Patent ID: 7765204

Claim:
A method of finding one or more queries from a plurality of queries stored in a log that are semantically related to an input query, the method comprising the steps of: (a) hashing each token in each of the input query and the plurality of stored queries to a value within a range of values having an upper and lower limit; (b) determining, for each of the input query and the plurality of stored queries, a set of one or more subsequences, the composition of each subsequence based on the value obtained in said step (a), and the number of subsequences in each set of one or more subsequences based on the length of the query from which the subsequence is derived; (c) ordering the tokens in the one or more subsequences of the input query in the order in which the tokens appear in the input query; (d) ordering the tokens in the one or more subsequences of the respective stored queries of the plurality of stored queries in the order in which the tokens appear in the respective stored queries; (e) comparing the one or more subsequences of the input query ordered in said step (c) against the one or more subsequences for the respective stored queries ordered in said step (d); and (f) returning the results of one or more stored queries that have a subsequence matching a subsequence of the input query upon said comparing step (e).