Canonicalization of terms in a keyword-based presentation system

Abstract

A presentation system accepts presentations or references to presentations from prospective presenters. Some or all of the presentations or references are stored in a database and referenced by keywords such that presentations to be presented in response to particular searches can be identified. A presentation manager handles accepting bids and settling terms between prospective presenters. The results of such processes might be stored in a presentation details database. A presentation server handles retrieving presentations from the presentation details database for presentation to users along with requests such as search results. Both the presentation manager and the presentation server can operate on a keywords-basis, wherein presentation terms specify keywords to be associated with particular presentations and the presentation server serves particular presentations based on keywords in a search query for which the presentations are to be returned. The association of keywords can be done using canonicalization so that, under certain conditions, different keywords are treated as the same keyword. Canonicalizations might include plural/singular forms, gender forms, stem word forms, suffix forms, prefix forms, typographical error forms, word order, pattern ignoring, acronyms, stop word elimination, etc. Conditions might include aspects of the search query state, such as the user's demographics, the page from which the search query was initiated, etc.

1 . A method comprising:
 receiving one or more search terms from a user;   canonicalizing one or more of the one or more search terms to form one or more reformed search terms;   determining, based on the one or more search terms, a set of content items that satisfy the one or more search terms, wherein the set of content items are stored in a search corpus repository;   selecting, based on the one or more reformed search terms, one or more presentations from a presentation repository that is distinct from the search corpus repository;   wherein selecting the one or more presentations includes matching terms in the one or more reformed search terms with a plurality of keywords, wherein the plurality of keywords are associated with a plurality of presentations in the presentation repository;   sending, to the user, the set of content items and the one or more presentations,   wherein the one or more presentations are either (a) one or more advertisements or (b) one or more sponsored search results.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more presentations are one or more advertisements. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more presentations are one or more sponsored search results. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the set of content items is also based on the one or more reformed search terms. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 canonicalizing one or more of the one or more search terms to form one or more second reformed search terms,   wherein the one or more second reformed search terms are different than the one or more reformed search terms,   wherein determining the set of content items is also based on the one or more second reformed search terms.   
   
   
       6 . A method comprising:
 receiving one or more search terms from a user;   canonicalizing one or more of the one or more search terms to form one or more reformed search terms;   determining, based on the one or more search terms, a set of content items that satisfy the one or more search terms;   selecting, based on the one or more reformed search terms, one or more presentations,   wherein the one or more reformed search terms are not used to determine the set of content items;   wherein selecting the one or more presentations includes matching terms in the one or more reformed search terms with a plurality of keywords, wherein the plurality of keywords are associated with a plurality of presentations;   sending, to the user, the set of content items and the one or more presentations,   wherein the one or more presentations are either (a) one or more advertisements or (b) one or more sponsored search results.   
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the one or more presentations are one or more advertisements. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the one or more presentations are one or more sponsored search results. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the associations between the plurality of keywords and the plurality of advertisements are made by a plurality of advertisers that are the source of the plurality of presenations. 
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 canonicalizing one or more of the one or more search terms to form one or more second reformed search terms,   wherein the one or more second reformed search terms are different than the one or more reformed search terms,   wherein determining the set of content items is also based on the one or more second reformed search terms.   
   
   
       11 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 1 . 
   
   
       12 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 2 . 
   
   
       13 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 3 . 
   
   
       14 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 4 . 
   
   
       15 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 5 . 
   
   
       16 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 6 . 
   
   
       17 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 7 . 
   
   
       18 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 8 . 
   
   
       19 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 9 . 
   
   
       20 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in  claim 10 .