Method and system for entering search queries

• US 20070250511A1
• Filed: 04/21/2006
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Herres, Joseph, Goss, Lowell, Endler, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 9,892,196 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Method and apparatus for entering search queries are disclosed. The method includes presenting a web page, wherein the web page includes at least a story and a thumbnail image associated with the story, dragging the thumbnail image to a search box on the web page, releasing the thumbnail image to the search box, and populating the search box with keywords associated with the thumbnail image.

Claims

1. An apparatus for entering search queries, wherein the apparatus includes logic operable on a computer server, comprising:

logic for presenting a web page, wherein the web page includes at least a story and a thumbnail image associated with the story;

logic for dragging the thumbnail image to a search box on the web page;

logic for releasing the thumbnail image to the search box; and

logic for populating the search box with keywords associated with the thumbnail image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic for presenting a web page comprises:

logic for receiving data for building the web page in a rich site summary (RSS) data format; and

logic for building the web page using the data received.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the RSS data format comprises keywords describing the story and a link to the source of the thumbnail image.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the RSS data format further includes at least an item selected from the group consisting of:

title, source, age, comments, description, and rating information about the story.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic for dragging the thumbnail image further comprises:

logic for displaying a copy of the thumbnail image being dragged;

logic for displaying the keywords associated with the thumbnail image being dragged; and

logic for highlighting the search box as a valid drop target of the thumbnail image being dragged.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

logic for overlaying an icon on the thumbnail image as a visual indicator for showing search capabilities applicable to the thumbnail image.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

logic for editing the keywords in the search box to form a new set of search queries.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

logic for selecting multiple thumbnail images on the web page;

logic for dragging the multiple thumbnail images to the search box;

logic for releasing the multiple thumbnail images to the search box; and

logic for populating the search box with corresponding keywords associated with the multiple thumbnail images.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

logic for searching the Internet for information about the thumbnail image using the keywords in the search box; and

logic for presenting search results on the web page.

10. A method for entering search queries, comprising:

presenting a web page, wherein the web page includes at least a story and a thumbnail image associated with the story;

dragging the thumbnail image to a search box on the web page;

releasing the thumbnail image to the search box; and

populating the search box with keywords associated with the thumbnail image.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein presenting a web page comprises:

receiving data for building the web page in a rich site summary (RSS) data format; and

building the web page using the data received.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the RSS data format comprises keywords describing the story and a link to the source of the thumbnail image.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the RSS data format further includes at least an item selected from the group consisting of:

title, source, age, comments, description, and rating information about the story.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein dragging the thumbnail image further comprises:

displaying a copy of the thumbnail image being dragged;

displaying the keywords associated with the thumbnail image being dragged; and

highlighting the search box as a valid drop target of the thumbnail image being dragged.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

overlaying an icon on the thumbnail image as a visual indicator for showing search capabilities applicable to the thumbnail image.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

editing the keywords in the search box to form a new set of search queries.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

selecting multiple thumbnail images on the web page;

dragging the multiple thumbnail images to the search box;

releasing the multiple thumbnail images to the search box; and

populating the search box with corresponding keywords associated with the multiple thumbnail images.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

searching the Internet for information about the thumbnail image using the keywords in the search box; and

presenting search results on the web page.

19. A computer program product for entering search queries, comprising a medium storing executable program code, the computer program product comprising:

code for presenting a web page, wherein the web page includes at least a story and a thumbnail image associated with the story;

code for dragging the thumbnail image to a search box on the web page;

code for releasing the thumbnail image to the search box; and

code for populating the search box with keywords associated with the thumbnail image.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the code for presenting a web page comprises:

code for receiving data for building the web page in a rich site summary (RSS) data format; and

code for building the web page using the data received.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the RSS data format comprises keywords describing the story and a link to the source of the thumbnail image.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the RSS data format further includes at least an item selected from the group consisting of:

title, source, age, comments, description, and rating information about the story.

23. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the code for dragging the thumbnail image further comprises:

code for displaying a copy of the thumbnail image being dragged;

code for displaying the keywords associated with the thumbnail image being dragged; and

code for highlighting the search box as a valid drop target of the thumbnail image being dragged.

24. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

code for overlaying an icon on the thumbnail image as a visual indicator for showing search capabilities applicable to the thumbnail image.

25. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

code for editing the keywords in the search box to form a new set of search queries.

26. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

code for selecting multiple thumbnail images on the web page;

code for dragging the multiple thumbnail images to the search box;

code for releasing the multiple thumbnail images to the search box; and

code for populating the search box with corresponding keywords associated with the multiple thumbnail images.

27. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

code for searching the Internet for information about the thumbnail image using the keywords in the search box; and

code for presenting search results on the web page.