Patent ID: 7716216
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method, performed by one or more server devices, comprising: identifying, using a processor of the one or more server devices, an implicitly defined semantic structure in a document, where a plurality of rules are associated with the implicitly defined semantic structure, and where the semantic structure includes a list having a header and a plurality of items associated with the header; determining, using a processor of the one or more server devices, a location of a first term and a location of a second term within the list; selecting, using a processor of the one or more server devices, one of the plurality of rules, as a selected rule, based on a relationship of the locations of the first and second terms within the implicitly defined semantic structure, determining, using a processor of the one or more server devices, a distance value, reflecting a distance between the first and second terms, using a function based on the selected rule, where the function differs based on whether the selected rule corresponds to the first rule, the second rule, or the third rule; and outputting, using a processor of the one or more server devices, the distance value to rank the document for relevancy to a search query that includes the first term and the second term.