METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING A WEB SEARCH

• US 20120005583A1
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wong, Wai Hung
• Granted Patent: US 9,619,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and system for providing to a user rapid access to search resources while interacting with electronic documents by providing for recognition of user initiated search triggers that result in searches being performed with minimal user input or page navigation. The method and system includes generating, by a server computer, a web page, injecting code into the web page, and transmitting the web page to a client computer. The code, when executed on the client computer, detects a search interface trigger occurring during display of the web page, the search interface trigger not associated with an input focus of the web page or of a browser on the client computer, detects a search execution trigger after the detecting of the search interface trigger, and transmits, to a search entity, a request for search results related to content associated with the search interface trigger.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, by a server computer, a web page;

injecting, by the server computer, software code into the web page;

transmitting, by the server computer, the web page to a client computer for display,

the injected software code, when executed on the client computer;

detecting a user-initiated search interface trigger occurring during display of the web page, the user-initiated search interface trigger not associated with an input focus of the web page or an input focus of a browser on the client computer,

detecting a user-initiated search execution trigger after the detecting of the search interface trigger, and

transmitting, to a search entity, in response to the detecting of the search execution trigger, a request for search results related to content associated with the search interface trigger.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the software code displays a search interface on the web page after the detecting of the user-initiated search interface trigger.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the software code populates the search interface with content associated with the user-initiated search interface trigger.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating of the web page further comprises generating a dynamic web page.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting a user of the client computer selecting text on the web page.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the detecting of the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code detecting the user of the client computer releasing a mouse button after selecting text on the web page.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting a selection of an icon displayed along with the web page and associated with the search interface.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting a user of the client computer typing text while viewing the web page.

9. The method of claim 3 further comprising transmitting, by the server computer to the client computer, search suggestions related to the content during the populating of the search interface with the content.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code detecting selection of a search suggestion in the displayed search suggestions.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting selection of a predetermined function key.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code detecting pressing a predetermined key.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code detecting selecting a search button associated with and displayed with the search interface.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving, by the server computer, a parameter from the client computer, the parameter restricting operation of the software code.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the detecting of the user-initiated search interface trigger occurs only on predetermined web pages.

16. A computer readable storage medium tangibly storing thereon computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining the steps of:

generating a web page;

injecting software code into the web page;

transmitting the web page to a client computer for display,

the injected software code, when executed on the client computer;

detecting a user-initiated search interface trigger occurring during display of the web page, the user-initiated search interface trigger not associated with an input focus of the web page or an input focus of a browser,

detecting a user-initiated search execution trigger after the detecting of the user-initiated search interface trigger, and

transmitting, to a search entity, in response to the detecting of the user-initiated search execution trigger, a request for search results related to content associated with the user-initiated search interface trigger.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the software code displays a search interface on the web page after the detecting of the user-initiated search interface trigger.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the software code populates the search interface with content associated with the user-initiated search interface trigger.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting a user of the client computer selecting text on the web page.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code detecting the user of the client computer releasing a mouse button after selecting text on the web page.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting a selection of a button displayed on the web page and associated with the search interface.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the software code detecting the user-initiated search interface trigger further comprises the software code detecting a user of the client computer typing text while viewing the web page.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 further comprising the step of transmitting search suggestions related to content during the populating of the search interface with the content.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the software code configured to detect the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code being configured to detect selection of a search suggestion in the displayed search suggestions.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the software code configured to detect the user-initiated search execution trigger further comprises the software code being configured to detect pressing a predetermined key.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising receiving a parameter from a client computer, the parameter restricting operation of the software code.

27. A method comprising:

generating, by a server computer, a web page;

injecting, by the server computer, software code into the web page;

transmitting, by the server computer, the web page to a client computer for display,

the injected software code, when executed on the client computer;

detecting pressing, by a user viewing the web page, of keyboard buttons to create a text string, the pressing of the keyboard buttons not associated with an input focus of the web page or an input focus of a browser on the client computer,

detecting pressing, by the user viewing the web page, of an enter key after the detecting of the pressing of keyboard buttons, and

transmitting, to a search entity, in response to the detecting of the pressing of the enter key, a search request comprising the text string.

28. A method comprising:

generating, by a server computer, a web page;

injecting, by the server computer, software code into the web page;

the injected software code, when executed on a client computer;

detecting pressing, by a user viewing the web page, of a button of a cursor control device associated with the client computer,

detecting movement of the cursor control device, the movement resulting in highlighting of text, the highlighting not associated with an input focus of the web page or an input focus of a browser on the client computer,

detecting a release of the button of the cursor control device,

extracting the highlighted text,

transmitting, to a search entity, in response to the extracting, a request for search results related to the text; and

transmitting, by the server computer, the web page to the client computer for display.

29. A server computer comprising:

a processor;

a storage medium storing software code comprising

logic to detect a user-initiated search interface trigger occurring during display of a web page, the user-initiated search interface trigger not associated with an input focus of the web page or an input focus of a browser,

logic to detect a user-initiated search execution trigger after the detecting of the search interface trigger, and

logic to transmit, to a search entity, in response to the detecting of the search execution trigger, a request for search results related to content associated with the search interface trigger;

the processor generating a web page and injecting the software code into the web page; and

a network interface transmitting the web page to a client computer for display.