System, methods and applications for embedded internet searching and result display

• US 20070233692A1
• Filed: 04/03/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Search Perfect LLC
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey Konicek, Steven Lisa
• Inventors: Konicek, Jeffrey, Lisa, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3328 using graphical result space presentation or visualisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

Systems and methods allow a user of a text or graphics editor to quickly create multiple robust internet search queries by selecting and ranking groups or individual key words from a document. A user who is composing or reading a document can identify and link multiple sets of key words into separate search queries by highlighting and assigning either unique search numbers, colors or other readily ascertained indicators of their logical relation. Each individual search query is routed to selected internet search engines, and the results are returned to the user in the same viewed document. The user may select the form in which the results are displayed. For example, results may be listed within the document by way footnotes, endnotes, or separate hover or pull-down windows accessible from the search terms. In addition, the user can browse, sort, rank, edit or eliminate portions of the results.

Claims

1. A method that generates an internet search phrase and conducting an internet search from within a viewed document comprising the acts of:

(a) selecting from within an existing document a first search term;

(b) selecting from within the document a related second search term spaced a defined number of words apart from the first search term;

(c) routing the first and second search terms to an internet searching program as a first defined search phrase;

(d) conducting a search on the internet based upon the first defined search phrase; and

(e) displaying the results of the internet search within the document in a format linked to the first and second search terms.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the act of displaying the search results in the form of footnotes in the viewed document linked to any of the search terms.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the act of displaying the search results in the form of endnotes in the viewed document linked to any of the search terms.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the act of displaying the search results in the form of hover notes in the viewed document linked to any of the search terms.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the act of displaying the search results in the form of pull down menus in the viewed document linked to any of the search terms.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the act of displaying the search results in the form of comment notes in the viewed document linked to any of the search terms.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the search results include data defining the address of internet web sites found as a result of the internet search.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein displaying the search results to the viewed document includes displaying a user-defined amount of the text of the internet web sites indicated in the search results.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein displaying the search results to the viewed document includes displaying a summary of the content of the internet web sites indicated in the search results.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the search results are displayed in the viewed document in the same format as the document.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising analyzing the results from the search for relevancy to the search phrase, scoring the results in accordance to the determined relevancy, displaying a user-defined number of results in the viewed documents in order of highest relevancy first.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising reviewing the results displayed in the viewed document, deleting an unwanted results from the displayed results, and re-populating the results by automatically displaying the next most relevant result from the search.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the first search term is either a word, a graphic, a picture or a sound.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the viewed document is either a word processing document, spreadsheet, presentation document, email, web or internet page, drawing or pdf document.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising applying the number of words separating the two search terms in the viewed document as a proximity limiter in the internet search.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the search terms comprises manually highlighting the term with a computer input device.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the manual input device is either a keyboard, mouse, touchpad, touch sensitive screen, eye gaze tracker, or speech synthesis device.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising operating the manual input device to highlight the selected search term, activate a pull down menu, and assign a first search indicator to the search term.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting one of many possible search engines or search programs to perform the search.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising

(a) generating a second search phrase from within the viewed document, which search phrase is different from the first search phrase;

(b) routing the second search phrase to an internet searching program;

(d) conducting a search on the internet based upon the second search phrase; and

(e) displaying the results of the internet search for the second search phrase to the document in a format linked to the second search phrase.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the second search phrase comprises a single term different from the first and second search terms.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the second search phrase comprises two terms spaced a defined distance apart from each other, and different from at least one of the terms of the first search phrase.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the second search phrase comprises two terms spaced a defined distance apart from each other, and different from each of the terms of the first search phrase.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising highlighting the terms of the first search phrase in a first color.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising highlighting the terms of the second search phrase in a different color from the terms of the first search phrase.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising displaying the search results for the first and second search phrases linked by the same color as the highlighted terms of the search phrases.

27. The method of claim 1 further comprising spell checking the search phrase before conducting the internet search.

28. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the number of individual search results to display with the search results.

29. A method for generating an internet search phrase and conducting an internet search from within a viewed document comprising:

(a) selecting from within a viewed document a group of connected substantive and non-substantive words to form an initial search phrase;

(b) applying a filtering program to eliminate the non-substantive words from the initial search phrase to form a refined first search phrase comprising the remaining substantive search terms within the first search term;

(c) routing the refined first search phrase to an internet searching program;

(d) conducting a search on the internet based upon the first refined search phrase; and

(e) displaying the results of the internet search to the document in a format linked to the refined search phrase.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising editing the search results displayed in the viewed document.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising using the search results displayed to the document to launch a web browser and review a corresponding web site.