Managing searches on mobile devices

• US 20080052370A1
• Filed: 08/23/2006
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Snyder, Kevin H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

This disclosure pertains to solutions, including without limitation, systems, methods, and software programs, that provide the ability to quickly and efficiently search mobile devices for relevant information. An exemplary search server has the ability to communicate (either directly and/or via a host PC) with one or more mobile devices to transmit a search request. The mobile devices, in turn, have a search facility that is configured to perform a search of the contents of the device and return a set of results to the search server. These results then may be presented to a user, who can select one or more of the results. The selected search result(s) then may be downloaded from the device and presented to the user.

Claims

1. A system for retrieving information from a mobile device, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising;

i) a first communication interface;

ii) a first processor in communication with the communication interface; and

iii) a first set of instructions executable by the first processor, the first set of instructions comprising;

a) instructions to establish communications, via the first communication interface, with a set of mobile devices comprising a first mobile device;

b) instructions to receive a search query;

c) instructions to transmit a search request to the set of mobile devices, wherein the search request is based on the search query;

d) instructions to receive a set of search results from at least the first mobile device, responsive to the search request; and

e) instructions to provide the set of search results to a user; and

a plurality of mobile devices comprising the set of mobile devices including the first mobile device, wherein first mobile device comprises;

i) a second communication interface;

ii) a second processor in communication with the communication interface; and

iii) a second set of instructions executable by the second processor, the second set of instructions comprising;

a) instructions to receive the search request from the computer system;

b) instructions to perform a search of information on the first mobile device; and

c) instructions to prepare the set of search results based on the search; and

d) instructions to transmit the set of search results for reception by the computer system.

2. A system as recited by claim 1, wherein the second set of instructions further comprises:

instructions to maintain a set of connection information about a data source on the mobile device.

3. A system as recited by claim 2, wherein the set of connection information comprises a set of authentication credentials for the data source and a connection method for the data source.

4. A system as recited by claim 2, wherein the search request is formatted according to a first search methodology, and wherein the second set of instructions further comprises instructions to transform the search request into a second search methodology, according to the set of connection information.

5. A computer system for searching information on a mobile device, the computer system comprising:

a communication interface;

a processor in communication with the communication interface; and

a set of instructions executable by the processor, the set of instructions comprising;

a) instructions to establish, via the communication interface, communication between the computer system and a set of one or more mobile devices;

b) instructions to receive a search query, wherein the search query pertains to data stored on at least one of the mobile devices;

c) instructions to perform a search of information about the data stored on the at least one mobile device, based on the search query; and

d) instructions to provide a set of search results responsive to the search query.

6. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the communication between the computer system and the set of mobile devices comprises a short message service (“

SMS”

) communication between the computer system and one of the mobile devices.

7. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the communication between the computer system and the set of mobile devices comprises an Internet protocol (“

IP”

) communication between the computer system and one of the mobile devices.

8. A computer system as recited in claim 7, wherein the computer system and the one of the mobile devices communicate via hypertext transfer protocol (“

HTTP”

).

9. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the communication between the computer system and the set of mobile devices comprises a communication path via a host computer in communication with one of the mobile devices.

10. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions to cache, on a storage device remote from the one or more mobile devices and in communication with the computer system, the information about the data stored on the at least one mobile device.

11. A computer system as recited in claim 10, wherein the search is performed on the cached information on the storage device.

12. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructions to perform a search of a set of information stored on the at least one mobile device comprise:

instructions to generate a search request based on the search query;

instructions to transmit the search request via the communication interface for reception by the at least one mobile device; and

instructions to receive from the at least one mobile device the set of search results responsive to the search query.

13. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions to receive, from a user, a selection of a particular search result, wherein the particular search result corresponds to a particular file stored on the at least one mobile device; and

instructions to provide the particular file to the user.

14. A computer system as recited in claim 13, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions to obtain the particular file.

15. A computer system as recited in claim 14, wherein the file is obtained from the at least one mobile device.

16. A computer system as recited in claim 13, wherein:

providing a set of search results comprises transmitting a web page comprising a collections of links, each of the links corresponding to a file stored on the at least one mobile device;

receiving a selection of a particular search result comprises receiving from a web browser request corresponding to the particular file; and

providing the particular file comprises transmitting the particular file for reception by the web browser.

17. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the set of mobile devices comprises a plurality of mobile devices.

18. A computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein the received search query specifies a particular one or more mobile devices to be searched, and wherein c) comprises performing a search of information about data stored on each of the particular one or more mobile devices.

19. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the search query is received from an entity, and wherein set of instructions further comprises:

instructions to verify that the entity has sufficient access rights to receive the set of search results.

20. A computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the set of search results comprises a list of files stored on the at least one mobile device.

21. A computer system as recited in claim 20, wherein the set of search results further comprises a set of information about each of the files.

22. A computer system as recited in claim 21, wherein the set of information about each file comprises one or more data elements selected from the group consisting of:

a creation date of the file, a size of the file, a location of the file, a device identifier corresponding to a mobile device on which the file is located, an owner of a mobile device on which the file is located, and a date of last access of the file.

23. A software application for searching information on a mobile device, the software application comprising a set of instructions executable by a computer system, the set of instructions comprising:

instructions to establish, via the communication interface, communication with a set of one or more mobile devices;

instructions to receive a search query, wherein the search query pertains to data stored on at least one of the mobile devices;

instructions to perform a search of information about the data stored on the at least one mobile device, based on the search query; and

instructions to provide a set of search results responsive to the search query.

24. A software application as recited in claim 23, wherein the instructions to perform a search comprise instructions to transmit, for reception by at least one of the mobile devices, a search request based on the search query.

25. A software application as recited in claim 24, further comprising a second set of instructions executable by a mobile device, the second set of instructions comprising:

instructions to receive the search request from the computer system;

instructions to perform a search of information on the first mobile device; and

instructions to prepare the set of search results based on the search; and

instructions to transmit the set of search results for reception by the computer system.

26. A method of searching information on a mobile device, the method comprising:

establishing communication between a computer system and a plurality of mobile devices;

receiving, at the computer system, a search query, wherein the search query pertains to data stored on at least one of the mobile devices;

performing a search of information about the data stored on the at least one mobile device, based on the search query; and

providing, to a user, a set of search results responsive to the search query.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein performing a search of information comprises:

transmitting, for reception by the at least one mobile device, a search request based on the search query; and

receiving from the at least one mobile device, a set of search results responsive to the search query.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein the search query is formatted according to a first search methodology, and wherein the method further comprises transforming the search query into a second search methodology.

29. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein transmitting the search request comprises:

transmitting, from the computer system, a signal indicating that a search request is pending;

receiving the signal at the at least one mobile device;

transmitting from the at least one mobile device a prompt message;

responsive to the prompt message, transmitting the search request from the computer system.

30. A method as recited in claim 29, wherein the prompt message comprises a hypertext transfer protocol (“

HTTP”

) message, and wherein the search request comprises a HTTP response.