MULTI-SOURCE SEARCH

• US 20160085753A1
• Filed: 09/18/2014
• Published: 03/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Sandy, Bergman, Erik Theodore, Kuo, Yu-Ting, Lew, Evan Ming
• Granted Patent: US 10,242,088 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for query suggestion formulation for multi-source queries, for ranking multi-source search results, and/or for exposing contextual launch functionality through multi-source search results of a multi-source search interface. In an example, a query suggestion may be provided for a partial search query based upon an implied content source that corresponds to a search intent of a user (e.g., an intent to view videos, as opposed to images, of houses). In another example, relevancy ranks may be assigned to content sources based upon a content type preference of a user, and search results may be provided from content sources having relevancy rankings above a relevancy threshold. In another example, links to applications and/or execution contexts may be embedded within search results so that applications may be launched into contextually aware states from the search results.

Claims

1. A method for query suggestion formulation for multi-source queries, comprising:

identifying a partial search query input into a multi-source search interface by a user;

evaluating user signals associated with the user to identify a search intent of the user;

identifying an implied content source from a set of available content sources based upon the search intent;

formulating a query suggestion based upon the implied content source and the partial search query; and

providing the query suggestion through the multi-source search interface.

2. The method of claim 1, the identifying an implied content source comprising:

responsive to determining that the partial search query corresponds to a second user, identifying a messaging server content source as the implied content source based upon prior message communications between the user and the second user.

3. The method of claim 1, the identifying an implied content source comprising:

responsive to determining that the partial search query corresponds to a second user, identifying a social network content source as the implied content source based upon prior social network interactions between the user and the second user.

4. The method of claim 1, the identifying an implied content source comprising:

responsive to determining that the partial search query corresponds to a second user, identifying a file system content source as the implied content source based upon the second user being at least one of an author or a provider of a file.

5. The method of claim 1, the set of available content sources comprising at least one of a video streaming content source, a messaging content source, a file system content source, a social network content source, a website content source, a document content source, an image content source, or a data content source.

6. The method of claim 1, the user signals comprising at least one of a file, social network interaction, message communication, web browsing history, an image, a geolocation, a time, an executing application, an installed application, an app store application, calendar data, email data, social network data, a device form factor, a user search log, or content consumed by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying a second implied content source from the set of available content sources based upon the search intent;

formulating a second query suggestion based upon the second implied content source and the partial search query; and

providing the second query suggestion through the multi-source search interface.

8. The method of claim 1, the query suggestion comprising at least one of a suggested query completion, a website, a user contact, or a file.

9. The method of claim 1, the formulating a query suggestion comprising:

identifying content type provided by the implied content source; and

including content, having the content type, within the query suggestion.

10. A computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed perform a method for ranking multi-source search results, comprising:

receiving a search query input into a multi-source search interface by a user;

identifying a first content source providing a first type of content associated with the search query;

identifying a second content source providing a second type of content associated with the search query;

evaluating user signals associated with the user to identify a content type preference of the user;

assigning a first relevancy rank to the first content source based upon the content type preference;

assigning a second relevancy rank to the second content source based upon the content type preference;

responsive to the first relevancy rank exceeding a relevancy threshold, providing first content, corresponding to the search query, from the first content source through the multi-source search interface as a first search result; and

responsive to the second relevancy rank exceeding the relevancy threshold, providing second content, corresponding to the search query, from the second content source through the multi-source search interface as a second search result.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, the assigning a first relevancy rank and the assigning a second relevancy rank implemented client-side.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10, the assigning a first relevancy rank and the assigning a second relevancy rank implemented server-side.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, the method comprising:

responsive to the second relevancy rank not exceeding the relevancy threshold, not providing the second content.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, the method comprising:

responsive to the first relevancy rank being greater than the second relevancy rank, ordering the first search result before the second search result.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 10, the user signals comprising at least one of a file, social network interaction, message communication, web browsing history, an image, a geolocation, a time, an executing application, an installed application, an app store application, calendar data, email data, social network data, a device form factor, a user search log, or content consumed by the user.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 10, at least one of:

the providing first content comprising embedding a first link to a first application associated with the first content within the first search result, or

the providing second content comprising embedding a second link to a second application associated with the second content within the second search result.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, at least one of:

the providing first content comprising embedding a first execution context into the first link for launching the first application into a first contextually aware state, or

the providing second content comprising embedding a second execution context into the second link for launching the second application into a second contextually aware state.

18. A system for exposing contextual launch functionality through multi-source search results of a multi-source search interface, comprising:

a multi-source search interface component configured to;

receive a search query input into a multi-source search interface by a user;

identify a first content source providing a first type of content associated with the search query;

identify a first application associated with the first type of content;

identify a second content source providing a second type of content associated with the search query;

identify a second application associated with the second type of content;

embed a first link, to the first application, within a first search result corresponding to the search query;

embed a second link, to the second application, within a second search result corresponding to the search query; and

provide the first search result and the second search result through the multi-source search interface.

19. The system of claim 18, the multi-source search interface component configured to:

embed a first execution context into the first link for launching the first application into a first contextually aware state; and

embed a second execution context into the second link for launching the second application into a second contextually aware state.

20. The system of claim 19, the multi-source search interface component configured to:

responsive to receiving a selection of the first search result, launch the first application into the first contextually aware state.