US 7,321,892 B2
Identifying alternative spellings of search strings by analyzing self-corrective searching behaviors of users
Eric R. Vadon, Seattle, Wash. (US); Ronald M. Whitman, Seattle, Wash. (US); and Randal M. Henne, Seattle, Wash. (US)
Assigned to Amazon Technologies, Inc., Incline Village, Nev. (US)
Filed on Aug. 11, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/202,291.
Prior Publication US 2007/0038615 A1, Feb. 15, 2007
Int. Cl. G06F 7/00 (2006.01); G06F 17/30 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 707—4  [707/2; 707/3; 707/5; 707/10] 59 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
analyzing search string submissions of each of a plurality of users to detect search string spelling change events, each search string spelling change event being an event in which a user submits a first search string to a search engine, and subsequently submits to the search engine a second search string which is similar in spelling to, but different in spelling from, the first search string, wherein the search string spelling change events are detected, at least in part, by comparing spellings of different search strings submitted by the same user, such that each detected spelling change event is specific to a particular user;
calculating weight values for the detected search string spelling change events, each weight value representing an amount of weight to be given to a corresponding search string spelling change event;
for each of a plurality of search strings included in the search string submissions, identifying one or more alternative spellings of the respective search strings, wherein the alternative spellings are identified, at least in part, by analyzing the detected search string spelling change events of the plurality of users, and the calculated weight values for such search string spelling change events, on an aggregated basis to assess whether particular search string spelling changes are useful to users, wherein the calculated weight values are used to give different non-zero amounts of weight to different search string spelling change events; and
creating an association in computer storage between the search strings and the corresponding alternative spellings.