Method and system for selectively presenting database results in an information retrieval system
First Claim
1. A method for selectively presenting search results from a database, comprising:
- associating a plurality of database search results with at least one of a plurality of categories, wherein at least some of the categories include a plurality of groups into which the database search results in the respective categories are further associated;
selecting a category from the plurality of categories;
selecting a group within the selected category;
determining the number of search results that are associated with the selected group within the selected category;
comparing the determined number of search results to a threshold amount; and
presenting search results associated with the selected group in response to the determined number of search results being below the threshold amount.
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Abstract
An information retrieval system is described that dynamically prioritizes search request results prior to output to a user. When a database search yields multiple hits, the results are first categorized into a series of groups. Categories are determined from any number of different factors, such as geographical locations of the search results, amenities, hours of operation, etc. For each category, the search results can be parsed into groups within the category. The results are first reported to the user in general terms, as a number of search results in each of the groups. The user is prompted to select the group that is of most interest, and the portion of the individual search results that are within the selected group are reported.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for selectively presenting search results from a database, comprising:
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associating a plurality of database search results with at least one of a plurality of categories, wherein at least some of the categories include a plurality of groups into which the database search results in the respective categories are further associated; selecting a category from the plurality of categories; selecting a group within the selected category; determining the number of search results that are associated with the selected group within the selected category; comparing the determined number of search results to a threshold amount; and presenting search results associated with the selected group in response to the determined number of search results being below the threshold amount. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for selectively presenting results from a database search, comprising:
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selecting a category from a set of categories, wherein at least some of the categories include a plurality of groups; receiving a plurality of database search results, wherein at least some of the search results are associated with one or more of the groups corresponding to the selected category; comparing a number of search results in the plurality of search results to a predetermined number; selecting one of the groups associated with the selected category in response to the number of search results exceeding the predetermined number; identifying the search results associated with the selected group; and presenting the search results in the selected group.
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18. A computer program product for selectively presenting search results from a database, comprising:
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a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising; computer readable program code configured to associate each of a plurality of database search results with at least one of a plurality of categories, wherein at least some of the categories include a plurality of groups into which the database search results in the respective categories are further associated; computer readable program code configured to select a category from the plurality of categories; computer readable program code configured to select a group within the selected category; computer readable program code configured to determine the number of search results that are associated with the selected group within the selected category; computer readable program code configured to compare the determined number of search results to a threshold amount; and computer readable program code configured to present search results associated with the selected group in response to the determined number of search results being below the threshold amount. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of providing database search results to a user of an information retrieval service, the method comprising:
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presenting one or more questions to the user; selecting a plurality of search parameters based at least in part on the user'"'"'s responses to the one or more questions; searching a database using the search parameters to obtain a plurality of search results; selecting a category from a plurality of categories by which the search results can be sorted, wherein at least some of the plurality of categories include a plurality of sub-groups; determining the number of search results associated with the selected category; comparing the determined number of search results with a threshold; and presenting to the user only a portion of the search results that is associated with a selected sub-group in response to the determined number of search results exceeding the threshold. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification