Lycos, Inc.

Justsystem Corporation

Cycorp, Inc.

Michael John Witbrock

Vibhu O Mittal

Andrew R Golding

Mark Kantrowitz

Donald M Kosak

Benjamin Paul Rode

Doug Herbert Beeferman

Christopher James Deaton

Bjoern Aldag

Douglas Bruce Lenat

David Andrew Schneider

This invention comprises a series of steps which transforms one or more natural language expressions into a single, well-formed formal language representation. Each natural language expression is partially parsed into simple fragments, each of which is then associated with one or more short formal expressions. Each formal expression is constructed in such a way as to contain one or more placeholder variables, each of which is associated with one or more attributes to constrain the types of entities that each variable can potentially represent. The resulting plurality of formal expressions is then filtered for relevance within a given context, and the surviving expressions manipulated based upon a plurality of rules, which are cognizant of the attributes associated with each variable contained therein. A user is then presented with the resulting plurality of formal expressions, whereupon the user optionally selects, rejects, adds to, logically connects and otherwise manipulates each member of said plurality. When the user is satisfied that the plurality represents an intended meaning, the formal expressions are combined into a single, formal representation.

Method of transforming natural language expression into formal language representation

A system and method for producing semantically-rich representations of texts to amplify and sharpen the interpretations of texts. The method relies on the fact that there is a substantial amount of semantic content associated with most text strings that is not explicit in those strings, or in the mere statistical co-occurrence of the strings with other strings, but which is nevertheless extremely relevant to the text. This additional information is used to both sharpen the representations derived directly from the text string, and also to augment the representation with content that, while not explicitly mentioned in the string, is implicit in the text and, if made explicit, can be used to support the performance of text processing applications including document indexing and retrieval, document classification, document routing, document summarization, and document tagging. These enhancements may be used to support down-stream processing, such as automated document reading and understanding, online advertising placement, electronic commerce, corporate knowledge management, and business and government intelligence applications.

Semantics-based method and apparatus for document analysis

A method includes scanning content of a web page in which a web component is to be inserted, inferring a profile from the scanned content and serving the web component in the web page according to the profile.

Serving content to a client

A method for producing a results list for a search query includes producing a first results list of entries from a search algorithm, the first results list corresponding to a term in the search query, the first results list being ordered according to relevance rankings, modifying a feature of the first results lists by an editor, the modification being made according to an editorial rule, determining a reliability score for the editor, the reliability score being based upon the modification made the editor, combining the modification made by the editor in a combined search index, the combined modification being included in the combined search index according to the determined reliability of the editor, and using the combined search index to produce a second results list which corresponds to the term in the search query, the second results list being ordered according to relevance rankings.

Search results using editor feedback

A method for collecting related queries, comprising the steps of obtaining a first query and a second query that have been submitted during a search for data, and determining whether the first query and the second query have a likelihood of being submitted by a class of searcher.

Method and system for collecting related queries

Disclosed is a computer-assisted method for generating a summary of or a browsing aid for a document. At an index creation time, information that is relevant to at least one dummy query and is necessary to compile at least one temporary summary for the summary or browsing aid is extracted from a document and cached for later use. The information may be compiled into the summary and saved as such. At a search time, the summary or browsing aid is generated using the information that was cached at index creation time. An apparatus for performing this computer-assisted method is also disclosed.

Method and apparatus for rapidly producing document summaries and document browsing aids

A computer method for preparing a summary string from a source document of encoded text. The method comprises comparing a training set of encoded text documents with manually generated summary strings associated therewith to learn probabilities that a given summary word or phrase will appear in summary strings given a source word or phrase appears in encoded text documents and constructing from the source document a summary string containing summary words or phrases having the highest probabilities of appearing in a summary string based on the learned probabilities established in the previous step.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Michael John Witbrock