CONTINUOUS CONTENT REFINEMENT OF TOPICS OF USER INTEREST

• US 20120167010A1
• Filed: 12/28/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Crane, Barry, Long, James Andrew, Campbell, Neil Gawain
• Granted Patent: US 9,996,620 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/825
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3349 Reuse of stored results of previous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/355 Class or cluster creation or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for a user interface that provides active assistance to discover, investigate, refine and save multiple topics of interest, i.e., a topic incubator where user interests are discovered, quickly developed to maturity and preserved. Each topic may have an independent topic interface with independently suggested topics. In each topic interface, users may control topic development by selecting saved topics, dynamically suggested topics and manually entered topics. Suggested topics may be based on saved interests, related interests and/or browsed content. Suggested topics may differ between topic interfaces and may change with topics. Suggested topics may be continuously refined or updated based on existing topics, changed topics, selected suggested topics and selected content. Users control treatment of selected topics individually or as refinements of (combinations with) other topics to create compound topics. Users replace or refine existing topics in existing topic interfaces or branch off topics into additional topic interfaces.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a user interface comprising an independent topic interface for each of a plurality of topics on one common page displayed to a user, wherein the user interface permits a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to;

select a topic by one of a plurality of topic selection options comprising manually entering a topic and selecting a topic from suggested topics;

select treatment of the selected topic from a plurality of topic treatment options comprising treatment as an individual topic and treatment as a refinement of or combination with another topic;

select a topic interface to display the treated selected topic from a plurality of topic interface options comprising an existing topic interface on the common page and an additional topic interface on the common page; and

browse content based on the selected topic displayed in the selected topic interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding the additional topic interface to display the selected topic when the user chooses to display the selected topic in the additional topic interface.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing content, for each topic interface, based on the selected topic for display in the selected topic interface.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing suggested topics, for each topic interface, based on the topic displayed by the topic interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the topics suggested for a first topic interface are suggested independent of the topics suggested for a second topic interface.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating the suggested topics, for each topic interface, based, at least in part, on user selection(s) of content displayed in the topic interface.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a suggested topic is a term or phrase in content selected by the user.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein one or more suggested topics are generated from an interest cloud.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein providing content comprises refining or replacing existing content in the selected existing topic interface when the user selects the existing topic interface to display the treated selected topic.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the provided content comprises search results from a search engine query based on the selected topic.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the user interface further permits a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to:

select one or more types of content provided for display.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein the user interface further permits a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to:

select one or more sources of content provided for display.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the user interface further permits a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to:

select a format of content provided for display, wherein display formats are permitted to vary between topic interfaces.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface further permits a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to:

control whether to save a selected topic in saved topics or discard the selected topic.

15. The method of claim 14, the topic selection options further comprising:

selecting a topic from saved topics.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting a topic from saved topics is performed in several ways comprising manually by the user and automatically by the user interface.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a topic automatically selected from saved topics is selected based on a priority level or ranking associated with the selected saved topic.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface further permits a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to:

manage each topic interface by repositioning and deleting topic interfaces.

19. A method comprising:

providing a user interface for a topic of interest displayed to a user;

providing content based on the topic for display by the user interface;

providing suggested topics based on the topic for display by the user interface;

updating the suggested topics based on a selection of content;

updating the suggested topics based on a selection of a suggested topic; and

updating the suggested topics based on a changed topic other than by selection of a suggested topic.

20. A system comprising:

a user interface module configured to provide an independent topic interface for each of a plurality of topics on one common page displayed to a user, wherein the user interface is configured to permit a user, for each of a plurality of independent topic interfaces, to;

select a topic by one of a plurality of topic selection options comprising manually entering a topic and selecting a topic from suggested topics;

select treatment of the selected topic from a plurality of topic treatment options comprising treatment as an individual topic and treatment as a refinement of or combination with another topic;

select a topic interface to display the treated selected topic from a plurality of topic interface options comprising an existing topic interface on the common page and an additional topic interface on the common page; and

browse content based on the selected topic displayed in the selected topic interface;

a content retrieval module configured to retrieve content based on the selected topic from one or more content sources;

a content provider module configured to provide the retrieved content; and

a topic suggestion module configured to suggest topics.