tedster - 7:59 pm on Apr 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

This is something to chew on - a Yahoo patent application [appft1.uspto.gov] from April 19, 2005

Abstract ...a concept network is generated from a set of queries by parsing the queries into units and defining various relationships between the units based in part on patterns of units that appear together in queries... Claims A computer-implemented method...comprising the acts of: 1...identifying a superunit seed comprising at least one member unit, wherein each member unit is one of the plurality of units of the concept network; defining a signature for the superunit seed, the signature including one or more signature units, wherein each signature unit has a relationship in the concept network with at least a minimum number of the member units; expanding the superunit seed by adding one or more new member units from the concept network, wherein each new member unit satisfies a match criterion based on the signature; modifying the signature based on the expanded superunit seed; repeating the acts of expanding and modifying until a convergence criterion is satisfied, wherein a final superunit and a final signature are formed once the convergence criterion is satisfied; and storing superunit membership information for each member unit of the final superunit.