System for enhancing a query interface

• US 6,751,606 B1
• Filed: 12/23/1998
• Issued: 06/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fries, Karen E., Richter, Jeffrey, Tippett, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pardo, Thuy N.
• Application Number:
  US09/221,663
• Time in Patent Office: 2,001 Days
• Field of Search: 345/473, 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/104, 707/529, 707/5, 705/14, 703/3, 703/5, 703/4, 703/6, 703/10, 703/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system for enhancing searching of a network has an architecture that supports a network indexing component capable of indexing terms located in pages on the network and capable of receiving a search query and returning a topic for each term in the query that matches an indexed term. An embodiment of the system further provides for a search tool capable of displaying text associated with assisting a user to perform a search of the Internet and an animation component capable of displaying an animated character. Further embodiments support a search tool component capable of soliciting a search query from a user and of invoking an instance of an Internet browser in which to display search results. A further embodiment of the invention providing at least one search option suggesting changing at least one search parameter and at least one option allowing the user to indicate that their search was successful.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a topic of a search query, the method comprising:

associating portions of documents located on a network with topics;

storing each document in a storage file;

extracting terms from the documents located in the storage file to form extracted terms by filtering each document based on formatting tags in the document to isolate entries relevant to topics associated with the document;

indexing extracted terms by associating each term with document identifiers of the documents in which the term is found to produce an indexed list, the document identifiers providing the location of the document on the network;

receiving a search query comprising search terms; and

returning at least one topic for search terms that match extracted terms by returning a topic associated with a document indexed by the term.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein returning at least one topic for search terms that match extracted terms comprises:

comparing each search term to the terms in the indexed list and producing a list of the document identifiers of the documents where the term is found; and

producing a list of topics by matching the document identifiers in the list of document identifiers to the document identifiers found in the source file and placing each matched document identifier'"'"'s respective topic in the list of topics.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein different formatting tags are identified for different documents.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the entries comprise multi-word strings.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting terms further comprises:

creating a database record that associates an entry with the respective topics associated with the entry'"'"'s respective document.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein returning at least one topic for search terms that match extracted terms comprises:

searching for an exact-match database record that has an entry that matches the entire search query; and

returning a topic found in the exact-match database record.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein returning at least one topic for search terms that match extracted terms further comprises:

searching for a sub-unit database record that has an entry that matches a multi-word portion of the search query that is smaller than the entire search query; and

returning a topic found in the sub-unit database record.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of extracting terms from the documents located on the network is repeated after a period of time to form refreshed extracted terms.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising using the topic and the search query to identify a search area.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(a) retrieving documents located on the network;

(b) stripping terms from the documents to form entries comprising at least one multi-word entry;

(c) associating the entries with topics based on an association between the documents and topics;

(d) comparing a search query to the entries;

(e) producing a topic if a portion of the search query matches an entire multi-word entry; and

(f) repeating the steps of retrieving documents located on the network, stripping terms from the documents to form entries, and associating the entries with topics after a period of time.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein stripping terms comprises removing stop words from the documents and retaining each remaining word as a separate entry.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein producing a topic if a portion of the search query matches an entry comprises:

identifying the document that the entry comes from; and

identifying a topic associated with the document.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein stripping terms comprises:

filtering each document that is retrieved to isolate entries relevant to topics associated with the document.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein filtering comprises identifying HTML tags in the document.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein different HTML tags are identified for different documents.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein producing a topic if a portion of the search query matches an entry comprises:

searching for an entry that matches the entire search query; and

returning a topic associated with the entry.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the computer-executable instructions provide for performing a further step of using the topic and the search query to identify a search area.