System and method of searching for providing dynamic search results with temporary visual display

• US 20070033177A1
• Filed: 03/03/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Nathaniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

The invention is directed to a system and method of searching a focal object for related objects. The invention may extract clues or information from the focal object and search the information to identify related objects. The invention also may leverage a chronological timeline of user action information to infer additional relationships with the focal object. The related objects may appear on a display for a predetermined amount of time. The invention may provide icons corresponding to related object with characteristics to signify the relevance of the information.

Claims

1. A method of performing a search, comprising:

receiving a selection of a focal object from a user;

extracting focal information from the focal object;

identifying a first related object containing the focal information;

extracting first related information from the first related object;

identifying a second related object containing the first related information; and

displaying the first related object and the second related object temporarily.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein displaying the first object begins for a predetermined period of time after the first object is identified and displaying the second object begins for a predetermined period of time after the second object is identified.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein extracting focal information includes extracting user action information relating to the focal object from a chronological timeline as focal information.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second related object is extracted for second related information, and a third related object is identified from the second related information.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying the focal object, first related object and second related object together in a graphical user interface.

6. The method according to 5, wherein the first related object becomes a new focal object when a user makes a switch focal object designation in the graphical user interface.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein extracting focal information includes extracting at least one of text of the focal object and meta data of the focal object.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first related object and the second related object are displayed with characteristics signifying a relevance to the focal object.

9. A system for performing a search, comprising:

an interface for receiving a selection of a focal object from a user; and

an object determining system having

a focal information extractor for extracting focal information from the focal object, and

a related object identifier for identifying a first related object containing the focal information, extracting first related information from the first related object, and identifying a second related object containing the first related information,

wherein the object determining system displays the first related object and the second related object temporarily on the interface.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the focal information extractor further extracts user action information relating to the focal object from a chronological timeline as focal information.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the related object identifier further extracts second related information from the second related object and identifies a third related object from the second related information.

12. The system according to claim 9, further comprising a graphical user interface for displaying the focal object, first related object and second related object.

13. The system according to 12, wherein the first related object becomes a new focal object when a user makes a switch focal object designation in the graphical user interface.

14. The system according to claim 9, wherein the focal information extractor extracts at least one of text of the focal object and meta data of the focal object.

15. The system according to claim 9, wherein the first related object and the second related object each are displayed with characteristics signifying a relevance to the focal object.

16. The system according to claim 9, wherein displaying the first object begins for a predetermined period of time after the first object is identified and displaying the second object begins for a predetermined period of time after the second object is identified.

17. A method of performing a search, comprising:

receiving a selection of a focal object from a user;

extracting focal information from the focal object;

identifying a first related object containing the focal information;

extracting first related information from the first related object;

identifying a second related object containing the first related information; and

displaying the first related object and the second related object each with characteristics signifying a relevance to the focal object.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein displaying the first object begins for a predetermined period of time after the first object is identified and displaying the second object begins for a predetermined period of time after the second object is identified.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein displaying is temporary.