PRESENTING SEARCH RESULT ITEMS HAVING VARIED PROMINENCE

• US 20130067364A1
• Filed: 09/08/2011
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: AHARI, SANAZ, MCDONALD, KIERAN RICHARD, BERNTSON, ALEC JOHN, IQBAL, MUHAMMAD ARIF
• Granted Patent: US 9,335,883 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

Computer-readable media, computer systems, and computing devices for facilitating presentation of search result items having varying prominence is provided. The method includes referencing a search result item to be presented within a search results page in response to a search query. Thereafter, a determination is made that a size prominence of the search result item is to be modified. Such a determination can be based on a result attribute(s) associated with the search result item and a result attribute(s) associated with other search result items within the search results page. The size of the search result item is adjusted in accordance with the determination that the size prominence of the search result item is to be modified.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage media having embodied thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor in a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method of facilitating presentation of search result items having varied prominence, the method comprising:

referencing a search result item to be presented within a search results page in response to a search query;

determining that a size prominence of the search result item is to be modified based on at least one result attribute associated with the search result item and at least one result attribute associated with one or more other search result items within the search results page; and

adjusting the size of the search result item in accordance with the determination that the size prominence of the search result item is to be modified.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein each of the search result item and the one or more other search result items comprise an instant answer or a web result.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein each of the search result item and the one or more other search result items comprise an advertisement.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein each of the search result item and the one or more other search result items comprise a related search item.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein each of the search result item and the one or more other search result items comprise a tab item.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the determination to modify the size prominence dynamically occurs, without user intervention, upon submission of a search query.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one result attribute associated with the search result item and the at least one result attribute associated with one or more other search result items indicate user engagement with the corresponding search result item.

8. The media of claim 1, wherein the one or more other search result items comprise all of the search result items to be presented on the search result page other than the search result item.

9. The media of claim 1, wherein the size prominence comprises a vertical space, a vertical height, a pixel height, a horizontal width, a horizontal space, a number of lines, a character count, a number of components, or a combination thereof.

10. The media of claim 1 further comprising selecting a modified size prominence to which the size prominence is to be adjusted.

11. A graphical user interface embodied on one or more computer-readable media and executable on a computer, the graphical user interface comprising:

a first display area configured for displaying a first search result item and a second search result item presented on a search results page, the first search result item and the second search result item comprising an instant answer or a web result,

wherein the first search result item is displayed having a greater size allocation than the second search result item, the first search result item having a greater size allocation based on one or more result attributes associated with the first search result that indicate a strong user engagement relative to one or more result attributes associated with at least the second search result item presented on the search results page.

12. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the greater size allocation comprises a vertical space, a vertical height, a pixel height, a horizontal width, a horizontal space, a number of lines, a character count, a number of components, or a combination thereof.

13. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the strong user engagement is indicated based on the one or more result attributes associated with the first attribute exceeding a result threshold.

14. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the strong user engagement is indicated based on the one or more result attributes associated with the first search result item indicating user engagement that exceeds user engagement associated with the at least second search result item.

15. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the greater size allocation is selected from among a set of predetermined prominence sizes.

16. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the greater size allocation is determined based on the relative user engagement of the first search result item compared to the user engagement associated with the at least second search result item.

20. The media of claim 14, wherein the second size allocation is an increased vertical height, a horizontal width, a character count, a number of components, or a combination thereof, compared to the first size allocation.

17. One or more computer-readable storage media having embodied thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor in a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method of facilitating presentation of search result items having varied prominence, the method comprising:

referencing a set of search result items for display within a search results page that are relevant to a search query, the set including web results and instant answers;

ranking the search result items based on relevance to the search query;

determining that a first search result item is to be increased from a first size allocation to a second size allocation that is different from the first size allocation based on one or more result attributes associated with the search result items indicating that user engagement with the first search result item is greater than user engagement with at least the second search result item;

determining that a second search result item is to maintain the first size allocation; and

presenting the first search result item having the second size allocation and the second search result item having the first size allocation within the search results page in accordance with the corresponding ranking.

18. The media of claim 17, wherein a cost function is used to determine that the first search result item is to be increased from the first size allocation to the second size allocation.

19. The media of claim 17, wherein the second size allocation is selected from among a plurality of size allocations or determined using a scaling factor.