Online Search System, Method and Computer Program

• US 20080270379A1
• Filed: 08/30/2006
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Affle India Pvt Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Affle (India) Limited (Affle Global Pte Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishna, Madhusudana
• Granted Patent: US 8,452,745 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0888 using selective caching, e.g. bypass
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24539 using cached or materialised query results
• 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 9/383 Operand prefetching cache prefetching G06F12/0862

Abstract

A search system, method and computer program are disclosed in which characters of a search term are captured as they are entered into a client system (20) and used to predict search terms. Search results are obtained for a predetermined number of the predicted search terms and cached at the client system (20). Upon determining the complete search term has been entered, search results corresponding to the complete search term are displayed.

Claims

1. A method for providing search results comprising:

(a) capturing characters of a search term as they are entered into a client system;

(b) predicting search terms in dependence on the captured characters;

(c) obtaining search results for a predetermined number of the predicted search terms;

(d) caching the obtained search results at the client system; and

, (e) upon determining the complete search term has been entered, displaying search results corresponding to the complete search term, from the cached search results where the complete search term corresponds to one of the cached search results, at the client system.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

repeating steps (b), (c) and (d) for each captured character, wherein the search results cached in step (d) are refreshed during each repetition.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises:

ranking the predicted search terms and selecting the predetermined number of predicted search terms from the highest ranked search terms.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the ranking is performed in dependence on one or more of:

probability of use of a term, prior user searches, user location, user interests, and similar user searches.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein step (a) further comprises transmitting the captured characters to a remote server system and wherein step (c) further comprises transmitting the obtained search results to the client system.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising:

maintaining a local cache of search terms and corresponding search results at the client system; and

, displaying a search result from the local cache if a substantially corresponding search term is entered into the client system.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the search terms and corresponding search results maintained in the local cache are selected in dependence on a rank of search terms, the highest N search terms and corresponding search results being selected to be locally cached, wherein N is determined in dependence on one or more of:

storage capacity of the client system and available network bandwidth.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the rank is determined in dependence on one or more of:

probability of use of a term, prior user searches, user location, user interests, and similar user searches.

9. A method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising:

periodically refreshing the local cache.

10. A method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising:

displaying a search result from the local cache of a substantially corresponding search term while awaiting the results of steps (b)-(e).

11. A method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

merging search results from the local cache with those cached in step (d) and displaying the merged search results in step (e).

12. A search system comprising a remote server system arranged to communicate with a client system, wherein the remote server system is arranged to receive characters of a search term as they are entered into a client system, predict search terms in dependence on the received characters, obtain search results for a predetermined number of the predicted search terms and transmit the obtained search results to, the client system, the client

system being arranged, upon determining that the complete search term has been entered, to display search results corresponding to the complete search term from the received search results where the complete search term corresponds to one of the received search results.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the remote server system is arranged to predict the search term and obtain search results and transmit the obtained search results after receipt of each character of the search term.

14. A system as claimed in claim 12, further comprising an information repository comprising data on search terms, wherein the remote server system is arranged to ranking the predicted search terms in dependence on data on said search terms in said information repository and select the predetermined number of predicted search terms from the highest ranked search terms.

15. A system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the data on search terms includes one or more of:

probability of use of a term, statistics of prior user searches, association of a term with a location, user interests, and probability of matching similar user searches.

16. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the client system further comprises a local memory cache and is arranged to obtain of search terms and corresponding search results for the local memory cache from the remote server system, the client system being arranged to display a search result from the local memory cache if a substantially corresponding search term is entered into the client system.

17. A system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the search terms and corresponding search results obtained for the local memory cache are selected in dependence on a rank of search terms, the highest N search terms and corresponding search results being selected for the local memory cached, wherein N is determined in dependence on one or more of:

storage capacity of the client system and available network bandwidth.

18. A system as claimed in claim 17, wherein, the client system is arranged to merge appropriate search results from the local memory cache with those received from the remote server system and display the merged search results.

19. A computer program carrier encoding computer program code for:

(a) capturing characters of a search term as they are entered into a client system;

(b) predicting search terms in dependence on the captured characters;

(c) obtaining search results for a predetermined number of the predicted search terms;

(d) caching the obtained search results at the client system; and

, (e) upon determining the complete search term has been entered, displaying search results corresponding to the complete search term, from the cached search results where the complete search term corresponds to one of the cached search results, at the client system.

20. A computer program carrier as claimed in claim 19, further comprising computer program code for:

maintaining a local cache of search terms and corresponding search results at the client system; and

, displaying a search result from the local cache if a substantially corresponding search term is entered into the client system.