Search query predictions by a keyboard

• US 10,305,828 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2016
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Cao, Jing, Greenberg, Alexa, Sharma, Abhanshu, Su, Yanchao, Kong, Nicholas, Mohsin, Muhammad, Jurewicz, Jacek, Huang, Wei, Sharifi, Matthew, Sidhom, Benjamin
• Primary Examiner(s): Silverman, Seth A
• Application Number:
  US15/133,291
• Publication Number:
  US 20170310616A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90328 using search space presentation or visualization, e.g. category or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services

Abstract

A computing device is described that includes at least one processor and a memory including instructions that when executed cause the at least one processor to output, for display, a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys, and determine, based on an indication of a selection of one or more keys from the plurality of keys, text of an electronic communication. The instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to identify, based at least in part on the text, a searchable entity or trigger phrase, generate, based on the searchable entity or trigger phrase, a search query, and output, for display, within the graphical keyboard, a graphical indication to indicate that the computing device generated the search query.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

outputting, by a keyboard application executing at a computing device, for display, a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys and a suggestion region in which suggested words for text entry are displayed, wherein the keyboard application is a stand-alone application or subroutine that is invoked by different applications executing at the computing device at times when the different applications require graphical keyboard input functionality;

determining, by the keyboard application, based on an indication of a selection of one or more keys from the plurality of keys, text being input using the graphical keyboard;

identifying, by the keyboard application, based at least in part on the text, a searchable entity including one or more words of the text being input using the graphical keyboard that could be used as a basis for a search;

generating, by the keyboard application, based on the searchable entity, a search query;

outputting, by the keyboard application, for display within a search region of the graphical keyboard that replaces the suggestion region of the graphical keyboard, a graphical indication to indicate that the keyboard application generated the search query, wherein the graphical indication includes text of the search query as a suggested query for searching, and wherein the search region of the graphical keyboard is positioned within the graphical keyboard to be between at least some of character keys of the plurality of keys and a text input region of a graphical user interface of a particular application from the different applications that invoked the keyboard application to output the graphical keyboard for display;

initiating, by the keyboard application, a search based on the search query as at least one of;

an on-device search, executed by a search application, for search results associated with information stored locally at the computing device;

or a remote search, executed by the search application, for search results associated with information stored remotely to the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query is determined in response to determining an end of the text, the method further comprising:

determining, by the keyboard application, the end of the text in response to determining that a last key of the selection of one or more keys corresponds to a punctuation key associated with a punctuation character.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query is determined in response to determining an end of the text, the method further comprising:

determining, by the keyboard application, the end of the text in response to determining that a last key of the selection of one or more keys corresponds to a send key of the graphical keyboard to send an electronic communication based on the text.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the graphical indication further comprises modifying a visual format of a search key from the plurality of keys to further indicate that the computing device generated the search query.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the searchable entity comprises:

determining, by the keyboard application, based on at least a portion of the text, the one or more words of the text being input using the graphical keyboard;

determining, by the keyboard application, based on the one or more words and from a local model of searchable entities, a score assigned to the searchable entity indicating a probability that the searchable entity is relevant to the one or more words, the local model being associated with a current location of the computing device;

responsive to determining the score assigned to the searchable entity satisfies a threshold, identifying, by the keyboard application, the searchable entity.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the local model is a first local model, the method further comprising:

responsive to determining a change in the current location of the computing device from a first location to a second location;

obtaining, by the keyboard application, from a remote computing system, a second model of searchable entities, the second model being associated with the second location; and

replacing, by the keyboard application, the first local model with the second model.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the searchable entity comprises:

determining, by the keyboard application, based on at least a portion of the text, the one or more words of the text being input using the graphical keyboard;

determining, by the keyboard application, based on the one or more words and from a global model of searchable entities, a score assigned to the searchable entity indicating a probability that the searchable entity is relevant to the one or more words, the global model being associated with a geographical region that includes respective locations associated with two or more models of searchable entities; and

responsive to determining the score assigned to the searchable entity satisfies a threshold, identifying, by the computing device, the searchable entity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the searchable entity comprises:

determining, by the keyboard application, based on at least a portion of the text, the one or more words of the text being input using the graphical keyboard;

determining, by the keyboard application, based on the one or more words and from at least one of a global model of searchable entities or a local model of searchable entities, a score assigned to the searchable entity indicating a probability that the searchable entity is relevant to the one or more words, the global model being associated with a geographical region that includes respective locations associated with two different local models of searchable entities including the local model of searchable entities;

modifying, by the keyboard application, based on contextual information and from a machine learned model, the score assigned to the searchable entity; and

after modifying the score assigned to the searchable entity and responsive to determining the score assigned to the searchable entity satisfies a threshold, identifying, by the keyboard application, the searchable entity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the contextual information includes information associated with an electronic conversation that includes an electronic communication based on the text and one or more other electronic communications that have been sent or received by the computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the search query comprises:

determining, by the keyboard application, based at least in part on the searchable entity, a curated phrase associated with the searchable entity; and

generating, by the keyboard application, from the curated phrase, the search query, wherein the searchable entity comprises a trigger phrase, and wherein the curated phrase associated with the searchable entity is further determined based at least in part on a current context of the computing device.

11. A mobile device comprising:

a presence-sensitive display component;

at least one processor; and

a memory that stores instructions associated with a keyboard application that when executed cause the at least one processor to;

output, for display at the presence-sensitive display component, a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys and a suggestion region in which suggested words for text entry are displayed, wherein the keyboard application is a stand-alone application or subroutine that is invoked by different applications executing at the computing device at times when the different applications require graphical keyboard input functionality;

determine, based on an indication of a selection of one or more keys from the plurality of keys detected at the presence-sensitive display component, text being input using the graphical keyboard;

identify, based at least in part on the text, a trigger phrase including one or more words of the text being input using the graphical keyboard that could be used as a basis for a search;

generate, based on the trigger phrase, a search query;

output, for display, at the presence-sensitive display component and within a search region of the graphical keyboard that replaces the suggestion region of the graphical keyboard, a graphical indication to indicate that the keyboard application generated the search query, wherein the graphical indication includes text of the search query as a suggested query for searching, and wherein the search region of the graphical keyboard is positioned within the graphical keyboard to be between at least some of character keys of the plurality of keys and a text input region of a graphical user interface of a particular application from the different applications that invoked the keyboard application to output the graphical keyboard for display; and

initiating, by the keyboard application, a search based on the search query as at least one of;

an on-device search, executed by a search application executing at the at least one processor, for search results associated with information stored locally at the computing device;

or a remote search, executed by the search application, for search results associated with information stored remotely to the computing device.

12. A method comprising:

invoking, by a first application executing at a computing device, for receiving text input, a keyboard application that is configured to provide a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys and a suggestion region in which suggested words for text entry are displayed, wherein the keyboard application is a stand-alone application or subroutine that is invoked by the first application and other applications executing at the computing device at times when the first application and the other applications require graphical keyboard input functionality;

determining, by the keyboard application, based on an indication of a selection of one or more keys from the plurality of keys, the text input;

identifying, by the keyboard application, based at least in part on the text input, a searchable entity including one or more words of the text input that could be used as a basis for a search;

generating, by the keyboard application, based on the searchable entity, a search query;

outputting, by the keyboard application, for display within a search region of the graphical keyboard that replaces the suggestion region of the graphical keyboard, a graphical indication to indicate that the keyboard application generated the search query, wherein the graphical indication includes text of the search query as a suggested query for searching, and wherein the search region of the graphical keyboard is positioned within the graphical keyboard to be between at least some of character keys of the plurality of keys and a text input region of a graphical user interface of the first application that invoked the keyboard application to output the graphical keyboard for display;

responsive to receiving, by the keyboard application, an indication of a selection of the search query, initiating, by the keyboard application, at a search application that is different than the first application and the keyboard application, a search based on the search query; and

executing, by the search application, the search based on the search query as at least one of;

an on-device search for search results associated with information stored locally at the computing device;

or a remote search for search results associated with information stored remotely to the computing device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first application is a chat application and the text input is associated with an electronic conversation within the chat application.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

outputting, by the first application, for display in place of at least a portion of the plurality of keys, a graphical indication of one or more search results obtained by the keyboard application after the keyboard application initiates the search.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

responsive to receiving, by the first application, an indication of a selection of at least one of the one or more search results, outputting, by the first application, the at least one of the one or more search results as a message of an electronic conversation.