Patent ID: 7627564

Claim:
A computer comprising: a processing unit; and a computer readable storage medium storing: a database component that stores a plurality of assets, the plurality of assets including structured assets and unstructured assets, the unstructured assets not containing metadata describing data in the unstructured assets, the structured assets containing metadata describing data in the structured assets; a search engine that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computer to perform a query on the plurality of assets; and a learning component that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the computer to: calculate ranks for assets in a result set, each asset in the result set being an asset in the database component satisfying the query, the ranks for assets in the result set based at least in part on feedback, the result set including at least one of the structured assets and at least one of the unstructured assets, the ranks for each structured asset in the result set being based at least in part on the metadata in the structured asset, higher ranked assets in the result set having a greater probability of being associated with a user's actual information goal, the user's actual information goal being that which a user actually wants to accomplish when the user submits the query; and take an action directly related to the user's actual information goal, wherein the learning component causes the computer to calculate the ranks for the assets in the result set at least in part by causing the computer to: calculate a static rank factor for each asset in the result set, the static rank factor for an asset being a measure of how well linked to the asset is, the static rank of the asset being independent of terms in the query; calculate a quality of asset factor for each asset in the result set, the quality of asset factor for an asset being a measure of an inherent quality of the asset, the quality of the asset being independent of the terms in the query; calculate a quality of match factor for each asset in the result set, the quality of match factor for an asset being a measure of how well contents of the asset and metadata of the asset match the query, the quality of match factor for the asset based at least in part on the past query click-through data; and calculate the ranks for each asset in the result set based at least in part on; the static rank factor for each asset in the result set, the quality of asset factor for each asset in the result set, and the quality of match factor for each asset in the result set.