John F Shafer

US Patent:

6592627, Jul 15, 2003

Filed:

Jun 10, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/329684

Inventors:

Rakesh Agrawal - San Jose CA
Roberto Javier Bayardo - San Jose CA
Dimitrios Gunopulos - Riverside CA
Ching-Tien Howard Ho - San Jose CA
Sunita Sarawagi - Maharashtra, IN
John Christopher Shafer - San Jose CA
Ramakrishnan Srikant - San Jose CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

715513, 715 5, 715 10

Abstract:

A user can easily organize computerized document folders by associating a few sample documents in the document database with each folder. The present invention learns folder profiles based on the sample documents and moves the remaining documents into the folders accordingly. In this way, the user can construct new folders, or rearrange existing folders, or cause the computer to automatically rearrange and maintain the folders. This is particularly useful for managing a database of perhaps thousands of emails.

US Patent:

6633885, Oct 14, 2003

Filed:

Jan 4, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/477257

Inventors:

Rakesh Agrawal - San Jose CA
John Christopher Shafer - San Jose CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

707102, 707 3, 707 5, 705 1, 345764

Abstract:

A system and method for exporing a web-accessible database includes providing a GUI that a user can manipulate to quickly modify the results of a query to expand or contract the results set, without requiring additional querying. Attribute controls can be manipulated to impose restrictions on the results set, including by designating example records the attributes of which are used to restrict the records displayed to the user. Only records that can be displayed are instantiated, to further increase the speed of the system.

US Patent:

20090313286, Dec 17, 2009

Filed:

Jun 17, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/140272

Inventors:

Nina Mishra - Newark CA, US
Rakesh Agrawal - San Jose CA, US
Sreenivas Gollapudi - Cupertino CA, US
Alan Halverson - Sunnyvale CA, US
Krishnaram N. G. Kenthapadi - Mountain View CA, US
Rina Panigrahy - Mountain View CA, US
John C. Shafer - Los Altos CA, US
Panayiotis Tsaparas - Palo Alto CA, US

Assignee:

MICROSOFT CORPORATION - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 7/00
G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707102, 707E17005

Abstract:

Data from a click log may be used to generate training data for a search engine. The pages clicked as well as the pages skipped by a user may be used to assess the relevance of a page to a query. Labels for training data may be generated based on data from the click log. The labels may pertain to the relevance of a page to a query.

US Patent:

20100114925, May 6, 2010

Filed:

Oct 17, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/253658

Inventors:

John C. Shafer - Los Altos CA, US
Rakesh Agrawal - San Jose CA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707759, 707E17017, 707E17014, 707706

Abstract:

Techniques are disclosed herein for providing a custom search engine. In one aspect, a first search query is received from a requestor. First search results contain search result items that match the first search query are obtained. A least one sub-query is generated from the first search results. The generating is based on rules for a particular custom search engine. Second search results that match the sub-query are then obtained. A search result set is formed from a corpus that includes the first search results and the second search results. The generating of the search result set is based on the rules for the particular custom search engine. The search result set is provided to the requester. In one aspect an interface for designing a custom search engine is provided. The interface allows the designer to specify the layout of a search results page.

US Patent:

20100318539, Dec 16, 2010

Filed:

Jun 15, 2009

Appl. No.:

12/484255

Inventors:

Anitha Kannan - Mountain View CA, US
Krishnaram Kenthapadi - Mountain View CA, US
John C. Shafer - Los Altos CA, US
Ariel Fuxman - Mountain View CA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707759, 707769, 707791, 707802, 707803, 707812

Abstract:

Described is a technology for obtaining labeled sample data. Labeling guidelines are converted into binary yes/no questions regarding data samples. The questions and data samples are provided to judges who then answer the questions for each sample. The answers are input to a label assignment algorithm that associates a label with each sample based upon the answers. If the guidelines are modified and previous answers to the binary questions are maintained, at least some of the previous answers may be used in re-labeling the samples in view of the modification.

US Patent:

20110047171, Feb 24, 2011

Filed:

Aug 24, 2009

Appl. No.:

12/545872

Inventors:

Stelios Paparizos - San Jose CA, US
Alexandros Ntoulas - Mountain View CA, US
John C. Shafer - Los Altos CA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707760, 707E1707, 707E17109

Abstract:

Described is answering online web queries from a structured data store, such as a products database. An online web search query is modified into an evaluation expression for accessing a structured data store (e.g., a database, XML file, a flat table) to find search results. A query is matched to a pattern, which is used to generate the expression, as well as determine to which structured data store the query is routed. Tokens (e.g., words) in the query are processed against a dictionary of token classes (sets of tokens) and patterns (sets of token classes) to annotate the query to map the query to the matching pattern. A translation process generates the expression based on translation hints that correspond to the matching pattern. Also described is offline mining of query logs to generate the dictionaries.

US Patent:

20110307504, Dec 15, 2011

Filed:

Jun 9, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/796673

Inventors:

Rakesh Agrawal - San Jose CA, US
John Christopher Shafer - Los Altos CA, US
Fabian Martin Suchanek - Lippstadt, DE

Assignee:

MICROSOFT CORPORATION - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707766, 707E17074, 707765

Abstract:

A user submits an unstructured query that is analyzed to determine a mapping from attributes to attribute values. One or more matching items from a structured data set are determined based on the attribute values of attributes associated with the items. The matching items are displayed. One or more refinement attributes are displayed, each with one or more attribute values. The attribute values in the refinements that correspond to the attribute values of the query are shown as selected. If the user selects any of the refinement attributes, the query is revised to incorporate the attribute values of the selected refinements. New matching items are determined using the revised structured query. The revised structured query and the new matching items are displayed. This process can be iterated, by modification of the query or the refinements. The matching items, the selected refinement attribute values and the query are synchronized.

US Patent:

20110307517, Dec 15, 2011

Filed:

Jun 9, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/796678

Inventors:

Alexandros Ntoulas - Mountain View CA, US
Sreenivas Gollapudi - Cupertino CA, US
Samuel Ieong - Mountain View CA, US
Stelios Paparizos - Mountain View CA, US
John Christopher Shafer - Los Altos CA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707780, 707E17069

Abstract:

A structured query may specify attribute values for attributes. An estimate of the number of items that will match the structured query if it is applied to a structured database is determined. If the estimated number of items is below a threshold, the structured query may be relaxed to form new candidate structured queries. The number of candidate queries may be determined based on a desired running time. Each of the candidate structured queries may be determined by changing one or more attribute values of the attributes of the structured query. Estimates of the number of items each of the candidate structured queries will match is determined, and the candidate structured query that has the highest matching estimation is used to query the database. The matching results may be output.