Interface for a universal search

• US 20050165744A1
• Filed: 12/31/2003
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Bret, Buyukkokten, Orkut, Mayer, Marissa
• Granted Patent: US 7,447,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A search engine may perform a search for a user search query over a number of possible search categories. For example, the search query may be performed for general web documents, images, and news documents. The search engine ranks categories based on the search query and/or the documents returned for each category and presents the search results to the user by category. Higher ranking categories may be presented more prominently than lower ranking categories.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

performing a search to determine documents related to a search query, the search being performed on a database containing a plurality of document categories to obtain a list of search results corresponding to each of at least two of the categories;

ranking the lists of search results relative to one another; and

generating a document in which the search results are placed in an organization determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the lists of search results.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the organization of the generated document includes two or more of the lists of search results placed in a separate section.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein more highly ranked lists of search results are displayed more prominently in the generated document than less highly ranked lists of search results.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the generated document includes the search results as hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) links.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the more highly ranked lists of search results are displayed in sections that include more links than the sections corresponding to the less highly ranked lists of search results.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the sections includes a title describing the category corresponding to the section.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the sections includes a link to additional search results for the category corresponding to the section.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated document is a web page.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the lists of search results is performed based on documents in the lists of search results.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the lists of search results is performed based on the search query.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein a most highly ranked list of search results is displayed on a left hand side of the generated document.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the categories include at least one of documents relating to news, products, images, and general web pages.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the categories include documents relating to news, products, images, and general web pages.

14. A search engine comprising:

a search component configured to identify documents related to a search query from a database containing a plurality of document categories, the search component obtaining a list of search results corresponding to each of at least two of the categories;

a ranking component configured to rank the lists of search results relative to one another; and

an interface generation component configured to generate a document in which the search results are organized based, at least in part, on the ranking of the lists of search results.

15. The search engine of claim 14, wherein the organization of the generated document includes at least two of the lists of search results placed in a separate section.

16. The search engine of claim 15, wherein more highly ranked lists of search results are displayed more prominently in the generated document than less highly ranked lists of search results.

17. The search engine of claim 15, wherein at least one of the sections includes a link to additional search results for the category corresponding to the section.

18. The search engine of claim 14, wherein the generated document is a web page.

19. The search engine of claim 14, wherein ranking the lists of search results is performed based on documents in the lists of search results.

20. The search engine of claim 14, wherein ranking the lists of search results is performed based on the search query.

21. A method of organizing documents categorized into a plurality of categories, the method comprising:

ranking the plurality of categories based on contents of the documents in each of the categories; and

generating a results document in which the documents are organized by category and in which the documents of higher ranking categories are more prominently placed in the results document.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving a search query; and

performing a search based on the search query in each of the plurality of categories to locate the documents.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the documents are placed in the results document as hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) links.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein links of the higher ranking categories are displayed in sections of the results document that include more links than the sections corresponding to links of lower ranking categories.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the results document includes titles describing the categories.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the results document includes links to additional search results for the categories.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the results document is a web page.

29. The one or more devices of claim 27, further comprising:

means for receiving a search query; and

means for performing a search based on the search query in each of the plurality of categories to locate the documents.

28. One or more devices for organizing documents categorized into a plurality of categories, the one or more devices comprising:

means for ranking the plurality of categories based on contents of the documents in each of the categories; and

means for generating a results document in which the documents are organized by category and in which the documents of higher ranking categories are more prominently placed in the results document.

30. A computer-readable medium containing programming instructions for execution by a processor, the computer-readable medium including:

instructions for receiving input documents categorized into a plurality of categories;

instructions for ranking the input documents based on contents of the input documents in each of the categories; and

instructions for generating a results document in which the input documents are organized by category and in which the documents of higher ranking categories are more prominently placed in the results document.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, further comprising:

instructions for receiving a search query; and

instructions for performing a search based on the search query in at least two categories to locate the input documents.