System and method for applying ranking SVM in query relaxation

1. A method in a computer system for providing improved search results in response to a user query, the method comprising:

obtaining a set of ranked query item pairs, each query item pair corresponding to a query and a hit document;

for each hit document:

executing a series of query relaxation operations, each query relaxation operation extracting one feature vector of a plurality of feature vectors for said each hit document; and

calculating a relevance score using the one extracted feature vector and a learned ranking function that is unique for that query relaxation operation; and

generating a hit list for the user query to be displayed to the user that contains hits from the executed query relaxation operations;

modeling a ranked item as a pair comprised of a query and a hit document and only items that have the same query, wherein each item is represented by a feature vector of the plurality of feature vectors, which lists features and corresponding feature weights configured to provide a user to tune a ranking function based on coupling a query relaxation method with a ranking support vector machine (SVM) application, and wherein the user determines an optimal fit between an initial list of document query hits and a revised list produced from a trained learning system machine learning function and a feature includes any attribute of a document that is used to determine a relevance of a document related to a given query.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein obtaining a set of ranked query item pairs includes obtaining query item pairs from across a heterogeneous enterprise network.

3. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

displaying the hit list to the user; and

receiving feedback from the user regarding the hit list, the feedback being used to adjust a weight for at least one ranking factor of a learned ranking function in response thereto.

4. A method according to claim 3 , further comprising:

allowing the user to continue to provide feedback in order to further update the learned ranking function until a desired hit is displayed that is consistent with user search result preferences.

5. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

crawling a corpus of documents to produce an index of ranked item pairs.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein:

at least one of the set of features includes an occurrence of a query term in metadata for a hit document, occurrence of a query term in a document body, and a document static rank.

7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein:

the query term is at least one of a title, keyword, description, or reference text.

8. A method according to claim 6 , wherein:

the static rank is at least one of a page rank and a human generated document static rank.

9. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

terminating the execution of the series of query relaxation operations when a result page is filled by the hit list.

10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein:

each feature weight is a linear combination of training vectors.

11. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

classifying each query item pair into one of at least two classes based on a level of a relevancy score term.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for providing improved search results in response to a user query having sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

obtain a set of ranked query item pairs, each query item pair corresponding to a query and a hit document;

perform for each hit document:

executing a series of query relaxation operations, each query relaxation operation extracting one feature vector of a plurality of feature vectors for said each hit document; and

calculating a relevance score using the one extracted feature vector and a learned ranking function that is unique for that query relaxation operation; and

generate a hit list for the user query to be displayed to the user that contains hits from the executed query relaxation operations;

model a ranked item as a pair comprised of a query and a hit document and only items that have the same query, wherein each item is represented by a feature vector of the plurality of feature vectors, which lists features and corresponding feature weights configured to provide a user to tune a ranking function based on coupling a query relaxation method with a ranking support vector machine (SVM) application, and wherein the user determines an optimal fit between an initial list of document query hits and a revised list produced from a trained learning system machine learning function and a feature includes any attribute of a document that is used to determine a relevance of a document related to a given query.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12 , wherein the sets of instructions when further executed by the computer, cause the computer to obtain a set of ranked query item pairs includes obtaining query item pairs from across a heterogeneous enterprise network.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12 , further comprising:

program code for displaying the hit list to the user; and

program code for receiving feedback from the user regarding the hit list, the feedback being used to adjust a weight for at least one ranking factor of a learned ranking function in response thereto.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14 , further comprising:

program code for allowing the user to continue to provide feedback in order to further update the learned ranking function until a desired hit is displayed that is consistent with user search result preferences.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12 , further comprising:

program code for crawling a corpus of documents to produce an index of ranked item pairs.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12 , further comprising:

program code for terminating the execution of the series of query relaxation operations when a result page is filled by the hit list.

18. A system for providing improved search results in response to a user query, the system comprising:

a storage device; and

a computer processor in communication with the storage device, wherein the storage device has sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

obtain a set of ranked query item pairs, each query item pair corresponding to a query and a hit document;

for each hit document:

execute a series of query relaxation operations, each query relaxation operation extracting one feature vector of a plurality of feature vectors for said each hit document,; and

calculating a relevance score using the one extracted feature vector and a learned ranking function that is unique for that query relaxation operation; and

generate a hit list for the user query to be displayed to the user that contains hits from the executed query relaxation operations model a ranked item as a pair comprised of a query and a hit document and only items that have the same query, wherein each item is represented by a feature vector of the plurality of feature vectors, which lists features and corresponding feature weights configured to provide a user to tune a ranking function based on coupling a query relaxation method with a ranking support vector machine (SVM) application, and wherein the user determines an optimal fit between an initial list of document query hits and a revised list produced from a trained learning system machine learning function and a feature includes any attribute of a document that is used to determine a relevance of a document related to a given query.

19. A system according to claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

display the hit list to the user; and

receive feedback from the user regarding the hit list, the feedback being used to adjust a weight for at least one ranking factor of a learned ranking function in response thereto.

20. A system according to claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

terminate the execution of the series of query relaxation operations when a result page is filled by the hit list.