Patent ID: 8244666

Claim:
A method of identifying an item listed on an information storage and retrieval platform as a candidate for an item sought, the method comprising: receiving information describing the item listed on the information storage and retrieval platform; inferring, using a processor, an aspect-value pair from the information, the aspect-value pair being an aspect of the item listed on the information storage and retrieval platform and a value of the aspect of the item listed on the information storage and retrieval platform; receiving a search query; inferring an additional aspect-value pair from the search query, the additional aspect-value pair being an aspect of the item sought and a value of the aspect of the item sought; determining a correspondence between the aspect-value pair and the additional aspect value pair; and identifying the item listed on the information storage and retrieval platform as the candidate for the item sought based on the determining of the correspondence between the aspect-value pair and the additional aspect-value pair.