AUGMENTING SEARCH RESULTS WITH RELEVANT THIRD-PARTY APPLICATION CONTENT

• US 20140172840A1
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: KUMAR, AMIT, SADHUKHA, SHAJIB, O'CONNOR, MICHAEL WILLIAM, JIANG, ZHAOWEI
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,787 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

Methods, computer systems, and computer-storage media are provided for augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications. Each of a plurality of third-party applications is registered to obtain an indication of entity types associated with the each registered third-party application. An annotated search query is received that includes the original inputted search query and at least an entity type associated with the search query. The annotated search query is communicated to those third-party applications having an indicated entity type that matches the entity type associated with the inputted search query. Search results that are relevant to the annotated search query are received from the applications and presented on a results page.

Claims

1. One or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method of augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications, the method comprising:

registering each of a plurality of third-party applications to obtain an indication of one or more entity types associated with the each registered third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications;

receiving an annotated search query, the annotated search query comprising at least an inputted search query and at least one entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

communicating the annotated search query to at least a first third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications, the at least the first third-party application having an indicated entity type that matches the at least one entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

receiving at least one search result from the at least the first third-party application, the at least one search result relevant to the inputted search query and the at least one entity type associated with the inputted search query; and

presenting the at least one search result on a results page.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the annotated search query further comprises one or more selected from the following:

(A) an action intent determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

(B) a location of a user who inputted the search query;

(C) search queries determined to be related to the inputted search query;

(D) Web-based search results determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

(E) advertisements determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

(F) an identity of the user who inputted the search query;

or

(G) a search history associated with the user who inputted the search query.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the at least the first third-party application is installed locally on the computing device.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the at least the first third-party application is a cloud-based application.

5. The media of claim 1, further comprising receiving additional information from the at least the first third-party application, the additional information comprising one or more selected from the following:

(A) an identity of a user associated with the at least the first third-party application;

(B) user engagement history with the at least the first third-party application;

(C) actions and associated uniform resource locators that are relevant to the annotated search query; and

(D) rendering information.

6. The media of claim 5, further comprising rendering the at least one search result utilizing the rendering information and a predefined template.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein Web-based search results associated with the inputted search query are presented simultaneously with the at least one search result on the results page.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein the at least one search result is presented in a first area of the results page and the Web-based search results are presented in a second area of the results page, the first area being separate from the second area.

9. A computer system for performing a method of augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications, the system comprising:

a data store storing one or more registration requests associated with one or more third-party applications, each registration request including an indication of one or more entity types associated with the request'"'"'s respective third-party application;

a search extender server having one or more computer-storage media coupled with the data store, wherein the search extender server;

receives annotated search queries, each annotated search query comprising at least an inputted search query and at least one entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

communicates the annotated search queries to the one or more third-party applications based on entity types associated with the one or more third-party applications; and

receives from the one or more third-party applications search results relevant to the annotated search queries; and

one or more third-party applications associated with the one or more registration requests, each third-party application of the one or more third-party applications configured to receive an annotated search query from the search extender server;

execute the annotated search query against at least one of local cached content or cloud-based content;

identify at least one search result relevant to the inputted search query and the at least one entity type associated with the inputted search query; and

communicate the at least one search result to the search extender server.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the local cached content and the cloud-based content are protected by a set of user credentials.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the search extender server further monitors user engagement with the aggregated search results and adjusts ranking of the search results based on the user engagement.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the search extender server asynchronously receives from the one or more third-party applications the search results relevant to the annotated search queries.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the each annotated search query received by the search extender server further comprises at least one action intent determined to be associated with the inputted search query.

14. A computerized method carried out by a search extender server on a user device for augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content from one or more third-party applications, the method comprising:

registering each of a plurality of third-party applications to obtain an indication of one or more entity types associated with the each registered third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications;

receiving an annotated search query, the annotated search query comprising at least an inputted search query, an entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query, and an action intent determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

communicating the annotated search query to the one or more third-party applications, each of the one or more third-party applications having an indicated entity type that matches the entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

receiving a plurality of search results from the one or more third-party applications, each search result of the plurality of search results relevant to the inputted search query and the entity type associated with the inputted search query, at least a portion of the each search results of the plurality of search results including a selectable action relevant to the action intent associated with the inputted search query; and

presenting the plurality of search results on a results page.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of search results is ranked prior to presentation on the results page.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of at least one search result selectable action associated with a third-party application of the one or more third-party applications;

launching the third-party application; and

initiating the action within the third-party application.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising monitoring subsequent user selections with the at least one search result selectable action.

18. The method of claim 17, adjusting a ranking of the at least one search result based on the subsequent user selections with the at least one search result selectable action.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the third-party application overlies a portion of the results page.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the third-party application is dismissed by selecting an area on the results page.