined by the crawling bot can be active, which is not activated if the content matching condition and the state condition are not satisfied.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided that may be utilized to generate website link suggestions.

Abstract: The techniques discussed herein consider a degree of noise associated with user clicks performed during search sessions. The techniques then generate a model that characterizes click noise so that search engines can more accurately infer document relevance.

Abstract: Methods, computer systems, and computer-readable storage media for providing application results related to user intent with respect to a topic-of-interest are provided. A user search session is monitored and upon discerning a requisite level of user intent with respect to the topic-of-interest, applications residing on the user device that provide application results related to the user intent are determined. A request for the application results is communicated to the applications, and the applications results are received from at least a portion of the applications. The application results are integrated with a set of Web-based results; the results are ranked and are presented on a user interface.

Abstract: One or more devices within a transaction services hub collect session data of transaction services for multiple customers and provide a user interface with reporting options for transaction services associated with a particular customer. The user interface is accessible to a user device via a public network connection. The one or more devices receive a report request from a user account associated with the particular customer and retrieve, from the collected session data, data responsive to the report request. The one or more devices generate a report for the particular customer based on the report request and the data responsive to the report request.

Abstract: There is provided a computer-implemented method and system for ranking documents. The method includes identifying a number of query-document pairs based on clickthrough data for a number of documents. The method also includes building a latent semantic model based on the query-document pairs and ranking the documents for a search based on the latent semantic model.

Abstract: Techniques described herein assist users in satisfying complex information needs represented as long, detailed questions. A generalized search assistance framework for complex information needs is disclosed. Given a detailed question, the techniques enrich the original question with a set of related concepts. The types of questions handled are detailed, complex questions similar to the ones posted in Q&A portals. A generalized search assistance framework enriches complex detailed questions with topically related concepts. A basic pipeline represents an instantiation of such the search assistance framework. Given a detailed question, the pipeline relies on semantic and syntactic relationships in the detailed question in order to construct a set of related queries. The queries are issued to a commercial search engine and the retrieved results are processed by state-of-the-art document understanding techniques in order to retrieve important concepts.

Abstract: An information searching system and a searching method adapted for the system are provided. The system is utilized for searching for web pages with reference to information input by a user and removing repetitive web pages. The method includes steps: inputting a keyword on a web search engine in response to user input; searching for a number of pieces of summary information with regard to the keyword; acquiring a network address from each piece of information, acquiring each web page corresponding to the acquired network address and determining whether text information of each web page comprises another network address; and if the text information of one web page comprises another network address, removing a piece of the summary information corresponding to the web page from the number of pieces of the summary information.

Abstract: Methods and system for providing social feeds from a plurality of third party sites to a user at a host site includes retrieving one or more access logs capturing online behavior of the user. The access logs are analyzed to determine the user's interactive behavioral pattern related to social feeds from each of the plurality of third party sites. A refresh schedule for the user is computed to refresh cache entries of social feeds at the host site based on the analysis of the user's online behavior at the social feeds. Cache entries of social feeds for the user are refreshed at the host site from the one or more of the plurality of third party sites at an allotted time specified by the refresh schedule.

Abstract: An action alignment system for event planning and execution searches out web sites relating to event planning and, based on web site content, constructs a database of various tasks that might be desired for different events (tasks can also be manually added to the database). The tasks have associated tags which allow a task search engine to match a user query representing a proposed event to potential tasks. This list of potential tasks is presented to the user who may then select the tasks as desired to customize the event plan. Vendors can provide pre-packaged deals for the tasks, and this information can be included with the task database, selected by the user, and added to the event plan. A scheduler and alert engine then inserts appropriate entries into the user's calendar, and sends timely alerts to the user which include links that simplify event management.

Abstract: A graphical user interface (GUI) module receives textual input from a user, determines recommendations based on the received input and the user's navigation network (that includes additional users associated with the user). The GUI interface then determines properties associated with the determined recommendations, and presents the one or more recommendations and graphical representations of their associated properties for display to the user.

Abstract: A plurality of query responses is obtained based on a query. A corresponding selectable thumbnail map is determined for each query response, each corresponding selectable thumbnail map including a graphical geographic focus entity that is associated with the corresponding query response. A display of the query responses with the corresponding selectable thumbnail maps each displayed adjacent to its corresponding query response is initiated, in response to the query. A request for an expanded map is received based on a selection action associated with one of the corresponding selectable thumbnail maps. A display of the expanded map that includes a selectable link associated with the corresponding query response that is associated with the corresponding selectable thumbnail map that represents a compressed view of the expanded map is initiated, the expanded map displayed in a common display area with the display of the query responses with the corresponding selectable thumbnail maps.

Abstract: Target based indexing of micro-blog content may include extracting, labeling, and indexing data contained in micro-blog entries. For example, by adapting natural language processing (NLP) technologies to a micro-blog entry, data is extracted in order to create an index. In one embodiment, a search engine may access the index in order to return results of a search query. In another embodiment, a user interface may display micro-blog entries categorically, allowing the user to access micro-blog entries by event, quote, opinion, or other category.

Abstract: A member profile website that acknowledges and/or identifies owners of verified as authentic designer goods; and whose registered members are verified owners of authentic designer handbags, apparel, jewelry, and/or accessories—for the purpose of negatively impacting the counterfeit goods industry and identifying and acknowledging buyers of authentic designer goods, thus exposing buyers of counterfeit designer goods.

Abstract: Technologies are described herein that pertain to optimizing a ranker component for a risk-oriented objective. Various definitions of risk are described herein, wherein risk is based upon variance in performance scores assigned to the ranker component for respective queries in a data store. Additionally, risk is optionally based upon variance in relative performance of the ranker component versus a baseline ranker component.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for scheduling resource crawls. In one aspect, a framework is provided for scheduling resource crawls such that a crawl scheduler determines the health of a document, i.e., whether it can be crawled, the popularity of the document, and the frequency of “interesting,” i.e., substantive, content changes, and based on this information, estimates an appropriate crawl interval for each web resource to improve crawl resource utilization.

Abstract: Web crawlers crawl websites to access documents of the website for purposes of indexing the documents for search engines. The web crawlers crawl a specified website at a crawl rate that is based on multiple factors. One of the factors is a pre-set crawl rate limit. According to certain embodiments, an owner for a specified website is enabled to modify the crawl rate limit for the specified website when one or more pre-set criteria are met.

Abstract: Systems, methods and computer program products for facilitating the quick capture and management of task list (i.e., “to-do”) items are disclosed. Such systems, methods and computer program products allow a user of a computing device to access a persistently and ubiquitously executing stand-alone application that facilitates a capture solution that supports multiple input modalities—voice, image, video, handwriting and text. This allows the quick capture and creation of to-do's anytime and anywhere. Once captured, the device may use a combination of natural language processing with the power of an internet search engine to identify, organize, and surface relevant content and context for a user as a reminder of such captured to-do's.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an improved method for crawling a web site is provided. At least one page of the web site has a reference for executing by a browser to produce an address for a next page. The web site is crawled by the crawler program, which includes querying the web site server. The crawler parses such a reference from one of the web pages, and sends the reference to an applet running in the browser. The address for the next page is determined by the browser responsive to the reference. The address is then sent to the crawler. In an application of the improved crawler, the crawler is used for reducing dynamic data generation on the web site server. In this application, at least some of the web pages are dynamically generated responsive to the crawler queries. The server generated web pages are processed to generate corresponding processed versions of the web pages, so that the processed versions can be served in response to future queries, reducing dynamic generation of web pages by the server.

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: An advertising system combined with search engine services, comprising a client and a server, wherein the server comprises a server-side transceiver, receiving an emotion signal and a keyword from the client; a search engine, performing search functions according to the keyword and generating a search result; an emotion analyzer, analyzing the emotion signal and generating an emotion parameter of a user, wherein the emotion parameter represents an emotional status of the user; and an advertisement platform, searching for at least one recommended advertisement classified as the emotional status of the user according to the emotion parameter; and wherein the server-side transceiver further transmits the search result and the at least one recommended advertisement to the client through a network.