Searching and Accessing Application Functionality

• US 20150193546A1
• Filed: 12/16/2014
• Published: 07/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Quixey, Inc.
• Inventors: Kagan, Tomer, Shapira, Liron, Lipton, Julia
• Granted Patent: US 9,720,672 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57

Abstract

A method includes receiving, at a computing device, search results transmitted from a search system in communication with the computing device. The search results include a header for an application executable on the computing device and application access mechanisms associated with the header. Each application access mechanism has a reference to the application and indicates one or more performable operations for the application. The method further includes displaying, on a display in communication with the computing device, a graphical user interface including the header and user selectable access links grouped with the header. Each access link is associated with an application access mechanism for the application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, search results transmitted from a search system in communication with the computing device, the search results comprising a header for an application executable on the computing device and application access mechanisms associated with the header, each application access mechanism having a reference to the application and indicating one or more performable operations for the application; and

displaying, on a display in communication with the computing device, a graphical user interface including the header and user selectable access links grouped with the header, each access link associated with an application access mechanism for the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the header comprises a name of the associated application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying in the graphical user interface a header link in the header indicating an installation state of the associated application as being installed or uninstalled.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, in response to receiving a user selection of the header link:

when the installation state of the associated application is installed, executing the application on the computing device; and

when the installation state of the associated application is uninstalled, downloading the application to non-transitory memory in communication with the computing device and executing the application on the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying in the graphical user interface an ungrouped access link having an associated application access mechanism for an application different from the application associated with the header.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising displaying in the graphical user interface an indicator in the ungrouped access link indicating an installation state of the associated application as being installed or uninstalled.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising, in response to receiving a user selection of an ungrouped access link:

when the installation state of the associated application is installed, executing the application on the computing device; and

when the installation state of the associated application is uninstalled, downloading the application to non-transitory memory in communication with the computing device and executing the application on the computing device.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising, in response to receiving a user selection of an ungrouped access link, when the installation state of the associated application is uninstalled, executing a web browser on the computing device and accessing functionality of the associated application through the web browser.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the access links in an order under the header based on a score associated with the application access mechanism of each access link.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computing device, a search criteria through the graphical user interface;

generating, at the computing device, a query wrapper including the search criteria;

transmitting the query wrapper from the computing device to the search system;

receiving search results, at the computing device, from the search system; and

displaying the search results on a display in communication with the computing device.

11. A user device comprising:

a display;

a computing device in communication with the display; and

non-transitory memory in communication with the computing device, the non-transitory memory storing instructions that when executed on the computing device cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving search results transmitted from a search system in communication with the computing device, the search results comprising a header for an application executable on the computing device and access mechanisms associated with the header, each application access mechanism having a reference to the application and indicating one or more performable operations for the application; and

displaying on the display a graphical user interface including the header and user selectable access links grouped with the header, each access link associated with an application access mechanism for the application.

12. The user device of claim 11, wherein the header comprises a name of the associated application.

13. The user device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise displaying in the graphical user interface a header link in the header indicating an installation state of the associated application as being installed or uninstalled.

14. The user device of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to receiving a user selection at the computing device of the header link displayed in the graphical user interface:

when the installation state of the associated application is installed, executing the application on the computing device; and

when the installation state of the associated application is uninstalled, downloading the application to non-transitory memory in communication with the computing device and executing the application on the computing device.

15. The user device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise displaying in the graphical user interface an ungrouped access link having an associated application access mechanism for an application different from the application associated with the header.

16. The user device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise displaying in the graphical user interface an indicator in the ungrouped access link indicating an installation state of the associated application as being installed or uninstalled.

17. The user device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to receiving a user selection at the computing device of an ungrouped access link displayed in the graphical user interface:

when the installation state of the associated application is installed, executing the application on the computing device; and

when the installation state of the associated application is uninstalled, downloading the application to non-transitory memory in communication with the computing device and executing the application on the computing device.

18. The user device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to receiving a user selection at the computing device of an ungrouped access link displayed in the graphical user interface, when the installation state of the associated application is uninstalled, executing a web browser on the computing device and accessing functionality of the associated application through the web browser.

19. The user device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise displaying the access links in an order under the header based on a score associated with the application access mechanism of each access link.

20. The user device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, at the computing device, a search criteria through the graphical user interface;

generating, at the computing device, a query wrapper including the search criteria;

transmitting the query wrapper from the computing device to the search system;

receiving search results, at the computing device, from the search system; and

displaying the search results on a display in communication with the computing device.

21. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a search criteria from a user device in communication with the computing device;

executing, using the computing device, a search of a data store in communication with the computing device using the search criteria;

receiving, at the computing device, function records from the data store in response to the executed search, each of the function records comprising;

an application identifier;

an application access mechanism having a reference to a native application and indicating one or more performable operations for the native application; and

application state information describing a state of the native application when the native application performs the one or more operations indicated in the application access mechanism;

grouping the function records, at the computing device, based on the application identifiers; and

transmitting search results from the computing device to the user device, the search results comprising;

a header for each group of function records; and

application access mechanisms of the function records.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising filtering the function records, at the computing device, based on their application identifiers by limiting the number of function records per application identifier.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

scoring the function records based on a relevancy of the function record to the search criteria; and

ordering the function records based on their scores.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the scoring is based on the application state information of the function record.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein executing the search comprises identifying function records of the data store based on matches between terms of the search criteria and terms of the application state information of the function records.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the search results comprise link data for each application access mechanism, the link data including at least one of text or an image associated with the state of the application referenced by the corresponding application access mechanism.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the application access mechanisms comprises an application resource identifier referencing a native application, wherein the application resource identifier is in an application-specific format specific for the referenced native application and indicates one or more performable operations for the user device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the application resource identifier comprises a domain name and a path to be used by the referenced native application to retrieve and display information.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the application access mechanism comprises instructions for at least one of a search application, an operating system, or the referenced native application when executed on user device.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the application access mechanisms comprises a web address that when executed by the user device causes the user device to execute a web browser and access a web version of the native application referenced in the application access mechanism.