Patent ID: 9183183
Filing Date: 2015-11-10
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of inferring user intent in a search input based on resolving ambiguous portions of the search input, the method comprising: providing access to a set of content items, each of the content items being associated with metadata that describes the corresponding content item; providing a user preference signature, the user preference signature describing preferences of the user for at least one of (i) particular content items and (ii) metadata associated with the content items; receiving search input from the user, the search input being intended by the user to identify at least one desired content item; determining a state space associated with the set of content items and with at least a portion of the search input, wherein the state space includes entities and relationships between the entities; determining that a portion of the search input contains an ambiguous identifier, the ambiguous identifier intended by the user to identify, at least in part, the at least one desired content item; inferring a meaning for the ambiguous identifier by performing the following: determining whether an entity and a relationship in the state space disambiguates the ambiguous identifier, upon a condition that at least one of the entity and the relationship in the state space disambiguates the ambiguous identifier, the inferring the meaning for the ambiguous identifier being based at least in part on the at least one of the entity and the relationship in the state space that disambiguates the ambiguous identifier, upon a condition that the at least one of the entity and the relationship in the state space does not disambiguate the ambiguous identifier, the inferring the meaning for the ambiguous identifier including formulating and presenting a follow-up conversational question formed in part based on selecting at least one response template, wherein the at least one response template is selected based at least in part on matching characteristics of at least one of entities and relationships along a path that includes an entity and a relationship that matches portions of the search input to the preferences of the user described by the user preference signature; determining, based on the state space, whether the search input is related to a portion of a previously received search input; and in response to determining that the search input is not related to the portion of the previously-received search input, selecting content items from the set of content items based on comparing the search input and the inferred meaning of the ambiguous identifier with metadata associated with the content items and further based on disregarding entities related to the portion of the previously-received search input.