Private Content In Search Engine Results

• US 20180165310A1
• Filed: 12/13/2016
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Coll, Alexander, Li, Yi, Hewett, Gregory Mark
• Granted Patent: US 10,860,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries

Abstract

Representative embodiments allow private user created content to be submitted for a query so that a user can search from outside a corporate firewall and retrieve both private user created content and web content. The private user created content and web content are presented in the same user interface. Embodiments allow users to create content and keep a private content index that allows such content to be retrieved with an appropriate query along with public web content. Embodiments allow feedback on the user content to be submitted. Feedback can be used for quality control and other purposes. Some user created content has an expiration date after which the content will not be retrieved. Some embodiments place the private index within a compliance boundary and results are returned from within the compliance boundary directly to a browser so the search system has no access to the private data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user;

responsive to receiving the search query, checking to see whether the user is authorized to submit user generated content for the query;

responsive to determining that the user is authorized to submit user generated content for the query;

presenting a user interface to the user;

receiving from the user via the user interface, an indicator of user generated content to be associated with the query;

creating a record associated with the user generated content, the record comprising information to retrieve the user generated content;

storing the record in a user index database;

returning a URL to the user, the URL bypassing any filters to directly retrieve the user generated content.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking user queries and user document interaction over a period of time prior to receipt of the search query;

deriving a plurality of additional search queries similar to the search query from the user queries and user document interaction; and

associating at least a portion of the plurality of additional search queries with the user generated content.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

submitting the user generated content for approval; and

allowing access to the user generated content while approval is pending when the content is accessed by the URL.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating the search query and the user generated content and creating alternative queries to the search query.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a federation request to federate to the user index database, the request comprising a second received query;

authenticating the federation request;

responsive to determining that the federation request is authorized;

running the second received query for the user index database; and

returning a subset of results from the second received query directly to a browser without returning any results to a source of the federation request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the user is not authorized to submit user generated content for the query, disabling a user interface element associated with creating user generated content.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting an expiration date for the user generated content after which the user generated content will no longer be accessible via search query.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving feedback from a second user on the user generated content;

associating the feedback with the user generated content;

in response to receiving a query that retrieves the user generated content, presenting the feedback along with the user generated content in response, or updating ranking of the user generated content, or both.

9. A computing system comprising:

a processor and executable instructions accessible on a machine-readable medium that, when executed, cause the system to perform operations comprising;

receiving an authentication request from a user;

receiving a search query from the user;

running the search query for a web index database comprising public information;

responsive to authenticating the user;

accessing a user index database based on credentials provided as part of the authentication request from the user; and

running the search query for the user index database; and

returning a subset of search results from the web index database, a subset of the search results from the user index, or both a subset of the results from the web index and a subset of the search results from the user index, the subset of search results from the web index comprising public web information, the subset of search results from the user index comprising private information.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a second search query from the user;

responsive to receiving the second search query, checking to see whether the user is authorized to submit user generated content for the second search query;

responsive to determining that the user is authorized to submit user generated content for the second search query;

presenting a user interface to the user;

receiving from the user via the user interface, an indicator of user generated content to be associated with the second search query;

creating a record associated with the user generated content, the record comprising information to retrieve the user generated content;

storing the record in the user index database;

returning a URL to the user, the URL bypassing any filters to directly retrieve the user generated content.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

evaluating search results of the user index;

selecting the subset of the results from the web index based on the evaluation.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

submitting the user generated content for approval; and

allowing access to the user generated content while approval is pending when the content is accessed by the URL.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the user is not authorized to submit user generated content for the second search query, disabling a user interface element associated with creating user generated content.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein accessing the user index database based on credentials provided as part of the authentication request from the user comprises:

retrieving a tenant ID associated with the user;

federating to the user index database using the credentials; and

wherein the subset of search results from the user index database are returned directly to a browser.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving feedback from a second user on the user generated content;

associating the feedback with the user generated content;

in response to receiving a query that retrieves the user generated content, presenting the feedback along with the user generated content in response.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising setting an expiration date for the user generated content after which the user generated content will no longer be accessible via search query.

17. A machine-readable medium having executable instructions encoded thereon, which, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving an authentication request from a user;

receiving a search query from the user;

running the search query for a web index database comprising public information;

returning a subset of search results from the web index database, the subset of search results comprising public web information;

responsive to authenticating the user;

accessing a user index database based on credentials provided as part of the authentication request from the user; and

running the search query for the user index database.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving feedback from a second user on the user generated content;

passing the feedback to the user index database.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein accessing a user index database based on credentials provided as part of the authentication request from the user comprises federating to the user index database based on the credentials.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein running the search query for the user index database comprises passing the search query to the user index database.