PRESENTING RELATED SEARCHES ON A TOOLBAR

• US 20120284293A1
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nierenberg, Julie
• Granted Patent: US 9,298,851 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/766
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions

Abstract

Computer-readable media and computerized methods for automatically presenting keyword(s) within a search box of a toolbar are provided. The methods involve detecting a navigation action invoked by a user of a web browser and pulling from the web browser a uniform resource locator (URL) targeted by the navigation action. The targeted URL is compared against a manifest of suggested search terms to determine a match. When there exists suggested search term(s) that correspond with the URL, keyword(s) are selected from the suggested search term(s) for presentation within the search box. When no suggested search terms are found to correspond with the URL, the search box is left empty. Generally, a first search service is responsible for enabling the user to visit an online location associated with the URL, while a second search service is responsible for managing content within the search box of the toolbar.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for surfacing one or more suggested search terms within a search box of a toolbar, the method comprising:

receiving information that describes an online web location;

determining the one or more suggested search terms as a function of the web-location information;

selecting at least one keyword from the one or more suggested search terms; and

presenting the at least one selected keyword within the search box of the toolbar.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the online web location represents a uniform resource location (URL) that a user is currently visiting.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 2, wherein determining the one or more suggested search terms comprises calling a backend application programming interface (API) with the URL.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 3, wherein determining the one or more suggested search terms further comprises receiving the one or more suggested search terms related to the URL from the backend API.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the online web location represents a web page of a website to which a user has presently navigated.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 5, the method further comprising employing a first search engine, operated by a first web-search service, to navigate the user to the website.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, the method further comprising employing a second search engine, operated by a second web-search service, to manage content presented within the search box of the toolbar.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 6, wherein the online web location represents a search results page that is retrieved in response to a user-initiated query submitted to the first search engine.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein selecting at least one keyword from the one or more suggested search terms comprises:

identifying the at least one keyword as being most relevant to the web-location information; and

caching a remainder of the one or more suggested search terms for access by a user at the toolbar.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein presenting the at least one selected keyword within the search box of the toolbar comprises:

displaying the at least one selected keyword within the search box for a predefined period of time; and

upon expiration of the predefined period of time, replacing within the search box the at least one selected keyword with a first candidate from the remainder of the one or more suggested search terms.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein presenting the at least one selected keyword within the search box of the toolbar further comprises:

displaying the first candidate from the remainder of the one or more suggested search terms within the search box for a predefined period of time; and

upon expiration of the predefined period of time, replacing within the search box the first candidate from the remainder of the one or more suggested search terms with a second candidate from the remainder of the one or more suggested search terms.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication of a user-initiated selection at the toolbar; and

rendering a menu that lists the remainder of the one or more suggested search terms.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein receiving an indication of a user-initiated selection at the toolbar comprises detecting a single click-action directed at the search box.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication of a user-initiated selection at the toolbar; and

allowing the user to edit the at least one selected keyword prior to entry as a query.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein receiving an indication of a user-initiated selection at the toolbar comprises detecting a multiple click-action directed at the search box.

16. A computerized method, implemented at a processing unit, for automatically providing a user with one or more suggested search terms, the method comprising:

extracting web-location information from a web-browsing application, wherein the web-location information includes a uniform resource locator (URL) of a website a user is currently visiting;

performing a comparison against a manifest to retrieve the one or more suggested search terms, wherein performing the comparison comprises;

(a) inspecting entries within the manifest with regard to the web-location information;

(b) when an entry of the manifest corresponds with the web-location information, designating the entry as the one or more suggested search terms; and

(c) when no entries of the manifest correspond with the web-location information, returning a null set that indicates no suggested search terms are to be displayed; and

presenting the one or more suggested search terms within a search box of a toolbar, wherein the toolbar is surfaced at a UI display upon invoking the web-browsing application.

17. The computerized method of claim 16, further comprising maintaining the search box void of content upon the null set being returned.

18. The computerized method of claim 16, wherein presenting the one or more suggested search terms within a search box of a toolbar comprises accompanying the one or more suggested search terms with visual effects that draw the user'"'"'s attention to the one or more suggested search terms.

19. The computerized method of claim 16, wherein extracting web-location information from a web-browser application comprises:

recognizing a user-initiated selection of a destination link on a search-results page; and

employing the URL associated with the destination link or indicia of a document targeted by the destination link as the web-location information.

20. A computer system capable of discovering and presenting one or more suggested search terms within a toolbar is provided, the computer system comprising a computer storage medium having a plurality of computer software components embodied thereon, the computer software components comprising:

a web-browsing application to receive a user-initiated selection directed to a destination link that initiates navigation to a web location;

a first search engine, operated by a first web-search service, to navigate the user to the web location targeted by a uniform resource locator (URL); and

a second search engine, operated by a second web-search service, to manage content presented within a search box of the toolbar;

wherein managing content comprises;

(a) determining one or more suggested search terms that are relevant to the URL;

(b) selecting at least one keyword from the one or more suggested search terms, wherein the at least one selected keyword is ranked as being of highest relevance to the URL with in comparison to a remainder of the one or more suggested search terms; and

(c) presenting the at least one selected keyword within the search box of the toolbar.