Query Term Analytics with In-Memory Counters for Search Impact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users conducting searches, especially in large archives, face challenges in identifying the most effective search terms to achieve relevant results, as they often receive a wide range of hits or few results without knowing which terms are most impactful.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented system that analyzes search queries in real-time by tracking query terms using in-memory counters and an inverted index, providing a query term analytics report that includes impact analysis on removing keywords, thus enhancing search efficiency and relevance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional search methods are used without query term analysis, then the search system is simple and fast to execute, but the user cannot identify which search terms are most effective and receives either huge number of hits or few results
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs query term analysis contemporaneously with the search execution by pre-computing and storing term frequency statistics in inverted indexes and counters before the user needs to evaluate search effectiveness. This allows impact analysis to be available immediately when users conduct searches, rather than requiring separate analysis passes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary query term analytics system that sits between the search engine and the user. This intermediary component captures search queries, performs impact analysis by querying pre-computed statistics from inverted indexes, and delivers analytics results to users without requiring them to directly interact with the complex search engine internals
2Loss of information
If multiple search terms and criteria are analyzed individually to determine impact, then comprehensive analytics are provided, but the processing time and computational resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-computes and stores term frequency statistics, document counts, and other metric data in inverted indexes and counters during data indexing. When impact analysis is requested, the system queries these pre-computed statistics through efficient set operations rather than re-analyzing the entire dataset, dramatically reducing analysis time
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple analysis operations into a single contemporaneous execution. By combining impact analysis for multiple query terms and criteria into one unified analysis pass that leverages shared inverted index data and counters, the system avoids redundant computations and delivers comprehensive analytics efficiently
3Measurement precision
If the system provides detailed analytics for each query term, then users gain insight into search effectiveness, but the data storage and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential statistics needed for impact analysis from the full dataset and stores them in compact inverted indexes and counters. Rather than storing complete search result sets or detailed document metadata, the system maintains aggregated term frequency counts, document identifiers, and metric data that are sufficient for computing term impact without requiring excessive storage
Data Source
AI summary
A query term analytics system receives a search query from a user device. The system has an engine enhanced with the ability to track query terms using in-memory counters and leveraging an inverted index of content stored in a content repository. The search query is run on the content and, contemporaneously the engine performs a query term analysis on the query terms to produce query term analytics. The query term analysis includes an impact analysis that determines an impact of removing a keyword or keyword criteria from the search query. A compressed bitset can be used to indicate whether a keyword is in the content. The engine can accumulate statistics using the in-memory counters while the search query is being processed. Using the statistics thus accumulated, a query term analytics report is generated and provided to the user device for presentation on the user device.