Patent ID: 8768920

Claim:
A method, comprising: identifying search queries that each include a question word of a plurality of predetermined question words; mapping each of the search queries to a corresponding canonical form, including applying mappings defined in an evaluation file to the search queries, the defined mappings including filtering that removes from the search queries any predetermined non-question words occurring in the search queries, the predetermined non-question words being obtained from the evaluation file, conjugating any verbs in the search queries to a particular verb tense, updating declensions of nouns in the search queries to a particular noun declension, and ordering the words remaining in each of the search queries after the filtering, conjugating, and updating in a predefined way, including placing the question word in a predetermined position in the ordering; identifying a plurality of different search queries that each map to a particular canonical form; ranking the different search queries based on a frequency of occurrence of each of the different search queries; and selecting a highest-ranked different query as a representative query for each of the different search queries.