~ Vernor Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky In a science fiction novel set far in the future, Vernor Vinge writes about how people might engage in software archaeology. I understand the desire to do that, looking at some patents that give us hints about how technology is changing, and processes behind search engines do as well. Google has just been granted a continuation patent for universal search. This post is looking at how the patents covering universal search at Google have changed. This post is not intended as a lesson on how patents work, but knowing something about how continuation patents work, can provide some insights into the processes that people at Google are trying to protect when they have updated the universal search patent. This post is also not intended as an analysis of patents, but rather a look at how search works, and has changed in the last dozen years or so A patent is pursued by a company to protect the process described within the patent. It isnât unusual that the process protected by a patent might change in some way as it is implemented, and put into use. What sometimes happens when that takes place is that the company that was originally assigned the initial patent might file another patent. One referred to as a continuation patent, which takes the original granted date of the first version of the patent as the start time for protection under the patent. The continuation patents are usually very similar to the earlier versions of the patents, with the description sections often being very close to identical. The parts of the patents that change are the claims sections, which are what prosecuting attorneys deciding whether to grant a patent look at and review to see if the patents are new, non-obvious and useful, and should be granted. So, in looking at updated patents covering a specific process, ideally it makes sense to look at how the claims have changed over time. The Original Universal Search Patent ApplicationBefore the patent was granted, I wrote about it in the post How Google Universal Search and Blended Results May Work which was about the Universal Search Patent application published in 2008. That patent was granted, and the claims from the original filing of the patent were updated from the original application, when it was granted in 2011 (Sometimes processes in original applications have to be amended for the patent to be granted, and the claims may change to match those). The First Universal Search PatentIn the 2011 granted version of Interleaving Search Results, the first six claims to the patent give us a flavor for what the patent covers:
The Second Universal Search PatentWe know that Google introduced Universal Search Results at a Searchology presentation in 2007 (a few months before the patent was filed originally), and the patent has been updated since then, with a continuation patent titled Interleaving Search Results granted in 2015, which has new claims, which insert the concept of historic click data into those. Here are the first five claims from that version of the patent:
The Updated Universal Search PatentThe newest version of Interleaving Search Results is still a pending patent application at this point, published on January 2, 2019 Publication Number: 3422216 Abstract: (EN) A method comprising receiving a plurality of first search results that satisfy a search query directed to a first search engine, each of the plurality of first search results having a respective first score, receiving a second search result from a second search engine, the second search result having a second score, wherein the search query is not directed to the second search engine, wherein at least one of the first and second scores is based on characteristics of queries or results of queries learned from user click data; and determining from the second score whether to present the second search result, and if so, presenting the first search results in an order according to their respective scores, and presenting the second search result at a position relative to the order, the position being determined using the first scores and the second score
Changes to Universal SearchIf you look at them, you will see David Baileyâs name on those patents. He wrote a guest post at Search Engine land about Universal Search that provides a lot of insight into how it works and the title of the post refers to that: An Insiderâs View Of Google Universal Search Itâs worth reading though his analysis of Universal search carefully before trying to compare the claims from one version of the patent to another The second version of the claims refer to historic click data, and the newest version changes that to âuser click dataâ, but doesnât provide any insights into why that change in the claims was made. Weâve heard spokespeople from Google tell us that they donât utilize user click data to rank content, so this gets a little confusing if they are taken at their word. Another difference in the latest claims is where it refers to multiple distinct scoring features, and how each type of search that is blended into results has some unique scoring feature that sets it apart from the results inserted on to the search results page from a search engine before it. We do know that different types of search are ranked based upon different signals, such as freshness being important for news results, and links often for Web results. So results shown in universal search may all be relevant for a query searched for, but have some element that considers some unique features that adds diversity to what we see in SERPs. Copyright © 2019 SEO by the Sea â. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at may be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact SEO by the Sea, so we can take appropriate action immediately. Plugin by Taragana The post Universal Search Updated at Google appeared first on SEO by the Sea â. from http://www.seobythesea.com/2019/01/universal-search-updated-at-google/
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