SEARCH SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING IN-LINE CONTEXTUAL QUERIES

• US 20090070326A1
• Filed: 10/15/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Reiner Kraft
• Inventors: Kraft, Reiner
• Granted Patent: US 8,655,872 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for implementing searches using contextual information associated with a Web page (or other document) that a user is viewing when a query is entered. The page includes a contextual search interface that has an associated context vector representing content of the page. When the user submits a search query via the contextual search interface, the query and the context vector are both provided to the query processor and used in responding to the query.

Claims

1. A method of contextual searching, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of, at a server:

receiving, from a client, a first query submitted by a user;

generating a first search result based at least on the first query and a first context vector associated with the first query;

wherein the first context vector comprises context data indicating a set of one or more context terms;

wherein the set of one or more context terms is representative of first content displayed by a content presentation application executing on the client when the user submitted the first query;

wherein the first context vector is not identical to the first query;

transmitting the first search result to the client; and

transmitting, to the client, for display with the first search result, additional data, wherein the additional data comprises at least one of;

data indicating the set of one or more context terms;

or

data indicating one or more related queries, other than the first query submitted by the user, the one or more related queries being associated with the first context vector.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional data is data indicating the set of one or more context terms.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, at the server:

transmitting to the client, with the search result, code which, when executed by the content presentation application, causes the content presentation application to display one or more controls for creating and submitting a modified context vector;

wherein creating the modified context vector comprises at least one of;

adding a context term to the set of one or more context terms, removing a context term from the set of one or more context terms, or changing a context term in the set of one or more context terms.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, at the server, after transmitting the first search result:

receiving, from the client, via the one or more controls, a second query and the modified context vector;

wherein the modified context vector is not identical to the second query;

wherein the modified context vector is not identical to the first context vector;

generating a second search result based at least on the modified context vector and the second query;

transmitting the second search result to the client.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second query is identical to the first query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional data is data indicating the one or more related queries.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more related queries are queries that the server has previously used to generate search results in association with other context vectors that are identical to the first context vector.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first search results and the additional data are transmitted to the client in a web page.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, at the server:

receiving, from the client, with the first query, the first context vector.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, at the server:

receiving, from the client, with the first query, the first content;

generating the first context vector based on the first content.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first content is content that has been highlighted, by the user, in the content presentation application.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the search result includes at least one of:

searching the search corpus based on search criteria that is based, at least in part, on the first context vector;

or

ranking the plurality of hits based, at least in part, on the first context vector.

19. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

20. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

21. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

22. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

23. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

24. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

25. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

26. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

27. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

28. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

29. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

30. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

13. A method for contextual searching, the method comprising:

receiving, from a client, a query submitted by a user;

receiving, from the client, with the query, first content displayed by a content presentation application at the client when the user submitted the first query;

generating a context vector based on the first content;

wherein the context vector comprises context data indicating a set of one or more context terms;

wherein the set of one or more context terms is representative of the first content;

wherein the context vector is not identical to the query;

generating a search result based at least on the query and the context vector; and

transmitting the search result to the client.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first content is content that has been highlighted, by the user, in the content presentation application.

31. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.

32. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 14.

15. A method for contextual searching, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of, at a client:

receiving a user query that includes query data entered by a user;

in response to the user query, generating a context vector based on first content;

wherein the first content is displayed by a content presentation application at the client when the user input was received;

wherein the context vector includes one or more terms that are not part of the query data;

causing the content presentation application to perform the steps of;

sending the user query and the context vector to a server;

in response to sending the user query and the context vector to the search engine, receiving a search result from the server;

wherein the search result is based on the user query and the context vector;

displaying the search result in the content presentation application.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the computer-implemented steps are performed by the content presentation application.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the computer-implemented steps are performed by one of a toolbar plug-in for the content presentation application or an application at the client other than the content presentation application.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first content is content that has been highlighted, by the user of the client, in the content presentation application.

33. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 15.

34. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 16.

35. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 17.

36. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 18.