Method of and system for inferring user intent in search input in a conversational interaction system

1. A method of inferring user intent in a search input based on resolving ambiguous portions of the search input, the method comprising:

providing access to a set of content items, each of the content items being associated with metadata that describes the corresponding content item, the metadata associated with the content items including a mapping of relationships between entities associated with the content items;

receiving search input from a user, the search input being intended by the user to identify at least one desired content item, wherein the search input comprises:

a first portion comprising at least one specified entity, and

a second portion comprising a reference to at least one unspecified entity related to the at least one desired content item, wherein the at least one unspecified entity of the second portion and the at least one specified entity of the first portion are different;

without further user input:

inferring a possible meaning for the at least one unspecified entity of the second portion based on the at least one specified entity and the mapping of relationships between entities;

based on the inferred possible meaning for the at least one unspecified entity, the at least one specified entity, and the metadata associated with the content items of the set of content items, selecting at least one common content item from the set of content items, wherein the at least one common content item is related to each of the at least one specified entity and the at least one unspecified entity in the mapping of relationships; and

presenting the selected at least one common content item to the user in response to the search input received from the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , the content items including media entertainment items and the metadata including at least one of crew, characters, actors, teams, leagues, tournaments, athletes, composers, music artists, performers, albums, songs, news personalities, and content distributors.

3. The method of claim 1 , the content items including electronic mail items and the metadata including at least one of electronic mail threads, contacts, senders, recipients, company names, business departments, business units, electronic mail folders, and office location information.

4. The method of claim 1 , the content items including travel-related items and the metadata including at least one of cities, hotels, hotel brands, individual points of interest, categories of points of interest, retail chains, car rental websites, and car rental company names.

5. The method of claim 1 , the content items including electronic commerce items and the metadata including at least one of product items, product categories, product subcategories, product brand, and retail stores.

6. The method of claim 1 , the content items including network-based documents and the metadata including at least one of domain names, internet media types, filenames, directories, and filename extensions.

7. The method of claim 1 , the content items including address book items and the metadata including at least one of contact names, electronic mail address, telephone number, address, and employer.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a user preference signature, the user preference signature describing preferences of the user for at least one of (i) particular content items and (ii) metadata associated with the content items, wherein the inferring the possible meaning for the at least one unspecified entity is further based on comparing portions of the search input to the preferences of the user described by the user preference signature.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

providing a user preference signature, the user preference signature describing preferences of the user for at least one of (i) particular content items and (ii) metadata associated with the content items; and

ordering the at least one common content item based on the preferences of the user described by the user preference signature.

10. A system for inferring user intent in a search input based on resolving ambiguous portions of the search input comprising:

one or more processors configured to:

provide access to a set of content items, each of the content items being associated with metadata that describes the corresponding content item, the metadata associated with the content items including a mapping of relationships between entities associated with the content items;

receive search input from a user, the search input being intended by the user to identify at least one desired content item, wherein the search input comprises:

a first portion comprising at least one specified entity, and

a second portion comprising a reference to at least one unspecified entity related to the at least one desired content item, wherein the at least one unspecified entity of the second portion and the at least one specified entity of the first portion are different;

without further user input:

infer a possible meaning for the at least one unspecified entity of the second portion based on the at least one specified entity and the mapping of relationships between entities;

based on the inferred possible meaning for the at least one unspecified entity, the at least one specified entity, and the metadata associated with the content items of the set of content items, select at least one common content item from the set of content items, wherein the at least one common content item is related to each of the at least one specified entity and the at least one unspecified entity in the mapping of relationships; and

present the selected at least one common content item to the user in response to the search input received from the user.