Intelligent automatic searching for resources in a distributed environment
First Claim
1. In a computer system having an output device, an input device and a connection to enable communication with a plurality of web sites, a method comprising:
- (a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify text that identifies a uniform resource locator (URL) of a given web site holding media to gain access to the given web site;
(b) in response to text that is specified via the user interface element, determining that the text is not a URL;
(c) in response to determining that the text is not a URL, examining the text and based on a determined meaning of the content of the text determining at least one of a plurality of search engines to search for a web site related to the text, passing at least a portion of the text to a determined search engine; and
(d) in response to passing at least a portion of the text to the determined search engine, receiving media back from a web site that the determined search engine located using the text passed to the determined search engine.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Searches are automatically initiated to intelligently locate resources, particularly World Wide Web sites, within a distributed environment in response to a user specifying text via a user interface element. In a particular embodiment, a Web browser is enhanced to include a browser search capability. The browser includes a text box allowing the user to enter a URL. Depending on the particular browser used in the embodiment, this text box may be called, among other things, a destination field, location field, or URL field. When the user enters a valid URL, the corresponding web site is accessed. If the user enters text that is not a URL, the system may first try to construct a valid URL from the user-entered text. If a valid URL cannot be constructed, the browser then automatically formats a search engine query using the user-entered text and forwards the query to an Internet search engine. The browser chooses a particular search engine by determining the meaning or category of the user-entered text. The search engine locates web pages containing the query terms and either (1) returns a list of the search results or (2) redirects the user'"'"'s browser to the most relevant web site discovered in the search. The browser may modify a returned web page to highlight search terms used in the query.
394 Citations
51 Claims
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1. In a computer system having an output device, an input device and a connection to enable communication with a plurality of web sites, a method comprising:
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(a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify text that identifies a uniform resource locator (URL) of a given web site holding media to gain access to the given web site; (b) in response to text that is specified via the user interface element, determining that the text is not a URL; (c) in response to determining that the text is not a URL, examining the text and based on a determined meaning of the content of the text determining at least one of a plurality of search engines to search for a web site related to the text, passing at least a portion of the text to a determined search engine; and (d) in response to passing at least a portion of the text to the determined search engine, receiving media back from a web site that the determined search engine located using the text passed to the determined search engine. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In a computer system having a display device and a client that can communicate with a server, a method comprising:
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(a) examining the content of text when the text received from a user input element does not include an identifier for a web page, and based on a determined meaning of the text determining at least one of a plurality of search engines to search for an identifier of at least one web page that is related to the determined meaning of the text; (b) receiving the identifier of the related web page from the determined search engine, the determined search engine employing the determined meaning of the text to find the identifier of the related web page; (c) initiating a request for the web page from the client to the server, the request including the identifier of the related web page; (d) returning a copy of the related web page to the client from the server; (e) at the client, transparently to the user, opening the related web page and modifying contents of the related web page; and (f) displaying the modifications to the related web page to the user. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. In a computer system having an output device, and a connection for calling a plurality of search engines that search for web sites, a method comprising:
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(a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify text as an identifier of a given web site to gain access to the given web site; (b) in response to text specified via the user interface element, determining that the specified text is not a valid identifier of the given web site; (c) in response to determining that the specified text is not a valid identifier of the given web site, examining the specified text and based on a determined meaning of the specified text determining at least one of the plurality of search engines to locate the identifier of at least one web site related to the determined meaning of the specified text; and (d) calling the determined search engine and forwarding at least a portion of the specified text to the determined search engine so that the identifier of the web site related to the determined meaning of the specified text can be returned by the determined search engine to the user. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. In a computer system having an output device, an input device and a connection to enable communication with a plurality of web sites, a method comprising:
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(a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify text for a uniform resource locator (URL) of a given web site holding media to gain access to the given web site; (b) providing a registry having registry entries for calling at least one of a plurality of search engines to search for the given web site; (c) in response to text specified via the user interface element, determining that the text is not a URL; (d) in response to determining that the text is not a URL, examining the content of the text and based on the content of the text determining at least one of the plurality of search engines to search for a web site related to the text and passing at least a portion of the text to a determined search engine by accessing the registry entry for the determined search engine; and (e) in response to passing at least a portion of the text to the determined search engine, receiving media back from the web site related to the text that the determined search engine located using the text passed to the determined search engine. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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29. In a computer system having an output device, an input device and a connection to enable communication with a plurality of web sites, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executed instructions for performing a method comprising:
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(a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify text for a uniform resource locator (URL) of a given web site holding media to gain access to the given web site; (b) in response to text specified via the user interface element, determining that the text is not a URL; (c) in response to determining that the specified text is not a URL, examining the specified text and based on a determined meaning of the specified text determining at least one of a plurality of search engines to search the plurality of web sites for a web site related to the determined meaning of the specified text, passing at least a portion of the specified text to a determined search engine; and (d) in response to passing at least a portion of the specified text to the determined search engine, receiving media back from the web site related to the specified text that the determined search engine located using the specified text passed to the determined search engine. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. In a computer system having a display device and a client that can communicate with a server, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:
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(a) receiving text associated with a web page; (b) examining the content of the text when the text is not a uniform resource locator (URL), and based on a determined meaning of the content of the text determining at least one of a plurality of search engines to search for the URL of the web page; (c) initiating a request for the web page from the client to the server with the URL for the web page that the determined search engine located using the text; (d) returning a copy of the web page to the client from the server; (e) at the client, transparently to the user, opening the web page and modifying contents of the web page; and (f) displaying the modified contents of the web page to the user on the display device. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43)
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44. In a computer system having an output device, and a connection for calling at least one of a plurality of search engines that search for at least one of a plurality of web sites, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
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(a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify text associated with an identifier of a given web site to gain access to the given web site; (b) in response to text specified via the user interface element, determining that the text is not valid as the identifier of the given web site; (c) in response to determining that the text is not valid as the identifier of the given web site, examining the text and based on a determined meaning of the text determining which of the plurality of search engines to call; and (d) calling the determined search engine and forwarding at least a portion of the text to the determined search engine. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47)
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48. In a computer system having an output device, an input device and a connection to enable communication with a plurality of web sites, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
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(a) providing a user interface element on the output device adapted for a user to specify a uniform resource locator (URL) of a given web site holding media to gain access to the given web site; (b) providing a registry having registry entries for calling at least one of a plurality of search engines to search the plurality of web sites; (c) in response to text specified via the user interface element, determining that the text is not a URL; (d) in response to determining that the text is not a URL, examining the content of the text and based on the content of the text determining at least one of the plurality of search engines to search for the given web site and passing at least a portion of the text to a determined search engine by accessing the registry entry for the determined search engine; and (e) in response to passing at least a portion of the text to the determined search engine, receiving media back from at least one of the plurality of web sites that the determined search engine located using text passed to the determined search engine. - View Dependent Claims (49)
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50. A method for automatically selecting a search engine to search a plurality of web sites based on a determined meaning of text when the text is determined to not be a uniform resource locator (URL) for a web site, the selected search engine returning media from a web site related to the text, comprising:
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(a) determining whether the text includes a URL of a web site; (b) passing text that is determined to include the URL of the web site to a search engine for locating the web site identified by the URL, the search engine returning media back from the web site identified by the URL; (c) determining a meaning of text that is determined to not include the URL of the web site and based on the determined meaning of the text selecting at least one of a plurality of search engines to search for at least one web site that is related to the determined meaning of the text, a search engine being selected to be suited to search on the determined meaning of the text; and (d) passing at least a portion of the text to the determined search engine so that the selected search engine returns media from at least one web site that is related to the determined meaning of the text. - View Dependent Claims (51)
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Specification