Optimized ontology based internet search systems and methods

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for providing suggested completions to search results are disclosed which employ locating nodes in a stored ontology, wherein nodes consist of classes or instances of information, that correspond to the at least one search term, retrieving neighbors of located nodes in the stored ontology, and generating suggested completions in a format which separates homonymic terms. Methods and apparatus are disclosed for building ontologies and dynamically expanding ontologies.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method of building an ontology comprising executing on a processor the steps of:
 querying a search engine with at least one common term;   extracting at least one term of interest from results generated by the search engine;   assigning the at least one term of interest to a top value category;   querying a separate database with the at least one term;   saving type and relationship data for term(s) found in the separate database;   removing all terms not correlated to the selected term type;   creating mappings for disambiguation tags;   assigning terms to an ontology type,   analyzing the types of relationships for each type, and   retaining the most common relationships for each type.   
     
     
         2 . An apparatus, including a processor operating to perform actions in response to executing computer program instructions, the actions comprising:
 building an ontology comprising querying a search engine with common terms;   extracting at least one term of interest from results generated by the search engine;   assigning the at least one term of interest to a top value category;   querying a separate database with the at least one term;   saving type and relationship data for term(s) found in the separate database;   removing all terms not correlated to the selected term type;   creating mappings for disambiguation tags.   
     
     
         3 . A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium containing a computer program, which when executed by a computer processor causes the computer processor to perform actions, the actions comprising:
 building an ontology comprising querying a search engine with common terms;   extracting at least one term of interest from results generated by the search engine;   assigning the at least one term of interest to a top value category;   querying a separate database with the at least one term;   saving type and relationship data for term(s) found in the separate database;   removing all terms not correlated to the selected term type;   creating mappings for disambiguation tags.   
     
     
         4 . A computer-implemented method for dynamically expanding an ontology comprising receiving a name or fragment thereof by a server running an ontology supported web search, processing the name comprising passing the name to a search engine which provides suggested search queries and retrieves the suggested search queries, and checking the suggested completions generated by the search engine for valid names; querying a second database to determine whether any of the names correlate to an actual person; when a name correlates to an actual person, determining whether the person already exists in the ontology; if the person does not exist in the ontology, determining the correct class and creating a new instance of the class in the ontology; wherein if the instance exists in the ontology, but only as a stub, promoted the stub to a full instance; querying the second database for applicable relationships and targets; creating a new instance for a target before including the relationship if a target does not exist in the ontology; adding the instance to a list of valid suggestions after the instance has been created within the ontology; and generating the list of valid suggestions. 
     
     
         5 . An apparatus, including a processor operating to perform actions in response to executing computer program instructions, the actions comprising:
 expanding an ontology dynamically comprising receiving a name or fragment thereof by a server running an ontology supported web search; processing the name comprising passing the name to a search engine which provides suggested search queries and retrieves the suggested search queries, and checking the suggested completions generated by the search engine for valid names, querying a second database to determine whether any of the names correlate to an actual person; when a name correlates to an actual person, determining whether the person already exists in the ontology; if the person does not exist in the ontology, determining the correct class and creating a new instance of the class in the ontology; wherein if the instance exists in the ontology, but only as a stub, promoted the stub to a full instance; querying the second database for applicable relationships and targets; creating a new instance for a target before including the relationship if a target does not exist in the ontology; adding the instance to a list of valid suggestions after the instance has been created within the ontology; and generating the list of valid suggestions.   
     
     
         6 . A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium containing a computer program, which when executed by a computer processor causes the computer processor to perform actions, the actions comprising:
 expanding an ontology dynamically comprising receiving a name or fragment thereof by a server running an ontology supported web search, processing the name comprising passing the name to a search engine which provides suggested search queries and retrieves the suggested search queries, and checking the suggested completions generated by the search engine for valid names; querying a second database to determine whether any of the names correlate to an actual person; when a name correlates to an actual person, determining whether the person already exists in the ontology; if the person does not exist in the ontology, determining the correct class and creating a new instance of the class in the ontology; wherein if the instance exists in the ontology, but only as a stub, promoted the stub to a full instance; querying the second database for applicable relationships and targets; creating a new instance for a target before including the relationship if a target does not exist in the ontology; adding the instance to a list of valid suggestions after the instance has been created within the ontology; and generating the list of valid suggestions.