Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Joel W Varland

Mark David Huentelman

Jun Ge

Noaa Avital

Daniel G Zarzar Charur

Daniel G Zarzar

A query including one or more current search terms is received from a user and executed against a target database. When the query yields a number of results less than a defined search threshold (a.k.a. an 'unsuccessful' search), the current search terms are compared with an associations database. The associations database includes associations between search terms in previously-executed queries that yielded less than a threshold number of results and replacement search terms that were substituted to generate a successful query yielding at least the threshold number of results. Upon finding a match between one or more of the search terms and the current search terms, the associations between the search terms and the replacement search terms are used to identify suggested replacement search terms and present them to the user.

Recommending queries when searching against keywords

Suggesting to a user most likely search assets that address a searched topic in each of a number of different software applications is provided. In response to a search for help or general information content associated with a given application, suggested help or general information content associated with a number of different applications or different versions of a given application is provided.

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Carnation, WA, United States of America

Joel W Varland