DYNAMIC DEFINITIVE IMAGE SERVICE

摘要

A representative image system is described herein that provides a representative image for any given search query. Upon receiving a search for a term (or terms), the system accesses an inverted index to identify images associated with that term. The system then receives a ranked list of images. The ranked list includes image identifiers, and once an item in the list is selected the system can use the associated image identifier to retrieve the image from a thumbnail or other server. If an editor has overridden the default image for the present search query, then the system returns the image identifier for the overridden image, which can be used to access the image from the thumbnail or other server. Thus, the representative image system provides a reliable and universal mechanism for retrieving representative images for any given topic dynamically in real time.

主权项

1. A computer system for providing a dynamic definitive image service, the system comprising:
a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions embodied within the following components; an image data store that stores data regarding one or more images; an image request component that receives a request during a query for a definitive image that is representative of a topic of the query; an image mapping component that maps one or more query terms of the received request to one or more images that are related to the one or more query terms; an image ranking component that ranks the one or more identified images according to a relative likelihood of being a definitive image for the topic of the query; an editorial override component that provides an interface through which a human editor can manually override the definitive image selected by other components of the system to identify an editor-chosen definitive image; an image selection component that selects a definitive image based on images returned from the index, any overridden editor-chosen definitive image, and ranking input from the image ranking component; a retrieval component that retrieves an image binary associated with the selected definitive image; and an image response component that responds to the received request with the retrieved image binary.