Method and computer program product for color coding search results

• US 6,810,402 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2001
• Issued: 10/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sujjad, Waheed, Bates, Cary Lee, Santosuosso, John Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAYYAN, SUSAN F
• Application Number:
  US09/855,934
• Publication Number:
  US 20020174118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/5, 707/100, 707/104.1, 715/528, 345/700
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• 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 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Colors are associated with source locators such as URLs that identify sources found by a search, in order to enable a searcher to see at a glance how closely the search results match keywords that convey the searcher'"'"'s intended search criteria. A browser prompts keyword entry, reads the keywords, associates colors with the keywords to form a color code, and displays a color code map that explains the color code to the searcher. The browser sends the keywords to a search engine. The search engine performs a search, and sends to the browser source locators that identify sources of interest such as web pages, along with occurrence data indicative of how often each of the keywords appears in each of the sources. For each source locator, the browser formulates a correlation indicator, which includes a visual area that is colored according to the color code and the occurrence data for occurrence of each keyword. The browser displays links to the sources and the associated correlation indicators to the searcher.

Claims

1. Programmable media containing programmable software that color codes the results of a search, the programmable software comprising the steps of:

associating colors with search keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on a display screen a color code map describing the color code;

for a source found during a search, formulating a color coded correlation indicator responsive to occurrence data associated with the keywords and associated color code; and

displaying the color coded correlation indicator on the display screen with, at least, the color code map and associated keywords.

2. Programmable media containing programmable software that color codes the results of a search, the programmable software comprising the steps of:

associating colors with search keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on a display screen a color code map describing the color code;

executing a search to provide search results;

for a source found during the search, formulating a color coded correlation indicator responsive to occurrence data associated with the keywords; and

displaying the search results and the color coded correlation indicator on the search result display screen with the color code map and associated keywords.

3. Programmable media containing programmable software that color codes the results of a search, the programmable software comprising the steps of:

prompting a searcher to enter search keywords on an input line of a display screen;

reading the keywords;

associating colors with the keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on the display screen a color code map describing the color code;

sending the keywords to a search engine for executing a search;

receiving from the search engine a resource locator that identifies a source found by the search and occurrence data associated with the source and the keywords;

responsive to the occurrence data, formulating a color coded correlation indicator; and

displaying on the display screen the color coded correlation indicator with a color code map and associated keywords and a link to the source identified by the resource locator.

4. Programmable media containing programmable software that color codes the results of an Internet search, the programmable software comprising the steps of:

prompting a searcher to enter search keywords on an input line of a display screen;

reading the keywords;

associating colors with the keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on the display screen a color code map describing the color code;

sending the keywords to an Internet search engine for executing a search;

receiving from the search engine a uniform resource locator that identifies a web page found by the search and occurrence data associated with the web page and the keywords;

responsive to the occurrence data, formulating a color coded correlation indicator and associated color code; and

displaying on the display screen the color coded correlation indicator with the color code map and associated keywords and a link to the web page.

5. The programmable media containing programmable software of claim 4, wherein the color code map is a substantially horizontal bar displayed below the input line on the display.

6. The programmable media containing programmable software of claim 4, wherein the occurrence data indicates presence or absence the keywords in the web page.

7. The programmable media containing programmable software of claim 4, wherein the occurrence data indicates relative frequency of occurrence of the keywords in the web page.

8. The programmable media containing programmable software of claim 4, wherein at least one keyword is a Boolean expression.

9. The programmable media containing programmable software of claim 4, wherein at least one color shade of at least one visual area of the color coded correlation indicator indicates relative frequency of occurrence of a keyword.

19. The programmable media containing programmable software of claim 4, wherein the color code map comprises keywords appearing in colors according to the color code.

10. A method of color coding the results of a search, comprising the steps of:

associating colors with search keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on a display screen a color code map describing the color code;

for a source found during a search, formulating a color coded correlation indicator responsive to occurrence data associated with the keywords and associated color code; and

displaying the color coded correlation indicator on the display screen with the color code map and associated keywords.

11. A method of color coding the results of a search, comprising the steps of:

associating colors with search keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on a display screen a color code map describing the color code;

executing a search to provide search results;

for a source found during the search, formulating a color coded correlation indicator responsive to occurrence data associated with the keywords and associated color code; and

displaying the search results and the color coded correlation indicator on the display screen with the color code map and associated keywords.

12. A method of color coding the results of a search, comprising the steps of:

prompting a searcher to enter search keywords on an input line of a display screen;

reading the keywords;

associating colors with the keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on the display screen a color code map describing the color code;

sending the keywords to a search engine for executing a search;

receiving from the search engine a resource locator that identifies a source found by the search and occurrence data associated with the source and the keywords;

responsive to the occurrence data, formulating a color coded correlation indicator; and

displaying on the display screen the color coded correlation indicator with the color code map and associated keywords and a link to the source identified by the resource locator.

13. A method for color coding the results of an Internet search, comprising the steps of:

prompting a searcher to enter search keywords on an input line of a display screen;

reading the keywords;

associating colors with the keywords to generate a color code;

displaying on the display screen a color code map describing the color code;

sending the keywords to an Internet search engine for executing a search;

receiving from the search engine a uniform resource locator that identifies a web page found by the search and occurrence data associated with the web page and the keywords;

responsive to the occurrence data, formulating a color coded correlation indicator; and

displaying on the display screen the color coded correlation indicator with the color code map and associated keywords and a link to the web page.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the color code map is a substantially horizontal bar displayed below the input line on the display.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the occurrence data indicates presence or absence the keywords in the web page.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the occurrence data indicates relative frequency of occurrence of the keywords in the web page.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein at least one keyword is a Boolean expression.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein at least one color shade of at least one visual area of the color coded correlation indicator indicates relative frequency of occurrence of a keyword.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the color code map comprises keywords appearing in colors according to the color code.