Systems and methods for providing a graphical display of search activity

• US 20060224938A1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fikes, Andrew, Shah, Avni Upendra, Irani, Lilly Christine, Zamir, Oren E., Korn, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,694,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

A user'"'"'s prior searching and browsing activities are recorded for subsequent use. A user may examine the user'"'"'s prior searching and browsing activities in a number of different ways, including indications of the user'"'"'s prior activities related to advertisements. A set of search results may be modified in accordance with the user'"'"'s historical activities. The user'"'"'s activities may be examined to identify a set of preferred locations. The user'"'"'s set of activities may be shared with one or more other users. The set of preferred locations presented to the user may be enhanced to include the preferred locations of one or more other users. A user'"'"'s browsing activities may be monitored from one or more different client devices or client application. A user'"'"'s browsing volume may be graphically displayed.

Claims

1. A method of providing a graphical display of a user'"'"'s computing activity, comprising:

receiving a request for displaying a user'"'"'s computing activity over a unit of time for one or more activity types, the unit of time having a plurality of sub-units of time;

identifying a user'"'"'s previous computing history for the one or more activity types satisfying a condition;

identifying for each of the plurality of sub-units of time a respective first activity number in the user'"'"'s computing history;

associating one of a plurality of visually distinctive indicators to each of the plurality of sub-units of time in accordance with the respective first activity number, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a distinct range of values; and

graphically displaying the unit of time and the plurality of sub-units of time, wherein a respective display for each of the plurality of sub-units includes the associated one of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition is that the one or more activity types are relevant to a search query.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each activity type has a corresponding weight and the respective first activity number is based on a weighted combination of a respective number of events of a respective activity type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more activity types include one or more of:

queries, result-click throughs, ad-click throughs, product reviews, and visited web pages.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the request identifies a specific subset of the one or more activity types.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a respective color.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a respective gray-scale level.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a respective indicator dimension.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a respective size of an indicator graphic.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the unit of time is a month and each of the plurality of sub-units corresponds to a day.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the unit of time is a year and each of the plurality of sub-units corresponds to a month.

12. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving a request from the user to expand one of the respective displays of the sub-units of time, the sub-unit of time having a plurality of second sub-units of time;

identifying for each of the plurality of second sub-units of time, a respective second activity number based on a second number of events in the user'"'"'s previous computing history;

associating one of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators with each respective second sub-unit of time in accordance with the respective second activity number; and

graphically displaying the plurality of second sub-units of time, wherein a respective display for each of the plurality of second sub-units of time includes the associated one of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators.

13. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving a request from the user to expand a respective one of the plurality of sub-unit displays; and

displaying one or more events from the user'"'"'s computing history associated with the respective one of the plurality of sub-unit displays.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the displaying one or more events further includes identifying groups of related queries.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the related queries include queries related to a topic.

16. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising:

instructions for receiving a request for displaying a user'"'"'s computing activity over a unit of time for one or more activity types, the unit of time having a plurality of sub-units of time;

instructions for identifying a user'"'"'s previous computing history for the one or more activity types satisfying a condition;

instructions for identifying for each of the plurality of sub-units of time a respective first activity number based on a first number of events in the user'"'"'s previous computing history;

instructions for associating one of a plurality of visually distinctive indicators to each of the plurality of sub-units of time in accordance with the respective first activity number, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a distinct range of values; and

instructions for graphically displaying the unit of time and the plurality of sub-units of time, wherein a respective display for each of the plurality of sub-units includes the associated one of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators.

17. A computer, comprising:

a main memory;

a processor; and

a program, stored in the main memory and executed by the processor, the program including instructions for;

instructions for receiving a request for displaying a user'"'"'s computing activity over a unit of time for one or more activity types, the unit of time having a plurality of sub-units of time;

instructions for identifying a user'"'"'s previous computing history for the one or more activity types satisfying a condition;

instructions for identifying for each of the plurality of sub-units of time a respective first activity number based on a first number of events in the user'"'"'s previous computing history;

instructions for associating one of a plurality of visually distinctive indicators to each of the plurality of sub-units of time in accordance with the respective first activity number, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a distinct range of values; and

instructions for graphically displaying the unit of time and the plurality of sub-units of time, wherein a respective display for each of the plurality of sub-units includes the associated one of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators.

18. A system of providing a graphical display of a user'"'"'s computing activity, comprising:

means for receiving a request for displaying a user'"'"'s computing activity over a unit of time for one or more activity types, the unit of time having a plurality of sub-units of time;

means for identifying a user'"'"'s previous computing history for the one or more activity types satisfying a condition;

means for identifying for each of the plurality of sub-units of time a respective first activity number in the user'"'"'s computing history;

means for associating one of a plurality of visually distinctive indicators to each of the plurality of sub-units of time in accordance with the respective first activity number, wherein each of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators corresponds to a distinct range of values; and

means for graphically displaying the unit of time and the plurality of sub-units of time, wherein a respective display for each of the plurality of sub-units includes the associated one of the plurality of visually distinctive indicators.