CONTEXTUAL SUGGESTION OF SEARCH QUERIES
First Claim
1. A computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions to perform a method of suggesting a search, the executable instructions, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to perform acts comprising:
- determining that a user has activated first application, said first application being a toolbar application in a toolbar that is used in a second application, said toolbar being visually displayed on a user interface of said second application;
displaying information to a user in response to said user'"'"'s activating said first application;
identifying a topic on which said user is focusing, said topic being identified from less than all of said information displayed to said user;
creating a query based on said topic;
populating said query, or text based on said query, into a search box that is part of said toolbar;
receiving an indication that said user has activated a search button associated with said search box;
using a search engine to obtain results on said query; and
displaying said results to said user.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A toolbar may have a search box, and one or more applications that interact with the search box. In one example, the user uses one of the applications on the toolbar to obtain, or to interact with, some content. The application then determines, based on the content or on the user'"'"'s interaction with the content, what subject matter the user is interested in. Once this subject matter has been identified, the application formulates a query relating to the subject matter, and possibly a natural language description of the query. The natural language description may then be populated into the search box. If the user activates the search button associated with the search box, the toolbar may replace the natural language description with the underlying query. The toolbar may then execute the query and display the results to the user.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions to perform a method of suggesting a search, the executable instructions, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to perform acts comprising:
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determining that a user has activated first application, said first application being a toolbar application in a toolbar that is used in a second application, said toolbar being visually displayed on a user interface of said second application; displaying information to a user in response to said user'"'"'s activating said first application; identifying a topic on which said user is focusing, said topic being identified from less than all of said information displayed to said user; creating a query based on said topic; populating said query, or text based on said query, into a search box that is part of said toolbar; receiving an indication that said user has activated a search button associated with said search box; using a search engine to obtain results on said query; and displaying said results to said user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of suggesting a search to a user, the method comprising:
using a processor to perform acts comprising; receiving, from a computer, a query, there being a first application that has a toolbar and that executes on said computer, said toolbar having a second application that is activated by a user of said computer and that displays first information when activated by said user, said second application identifying a topic on which said user is focusing, said topic being identified from less than all of said first information, said second application populating a query based on said topic, or text based on said query, into said search box, said toolbar sending said query when said user activates a search button associated with said search box; and providing results in response to said query to said computer, said toolbar displaying said results in a user interface of said first application. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A system for suggesting a search to a user, the system comprising:
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a memory; a processor; and an application component that is stored in said memory and that executes on said processor, said application component having a user interface that includes a toolbar, said toolbar comprising a plurality of toolbar applications, said toolbar receiving a first indication that a user has activated a toolbar application that is one of said toolbar applications, said toolbar application displaying information in response to being activated, said toolbar application identifying from said information a topic on which user is focusing, said topic being identified from less than all of said information, said toolbar application creating a query and natural language text based on said query, said toolbar application populating said natural language text into a search box provided by said toolbar, said toolbar receiving a second indication that said user has activated a search button associated with said search box, said toolbar replacing said natural language text with said query in said search box in response to activating said search button, said toolbar using a search engine to obtain results based on said query, said toolbar displaying said results in said user interface. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification