METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING FOR SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS

• US 20140006440A1
• Filed: 07/02/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Andrea G. Forte, Baris Coskun, Roger Piqueras Jover
• Inventors: Forte, Andrea G., Coskun, Baris, Shen, Qi, Murynets, Ilona, Bickford, Jeffrey, Istomin, Mikhail, Giura, Paul, Jover, Roger Piqueras, Subbaraman, Ramesh, Mathur, Suhas, Wang, Wei
• Application Number:
  US13/540,286
• Publication Number:
  US 20140006440A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for searching for an application are disclosed. For example, the method receives information regarding a context of a user, receives a search request for the application, finds the application that has context information that matches the context of the user, and provides a search result in response to the search request that includes the application that has the context information that matches the context of the user.

Claims

1. A method for searching for an application, comprising:

receiving information regarding a context of a user;

receiving a search request for the application;

finding the application that has context information that matches the context of the user; and

providing a search result in response to the search request that includes the application that has the context information that matches the context of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the context of the user is provided by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the context of the user is provided automatically via a sensor on an endpoint device of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the context of the user is inferred from an activity to be performed by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context comprises an activity that the user is performing.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the context comprises a sense that the user is using.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the application included in the search result does not require a use of the sense that the user is using.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the search result is provided by applying a topic search model.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a latent dirichlet allocation algorithm is used to apply the topic search model.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the application included in the search result is retrieved from a database that uses an index to store a plurality of applications.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for searching for and retrieving an application, the operations comprising:

receiving information regarding a context of a user;

receiving a search request for the application;

finding the application that has context information that matches the context of the user; and

providing a search result in response to the search request that includes the application that has the context information that matches the context of the user.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the information regarding the context of the user is provided by the user.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the information regarding the context of the user is provided automatically via a sensor on an endpoint device of the user.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the information regarding the context of the user is inferred from an activity to be performed by the user.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the context comprises an activity that the user is performing.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the context comprises a sense that the user is using.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the application included in the search result does not require a use of the sense that the user is using.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the search result is provided by applying a topic search model.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein a latent dirichlet allocation algorithm is used to apply the topic search model.

20. An apparatus for searching for an application, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable medium in communication with the processor, wherein the computer-readable medium has stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving information regarding a context of a user;

receiving a search request for an application;

finding the application that has context information that matches the context of the user; and

providing a search result in response to the search request that includes the application that has the context information that matches the context of the user.