Google Inc.

John Abraham Bauer

Sanjay Ghemawat

Mehran Sahami

Jay Michael Ponte

Vibhu Mittal

Sergey Brin

Andrew Fikes

Ross Koningstein

Benjamin Thomas Smith

Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention allow a user to submit an ambiguous search query and to receive relevant search results. Queries can be expressed using character sets and/or languages that are different from the character set and/or language of at least some of the data that is to be searched. A translation between these character sets and/or languages can be performed by examining the use of terms in aligned text. Probabilities can be associated with each possible translation. Refinements can be made to these probabilities by examining user interactions with the search results.

Determining corresponding terms written in different formats

Systems and methods for searching using queries written in a different character-set and/or language from the target pages

A system and method for automatically targeting Web-based advertisements is described. Advertisements are identified relative to a query, wherein identified advertisements describe characteristics relative to at least one of a product and a service. The advertisements are scored according to match between the query and the characteristics of the identified advertisements. At least some of the advertisements are provided as Web-based content.

System and method for automatically targeting web-based advertisements

Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention allow a user to submit an ambiguous search query and to receive relevant search results. In one embodiment, a sequence of numbers received from a user of a standard telephone keypad is translated into a set of potentially corresponding alphanumeric sequences. These potentially corresponding alphanumeric sequences are provided as an input to a conventional search engine, using a boolean 'OR' expression, and the search results are presented to the user. The search engine effectively limits search results to those in which the user was likely interested.

Methods and apparatus for providing search results in response to an ambiguous search query

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

John Abraham Bauer