Pyramid view

• US 20060212817A1
• Filed: 03/21/2005
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Paek, Timothy S., Logan, Ronald K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,620,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/745
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A system for displaying information to a user is disclosed. The system comprises a grouping module that organizes data items into groups that are ranked based upon at least one attribute of the data items. Also included is a presentation module that presents the ranked groups of data items to a user along with a group indicator. Methods for using the disclosed system are additionally provided.

Claims

1. A system for presenting information to a user, comprising:

a grouping module that organizes information items into groups, the information items are ranked based upon at least one attribute of the information items; and

a presentation engine that presents the ranked groups of information items along with a group indicator.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a group control module that facilitates setting of boundaries for the groups based at least in part upon the attribute of the information items.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising an information condenser that creates an abbreviated version of at least one of the information items for presentation to the user.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising an information expander that works with the presentation engine to present a full version of the abbreviated version of the information item upon receiving an indication of selection of the abbreviated version.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the attribute of the information item is a degree of interest function.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the degree of interest function is based upon at least one of an overall search score, a rank score, a personalized score, a number of links to an information item, a number of links out from an information item, and a popularity score.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the presentation module dynamically changes the presentation of the ranked groups based upon information from the group control module.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the group indicator is at least one of a color, a boundary line, font style, and a graphical indicator.

9. A method for displaying information search results to a user, comprising:

grouping ranked elements of a search result into one or more groups based upon a user-selectable attribute of the results;

ranking the two or more groups in relation to each other; and

presenting the ranked groups to a user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising adjusting at least one parameter for the one or more groups.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising regrouping the elements of the search result based at least in part upon the at least one adjusted parameter.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising assigning a group indicator to each element of the search results.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising creating a summary of at least one element of the search result.

14. The method of clam 13, further comprising expanding a summary of an element of the search result.

15. A system for displaying information search results to a user, comprising:

means for obtaining a plurality of elements by way of a search;

means for ranking the plurality of elements and grouping the plurality of elements into one or more groups based at least in part upon the ranking of the plurality of elements;

means for ranking the groups in relation to each other; and

means for presenting the ranked groups to a user.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising means for adjusting at least one parameter relating to the one or more groups.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for regrouping the elements of the search result based at least in part upon an adjusted parameter.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising means for assigning a group indicator to each element of the search results.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for creating a summary of at least one element of the search result.

20. The system of clam 19, further comprising means for expanding a summary of an element of the search result.