System and method of searching for organizing and displaying search results

• US 20070033184A1
• 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 7,526,478 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 707/99936 Pattern matching access

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 results may be displayed together in a graphical user interface and/or forwarded to a search result recipient. Further, an association graph may graphically depict the focal object and each related object as nodes in a graph.

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;

performing a search on the focal information for a related object; and

query chaining the related object until a threshold is met, wherein query chaining involves repeating a process of extracting related information from the related object and performing a search on the related information for another related object.

2. 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; and

identifying a second related object containing the first related information.

3. The method according to claim 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, further comprising:

generating an object association graph comprising the focal object, the first related object, and the second related object as nodes.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the focal object, first related object and second related object are forwarded to a search recipient in a search result forwarding.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the search recipient accesses at least one of the focal object, the first related object and the second related object from the search result forwarding.

11. 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.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the focal information extractor further extracts user action information relating to the focal object from a chronological timeline as focal information.

13. The system according to claim 11, 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.

14. The system according to claim 11, further comprising a graphical user interface for displaying the focal object, first related object and second related object.

15. The system according to 14, wherein the first related object becomes a new focal object when a user makes a switch focal object designation in the graphical user interface.

16. The system according to claim 11, wherein the focal information extractor extracts at least one of text of the focal object and meta data of the focal object.

17. The system according to claim 11, further comprising:

an association graph generator for generating an object association graph comprising the focal object, the first related object, and the second related object as nodes.

18. The system according to claim 11, further comprising a forwarding system for forwarding a search result comprising the focal object, first related object and second related object to a search recipient.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the search recipient accesses at least one of the focal object, the first related object and the second related object from the search result forwarding.