Enterprise search

• US 10,534,783 B1
• Filed: 02/08/2017
• Issued: 01/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microstrategy Incorporated
• Inventors: Raczko, Cezary, Ziraknejad, Siamak
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kim T
• Application Number:
  US15/427,660
• Time in Patent Office: 1,070 Days
• Field of Search: 707727
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9035 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for performing a universal search for resources across platforms in an enterprise system are described. A search server may receive one or more characters of a search query input at a user device of a user that is a member of an organization and identify one or more resources having metadata or content that includes the one or more characters. For each identified resource, the server may determine a category to which the identified resource belongs, receive source access data indicating resource access patterns of users in the organization, and rank the one or more resources based on the resource access data. The server may provide, to the user device, search result data for display that indicates the ranked one or more resources.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more computers, comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computers, one or more characters of a search query input at a user device of a user who is a member of an organization;

identifying, by the one or more computers, resources having metadata or content that includes the one or more characters;

accessing, by the one or more computers, data indicating different clusters of members of the organization, wherein the clusters represent different subsets of members of the organization, with the clusters being defined based on (i) commonalities among terms in queries submitted by the members or (ii) commonalities among characteristics of documents accessed by the members;

determining, by the one or more computers, a particular cluster for the user of the user device from among the different clusters of members of the organization;

receiving, by the one or more computers, resource access data indicating resource access patterns of members of the organization in the particular cluster;

ranking, by the one or more computers, the resources based on the resource access patterns of members of the organization in the particular cluster indicated in the resource access data; and

providing, from the one or more computers to the user device, search result data for display that indicates a plurality of the resources and orders the plurality of the resources according to the ranking.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each identified resource, determining, by the one or more computers, a category to which the identified resource belongs;

ranking, by the one or more computers, the determined categories of the resources;

wherein the search result data further (i) indicates at least one search result from each of multiple categories, (ii) indicates the categories corresponding to the different search results, or (iii) designates the search results from the multiple categories for presentation according to the ranking of the categories.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the ranking for each category is determined at least in part based on whether the user of the user device previously selected a search result corresponding to category.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the categories represent resources of different content types.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the search results include:

a search result representing a document provided by an enterprise computing system; and

a search result representing a user of the enterprise computing system or a search result representing an application provided by the enterprise computing system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a particular person based on the one or more characters of the search query input;

providing, for display with the search result data, an indication of the particular person identified based on the one or more characters of the search query input;

after providing the search result data and the indication of the particular person for display;

receiving data indicating a user selection of the indication of the particular person;

filtering the identified resources to obtain a filtered set of resources that are each associated with the particular person; and

providing, by the one or more computers and for display at the user device, updated search result data that indicates resources from the filtered set.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after providing the search result data, receiving, by the one or more computers, data indicative of a selection of one of the resources indicated in the search result data;

in response to receiving the data indicative of the selection, setting, by the one or more computers, a filter that is configured to limit results for a subsequent query from the user device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the resources is based on whether the resources were identified using data from a user cache that indicates documents previously accessed by the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is a first user device and the user is a first user, wherein the method comprises:

determining that a second user device of a second user is located in proximity to the first user device of the first user; and

accessing document access data indicating document accesses by the second user;

wherein ranking the resources comprises;

in response to determining that the second user device is located in proximity to the first user device, ranking the resources based on the document access data indicating document accesses by the second user.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, in a cache storage on the user device, interaction data indicating one or more resources selected by the user of the user device in response to receiving search result data for previous queries;

wherein identifying the resources having metadata or content that includes the one or more characters comprises using the interaction data in the cache storage to identify one or more resources that the user previously selected as having metadata or content that includes the one or more characters; and

wherein the identified resources are ranked based at least in part on whether the identified resources were identified from the interaction data in the cache storage.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computers, one or more characters of a search query input entered to a search query field at a user device of a user who is a member of an organization;

identifying, by the one or more computers, resources having metadata or content that includes the one or more characters;

accessing, by the one or more computers, data indicating different clusters of members of the organization, wherein the clusters represent different subsets of members of the organization, with the clusters being defined based on (i) commonalities among terms in queries submitted by the members or (ii) commonalities among characteristics of documents accessed by the members;

determining, by the one or more computers, a particular cluster for the user of the user device from among the different clusters of members of the organization;

receiving, by the one or more computers, resource access data indicating resource access patterns of members of the organization in the particular cluster;

ranking, by the one or more computers, the resources based on the resource access patterns of members of the organization in the particular cluster indicated in the resource access data;

providing, from the one or more computers to the user device, search result data for display that indicates a plurality of the resources and orders the plurality of the resources according to the ranking.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

for each identified resource, determining, by the one or more computers, a category to which the identified resource belongs;

ranking, by the one or more computers, the determined categories of the resources;

wherein the search result data further (i) indicates at least one search result from each of multiple categories, (ii) indicates the categories corresponding to the different search results, or (iii) designates the search results from the multiple categories for presentation according to the ranking of the categories.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the one or more computers, data indicating a selection by the user of a particular resource indicated by the search result data; and

in response to receiving the data indicating the selection, applying, by the one or more computers, a filter determined based on the particular resource to a set of resources identified in response to a subsequent search query.

14. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that upon execution by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the one or more computers, one or more characters of a search query input at a user device of a user who is a member of an organization;

identifying, by the one or more computers, resources having metadata or content that includes the one or more characters;

accessing, by the one or more computers, data indicating different clusters of members of the organization, wherein the clusters represent different subsets of members of the organization, with the clusters being defined based on (i) commonalities among terms in queries submitted by the members or (ii) commonalities among characteristics of documents accessed by the members;

determining, by the one or more computers, a particular cluster for the user of the user device from among the different clusters of members of the organization;

receiving, by the one or more computers, resource access data indicating resource access patterns of members of the organization in the particular cluster;

ranking, by the one or more computers, the resources based on the resource access patterns of members of the organization in the particular cluster indicated in the resource access data; and

providing, from the one or more computers to the user device, search result data for display that indicates a plurality of the resources and orders the plurality of the resources according to the ranking.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

for each identified resource, determining, by the one or more computers, a category to which the identified resource belongs;

ranking, by the one or more computers, the determined categories of the resources;

wherein the search result data further (i) indicates at least one search result from each of multiple categories, (ii) indicates the categories corresponding to the different search results, or (iii) designates the search results from the multiple categories for presentation according to the ranking of the categories.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

filtering the identified one or more resources and the determined categories based on one or more search signals; and

providing, by the one or more computers and for display at the user device, the search result data before the user signals completion of the search query input.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the one or more computers, data indicative of a selection of one of the ranked one or more resources;

receiving, by the one or more computers, one or more characters in a second search query input at the user device; and

setting, by the one or more computers, a filter based on the selected resource for obtaining search results in response to receiving the one or more characters in the second search query.