Web search with multi-language search input translation

Abstract

A search engine server supports delivery of search results using an international search string option by identifying websites that provide support in English as well as the language of the international search string. The international search string is a search string in any of the languages that are listed/supported by the search engine server. The search engine server delivers web links of websites that provide support in both English as well the language of the international search string by identifying conjugate English terms, strings or phrases for the international search string, that provide exact or approximate equivalent meaning for searching. In addition, the search engine server also provides web links of websites that provide international language support by utilizing a thesaurus in English that provides synonyms for the conjugate English terms. The search engine server also translates websites where there is no support in the language of the search string.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A web search system comprising:
 a web crawling infrastructure configured to gather text data from a plurality of web pages via a web crawling process;   a search engine server configured to respond to receipt of a first search string from a first user device of a plurality of user devices by translating the first search string to a second search string, the first search string being of a first of a plurality of languages and the second search string being of a second of the plurality of languages;   the search engine server further configured to identify a plurality of alternate meaning strings based on at least one of the first search string and the second search string, the plurality of alternate meaning strings being of the second of the plurality of languages and having meanings that differ from one another due to alternate meanings of the first search string; and   the search engine server configured to generate first search results relating to selections from the text data based on the first search string, the second search string, and the plurality of alternate meaning strings.   
     
     
         2 . The web search system of  claim 1 , wherein the first search results are delivered to the first user device to support a visual presentation in the first of the plurality of languages. 
     
     
         3 . The web search system of  claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the first search results are translated to the first of the plurality of languages. 
     
     
         4 . The web search system of  claim 1 , wherein the search engine server considers a first setting associated with the first user device, the first setting being related to a search approach to be used with the first search string. 
     
     
         5 . The web search system of  claim 4 , further comprising enabling use of at least one of the plurality of alternate meaning strings based upon the first setting. 
     
     
         6 . The web search system of  claim 4 , further comprising enabling use of translation based upon the first setting. 
     
     
         7 . The web search system of  claim 1 , wherein a first alternate meaning string of the plurality of alternate meaning strings is a translated form of a second alternate meaning string of the plurality of alternate meaning strings identified based on the first search string. 
     
     
         8 . A web search system comprising:
 a processing infrastructure including a search engine server that is configured to respond to receipt of a first search string of a first language from a first user device of a plurality of user devices by generating from the first search string a plurality of alternative meaning search strings of a second language that have meanings that differ from one another due to alternate meanings of the first search string of the first language;   the processing infrastructure configured to generate first search results relating to selections from a plurality of web pages, a first group of the plurality of web pages being based on the first language, a second group of the plurality of web pages being based on the second language, the generation being based on a matching process that uses the plurality of alternative meaning search strings; and   the processing infrastructure configured to support a visual presentation of at least portions of the first search results in the first language on the first user device.   
     
     
         9 . The web search system of  claim 8 , wherein the matching process also involves the first search string. 
     
     
         10 . The web search system of  claim 8 , wherein the plurality of alternative meaning search strings are generated based on a plurality of alternate meanings associated with the first search string. 
     
     
         11 . The web search system of  claim 10 , wherein a plurality of alternate meanings of the first search string are translated to the second language to yield the plurality of alternative meaning search strings. 
     
     
         12 . The web search system of  claim 10 , wherein the processing infrastructure considers a first setting associated with the first user device, the first setting being related to a search approach to be used with the plurality of alternate meaning search strings. 
     
     
         13 . The web search system of  claim 12 , further comprising enabling use of a first alternate meaning string based upon the first setting. 
     
     
         14 . A method used by a web search system comprising:
 responding to receipt of a first search string of a first language from a first user device of a plurality of user devices by generating from the first search string a plurality of alternative meaning search strings of a second language that have meanings that differ from one another due to alternate meanings of the first search string;   generating first search results relating to selections from a plurality of web pages, the generation being based on a matching process that uses the plurality of alternative meaning search strings; and   supporting a visual presentation of at least portions of the first search results in the first language on the first user device.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the matching process also involves the first search string. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the plurality of alternative meaning search strings is generated based on a plurality of alternate meanings associated with the first search string. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein a plurality of alternate meanings of the first search strings is translated to the second language to yield the plurality of alternative meaning search strings. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising considering a first setting associated with the first user device, the first setting being related to a search approach to be used with the plurality of alternate meaning search strings. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising enabling use of the plurality of alternate meaning strings based upon the first setting. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising changing the scope of a search process based upon the generation.