Search system
View Patent ↗A search system is provided with an on-line social network system. When a user of the on-line social network system requests a search, the search system examines a member profile representing the user in the on-line social network system and derives, from the member profile, additional terms to be included into the search request together with the user-supplied search terms. The resulting query is processed by applying the AND operator to the user-supplied terms and a weighted OR operator to the additional terms derived from the member profile. The search results obtained by executing the query are made available to the requesting user.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
maintaining an inverted index that maps content terms to documents that include those content terms;
maintaining member profiles representing members in an on-line social network system, the member profiles including profile terms that characterize respective members of the on-line social networking system;
from the profile terms that characterize respective members of the on-line social networking system, selecting additional content terms based on how frequently the respective terms appear in the member profiles;
augmenting the inverted index with the additional content terms;
in the on-line social network system, detecting a search request from a member of the on-line social network system, the search request including one or more user-supplied terms;
from a member profile representing the member in the on-line social network system, using at least one processor, deriving one or more additional search terms, the one or more additional search terms representing respective characteristics of the member;
by utilizing the inverted index, processing the search request based on the one or more user-supplied terms and the one or more additional terms to produce one or more search results; and
causing display the one or more search results on a display device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processing of the search request comprises applying a weighted OR operator to the one or more additional search terms.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first term from the one or more additional search terms is associated with a skills category, the skills category associated with phrases describing professional skills of respective members of the on-line social network system.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a second term from the one or more additional search terms is associated with a location category, the location category associated with phrases describing geographic locations of respective members of the on-line social network system.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first term from the one or more additional search terms is assigned a first weight, a second term from the one or more additional search terms is assigned a second weight.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a content term from the inverted search index is mapped to identifications a documents stored in the on-line social network system that explicitly includes the content term.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a content term from the inverted search index is mapped to identifications a documents stored in the on-line social network system that implicitly includes the content term.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein items from the list of search results represent respective job postings stored in the on-line social network system.
9. A computer-implemented system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by the one or processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
maintaining an inverted index that maps content terms to documents that include ose content terms;
maintaining member profiles representing members in an on-line social network system, the member profiles including profile terms that characterize respective members of the on-line social networking system;
from the profile terms that characterize respective members of the on-line social networking system, selecting additional content terms based on how frequently the respective terms appear in the member profiles;
augmenting the inverted index with the additional content terms;
in the on-line social network system, detecting a search request from a member of the on-line social network system, the search request including one or more user-supplied terms;
from a member profile representing the member in the on-line social network system, using at least one processor, deriving one or more additional search terms, the one or more additional search terms representing respective characteristics of the member;
by utilizing the inverted index, processing the search request based on the one or more user-supplied terms and the one or more additional terms to produce one or more search results; and
causing display the one or more search results on a display device.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the search results generator is to process the search request by applying a weighted OR operator to the one or more additional search terms.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein a first term from the one or more additional search terms is associated with a skills category, the skills category associated with phrases describing professional skills of respective members of the on-line social network system.
12. The system of claim 9 , wherein a second term from the one or more additional search terms is associated with a location category, the location category associated with phrases describing geographic locations of respective members of the on-line social network system.
13. The system of claim 9 , wherein a first term from the one or more additional search terms is assigned a first weight, a second term from the one or more additional search terms is assigned a second weight.
14. The system of claim 9 , wherein a content term from the inverted search index is mapped to identifications a documents stored in the on-line social network system that explicitly includes the content term.
15. The system of claim 9 , wherein a content term from the inverted search index is mapped to identifications a documents stored in the on-line social network system that implicitly includes the content term.
16. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instruction data executable by a machine to cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
maintaining an inverted index that maps content terms to documents that include those content terms;
maintaining member profiles representing members in an on-line social network system, the member profiles including profile terms that characterize respective members of the on-line social networking system;
from the profile terms that characterize respective members of the on-line social networking system; selecting additional content terms based on how frequently the respective terms appear in the member profiles;
augmenting the inverted index with the additional content terms;
in the on-line social network system, detecting a search request from a member of the on-line social network system, the search request including one or more user-supplied terms;
from a member profile representing the member in the on-line social network system, using at least one processor, deriving one or more additional search terms, the one or more additional search terms representing respective characteristics of the member;
by utilizing the inverted index, processing the search request based on the one or more user-supplied terms and the one or more additional terms to produce one or more search results; and
causing display the one or more search results on a display device.