Patent ID: 8255376

Claim:
A computer implemented method, comprising: receiving, in a system comprising one or more computers, by way of a user interface, a search query comprising one or more query terms, the user interface having an interface language that is a natural language in which the user interface presents information; based on the interface language, selecting one or more mappings and using the selected one or more mappings to simplify each query term to a corresponding simplified query term; for each of one or more of the simplified query terms, identifying one or more synonyms for the simplified query term based on (i) a respective probability that each term in the search query is in a respective language based on counts of occurrences of the term in documents in each of a plurality of languages, and (ii) a frequency of the synonym in the documents in each of the plurality of languages, wherein the probability that the term in the search query is in a respective language is calculated based at least in part on a ratio between the count and a number of the plurality of languages; and augmenting the search query with one or more of the identified synonyms.