FAST SEARCH IN A MUSIC SHARING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20090210448A1
• Filed: 02/14/2008
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Beats Music, LLC (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: CARLSON, LUCAS S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,688,674 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• 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 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system of method and system of directory sharing and management in a group communication environment is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a fast-search server includes processing a character of a query of music data, referencing the character with a reverse index of a music database, determining that the character matches a data record of the music database using the reverse index and returning the data record of the music database prior to receiving all characters of the query of music data from a user. The reverse index may be created from a combination of letters appearing as a string in a data field of the music database. The method may include preforking the character of the query of music data along with other processes in the fast-search server to minimize concurrency issues and to minimize threading locks.

Claims

1. A method of a fast-search server, comprising:

processing a character of a query of music data;

referencing the character with a reverse index of a music database;

determining that the character matches a data record of the music database using the reverse index; and

returning the data record of the music database prior to receiving all characters of the query of music data from a user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the reverse index is created from a combination of letters appearing as a string in a data field of the music database.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the reverse index is created from a plurality of data fields of the music database including an artist field, an album field, and a track field.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing a search data of the user and other users in a local cache of a client device to optimize speed of returning the data record of the music database prior to receiving all characters of the query of music data from the user; and

storing a results data of the user and other users in the local cache of the client device to further optimize speed of returning the data record of the music database prior to receiving all characters of the query of music data from the user.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

preforking the character of the query of music data along with other processes in the fast-search server to minimize concurrency issues and to minimize threading locks; and

applying the local cache to retrieve a previous data record of previous characters typed in the query of music data before the user entered the character of the query through an application of the search data and the results data of the local cache in providing the previous data record when the user deletes an entry of the character of the query from the query.

6. The method of claim 5:

wherein the search data includes the previous characters typed in the query and other characters provided by different users querying the data record, and

wherein the results data includes the data record matching the search data.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

holding the character of the query of music data in a client device without transmitting the character to the fast-search server when the character of the query of music data is included in a string having a set of characters ‘

t’

, ‘

h’

, and ‘

e’

as first characters of the query of music data provided by the user when a set amount of time between keystrokes is not exceeded; and

transmitting the character of the query of music data in the client device to the fast-search server when the character of the query of music data is a character ‘

t’

included in the string having the set of characters ‘

t’

, ‘

h’

, and ‘

e’

as the first characters of the query of music data provided by the user when the set amount of time between keystrokes is exceeded after entering the character ‘

t’

.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

applying a timer in the client device to measure the set amount of time between keystrokes, wherein an optimal time between keystrokes is approximately 200 milliseconds.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

holding a first three characters of the query of music data in the client device without transmitting the character to the fast-search server when the set amount of time between keystrokes is within the optimal time between keystrokes;

transmitting a first four characters of the query of music data in the client device to the fast-search server regardless of the set amount of time between keystrokes being within the optimal time between keystrokes to optimize an experience of the user to feel that the fast-search server is quickly responsive to the user; and

holding a ‘

blank space’

character of the query of music data in the client device without transmitting the ‘

blank space’

character to the fast-search server to minimize trips between the client device and the fast-search server.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

applying a spelling index of the fast-search server which references a misspelling database of a central server to determine whether the query of music data is a misspelling of the data record of the central server; and

altering the misspelling of the query of music data to a correct spelling when the query of music data is determined to be the misspelling of the data record.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the data record is an artist name, an artist album, a genre, an album data, a track data, a lyrics data, a blog post data, a user profile data, a user interest data, and a playlist data.

12. The method of claim 1 in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

13. A method of improving music search responsiveness, comprising:

determining that a partial entry of a query of music data is included in a local cache of a client device built from previous searches of a plurality of users of a central server having the music data; and

returning a data record from the local cache based on the previous searches of the plurality of users of the central server having the music data.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

holding the partial entry of the query of music data in the client device without transmitting the partial entry to a fast-search server when characters of the partial entry are included in a string having a set of characters ‘

t’

, ‘

h’

, and ‘

e’

as first characters of the query of music data provided by the user when a set amount of time between keystrokes is not exceeded; and

transmitting the partial entry of the query of music data in the client device to the fast-search server when a character of the partial entry is a character ‘

t’

included in the string having the set of characters ‘

t’

, ‘

h’

, and ‘

e’

as the first characters of the query of music data provided by the user when the set amount of time between keystrokes is exceeded after entering the character ‘

t’

.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

applying a timer in the client device to measure the set amount of time between keystrokes, wherein an optimal time between keystrokes is approximately 200 milliseconds.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

holding the partial entry in the client device without transmitting the partial entry to the fast-search server when the partial entry is a first three characters of the query of music data when the set amount of time between keystrokes is within the optimal time between keystrokes;

transmitting the partial entry in the client device to the fast-search server regardless of the set amount of time between keystrokes being within the optimal time between keystrokes when the partial entry is a first four characters of the query of music data to optimize an experience of the user to feel that the fast-search server is quickly responsive to the user; and

holding the partial entry in the client device without transmitting the partial entry to the fast-search server when the partial entry is a ‘

blank space’

character of the query of music data to minimize trips between the client device and the fast-search server.

17. A system, comprising:

a central server to provide a plurality of data records of a music database;

a fast-search server coupled to the central server having a processing module to monitor and be responsive to a partial entry of a query of the data records of the music database using a reverse index of the plurality of data records of the music database;

a network; and

a client device coupled to the central server and the fast-search server through the network to locally cache previous partial searches and results of a plurality of users of a plurality of client devices which query the data records of the music database of the central server.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a spelling module of the fast-search server to apply a spelling index which references a misspelling database of the central server to determine whether a query of music data is a misspelling of the data records of the central server, and to alter the misspelling of the query of music data to a correct spelling when the query of music data is determined to be the misspelling of one of the data records.

19. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

an optimization module of the client device to hold the partial entry of the query of the data records of the music database in the client device without transmitting the partial entry to the fast-search server when characters of the partial entry are part of a string having a set of characters ‘

t’

, ‘

h’

, and ‘

e’

as first characters of the query of the data records of the music database when a set amount of time between keystrokes is not exceeded, and to transmit the partial entry of the query of music data in the client device to the fast-search server when a character of the query of music data is a character ‘

t’

included in the string having the set of characters ‘

t’

, ‘

h’

, and ‘

e’

as the first characters of the query of music data provided by the user when the set amount of time between keystrokes is exceeded after entering the character ‘

t’

;

a timer module to apply a timer in the client device to measure the set amount of time between keystrokes, wherein an optimal time between keystrokes is approximately 200 milliseconds.

a keystroke module of the client device to hold the partial entry in the client device without transmitting the partial entry to the fast-search server when the partial entry is a first three characters of the query of music data when the set amount of time between keystrokes is within the optimal time between keystrokes;

a four-send module of the client device to transmit the partial entry in the client device to the fast-search server regardless of the set amount of time between keystrokes being within the optimal time between keystrokes when the partial entry is a first four characters of the query of music data to optimize an experience of the user to feel that the fast-search server is quickly responsive to the user;

a space module of the client device to hold the partial entry in the client device without transmitting the partial entry to the fast-search server when the partial entry is a ‘

blank space’

character of the query of music data to minimize trips between the client device and the fast-search server; and

a delete module of the client device to apply a local cache to retrieve a previous record of previous characters typed in the query of music data before the user entered the partial entry of the query through an application of the local cache in providing the previous data record when the user deletes an entry of any character of the query from the query.

20. The system of claim 17:

wherein the data record is an artist name, an artist album, a genre, an album data, a track data, a lyrics data, a blog post data, a user profile data, a user interest data, and a playlist data,

wherein the reverse index is created from a combination of letters appearing as a string in a data field of the music database, and

wherein the reverse index is created from a plurality of data fields of the music database including an artist field, an album field, and a track.