Automatic Routing of Search Results

• US 20110289064A1
• Filed: 08/06/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Byrne, William J., Jitkoff, John Nicholas, Lebeau, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/25 using position of the lips, movement of the lips or face analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4935 Connection initiated by DAS system

Abstract

In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatic telephone calling, the method comprising:

receiving a query at a server system and from a computing device that is remote from the server system;

determining whether the query is for causing the remote computing device to call a telephone number automatically;

providing the query to a particular search engine system;

receiving from the particular search engine system one or more search results that are responsive to the received query; and

providing a particular telephone number that corresponds to a most prominently ranked of the one or more search results from the search engine system and to the remote computing device, so as to cause the remote computing device to call the particular telephone number automatically.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1:

wherein the received query includes recorded voice information; and

further comprising converting, by the server system, the voice information into textual form such that the query that is provided to the particular search engine system is in textual form.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the particular search engine system is a geographical search engine system that receives (i) a query, and (ii) a location, and returns a geographically-constrained listing of search results that correspond to venues that are responsive to the query and are geographically near the location.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the location is an estimated geographical location of the remote computing device as determined by the remote computing device using information encoded in wireless signals that identifies one or more remote transmitting devices.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the query is for causing the remote computing device to call a telephone number automatically includes determining whether the query includes a predefined carrier phrase, and wherein providing the query to the particular search engine system is performed in response to a determination that the query includes the predefined carrier phrase.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the server system is configured to provide the query to a different search engine system if the query is determined to not include the predefined carrier phrase.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein calling the particular telephone number automatically includes presenting on the remote computing device an animated timing display and calling, by the remote computing device, the particular telephone number at substantially a termination of the animated timing display.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the query is received in response to a user-selection of a query button at the mobile computing device, the query button causing the mobile computing device to transmit the query to the server system.

9. A computer-implemented method for automatic telephone calling, the method comprising:

providing a query by a computing device and to a server system that is remote from the computing device, so as to cause the remote server system to receive from a search engine system one or more search results that are responsive to the received query;

receiving from the server system a telephone number that corresponds to a most prominently ranked of the one or more search results; and

in response to receiving the telephone number, automatically calling the telephone number, wherein automatically calling the telephone number includes presenting on the computing device a description of the most prominently ranked search result.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein automatically calling the telephone number includes presenting on the computing device, without receiving user-input at the computing device subsequent to receiving the telephone number, a prompt to call the telephone number, wherein the prompt enables a user to cause the computing device to dial the telephone number with a single-action user input.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein automatically calling the telephone number includes presenting on the computing device, without receiving user-input subsequent to receiving the telephone number, an animated timing display and dialing the particular telephone number at an expiration of the animated timing display.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein during the presentation of the animated timing display, the computing device does not present telephone numbers that correspond to other of the one or more search results.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein automatically calling the telephone number further includes presenting, at the computing device and concurrent with the animated timing display, a button to cancel the dialing of the particular telephone number at the expiration of the animated timing display, wherein the computing device is configured to present descriptions of other of the search results in response to a user-selection of the button to cancel the automatic dialing.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the automatic calling of the telephone number is performed by the computing device and includes a dialing of the telephone number by the computing device while the computing device is not presently connected to another computing device in a duplex telephone conversation.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising receiving by the computing device user-input defining the query;

and wherein the query is provided to the server system in response to a user-selection of a query button that causes the query to be transmitted to the server system.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising a search result ranker that is programmed to assign, for the most-prominently ranked of the search results, the ranking based at least in part on whether the computing device, or a user of the computing device, has previously called the telephone number.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a second search engine, at the server system, programmed to receive the query and determine search results that are relevant to the query; and

a query type identifier to determine whether the query is to be provided to the particular search engine system or the second search engine system, wherein the computing device does not automatically call a telephone number corresponding to a most-prominently ranked of search results that are received from the second search engine.

16. A system for automatic telephone calling, the system comprising:

a query handler, at a computing device, programmed to receive user-input selecting a graphical interface element that is for transmitting a user-input query to a server system that is remote to the computing device, and to transmit the user-input query to the server system in response to receiving the user-input;

a location identifier, at the server system, programmed to identify a location that is provided to the server system in or with the query;

a particular search engine, at the server system, programmed to receive the query and determine search results that are relevant to the query and are geographically-constrained based on the location, wherein the search results are ranked; and

an automatic caller programmed to receive a telephone number for a most-prominently ranked of the search results, and automatically call the telephone number without receiving user-input subsequent to the transmission of the user-input query to the server system.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a search result ranker that is programmed to assign, for the most-prominently ranked of the search results, the ranking based at least in-part on comparing a present time to data that indicates hours of operation for a venue that corresponds to the most-prominently ranked of the search results.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising a search result ranker that is programmed to assign, for the most-prominently ranked of the search results, the ranking based at least in-part on user-input provided by multiple users, other than a user of the computing device, to cancel an automatic dialing of the telephone number, the automatic dialing performed by automatic callers that are each programmed to receive a particular telephone number for a most-prominently ranked of search results that are received in response to a query, and to automatically call the particular telephone number.

21. A computer-implemented method of providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a spoken input provided by a user to a computing device;

transmitting the spoken input to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device;

receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input, search result information that is responsive to the spoken input;

providing an alert to the user, by the computing device, that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user; and

connecting the user to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the spoken input includes a carrier phrase and a query parameter, and wherein the query parameter is submitted to a search engine system to generate the search result information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the carrier phrase is used to select a search engine system, from among a plurality of search engine sub-systems, to which the query parameter is to be submitted.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein providing an alert to the user comprises providing a timed countdown, at the end of which the connecting of the user is to occur automatically.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the search result information comprises a telephone number that is responsive to a query parameter in the spoken input, and wherein connecting the user to the target comprises automatically dialing the telephone number using the device.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the search result information comprises a uniform resource locator for a web site that is responsive to a query parameter in the spoken input, and wherein connecting the user to the target comprises automatically redirecting a web-navigating application to the web site.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing the user with an option to cancel automatic connection to the target of the search result information.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising, in response to receiving a user input to cancel the automatic connection, displaying to the user information responsive to the spoken input that does not correspond to the target of the search result information.