Patent Document ID: 7814086
Application ID: 11600698

Base Claim:
1. A method for determining one or more semantically related terms based on sequences of search queries, the method comprising: examining search query information to associate search queries with a user submitting the search query; establishing a plurality of sequences of search queries, each sequence of search queries comprising one or more search queries associated with a common user and relating to a common concept; receiving one or more seed terms; creating a first set of vectors representing for each search query in the search query information, whether the search query is associated with each sequence of the plurality of sequences; creating a second set of vectors representing for each search query in the search query information, a weight associated with the search query based on the number of sequences of the plurality of sequences the search query is associated with; and determining one or more terms semantically related to the seed terms based on the first set of vectors, the second set of vectors, and at least one seed term of the received one or more seed terms; wherein determining one or more terms semantically related to the seed terms comprises determining a weighted average over each sequence of the plurality of sequences as a function of the first and second set of vectors, and the at least one seed term; and wherein the weighted average is calculated using the formula: 
 T =Sum of ( V 1*VectorSimilarity( V 2, S )), wherein V 1 *VectorSimilarity (V 2 ,S) is calculated for a number of sequences found in the search query information; V 1 is the relevant vector of the first set of vectors indicating for each search query in the search query information, whether a search query is associated with the relevant sequence; V 2 is the relevant vector of the second set of vectors including for each search query in the search query information, an entry indicating a weight of a search query associated with the sequence; and S is the seed term vector indicating for each search query in the search query information, whether the search query is one of the received seed terms.

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Claim 2:
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein establishing a plurality of sequences of search queries comprises: adding a first search query associated with a first user to a first sequence; determining whether to add a second search query associated with the first user to the first sequence based on a similarity between the second search query and at least the first search query of the first sequence; adding the second search query to the first sequence in response to determining the similarity between the second search query and at least the first search query of the first sequence exceeds a similarity threshold; and adding the second query to a second sequence in response to determining the similarity between the second search query and at least the first search query of the first sequence does not exceed the similarity threshold.