Method and apparatus for enhancing online searching

• US 20060288124A1
• Filed: 08/24/2006
• Published: 12/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sundaresan, Neelakantan, Kraft, Reiner
• Application Number:
  US11/509,048
• Publication Number:
  US 20060288124A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for processing search results obtained in response to a user query. This may include examining document pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source from which the documents are available and generating at least two visual abstracts of each of the documents. Each of the visual abstracts may be of a different size. The method and system may also include formatting a stream of data such that when the data is displayed, a smaller one of the visual abstracts appears adjacent to a corresponding search result.

Claims

1. A method of processing search results obtained in response to a user query, the method comprising:

providing document pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source from which documents are available;

generating at least two visual abstracts for one of said documents, each of said visual abstracts being of a different size; and

formatting a stream of data such that when said data is displayed on a display screen regarding said one of said documents, a smaller one of said visual abstracts appears adjacent to a corresponding search result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said visual abstract is generated by manipulating said document so as to enhance a visibility of at least a portion of said document while degrading visibility of at least another portion of said document.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a larger one of said visual abstracts on said display screen when requested by said user.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising storing data relating to said larger one of said visual abstracts.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said larger one of said visual abstracts is displayed on said display screen when a cursor is moved over said smaller one of said visual abstracts.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said larger one of said visual abstracts is removed from said display screen when said cursor is moved away from said smaller one of said visual abstracts.

3-4. -4. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

10. A method of processing search results obtained in response to a user query, the method comprising:

examining document pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source from which documents are available;

obtaining said documents from said source;

generating a visual abstract for each of said documents, each visual abstract being formed by manipulating a corresponding source document so as to enhance visibility of at least a first portion of said source document while degrading visibility of at least a second portion of said source document, and

formatting a stream of data such that when said data is displayed on a display screen, each visual abstract appears adjacent to a corresponding search result.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising creating a larger visual abstract of one of said documents.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing data relating to said larger one of said visual abstracts.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying said larger one of said visual abstracts on said display screen on demand.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said larger one of said visual abstracts is displayed on said display screen when a cursor is moved over said smaller one of said visual abstracts.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said larger one of said visual abstracts is removed from said display screen when said cursor is moved away from said smaller one of said visual abstracts.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein said portion of said source document to be enhanced corresponds to at least one of a title and a heading of said source document.

15. (canceled)

17-18. -18. (canceled)

20-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A method of searching for a document, said method comprising:

supplying a search request;

providing abstracts of documents on a screen display that correspond to said search request, said abstracts including a written summary and a first visual abstract of each of said documents;

creating a second visual abstract of one of said documents, wherein said second visual abstract is larger than said first visual abstract; and

displaying said second visual abstract when requested by a user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said visual abstract is created by manipulating a source document so as to enhance visibility of at least a first portion of said source document.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said first portion corresponds to one of a title and a heading of said document.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein said second visual abstract is displayed on said display screen when said user moves a pointing device over a corresponding one of said first visual abstracts.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising storing data relating to said second visual abstract in a cache database.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising deleting said data relating to said second visual abstract in said cache database after a predetermined amount of time.

29. The method of claim 22, as embodied in a program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said machine to perform method steps for processing search results obtained in response to a user query.

26. (canceled)

30-33. -33. (canceled)