KR20110019131A - Apparatus and method for searching information using social relation - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus for searching information using social relation is provided to offer a more reliable search result by searching concerned with relation based on social network. CONSTITUTION: A social database(110) stores a social relationship information of a user. A social searching unit(120) extracts social search result based on the relationship information. An output section(130) outputs the extracted search result by the social searching unit. Therefore, a more reliable and exact searching is available using the social network information of the user.

Description

Apparatus and method for retrieving information using social relations {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SEARCHING INFORMATION USING SOCIAL RELATION}

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus and method for retrieving information using a social relationship, and to a technique for performing information retrieval using a social relationship based on a social database.

In information retrieval, researches on techniques for retrieving contents highly related to the intention of the user's query have been actively conducted. At this time, techniques for calculating the statistical significance of the generated query words and calculating techniques for the structural linkage between the generated query terms have been studied to calculate the relation between user query intention and specific contents.

On the other hand, the search using the structural link between the contents is difficult to accurately reflect the user's specific query intention, and it is difficult to represent the newly generated contents as the top ranked search results.

Accordingly, there is an increasing demand for search that considers not only the content-oriented structural association but also the user-based structural association based on the personalized social network.

An information retrieval apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a social database for storing social relationship information of a user, a social search unit for extracting a social search result based on the social relationship information, and the extracted search result. It may include an output unit for outputting.

In this case, the information retrieval apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a query retrieval unit for extracting a query retrieval result based on the query word input from the user.

The social search unit may extract the social search result based on a query search result extracted by the query search unit.

The query search unit may extract the query search result based on a social search result extracted by the social search unit, and the output unit may output a query search result of the query search unit.

In addition, the social database may set a rating for the plurality of online users according to the intimacy with the user, and group and store the ratings.

The social search unit may receive a social relationship for searching from the user and extract a search result from a user having the input social relationship.

In addition, the social relationship received from the user may include rating information set according to intimacy with the user.

An information retrieval method according to another embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of storing social relationship information of a user, extracting a social search result based on the social relationship information, and outputting the extracted search result. It may include a step.

In this case, the information retrieval method according to another embodiment of the present invention may further include extracting a query search result based on a query received from the user.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, by searching for information in consideration of the structural association based on the personalized social network of the user, it is possible to provide a more reliable search results in accordance with the query intention of the user.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, by setting a rating in accordance with the familiarity with the user to create a social database, and performs a social search based on the set rating, to set the scope of the search, providing a reliable search results can do.

Hereinafter, with reference to the contents described in the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the embodiments of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to or limited by the embodiments. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.

1 is a diagram showing an information retrieval apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the information retrieval apparatus 100 may include a social database 110, a social search unit 120, and an output unit 130.

The social database 110 may store social relationship information of the user. In this case, the social relationship information may include a plurality of user information forming a social relationship with the user. For example, users who are friends with a user may be classified and stored as a friend group, and people who are in a friend relationship with the user may be classified and stored as a peer group. In addition, according to the relationship with the user can set the class (ex. 1 village, 2 village, etc.) to classify and store different users for each grade. Here, the social relationship of the user will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 2.

2 is a diagram showing the structure of a social connection network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, there are a plurality of users 221, 222, 223, and 224 forming a social relationship with the user 210, and the plurality of users 221, 222, 223, and 224 are connected to the user 210. It can be classified into one or more groups according to social relations. That is, there may be a social group in a company peer relationship with the user 210, a social group in a friend relationship of the user 210 may exist, and a group classified by the user 210 as an expert may exist.

Here, the information 230 included in the user 221 in a specific group among the plurality of users 221, 222, 223, and 224 may be information highly related to the information required by the user 210.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the social search unit 120 may extract a social search result based on social relationship information. For example, when a user wants to view contents of users belonging to a social group 'colleague', the search result may be extracted by limiting the social group to be viewed only by the 'colleague'.

In addition, the information retrieval apparatus 100 may further include a query retrieval unit 140. That is, when a user wants to perform a query search and a social search in parallel, the query may be searched together through the query search unit 140. For example, if the user wants to search for a blog related to 'samsung camera review', the user inputs the search term 'samsung camera review' through the query search unit 140 and the user belongs to the social group 'colleague' in the searched output. You can reorganize your web pages with the priority of your blog. Or, if the user wants to search for a blog related to 'samsung camera review', the user inputs the search term 'samsung camera review' through the query search unit 140 and a user belonging to the social group 'colleague' is posted in the searched output. You can have only one blog output.

Conversely, a user may perform a social search first and a query search later. For example, the user may search for all the blogs posted by the social group 'colleague', and search for and output the blog related to the query word 'samsung camera review' from the search results.

Here, the query search and the social search may be performed at the same time. Therefore, the query "samsung camera review" and the social relationship "peer" can be input at the same time, and the search results satisfying both conditions can be output. In addition, the user may be configured to output a search result that satisfies one of the two conditions simultaneously input.

As described above, by performing a query search and a social search, the user can browse the information provided by the users of the social group desired by the user, and can derive a search result more suitable for the user's intention.

The output unit 130 may output the extracted search result. That is, the extracted search result may be output on the screen to allow the user to browse the desired information. Here, the content, blog, etc. provided by the social group selected by the user may be set to be output in the upper rank by weighting the output rank. Alternatively, the search results may be ranked and output according to the grade of each social group. The output screen according to the search result will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

3 is a diagram illustrating a search result screen for explaining information retrieval according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, when a searcher inputs 'samsung camera review' as a query for a blog search, a screen outputted as a search result is shown. In the case of performing only a query search without performing a social search, search results are ranked and output according to whether or not they match the query without considering social relations with the searcher. For example, if the identification number 320 of the search result output according to the search query is set to 1 to 6, the search result searched in consideration of the social relationship 330 may have a different output rank. Where posts 1 and 5 are posts from a friend, posts 2 are from fellows, post 3 is from a stranger, post 4 from an expert , Post 6 can be assumed to be a post of a friend of a friend. At this time, the searcher may set a ranking in a social relationship so that the searcher posts the blog posted by the user having the highest priority as the priority.

In the example of the table 410 shown in FIG. 4, the user sets 'friend' and 'colleague' as first priority, 'friend's friend' as second rank, 'expert' as third rank, and 'unfamiliar'. People 'can be set to 4th priority. The ranking setting may be set in a search environment setting or may be entered by a searcher at every search. In the case of outputting a search result based on the set rank, the search result of FIG. 3 has a priority corresponding to posts corresponding to identification numbers 1, 2, and 5, and corresponds to a post corresponding to identification number 6 and identification number 4. Posts, posts corresponding to the identification number 3 may be output in order. Here, the output ranking among the posts of identification numbers 1, 2, and 5 corresponding to the same ranking may be determined based on a rating or intimacy point set for each user.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an information retrieval method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, in operation 510, social relationship information of a user may be stored. That is, one or more social groups may be set according to social relations with the user. Here, the one or more social groups may include friend groups, peer groups, expert groups, friend groups of friends, stranger groups, and the like. Here, an example of step 510 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of storing social relationship information of a user illustrated in FIG. 5.

Referring to FIG. 6, in operation 610, a rating may be set for a plurality of online users according to intimacy with the user. That is, other users may be set to grades 1, 2, 3, etc. according to the intimacy with the user.

In operation 620, the information may be stored by grouping the classes. That is, the set village may be grouped and stored as a village group, and the village group may be stored as a village group.

Accordingly, the user can designate the set group so that the user can search for the information of the group.

Referring back to FIG. 5, in step 520, a social search result may be extracted based on social relationship information. For example, when the user designates a social group to be searched for as an 'expert', the user may search for information on the social group 'expert', thereby providing a search result that more closely matches the intention of the user. Here, step 520 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of extracting a social search result illustrated in FIG. 5.

Referring to FIG. 7, in operation 710, a social relationship for searching may be input from a user. In this case, the user may limit the social group to search or set the priority of the social group to search. Therefore, when defining a social group, a search may be performed only for a specific social group, and when the priority of the social group is set, the priority of the output may be ranked according to the priority of the social group.

In operation 720, a search result may be extracted from a user having an input social relationship.

Referring back to FIG. 5, in operation 530, the extracted search result may be output. In this case, the extraction of the search result may output the result according to the priority of the social relationship.

As described above, by performing the search in consideration of the social relationship of the user, it is possible to provide a search result that matches the user's intention of the query and is more relevant to the user.

In addition, by setting a rating according to the familiarity with the user to create a social database, and performing a social search based on the set rating, it is possible to set the scope of the search, and provide more reliable search results.

The information retrieval method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded in a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. Program instructions recorded on the media may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

Although one embodiment of the present invention as described above has been described by a limited embodiment and drawings, one embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, which is a general knowledge in the field of the present invention Those having a variety of modifications and variations are possible from these descriptions. Accordingly, one embodiment of the invention should be understood only by the claims set forth below, all equivalent or equivalent modifications will be within the scope of the invention idea.

1 is a diagram showing an information retrieval apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a diagram showing the structure of a social connection network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a search result screen for explaining information retrieval according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a social relationship for reconstructing a search result shown in FIG. 3.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an information retrieval method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of storing social relationship information of a user illustrated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of extracting a social search result illustrated in FIG. 5.

Claims (17)

A social database for storing social relationship information of a user; A social search unit which extracts a social search result based on the social relationship information; And Output unit for outputting the extracted search results Information retrieval apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 1, Query search unit for extracting a query search results based on the query received from the user Information retrieval apparatus further comprises. The method of claim 2, The social search unit, And extracting the social search result based on the query search result extracted by the query search unit. The method of claim 2, The query search unit, Extracting the query search result based on the social search result extracted by the social search unit, The output unit, And output a query search result of the query search unit. The method of claim 1, The social database, And classifying and storing a plurality of online users into one or more social groups according to social relations with the users. The method of claim 5, The social database, And classifying and storing the plurality of on-line users according to their intimacy with the user and grouping the plurality of online users. The method of claim 1, The social search unit, And an input of a social relation to search for from the user, and extract a search result from the user having the input social relation. The method of claim 7, wherein And the social relationship received from the user includes rating information set according to intimacy with the user. Storing social relationship information of the user; Extracting a social search result based on the social relationship information; And Outputting the extracted search results Information retrieval method comprising a. 10. The method of claim 9, Extracting a query search result based on a query received from the user; Information retrieval method further comprising. The method of claim 10, Extracting the social search results, And extracting the social search result based on the query search result. The method of claim 10, Extracting the query search results, Extracting the query search result based on the social search result extracted by the social search unit, The outputting of the search result may include: Outputting a query search result of the query search unit. 10. The method of claim 9, The storing of the social relationship information may include: And classifying and storing a plurality of online users into one or more social groups according to social relations with the users. The method of claim 13, The storing of the social relationship information may include: Setting a rating for the plurality of online users according to intimacy with the user; And Grouping and storing the classes Information retrieval method comprising a. 10. The method of claim 9, Extracting the social search results, Receiving a social relationship for searching from the user; And Extracting a search result from the user having the entered social relationship Information retrieval method comprising a. The method of claim 15, And the social relationship received from the user includes rating information set according to intimacy with the user. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the method of any one of claims 9 to 16 is recorded.

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