The present disclosure provides a question answering method and apparatus for query information. The method may include: receiving query information input by a user, and analyzing a query target comprised in the query information; recalling candidate answers from a pre-generated knowledge graph based on the query target, where the knowledge graph is constructed based on inherent data in a map database and dynamic data of historical users, and the dynamic data includes at least one of comment data, search data, or spatiotemporal big data; and returning, in response to that there is a target answer whose matching degree with the query target exceeds a preset threshold in the candidate answers, the target answer to the user.

A method trains a neural network to identify an event based on discrepancies in answers to factoid questions at different times. One or more processors identify answers to a series of factoid questions. The processor(s) compare the answers from the series of factoid questions in order to determine discrepancies in the answers at different times, and then train a neural network to identify an event based on the discrepancies in the answers at the different times.

There is disclosed a computer-implemented method and system for generating a set of training objects for training a machine learning algorithm (MLA) to determine query similarity based on textual content thereof, the MLA executable by the system. The method comprises retrieving, from a search log database of the system, a first query and other queries with associated search results. The method then comprises selecting a subset of query pairs such that: a query difference in queries in the pair is minimized and a results difference in respective search results is maximized.

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for automated population of responses into query fields of a form are discussed. The responses are based on data in a networked user data repository maintained by a first party, and the form is presented by a second party. A login request for access to data in the user data repository may be received from a remote computing device. If access to the data in the user data repository is authorized, descriptors for at least one of the query fields may be received, and based on the descriptors, it may be determined whether any responses to any query fields are contained in the user data repository. Query fields may be populated with responses obtained through the data repository. The user provides the second party with information that is made available to the first party without separately inputting the information into the form of the second party.

A system and method of processing a search request is provided. Identification of a desired content item is based on comparing a topic of the search request to previous user input. The method includes providing access to a set of content items with metadata that describes the corresponding content items and providing information about previous searches. The method further includes receiving a present input from the user and determining a relatedness measure between the information about the previous searches and an element of the present input. If the relatedness measure is high, the method also includes selecting a subset of content items based on comparing the present input and information about the previous searches with the metadata that describes the subset of content items. Otherwise, the method includes selecting a subset of content items based on comparing the present input with the metadata that describes the subset of content items.

Systems, devices, and methods of the present invention detect rhetoric agreement between texts. In an example, a rhetoric agreement application accesses a multi-part initial query and generates a question communicative discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between fragments of the query. The application identifies a sub-discourse tree from the question communicative discourse tree. The application generates a candidate answer communicative discourse tree for each candidate answer of a set of candidate answers. The application computes a level of complementarity between the sub-discourse tree and each candidate answer discourse tree by applying a classification model to the sub-discourse tree and candidate answer communicative discourse trees. The application selects an answer from the candidate answers based on the computed complementarity, thereby building a dialogue structure of an interactive session.

The present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for information retrieval. A search result associated with a search query is obtained and provided to a user. Upon receiving a filtering request from the user, the search result is filtered based on the filtering request to generate an updated search result. The updated search result is provided to the user in response to the filtering request.

The subject matter of this specification generally relates to preventing the distribution of forbidden network content. In one aspect, a system includes a front-end server that receives content for distribution over a data communication network. The back-end server identifies, in the query log, a set of received queries for which a given forbidden term was used to identify a search result in response to the received query even though the given forbidden term was not included in queries included in the set of received queries. The back-end server classifies, as variants of the given forbidden term, a term from one or more queries in the set of received queries that caused a search engine to use the given forbidden term to identify one or more search results in response to the one or more queries and prevents distribution of content that includes a variant.

The invention relates to a method for personalizing a search of a search service. The search service comprises a search index with content items of a search type being used as first search results for first search queries issued by the client application and providing second search queries to be executed for retrieving second search results to be returned in reply to the first search queries. The method comprises using social media content items retrieved from social media services for extracting a set of keywords comprised by the social media content items. A second search query modified, wherein the modifying comprises adding keywords of the set keywords as additional search parameters of the determined second search query.

Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving, at a local device from a remote device, query data representative of a question relating to source content of a source document, and determining whether one or more pre-determined questions stored in a question-answer cache maintained at the local device matches the query data according to one or more matching criteria. The method further includes obtaining from the question-answer cache, in response to a determination that at least one of the pre-determined questions matches the query data received from the remote device, at least one answer data item, associated with at least one pre-determined question, corresponding to an answer to the question relating to the source content.