Iac Search and Media, Inc.

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Tomasz Imielinski

Apostolos Gerasoulis

Scot Gregory Zola

Rohit Mittal

Don Smith

Alessio Signorini

Yufei Pan

Vince Sgro

Alan Levin

Kaushal Kurapati

Alexandrin Popescul

Ming Xiang Li

Aashu Virmani

Hui Li

Justin Sarma

Jay Kumar Goyal

David Soukal

Jiankuan Ye

Data exploration as search over automated pre-generated plot objects can include data analytics systems with automated data mining and simplified user experience front ends. A computer-implemented method, that can be performed by the described data analytics systems, includes receiving a request for plots or plot types of a specified criteria; searching a plot object resource for plots relevant to the specified criteria, the plot object resource comprising an indexed repository of available plots; sorting and ranking the plots or plot types according to associated scores, the associated scores for each plot being based on information theoretic metrics relevant to a measure of interest; and providing plots satisfying a criteria of the sorting and the ranking to a source of the request.

Data exploration as search over automated pre-generated plot objects

In a method for a direct answer for search, a search query is received over a network, one or more answer candidate snippets for the search query are received, with an answer candidate snippet having at least a portion of content available over the network for an answer candidate, one or more answer entities are determined within a selected answer candidate snippet, a frequency of the one or more answer entities found within the one or more answer candidate snippets for the search query is determined, a confidence score is adjusted for the selected answer candidate in accordance with the frequency of the one or more answer entities found within the one or more answer candidate snippets, and at least one answer candidate snippet is sent for a response to the search query.

Method and system for determining confidence in answer for search

In one embodiment, a method for presenting factoids includes receiving a user query concerning an object, providing object information associated with the object for presentation to a user, and providing one or more factoids pertaining to the object for presentation to the user. The factoids are presented independently from the object information, and each of the factoids indicates at least one special characteristic of the object in a distinct area.

Method and apparatus for generating and presenting factoids

Systems and methods for answering user questions using databases annotated with answerable questions are disclosed. The database includes database items organized into columns. Each of the columns may have a question annotated thereto. The question is a parameterized question that is answerable by the database items in the column. A question answering algorithm is used to search the database for an annotated question corresponding to a question that needs to be answered.

Systems and methods for answering user questions

In one embodiment, a method for increasing query traffic to a web site includes providing initial information pertaining to an initial object for presentation to a user, and providing connection information identifying a logical connection between the initial object and one or more additional objects for presentation to the user. The connection information contains data prompting the user to submit a new query concerning one of the additional objects. The method may further include receiving the new query concerning one of the additional objects, and providing a result of the new query to the user.

Method and apparatus for increasing query traffic to a web site

In a method for a direct answer for search, a search query is received over a network, one or more answer entities are determined from one or more answer candidate snippets, with an answer candidate snippet having at least a portion of content available over the network for an answer candidate, a content identifier is determined for an answer candidate, a title is tokenized for the content identifier, a comparison is performed between a vector of tokens for the title and a vector of the one or more answer entities, an indicator of the relevance is adjusted for the content identifier in accordance with the comparison, and at least one answer candidate snippet is sent for a response to the search query.

Method and system for determining a relevant content identifier for a search

The present invention relates to a method and system for transformation of an electronic document through learning transformation rules during training from the original electronic document using visual user feedback and applying the learned transformation rules to either the original electronic document or a second electronic document having a similar structure as the original document or all future instances of the original electronic document. Accordingly, the transformed document is customized to the user's preference learned during training. Preferably, the transformed document is created in a queriable form. For example, the original electronic document can be defined any type of mark-up language or electronic document generation language, such as Hypertext mark-up language (HTML), extended mark-up language (XML), portable data file (PDF) or Microsoft&#xae; Word, and the like and the transformed document is defined in a queriable language such as (XML) views and the like. For example, a virtual page can be a customization of an instance of a Web page which can be used to transform all future instances of the original Web page. Alternatively, the virtual page is formed form a customization of an original electronic document, such as a chapter in a book, which is applied to a second electronic document having a similar structure, such as all chapters in the book.

Virtual tags and the process of virtual tagging

A method for answering search queries about services is disclosed. The method includes searching a plurality of storage media on a network for a natural language service metastatement. The natural language service metastatement is typically generated by a service provider and describes the services provided by the service provider in detail. The method also includes locating the natural language service metastatement in the storage media and extracting the natural language metastatement from the storage media. The method also includes indexing the natural language metastatement in a service description index. Thus, when a search query for a service is received, the service description index is searched for a natural language service metastatement corresponding to the search query, and the search result is provided in the form of a natural language answer.

Searching for services in natural language

Methods and systems for generating query and result-based relevance indexes are provided. For one embodiment, a plurality of queries is received from a plurality of users. Each query of the plurality of queries is measured based on one or more metrics. The measured data of each query is stored. The queries are associated into topical query categories. A performance of a first query category is calculated based on at least one metric of the one or more metrics. A metric data request for a select category is received from a client. Lastly, the stored measured data of the selected category is transmitted to the client in response to the metric data request.

Methods and systems for generating query and result-based relevance indexes

Virtual tags and the process of virtual tagging utilizing user feedback in transformation rules

Method and system for representing different types of information on a wide area network in a form suitable for access over an audio interface (,). Audio enabled pages (,) are created to link particular text data, which data can be from the World Wide Web (WWW). The audio enabled pages (,) can be retrieved by an audio web server (,) for interpreting the pages into audio which is displayed at the audio interface (,). Audio input means are created to traverse the links of the audio enable pages (,). A user can use the keypad of the phone (,) or spoken commands to traverse the audio menus. In addition, dynamic audio input means can be created to selectively traverse a database of the WWW information.

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Princeton, NJ, United States of America

Tomasz Imielinski