Patent ID: 7620628

Claim:
A method for classifying a current query, comprising the steps of: receiving a current query comprising two or more terms; determining whether said current query does not match any single, previously submitted query in a set of previously submitted queries by determining that none of the two or more terms in said current query matches terms of any single previously submitted query; if said current query does not match any single, previously submitted query in the set of previously submitted queries, then performing the steps of: dividing said current query into two or more units; performing a comparison between the two or more units and a plurality of categorized units; determining two or more categories for said current query based on said comparison; in response to determining the two or more categories for said current query based on said comparison, creating a new category as a union of the two or more categories, and storing, in one of volatile memory and non-volatile memory, data that indicates the new category determined for said current query; and wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.