METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INCREMENTALLY SELECTING AND PROVIDING RELEVANT SEARCH ENGINES IN RESPONSE TO A USER QUERY

• US 20080114743A1
• Filed: 01/23/2008
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: BARVE, Rakesh, VENKATARAMAN, Sashikumar, GARG, Pankaj
• Granted Patent: US 8,073,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search

Abstract

Methods and systems for incrementally selecting and providing relevant search engines in response to a user query. A method of incrementally selecting and providing relevant search engines is based in part on identifying a set of search engines associated with corresponding metadata, receiving a partial search query entered by the user of a device, inferring after each user keypress a set of potential full queries intended by the user, using the potential full queries and the search engine metadata to identify a set of relevant search engines, and for each of these search engines, providing a direct link to launch a relevant query in the search engine. The user input may be either ambiguous, or erroneous, and may be entered using an input-constrained device.

Claims

1. ) A user-interface method of incrementally providing fully qualified links to a set of relevant search engines, the method comprising:

a) identifying a set of search engines, each search engine being characterized with corresponding metadata;

b) receiving a partial search query entered on a keypad by a user;

c) after each keypress received from the user, inferring a set of potential full queries intended by the user, based at least in part on the partial search query;

d) using the inferred full queries and the metadata characterizing the search engines to select a subset of the identified search engines that are relevant to the inferred full queries;

e) for each of the selected search engines, providing a fully qualified link designed to directly launch a search for a relevant query string using the search engine.

2. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting at least one of the inferred potential full queries to the user.

3. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting at least one of the fully qualified links to the user.

4. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising estimating the degree to which each of the inferred potential full queries is relevant to the partial search query entered by the user.

5. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising learning user preferences by analyzing previous user input, and inferring the potential full queries according to said learned user preferences.

6. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising:

a) providing a database containing a collection of potential full queries, each potential full query associated in said database with at least one descriptive category;

b) providing a database containing a collection of search engines, each search engine associated in said database with at least one descriptive category;

c) selecting the subset of relevant search engines based on the descriptive categories associated with the provided potential full queries.

7. ) The method of claim 1 wherein the device is an input-constrained device having an overloaded keyboard.

8. ) The method of claim 7 wherein the partial search query contains ambiguous text.

9. ) The method of claim 1 wherein the partial search query contains potentially erroneous data.

10. ) The method of claim 1 wherein the relevant query string is the partial search query entered by the user.

11. ) The method of claim 1 wherein the relevant query string is one of the provided query refinements.

12. ) A user-interface system for incrementally providing fully qualified links to a set of relevant search engines, the system comprising:

a) logic for identifying a set of search engines, each search engine being characterized with corresponding metadata;

b) logic for receiving a partial search query entered on a keypad by a user;

c) logic for inferring, after each keypress received from the user, a set of potential full queries intended by the user, based at least in part on the partial search query;

d) logic for using the inferred full queries and the metadata characterizing the search engines to select a subset of the identified search engines that are relevant to the inferred full queries;

e) logic for providing, for each of the selected search engines, a fully qualified link designed to directly launch a search for a relevant query string using the search engine.

13. ) The system of claim 12 further comprising logic for presenting at least one of the inferred potential full queries to the user.

14. ) The system of claim 12 further comprising logic for presenting at least one of the fully qualified links to the user.

15. ) The system of claim 12 further comprising logic for estimating the degree to which each of the inferred potential full queries is relevant to the partial search query entered by the user.

16. ) The system of claim 12 further comprising logic for learning user preferences by analyzing previous user input, and logic for inferring the potential full queries according to said learned user preferences.

17. ) The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a) logic for providing a database containing a collection of potential full queries, each potential full query associated in said database with at least one descriptive category;

b) logic for providing a database containing a collection of search engines, each search engine associated in said database with at least one descriptive category;

c) logic for selecting the subset of relevant search engines based on the descriptive categories associated with the provided potential full queries.

18. ) The system of claim 12 wherein the device is an input-constrained device having an overloaded keyboard.

19. ) The system of claim 12 wherein the partial search query contains ambiguous text.

20. ) The system of claim 12 wherein the partial search query contains potentially erroneous data.

21. ) The system of claim 12 wherein the relevant query string is the partial search query entered by the user.

22. ) The system of claim 12 wherein the relevant query string is one of the provided query refinements.