Methods and apparatus for entity search
Methods and apparatus that deliver a searching experience that is substantially akin to consultation with a human expert, and that satisfies a user's information need in fulfilling projects such as purchasing, shopping, procurement, bartering, requesting for quotes, in online retail, traditional retail, wholesale, health care, travel, real estate, restaurant-going, entertainment, logistics, and sourcing are disclosed. Search results often contain entities that provide services and products. Records being searched are associated with industry sectors in a broad sense. Industry sector information is first derived from a user query; and is used in determining relevant and adequate additional questions for a searcher, and in matching, ranking, and presenting search results.
1. A method of searching for records, comprising:
receiving a first query from a user;
deriving an industry sector from the first query;
using sector information to determine additional information to be used in deriving a second query, wherein the additional information is other than a hierarchical classification;
requesting the additional information from the user; and
deriving the second query from at least a portion of the first query and at least a portion of the additional information wherein the second query includes at least one section parameterized by an (attribute, value) pair used to direct at least two of the following actions: searching, breaking a tie in ranking results, describing relationships among sections of the second query, and expressing confidence measures.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein individual ones of the records correspond to business entities.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein at least some of the entities are selected from the group consisting of service providers, sellers of goods, wholesalers, manufacturers, consultants, and agents.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first query is composed in natural language.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of deriving an industry sector comprises using terms that are both associatively related and definitionally related.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising deriving a second industry sector from the first query.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first sector comprises electronics, and the second sector comprises digital cameras.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of deriving an industry sector from the first query is partially implemented with a tree structure.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of deriving an industry sector from the first query is partially implemented with a graph structure.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the additional information is information that would be deemed relevant by an expert in an industry that includes the industry sector.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the additional information is information that would be deemed relevant by an expert in the industry sector.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising deriving a third query from at least a portion of the first query and at least a portion of the additional information.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the industry sector comprises sale of consumer goods.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the industry sector is a portion of an industry that does not comprise sale of consumer goods, and the industry is selected from the group consisting of health care, travel, real estate, restaurant-going, entertainment, logistics, and sourcing.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the records corresponds to a physical product.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the records is not based on an Internet web page.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the records corresponds to a service.
18. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating at least one of the records with first and second sectors of an industry that are distinct from the industry sector.
19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the additional information comprises a perspective of the user.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the perspective is selected from the list consisting of purchasing, shopping, procurement, bartering, requesting for quotes.