Techniques for determining relevant electronic content in response to queries

1. A computer implemented method for determining relevant electronic content in response to a query, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user device;

categorizing the query to identify one or more electronic content sources;

formatting the query according to one or more electronic content source specifics for the one or more electronic content sources;

transmitting the formatted query to the one or more electronic content sources;

merging results in response to the formatted query from the one or more electronic content sources based at least in part on one or more factors;

dynamically computing one or more local ranking statistics for results items related to one or more terms associated with the query and related to metadata in the query for each electronic content source; and

formatting the results based on one or more aspects of the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device comprises one or more of an internet-enabled input device, an internet or voice-enabled mobile device, a voice-enabled input device, a computer, and a kiosk.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more factors comprise one or more global factors, local factors, editorial rating, response reliability, response latency, content relevance, content extensiveness or coverage, user preferences, usage statistics, query frequency, category frequency, distributor preferences, recommendation statistics, user-generated ratings, business relationships, user demographic characteristics, location, language, social networks, social groups, personalization characteristics, page size, graphic, text elements, source rating, reliability factor, business rules, business relationships, marketing goals, local ranking scores, source ordering values, source-specific general scores, statistics associated with results item textual or non-textual analysis, statistics associated with data or text mining analyses, statistics associated with data or textual clustering, statistics associated with non-textual pattern analysis, statistics associated with device specifics and/or statistics associated with formatting specifications.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query is classified into a category in one or more taxonomies or controlled vocabularies.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

computing at least one global and/or one local statistic related to one or more content items in the results sets;

determining one or more relevancy scores for the results items from the one or more electronic content sources in accordance with the at least one global and/or one local statistic;

computing a normalization factor;

normalizing the one or more relevancy scores in accordance with the normalization factor; and

combining the results into a single results set based on an ordering determined by the normalization factor.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

storing results from each electronic content source in one or more caches;

accessing the one or more caches to retrieve existing results; and

formatting the retrieved existing results based on one or more query context parameters.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein categorizing the query occurs dynamically at the time the query is received.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying one or more duplicate result items.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

removing the one or more duplicate result items according to one or more of user preference, device preference and distributor preference.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

retaining the one or more duplicate results according to one or more of user preference, device preference and distributor preference.

11. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform the method of claim 1 .

12. A computer implemented system for determining relevant electronic content in response to a query, the system comprising:

one or more computer processors communicatively coupled to a network; wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to:

receive a query from a user device;

categorize the query to identify one or more electronic content sources;

format the query according to one or more electronic content source specifics for the one or more electronic content sources;

transmit the formatted query to the one or more electronic content sources;

merge results in response to the formatted query from the one or more electronic content sources based at least in part on one or more factors;

dynamically compute one or more local ranking statistics for results items related to one or more terms associated with the query and related to metadata in the query for each electronic content source; and

format the results based on one or more aspects of the user device.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the user device comprises one or more of an internet-enabled input device, an internet or voice-enabled mobile device, a voice-enabled input device, a computer, and a kiosk.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more factors comprise one or more global factors, local factors, editorial rating, response reliability, response latency, content relevance, content extensiveness or coverage, user preferences, usage statistics, query frequency, category frequency, distributor preferences, recommendation statistics, user-generated ratings, business relationships, user demographic characteristics, location, language, social networks, social groups, personalization characteristics, page size, graphic, text elements, source rating, reliability factor, business rules, business relationships, marketing goals, local ranking scores, source ordering values, source-specific general scores, statistics associated with results item textual or non-textual analysis, statistics associated with data or text mining analyses, statistics associated with data or textual clustering, statistics associated with non-textual pattern analysis, statistics associated with device specifics and/or statistics associated with formatting specifications.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the query is classified into a category in one or more taxonomies or controlled vocabularies.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more computer processors are further configured to:

compute at least one global and/or one local statistic related to one or more content items in the results sets, wherein one or more relevancy scores are determined for the results items from the one or more electronic content sources in accordance with the at least one global and/or one local statistic; and

compute a normalization factor, wherein the one or more relevancy scores are normalized in accordance with the normalization factor; and the results are combined into a single results set based on an ordering determined by the normalization factor.

17. The system of claim 12 , further comprising:

one or more caches for storing results from each electronic content source, wherein the one or more caches are accessed to retrieve existing results; and wherein the retrieved existing results are formatted based on one or more query context parameters.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein categorizing the query occurs dynamically at the time the query is received.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein one or more duplicate results are identified.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the one or more duplicate results are removed according to one or more of user, device and distributor preferences.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein the one or more duplicate results are retained according to one or more of user, device and distributor preferences.