Data sharing

• US 20050267870A1
• Filed: 12/05/2003
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Szeto, Christopher Tzann-en, Everett-Church, Justin
• Granted Patent: US 7,200,590 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A technique for sharing data is disclosed. The technique comprises performing a search in a first application to obtain a first search result, transferring search data associated with the search to a second application, and providing, in the second application, a second search result based on the search data.

Claims

1. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment, comprising:

performing a search in a first application to obtain a first search result based on a particular set of search terms, wherein the first application is being used by a first participant in an instant messaging conversation that also includes a second participant;

transferring search data associated with the search over a network to a second application that is being used by a second participant in the instant messaging conversation; and

without requiring the second participant to specify the particular set of search terms, providing, in the second application, a second search result based on the search data, wherein the second result reflects a search that was performed based said particular set of search terms.

2. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the first application is a first instant messaging application.

3. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the second application is a second instant messaging application.

4. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search data includes the first search result.

5. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search data includes a compressed representation of the first search result.

6. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search data includes the particular set of search terms.

7. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search performed in the first application is a first search, and providing the second search result includes performing a second search using the search data.

8. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the search performed in the first application is a first search;

providing the second search result includes performing a second search using the search data; and

the first search result is approximately the same as the second search result.

9. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein performing a search in a first application to obtain a first search result includes sending a search request to a server.

10. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying the first search result, wherein an item in the first search result is shown as a hyperlink.

11. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the first search result;

selecting an item in the first search result and

placing the item in a shopping cart.

12. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying a notification on the second application.

13. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search is performed within a search context of shopping.

14. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search is performed within a search context of auction.

15. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search is performed within a search context of news.

16. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the search is performed within a search context of stocks.

17. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the messaging environment is an instant messaging environment.

18. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the first application runs on a mobile device.

19. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, wherein the second application runs on a mobile device.

20. A method for sharing data in a messaging environment as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying a web page associated with the search in the first application and displaying the web page in the second application.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the method further comprises receiving user input that specifies a subset of the first search result; and

the only part of the first search result that is included in the second search result is the first subset of the first search result.

21. A system for sharing data, comprising:

a processor configured to;

perform a search in a first application, based on a particular set of search terms, to obtain a first search result;

transfer search data associated with the search to a second application to allow the second application to produce search results based on the particular set of search terms without requiring a user of the second application to specify the particular set of search terms;

wherein the second application is configured to provide a search result based on the search data; and

a memory coupled to the processor, configured to provide the processor with instructions.

22. A computer program product for sharing data, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

performing a search in a first application to obtain a first search result based on a particular set of search terms;

transferring search data associated with the search to a second application to allow the second application to produce search results based on the particular set of search terms without requiring a user of the second application to specify the particular set of search terms;

providing, in the second application, a second search result based on the search data.