EXPLORING INFORMATION BY TOPIC

• US 20140331156A1
• Filed: 09/07/2012
• Published: 11/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kulikov, Vitaliy
• Granted Patent: US 9,870,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for exploring information by topic. One of the methods includes determining, from a user input, a topic; selecting a first node from a plurality of nodes, wherein the first node is a collection of data about the topic; providing, for display in a user interface, a first threadlet, wherein the first threadlet includes an instance of the first node and a projection menu that includes a respective link to each of one or more projections, and wherein each of the one or more projections includes one or more threadlets that are instances of nodes that share a relationship to the topic; receiving a user input selecting a particular projection from the one or more projections; and providing, for display in the user interface, a set of threadlets from the particular projection.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more computers, the method comprising:

determining, from a user input, a topic;

selecting a first node from a plurality of nodes, wherein the first node is a collection of data about the topic;

providing, for display in a user interface, a first threadlet, wherein the first threadlet includes an instance of the first node and a projection menu that includes a respective link to each of one or more projections, and wherein each of the one or more projections includes one or more threadlets that are instances of nodes that share a relationship to the topic;

receiving a user input selecting a particular projection from the one or more projections; and

providing, for display in the user interface, a set of threadlets from the particular projection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the topic is an entity represented by a node in an online database of structured data, and wherein the first node includes data from the node in the online database of structured data that represents the entity.

3. The method of any one of claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

updating a thread that identifies threadlets displayed to the user to include the first threadlet, wherein each threadlet in the thread is associated with data that indicates a role of the threadlet in the thread, and wherein updating the thread comprises generating data that indicates that the first threadlet in the thread has a body threadlet role.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

in response to receiving the user input selecting the particular projection, modifying the role of the first threadlet to a tail threadlet role.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein threadlets adjacent to each other in the thread are displayed adjacent to each other in the user interface.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining, for each threadlet in the thread, whether to display a minimized representation or a maximized representation of the threadlet based on the role of the threadlet in the thread, comprising;

determining that the first threadlet has a body threadlet role; and

providing a maximized representation of the first threadlet for display in the user interface.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining that the role of the first threadlet has been modified to a tail threadlet role; and

providing a minimized representation of the first threadlet for display adjacent to the set of threadlets from the particular projection.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a user input selecting a link to a particular projection included in a particular threadlet from the set of threadlets;

updating the thread to include the particular threadlet, wherein updating the thread comprises generating data that indicates that the particular threadlet in the thread has a tail threadlet role; and

providing the particular projection for display adjacent to a minimized representation of the particular threadlet in the user interface, wherein the minimized representation of the particular threadlet is displayed adjacent to the minimized representation of the first threadlet in the user interface.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the particular projection is a topic projection that includes only a single threadlet that includes an instance of a node that represents a particular topic.

10. The method of any of claim 8 or 9, further comprising:

receiving a user input selecting the minimized representation of the first threadlet; and

providing the maximized representation of the first threadlet for display in the user interface in place of the particular projection, the minimized representation of the particular threadlet, and the minimized representation of the first threadlet.

11. A system comprising one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

determining, from a user input, a topic;

selecting a first node from a plurality of nodes, wherein the first node is a collection of data about the topic;

providing, for display in a user interface, a first threadlet, wherein the first threadlet includes an instance of the first node and a projection menu that includes a respective link to each of one or more projections, and wherein each of the one or more projections includes one or more threadlets that are instances of nodes that share a relationship to the topic;

receiving a user input selecting a particular projection from the one or more projections; and

providing, for display in the user interface, a set of threadlets from the particular projection.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the topic is an entity represented by a node in an online database of structured data, and wherein the first node includes data from the node in the online database of structured data that represents the entity.

13. The system of any of claim 11 or 12, the operations further comprising:

updating a thread that identifies threadlets displayed to the user to include the first threadlet, wherein each threadlet in the thread is associated with data that indicates a role of the threadlet in the thread, and wherein updating the thread comprises generating data that indicates that the first threadlet in the thread has a body threadlet role.

14. The system of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

in response to receiving the user input selecting the particular projection, modifying the role of the first threadlet to a tail threadlet role.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein threadlets adjacent to each other in the thread are displayed adjacent to each other in the user interface.

16. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

determining, for each threadlet in the thread, whether to display a minimized representation or a maximized representation of the threadlet based on the role of the threadlet in the thread, comprising;

determining that the first threadlet has a body threadlet role; and

providing a maximized representation of the first threadlet for display in the user interface.

17. The system of claim 16, the operations further comprising:

determining that the role of the first threadlet has been modified to a tail threadlet role; and

providing a minimized representation of the first threadlet for display adjacent to the set of threadlets from the particular projection.

18. The system of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

receiving a user input selecting a link to a particular projection included in a particular threadlet from the set of threadlets;

updating the thread to include the particular threadlet, wherein updating the thread comprises generating data that indicates that the particular threadlet in the thread has a tail threadlet role; and

providing the particular projection for display adjacent to a minimized representation of the particular threadlet in the user interface, wherein the minimized representation of the particular threadlet is displayed adjacent to the minimized representation of the first threadlet in the user interface.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the particular projection is a topic projection that includes only a single threadlet that includes an instance of a node that represents a particular topic.

20. The system of any of claim 18 or 19, the operations further comprising:

receiving a user input selecting the minimized representation of the first threadlet; and

providing the maximized representation of the first threadlet for display in the user interface in place of the particular projection, the minimized representation of the particular threadlet, and the minimized representation of the first threadlet.

21. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

determining, from a user input, a topic;

selecting a first node from a plurality of nodes, wherein the first node is a collection of data about the topic;

providing, for display in a user interface, a first threadlet, wherein the first threadlet includes an instance of the first node and a projection menu that includes a respective link to each of one or more projections, and wherein each of the one or more projections includes one or more threadlets that are instances of nodes that share a relationship to the topic;

receiving a user input selecting a particular projection from the one or more projections; and

providing, for display in the user interface, a set of threadlets from the particular projection.

22. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the topic is an entity represented by a node in an online database of structured data, and wherein the first node includes data from the node in the online database of structured data that represents the entity.

23. The computer storage medium of any of claim 21 or 22, the operations further comprising:

updating a thread that identifies threadlets displayed to the user to include the first threadlet, wherein each threadlet in the thread is associated with data that indicates a role of the threadlet in the thread, and wherein updating the thread comprises generating data that indicates that the first threadlet in the thread has a body threadlet role.

24. The computer storage medium of claim 23, the operations further comprising:

in response to receiving the user input selecting the particular projection, modifying the role of the first threadlet to a tail threadlet role.

25. The computer storage medium of claim 24, wherein threadlets adjacent to each other in the thread are displayed adjacent to each other in the user interface.

26. The computer storage medium of claim 25, the operations further comprising:

determining, for each threadlet in the thread, whether to display a minimized representation or a maximized representation of the threadlet based on the role of the threadlet in the thread, comprising;

determining that the first threadlet has a body threadlet role; and

providing a maximized representation of the first threadlet for display in the user interface.

27. The computer storage medium of claim 26, the operations further comprising:

determining that the role of the first threadlet has been modified to a tail threadlet role; and

providing a minimized representation of the first threadlet for display adjacent to the set of threadlets from the particular projection.

28. The computer storage medium of claim 27, the operations further comprising:

receiving a user input selecting a link to a particular projection included in a particular threadlet from the set of threadlets;

updating the thread to include the particular threadlet, wherein updating the thread comprises generating data that indicates that the particular threadlet in the thread has a tail threadlet role; and

providing the particular projection for display adjacent to a minimized representation of the particular threadlet in the user interface, wherein the minimized representation of the particular threadlet is displayed adjacent to the minimized representation of the first threadlet in the user interface.

29. The computer storage medium of claim 28, wherein the particular projection is a topic projection that includes only a single threadlet that includes an instance of a node that represents a particular topic.

30. The computer storage medium of any of claim 28 or 29, the operations further comprising:

receiving a user input selecting the minimized representation of the first threadlet; and

providing the maximized representation of the first threadlet for display in the user interface in place of the particular projection, the minimized representation of the particular threadlet, and the minimized representation of the first threadlet.