Patent ID: 7577651

Claim:
A method for providing search results in response to a search query from a user, the method comprising: building a temporal profile of the search query from temporal data associated with documents retrieved in response to a search query, the temporal profile capable of being temporally ambiguous, the temporal profile capable of being temporally unambiguous, and the temporal profile capable of being atemporal, such that the temporal profile is at least one of: temporally ambiguous, temporally unambiguous, and atemporal; identifying the search query as one of temporally ambiguous, temporally unambiguous or atemporal to the user; determining from features of the temporal profile, including the identification of the search query as being temporally ambiguous, temporally unambiguous or atemporal, whether the search query would benefit from relevance feedback from the user; seeking the relevance feedback from the user if there is a determination that the search query will benefit from the relevance feedback from the user; and providing search results based on the relevance feedback.