Visual method and apparatus for enhancing search result navigation

Abstract

A visual method for enhancing search result navigation, comprising: obtaining a first search result from a search engine; clustering the first search result to get clustering information; calculating the correlations between the clustering information and the ranked list of the first search result, and performing visualization processing on the clustering information; and displaying the visual cluster hierarchy and the ranked list of the first search result in a joint manner based on the correlations. When a cluster is selected, further searching is performed and the search result is clustered again. Using the present invention, through combining a traditional ranked list of search results and the visual cluster hierarchy of these search results to display them in a joint manner, a convenient way is provided for the web user to find the potential correlations between the visual cluster hierarchy and the ranked list of the search results. Besides, through dynamically searching and clustering more search results again, the web user may get more detailed and more accurate search results easily.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 619,665 filed Jan. 4, 2007, the complete disclosure of which, in its entirety, is herein incorporated by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to computer information processing technology, specifically, to a visual method and apparatus for enhancing the navigation of search results returned by a search engine.TECHNICAL BACKGROUND[0003]With the wide application of the Internet, people can get lots of information from the web. However, due to the rapid growth of the web contents, it becomes more and more difficult for web users to find required information rapidly and accurately. Currently, web users mainly rely on search engines to find required information. Generally, the process in which a web user uses a search engine to find required information is as follows: the web user submits a query, which may be, for instance, a single keyword or a combina...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a visual method and apparatus for enhancing search result navigation by combining a visual cluster hierarchy and a ranked list of search results. This allows users to quickly and accurately find the information they need. The invention also includes a dynamic cluster constructor to select relevant search results and a correlation processor to calculate the correlations between the clustering information and the ranked list of search results. The visualization engine then displays the joint manner on the browser, making it easy for users to access and use the information they need. The technical effects of the invention include improved search result navigation and more efficient information retrieval.

Problems solved by technology

However, due to the rapid growth of the web contents, it becomes more and more difficult for web users to find required information rapidly and accurately.

However, such a method of using a search engine to find information commonly has a problem that the search engine always returns too many search results.

In this situation, since the screen size of a computer display is limited, it is impossible to display all the search results simultaneously to the web user.

Thus, the web user usually needs to browse many Web pages to find the required information, resulting in low efficiency of the web user getting information.

Thus, in fact, the search quality of a web user searching information is also very low.

Besides, the solution only clusters and displays part of the search results (for instance, the first 210 search results); if the web user selects a clustering item in the clustering results, the search results contained in the clustering item will be displayed, but no more relevant search results can be produced, so the web user cannot get more information of interest.

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