System and method for enhancing keyword relevance by user's interest on the search result documents

• US 7,634,461 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2004
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Newbold, David L., Rodriguez, Raudel S., Bolin, Michael, Oral, Tolga
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Application Number:
  US10/910,577
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,959 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-102, 709/224, 709/236
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system and method are provided for enabling a user to search for documents that the user has previously viewed on its local machine. The system includes three main components: the desktop integration module, the index module, and the graphical user interface module. The desktop integration module is an application which monitors documents with which the user interacts for predetermined events, and obtains content data and metadata from the monitored documents. The index module indexes the content data and metadata received from the desktop integration module. The graphical user interface module then permits a user to utilize the desktop integration module and index module by allowing a user to search for a document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of enhancing the relevance of search results to a particular user'"'"'s interest in one or more electronic documents, the method comprising:

monitoring at least one access of at least one electronic document by a user at a computer workstation having a processor;

collecting data associated with the at least one access of the at least one document, wherein the collected data includes one or more of (i) an amount of time the user spends on the at least one document, (ii) a number of times the user has viewed the at least one document, (iii) or whether the user printed the at least one document;

associating, in a memory device, the collected data in a searchable index, wherein the index includes one or more entries for only one or more electronic documents the user has previously accessed;

receiving, via an input device, a user-input to search the index; and

presenting search results, in a graphical user interface of a display device, related to at least one document in the index along with at least a portion of the collected data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the amount of time the user has spent on the at least one document comprises:

determining a time the user first accessed the at least one document; and

determining a duration in which the user continues to use the at least one document during which one or more criteria are met indicating the user is still interacting with the at least one document.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more criteria includes one or both of (i) having the at least one document in focus, or (ii) receiving an input or output operation within a predetermined time interval.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more criteria include having the at least one document in focus, and wherein the at least one document is in focus when it is the active window.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more criteria include receiving an input or output operation within a predetermined time interval, and wherein receiving an input or output operation includes at least one of receiving a keystroke or receiving a mouse movement.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein search results returned from the searchable index are sorted by relevance determined from the collected data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input from the user to access at least one electronic document included in the search results.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, in the memory device, the at least one document in the searchable index.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

converting the at least one document into a common format.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the common format is XML.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the user-input comprises enabling the user to enter one or more keywords to create a search query to be used to search the index.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein an entry is created in the index for each previously accessed document by searching one or more browser caches or intercepting one or more calls to one more applications.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a sorting menu in the graphical user interface that enables the search results to be sorted and displayed according to one or more of;

relevance, document type, alphabetical order, or chronological order.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a calendar in the graphical user interface including indicia indicating days on which documents were accessed by the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the at least one access of at least one electronic document by the user comprises monitoring one or more documents for one or more predetermined events.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the predetermined events include one or more of:

creating a document, opening a document, closing a document, saving a document, or printing a document.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the workstation is connected to an enterprise portal server over a network.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting the search results into a common format.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a popup window in the graphical user interface including summary information for a user-selected document.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the collected data further comprises a date, a time, or both that (iv) the document was created, (v) the document was opened, (vi) the document was closed, (vii) the document was modified, (vii) the document was printed, or (ix) the document was sent or emailed.