Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Oath Inc.

Paul Yiu

Alexander G Gounares

Susan Theresa Dumais

David James Gemmell

Suju Rajan

Stefan David Weitz

Naroo Krishnan

Techniques are described by which information needs are satisfied by taking into account a variety of contextual cues that constrain the information searched. Contextual data such as the location, speed, and direction of travel of a mobile device are used to generate or modify a search query in a way that constrains the geographic region being searched to improve the relevance of search results or recommendations provided.

Region of search based on context

Concepts and technologies are described herein for authority ranking for real time and social search. An authority index configured to store data relating to sources is generated. Data relating to the sources, including an authority value, are generated and stored at the authority index. The authority value may be defined as a function of source, topic, and point of view ('POV'), as well as other data, if desired, and may be determined based upon one or more ranking functions. The ranking functions are determined, and data corresponding to the ranking functions is obtained. Each of the ranking functions may be weighted according to a weighting function, a confidence value or interval, one or more time functions, and/or other methods. The obtained authority value may be used for affecting ranking of search results or for other purposes.

System and method for authority value obtained by defining ranking functions related to weight and confidence value

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Paul Yiu