Patent ID: 8086631
Filing Date: 2011-12-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A networked computer system for use in listing documents found in a search given an input query, said computer system comprising: a search component to search stored documents that are being retrieved electronically; memory to store a search engine including a ranker and executable methods of searching for desired types of said stored documents upon reception of a search query, wherein said search query is assigned a category vector and a corresponding utility vector, each element of said utility vector initially being set to a value quantifying the probability that the category value of a corresponding element of said category vector is intended by said search query; a processor operatively linked to said memory for processing said search query; and a front end of said search engine operatively connected to a browser so that when said search engine receives said search query from a user of said browser, said search engine outputting a list of documents, each element of said list representing a stored document drawn from a set of stored documents relevant to said search query, each document within said set: (a) having an authority score that quantifies document content relevance with respect to said search query (b) belonging to a category within a taxonomy; wherein said ranker provides a precedence order within said list of documents such that a first document listing corresponding to a first document is listed before a second document listing corresponding to a second document based on the ranking of a first numerical scaled authority score of said first document as greater than the second numerical scaled authority score of said second document, wherein said ranker provides category result diversification in that said first document belongs to a different category than said second document, and wherein scaled authority score of a document is computed from that document's authority score and from that document's utility element of said utility vector that corresponds to that document's associated category; wherein said ranker determines a remainder set of documents from a set of documents by eliminating said first document from said set of documents, wherein said ranker determines a recalibrated numerical category utility of a first category based on selecting of said first document, the recalibrated numerical category utility equals that category's utility minus the scaled authority-score of the selected document, and wherein the recalibrated numerical category utility of said first category serves as that category's assigned utility for computing scaled authority scores of documents in the remainder set; wherein said ranker determines scaled authority-scores for documents in the remainder set; wherein said search engine lists next the document from the remainder set having the highest scaled authority-score, wherein the scaled authority-score for a document equals the product of the document's authority score and the utility assigned to the category of the document; wherein said ranker eliminates the just-listed document from the remainder set; wherein said ranker: (a) determines a recalibrated utility for the category of a just-listed document; (b) determines a scaled authority-score for each document in the remainder set; (c) selects for next listing the document in the remainder set having the highest scaled authority-score; (d) eliminates the just-selected document from the remainder set; and (e) repeats steps (a) through (d) for remaining documents in the remainder set until the number of documents selected is equal to the number of document listings to present on a page; wherein the recalibrated utility equals that category's utility minus the scaled authority-score of the just-listed document; wherein the recalibrated utility for that category now serves as that category's assigned utility; and wherein the scaled authority-score for a document equals the product of the document's authority score and the utility assigned to the category of the document.