Search query variation poses a challenge in e-commerce search, as equivalent search intents can be expressed through different queries with surface-level differences. This paper introduces a framework to recognize and leverage query equivalence to enhance searcher and business outcomes. The proposed approach addresses three key problems: mapping queries to vector representations of search intent, identifying nearest neighbor queries expressing equivalent or similar intent, and optimizing for user or business objectives. The framework utilizes both surface similarity and behavioral similarity to determine query equivalence. Surface similarity involves canonicalizing queries based on word inflection, word order, compounding, and noise words. Behavioral similarity leverages historical search behavior to generate vector representations of query intent. An offline process is used to train a sentence similarity model, while an online nearest neighbor approach supports processing of unseen queries. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, outperforming popular sentence transformer models and achieving a Pearson correlation of 0.85 for query similarity. The results highlight the potential of leveraging historical behavior data and training models to recognize and utilize query equivalence in e-commerce search, leading to improved user experiences and business outcomes. Further advancements and benchmark datasets are encouraged to facilitate the development of solutions for this critical problem in the e-commerce domain.

An oft-touted mantra for creativity is: think like a child. We focus on one particular aspect of child-like thinking here, namely surface similarities. Developmental psychology has convincingly demonstrated, time and again, that younger children use surface similarities for categorization and related tasks; only as they grow older they start to consider functional and structural similarities. We consider examples of puzzles, research on creative problem solving, and two of our recent empirical studies to demonstrate how surface similarities can stimulate creative thinking. We examine the implications of this approach for designing creativity-support systems.