Patent Document ID: 9679065
Application ID: 14448898

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of providing relevant search results comprising: receiving a plurality of past computer search queries; identifying among the plurality of past computer search queries a plurality of sub-queries each including one or more contiguous words from a past query of the plurality of past computer search queries, the plurality of sub-queries including a start sub-query including a starting word of the past query of the plurality of past computer search queries and an end sub-query including an ending word of the past query of the plurality of past computer search queries; for each sub-query of the plurality of sub-queries: generating a start sub-query count that is equal to a number of occurrences of the sub query as the start sub-query; generating an end sub-query count that is equal to a number of occurrences of the sub query as the end sub-query; generating a sub-query score that: is a function of the start sub-query count and the end sub-query count; decreases with increasing start sub-query count; and increases with increasing end sub-query count; receiving, through a computer network, an n-gram query that includes a plurality of terms; for each of a plurality of first phrases that include contiguous terms of the plurality of terms, determining a phrase weight using the sub-query score of one of the plurality of sub-queries that corresponds to the each of the plurality of first phrases; submitting the n-gram query to a search engine with the phrase weight for each of the plurality of first phrases; receiving results from the search engine; and returning the results.

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Claim 5:
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the phrase weight for the plurality of first phrases using the sub-query score of the one of the plurality of sub-queries that corresponds to the each of the plurality of first phrases comprises: defining a plurality of bins each having a score range; assigning each first phrase of the plurality of first phrases to a bin of the plurality of bins according to the sub-query score of one of the plurality of sub-queries that corresponds to the first phrase of the plurality of first phrases; and weighting each first phrase of the plurality of first phrases that have been assigned to each bin of the plurality of bins according to a rank of the score range of the each bin of the plurality of bins relative to other bins of the plurality of bins having one or more of the first phrases of the plurality of first phrases assigned thereto.