Storing searches in an e-mail folder

• US 20060112081A1
• Filed: 11/23/2004
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Qureshi, Imran I.
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,856 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method for saving search query information on a server coupled to the Internet as a search folder. The method may include the steps of: identifying a user communicating with the server; storing the search query associated with the user in a data store on the server responsive to a user instruction to store the search query; and submitting the query to an Internet search engine for execution based on a triggering event. A data structure for storing the search folder is also described.

Claims

1. A method for saving search query information on a server coupled to the Internet, comprising:

identifying a user communicating with the server;

storing a search query associated with the user in a data store on the server responsive to a user instruction to store the search query; and

submitting the query to an Internet search engine for execution based on a triggering event.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data store includes personal user information associated with the user, including at least email information.

3. The method of claim 2 further including the step of executing the query against the data store.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the personal information includes contact and calendar information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein further including displaying search results of the query run against web data and personal information in a common email inbox format.

6. The method of claim 1 further including the step of receiving results from the Internet search engine and rendering results in an email inbox format.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the email inbox format includes displaying one or more characteristics of each result in a sortable column.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein one of said one or more characteristics includes a date received characteristic indicating when a search result was first retrieved by a stored search query.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein one of said one or more characteristics includes a date modified characteristic indicating when a search result item was last changed.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the step of receiving results from the Internet search engine, and further including the step of receiving annotation data associated with individual items in the results.

11. The method of claim 1 further including the step of receiving results from the Internet search engine and receiving modification information including a selection of at least one individual item on a list of results that the user wishes to delete, and storing said modification information in the search query.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of receiving modification information includes receiving key word information modifying said query on subsequent triggering events.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of receiving modification information includes receiving a user selection to hide a response to a query.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the triggering event is a timed submission.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the triggering event is a user input to a user interface.

16. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing a list of results in an email format to a user, the list of results displaying a folder view representing the search query, and the triggering event includes running the search automatically when the user opens the search folder.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of submitting includes submitting a request to receive the results of the query in RSS format.

18. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

repeating said step of submitting; and

tracking results provided by said search engine during each step of submitting.

19. The method of claim 18 further including the step of:

providing results retrieved in a first search not appearing in a second search in a different display format on a user interface.

20. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing notifications to the user for changes in the result set of stored search queries.

21. The method of claim 1 further including the step of sharing said stored search query with other users.

22. The method of claim 21 including storing permission information for other users with the search query.

23. The method of claim 21 further including the step of storing the query associated with each other user for whom the search is shared.

24. A method of providing a service to a user of a computer network, comprising:

providing a web-based email service including user information data store and an email user interface accessing information in the data store;

storing a search query as a folder definition in the user information data store; and

presenting Internet search query results in the email user interface.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of presenting includes presenting user information data store search query results in the email user interface.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the personal information includes contact and calendar information.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the email inbox format includes displaying characteristics of each result in a column and responsive to a user input, sorting the list based on the characteristic of said column.

28. The method of claim 24 further including the step of receiving annotation data associated with individual items in the list of results on the user interface.

29. The method of claim 24 further including the step of receiving modification information including a selection of at least one individual item on the list of results that the user wishes to delete, and storing said modification information in the search query.

30. The method of claim 24 including the step of receiving key word information modifying said a display of the results of the query on subsequent triggering events.

31. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of presenting includes providing a notification in a user interface showing items added to a search result after running the query at a timed interval.

32. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of presenting includes submitting the query to an Internet search engine for execution and displaying the results responsive to a user selecting a folder in the user interface.

33. The method of claim 24 further including the steps of:

submitting the query to an Internet search engine for execution;

repeating said step of submitting; and

tracking results provided by said search engine during each step of submitting.

34. The method of claim 33 further including the step of:

providing results retrieved in a first search not appearing in a second search in a different display format on a user interface.

35. The method of claim 24 further including the step of sharing said stored search query with other users.

36. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of storing includes storing annotation information with results of at least one execution of the query by an Internet search engine.

37. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

(a) a first data field containing data representing a user identifier;

(b) a second data field derived from the first field containing data representing a search query;

(c) a third data field containing item information of the user; and

(d) a fourth field functioning to record results of a predetermined data processing operation on the second data field.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37 wherein the predetermined data processing operation includes an execution of the search string by a search engine.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38 wherein the item information includes email data associated with the user identifier.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 39 wherein the item contains annotation information for an entry in the fourth field.