Thematic Search
Topics: AI (Deep Learning), AI Mode, AIOverviews, LLMO / GEO, Query Fan Out, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
This Google patent describes a “thematic search” system that, in response to a user’s query, not only returns the usual ranked list of web results but also automatically identifies common themes (short descriptive phrases) appearing across those results. It does so by generating concise summaries of passages within the top responsive documents, clustering those summaries to form “themes,” and then presenting those themes alongside (or integrated with) the regular search results. Users can click on a theme to see only the subset of results related to that theme or have the system automatically refine the query by combining the original search with the chosen theme, enabling a kind of guided, drill-down exploration without manually typing new queries. This patent descibes the process of generating themes/passages for AIOverviews and partly AI Mode.