US 11,928,168 B2
Question answering using entity references in unstructured data
Dvir Keysar, Herzliya (IL); and Tomer Shmiel, Ramat Gan (IL)
Assigned to GOOGLE LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by GOOGLE LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 3, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/453,413.
Application 17/453,413 is a continuation of application No. 16/419,288, filed on May 22, 2019, granted, now 11,176,212.
Application 16/419,288 is a continuation of application No. 15/251,989, filed on Aug. 30, 2016, granted, now 10,339,190, issued on Jun. 12, 2019.
Application 15/251,989 is a continuation of application No. 13/842,591, filed on Mar. 15, 2013, granted, now 9,477,759, issued on Oct. 5, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2022/0058232 A1, Feb. 24, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 16/9538 (2019.01); G06F 16/36 (2019.01); G06F 16/951 (2019.01); G06F 16/9535 (2019.01)
CPC G06F 16/9538 (2019.01) [G06F 16/36 (2019.01); G06F 16/951 (2019.01); G06F 16/9535 (2019.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method performed by one or more processors comprising:
obtaining, for a query, search results for the query and a ranking of the search results, wherein the search results are generated based on the query;
identifying, based on at least one term of the query, that the query is a question query requesting a type of entity, the type of entity being one of a person, a location, or a date;
identifying, in content of a top-ranked search result, an entity reference to a particular entity of the type of entity requested in the question query, wherein the entity reference includes text that refers to the particular entity that is distinct from terms of the query;
selecting the entity reference from the content of the top-ranked search result in response to identifying the entity reference; and
providing the text for display along with, but visually distinguished from, at least the top-ranked search result.