Method and apparatus for facilitating refinement of a search

• US 7,165,080 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2001
• Issued: 01/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kotcheff, Aaron, Rose, Tony
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali; Mohammad
• Application Number:
  US09/984,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20020087535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,908 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-205
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A receiver receives from a search engine search results consisting of at least one search item associated with at least one context item relating to the search item. A modifier modifies the search results by associating at least one context item with data for enabling the user to cause the search results to be filtered in accordance with that context item by selecting that context item. A supplier supplies the modified search results to the user.

Claims

1. Apparatus for presenting search results to a user to facilitate refinement of the search, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver operable to receive from a search engine results of a search in a database on the basis of a search criterion,

wherein the database comprises search items each stored in association with one or more context items describing different aspects of that search item, and

wherein the search results consist of a set of the search items selected in accordance with the search criterion and grouped by context item so that the search items are presented as a plurality of groups of search items with all search items in a group being associated with the same context item such that each search item that is associated with a plurality of context items is in a corresponding plurality of groups, and with each group having a group label representing the group context item;

a modifier operable to produce modified search results by;

i) determining, for each of the groups, whether any of the search items in that group is also associated with at least one other of the context items in addition to the group context item;

ii) associating the group label of any group that includes search items determined to be associated with at least one other of the context items in addition to the group context item with data enabling the user to cause the search results to be filtered in accordance with the group context item by selecting the group label;

iii) producing, in response to selection of one of the group labels by the user, a sub-set of search items consisting of those of the set of search items that are associated with the context item represented by the selected group label,

wherein the search items of the sub-set of search items are grouped by context item into a sub-set of the plurality of groups which sub-set excludes the group represented by the selected group label; and

iv) determining, for each of the sub-set of groups, whether any of the search items in that group is also associated with at least one other of the context items in addition to the group context item and in addition to the context item represented by the selected group label, and associating the group label of any such one of the sub-set of groups with data enabling the user to cause the modified search results to be further filtered in accordance with that context item by selecting that group label; and

a supplier operable to supply the modified search results to the user.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a search receiver operable to receive search instructions from a users; and

a search instructor operable to instruct the search engine to carry out a search in accordance with the received search instructions,

wherein, in the case that the user selects a group label, the search instructor instructs the search engine to carry out a further search in accordance with refined search instructions consisting of the received search instructions and the selected context item.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a search receiver operable to receive search instructions from a user; and

a search instructor operable to instruct the search engine to carry out a search in accordance with the received search instructions,

wherein, in the case that the user selects a group label, the search instructor instructs the search engine to carry out a further search in accordance with the received search instructions, and wherein a filter is operable to filter the further search results in accordance with the selected context item.