Hybrid Search Query Scoring for Personal Content

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Natural language interfaces in search systems for personal and shared content collections face challenges such as interpretation issues, limited data volume, and the inability to distinguish between meta-terms and keywords, leading to user dissatisfaction and inefficient search results.

Innovation Solution

A system that provides incremental search suggestions by determining if entered terms are in a context-free dictionary, generating natural language or keyword completion candidates, scoring them based on document frequency, and combining natural language and keyword queries to form compound search queries, while prioritizing user-specific terms and settings.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If natural language search is used in personal content collections, then search interface usability is improved, but search accuracy deteriorates due to limited data volume and interpretation challenges

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesearch interface usabilityVSAvoidsearch accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the search system into two distinct components: a natural language processing component that handles contextual queries and a keyword search component that handles precise term matching. This segmentation allows each component to specialize in its strength while mitigating its weaknesses, resolving the contradiction between usability and accuracy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent merges natural language search results with keyword search results into a unified ranking system. By combining both search approaches and re-ranking results based on relevance, the system achieves both the usability benefits of natural language and the accuracy benefits of keyword search, directly resolving the identified contradiction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Measurement precision

If keyword search is used for precise term matching, then search accuracy is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to requiring specific search syntax and knowledge

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesearch accuracyVSAvoidease of use

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary layer that translates user-friendly natural language queries into effective search strategies. This intermediary automatically determines when to use keyword matching, when to use natural language processing, and how to combine results, eliminating the need for users to learn search syntax while maintaining high accuracy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Ease of operation

If natural language processing is implemented, then user friendliness is improved, but system complexity increases due to interpretation challenges and contextual understanding requirements

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser friendlinessVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a dynamic search system that adapts its processing approach based on the query characteristics. The system dynamically selects between natural language processing and keyword search, and dynamically adjusts ranking weights based on the type of query, thereby managing complexity through adaptive behavior rather than static complex architecture.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent changes the parameter of search strategy selection based on query analysis. By dynamically adjusting which search method to employ and how to weight results based on query parameters and context, the system achieves user friendliness without permanently increasing structural complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

4Measurement precision

If search suggestions are generated from limited personal content, then relevance is improved, but coverage of possible queries deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverelevance of suggestionsVSAvoidquery coverage

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary analysis of the user's content collection to pre-compute potential search queries and suggestions. By anticipating possible search needs based on existing content metadata and structure, the system generates relevant suggestions without requiring comprehensive query coverage, resolving the contradiction between relevance and versatility.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS10185748B1Combining natural language and keyword search queries for personal content collections

Publication Date: 2019.01.22 BENDING SPOONS SPA

AI summary

Providing incremental search suggestions as a user enters terms in a search query includes determining if a recently entered term is in a context-free dictionary of natural language phrases, generating natural language query search completion candidates corresponding to terms provided by the user in the search query if the recently entered term is in the context free dictionary, determining if the recently entered term contains a keyword hint if the recently entered term is not in the context free dictionary, generating keyword search completion candidates if the recently entered term is at least part of a keyword hint, scoring the candidates from a current iteration and any previous iterations from previously entered terms to provide a set of possible candidates, and ordering the possible candidates based on at least the scoring. Providing incremental search suggestions may also include building compound search queries that include natural language phrases and keywords.