Generating suggested search queries

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for generating suggested search queries that are relevant to a user supplied search query. A user supplied search query is received. Historical search queries are identified that are relevant and/or similar to the user supplied search query. The identified historical queries are then ranked according to various factors.

Therefore, the following is claimed: 
     
         1 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, the program comprising:
 code that receives a user supplied search query, the user supplied search query comprising a plurality of search terms;   code that removes at least one of the plurality of search terms from the user supplied search query to generate a plurality of resultant search queries;   code that determines whether individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queries match a respective historical search query in a data store accessible to the computing device that is associated with at least one search result in the data store;   code that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query by executing at least one relevance function and at least one similarity function against an index of the respective historical search queries with the user supplied search query, wherein the at least one relevance function comprises a phrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search query to the respective historical search query;   code that generates a ranking of the respective historical search queries according to a number of search results with which each of the respective historical search queries is associated, wherein a first historical search query associated with a higher number of search results is ranked higher than a second historical search query associated with a lower number of search results; and   code that generates a user interface displaying the respective historical search queries in an order according to the ranking.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the code that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 code that identifies a plurality of search results associated with individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queries; and   code that determines whether individual ones of the of the plurality of search results associated with individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queries match the at least one search result in the data store.   
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the program further comprises:
 code that generates a ranking of the respective historical search queries based at least in part upon the phrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search query to the respective historical search query.   
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the code that generates the user interface displaying the respective historical search queries further comprises code that generates a hyperlink associated with individual ones of the respective historical search queries. 
     
     
         5 . A system, comprising:
 at least one of one or more computing devices; and   a search application executable via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the search application comprising:
 logic that receives a user supplied search query, the user supplied search query comprising a plurality of search terms; 
 logic that removes at least one of the plurality of search terms from the user supplied search query to generate a plurality of resultant search queries; 
 logic that determines whether individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queries match a respective historical search query in a data store accessible to the at least one of the one or more computing devices that is associated with at least one search result in the data store; 
 logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query by executing at least one relevance function and at least one similarity function against an index of the respective historical search queries with the user supplied search query, wherein the at least one relevance function comprises a phrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search query to the respective historical search query; 
 logic that generates a ranking of the respective historical search queries according to a number of search results with which each of the respective historical search queries is associated, wherein a first historical search query associated with a higher number of search results is ranked higher than a second historical search query associated with a lower number of search results; and 
 logic that generates a user interface displaying the respective historical search queries in an order according to the ranking. 
   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 logic that generates the ranking of the respective historical search query according to a number of products with which the respective historical search query is associated.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 logic that identifies a subset of the historical search queries submitted by users over a predetermined period of time; and   logic that indexes the subset of the historical search queries in the index.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that generates the user interface displaying the respective historical search queries further comprises:
 logic that encodes for display a subset of the at least one search result associated with the respective historical search query in the user interface; and   logic that encodes for display a historical search query hyperlink, the historical search query hyperlink linking to a search result user interface displaying the at least one search result associated with the respective historical search query.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 logic that generates the ranking of the respective historical search query according to a conversion rate of the respective historical search query, the conversion rate being a rate at which at least one product associated with the respective historical search query is purchased.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 logic that generates the ranking of the respective historical search query according to a popularity of the respective historical search query, the popularity being based at least in part upon a number of users who submitted the respective historical search query.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 logic that generates the ranking of the respective historical search query according to a popularity of the respective historical search query, the popularity being based at least in part upon a number of times that the respective historical search query was executed.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the search application further comprises logic that increases a popularity metric associated with the popularity of the respective historical search query when a user selects a hyperlink associated with the respective historical search query and a search result associated with the respective historical search query. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises:
 logic that associates at least one of a marketplace and a product category with the respective historical search query; and   logic that designates the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query when the user supplied search query is performed in at least one of the marketplace and the product category.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the search application further comprises logic that assigns a weight to a search term in individual ones of the resultant search queries; and
 the logic that identifies the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query further comprises logic that generates the ranking of the respective historical search query according to a number of highest weighted search terms in the individual ones of the resultant search queries that comprise the respective historical search query.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the logic that assigns a weight to the search term in the individual ones of the resultant search queries further comprises logic that assigns a higher weight to a first search term in the individual ones of the resultant search queries when the first search term is associated with a fewer number of historical search queries relative to a second search term in the individual ones of the resultant search queries. 
     
     
         16 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, via at least one of one or more computing devices, a user supplied search query, the user supplied search query comprising a plurality of search terms;   removing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, at least one of the plurality of search terms from the user supplied search query to generate a plurality of resultant search queries;   determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, whether individual ones of the plurality of resultant search queries match a respective historical search query in a data store accessible to the at least one of the one or more computing devices that is associated with at least one search result in the data store;   identifying, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the respective historical search query as being relevant to the user supplied search query by executing at least one relevance function and at least one similarity function against an index of the respective historical search queries with the user supplied search query, wherein the at least one relevance function comprises a phrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search query to the respective historical search query;   generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a ranking of the respective historical search queries according to a number of search results with which each of the respective historical search queries is associated, wherein a first historical search query associated with a higher number of search results is ranked higher than a second historical search query associated with a lower number of search results; and   generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a user interface displaying the respective historical search queries in an order according to the ranking.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein generating the user interface displaying the respective historical search queries further comprises generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a hyperlink associated with individual ones of the respective historical search queries. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising assigning, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a weight to individual ones of the plurality of search terms, wherein a higher weight is assigned to a respective one of the plurality of search terms that is associated with a respective historical search query that yields a fewest number of search results greater than zero than a respective one of the plurality of search terms that is associated with a respective historical search query that yields a greater number of search results. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein generating the ranking of the respective historical search queries further comprises assigning, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a higher rank to a first historical search query comprising higher weighted search terms than a second historical search query. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a ranking of the respective historical search queries based at least in part upon the phrase level edit distance comparison of the user supplied search query to the respective historical search query.