Event searching

• US 7,647,353 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Solderitsch, Peter, Chandhok, Nikhil, Gordon, Michael, Juang, Philo
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu; Kuen S
• Application Number:
  US11/559,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114749A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/101, 707/5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Events can be searched by identifying a query that includes a time interval and a search component, determining a time increment associated with the time interval, and partitioning the time interval into partitions based on the time increment. For each partition, a relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur at a time in the partition is determined based on the query. A pre-determined number of the relevant events are displayed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

selecting a query, the query including a time component that specifies a time interval, a place component that describes a place, and a search component that comprises one or more search terms;

determining a time increment associated with the time interval;

partitioning, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions;

for each partition, determining, based on the one or more search terms in the query, a measure of relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur in the partition and having a pre-determined relationship with the place; and

displaying a pre-determined number of the relevant events.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a time increment includes determining a time increment based on the query.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the relevance of each event is based on the search component of the query.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the pre-determined relationship includes a geographical proximity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the relevance of an event includes determining a numerical relevance of the event.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the query.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the query is randomly generated.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the search component of the query is randomly generated.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the query is generated based on a property of a user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the property includes a query-history of the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the search component of the query is generated based on the query-history of the user.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the search component of the query is supplied by a user, and the time interval of the query is automatically generated.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising successively generating two queries, each of which having the same search component supplied by the user.

14. The method of claim 1 in which the time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, day, or hour.

15. The method of claim 1 in which the partitioning comprises partitioning, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions, the length of each partition being independent of the events in the partition.

16. The method of claim 1 in which the pre-determined relationship comprises a geographical proximity.

17. The method of claim 1 in which the query also includes the time increment, and determining the time increment comprises determining the time increment according to the time increment in the query.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising partitioning each partition into sub-partitions based on a second time increment, and

for each sub-partition, determining, based on the one or more search terms in the query, a relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur in the sub-partition and having a pre-determined relationship with the place.

19. The method of claim 18 in which the first time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, or day, and the second time increment comprises at least one of month, week, day, or hour, the second time increment being shorter than the first time increment.

20. A system comprising:

a computing device, comprising

a processor executing instructions to perform;

selecting a query, the query including a time component that specifies a time interval, a place component that describes a place, and a search component that comprises one or more search terms;

determining a time increment associated with the time interval;

partitioning, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions; and

determining, for each partition, based on the one or more search terms in the search component, a measure of relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur in the partition and having a pre-determined relationship with the place; and

a display for displaying a pre-determined number of the relevant events.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein determining a time increment includes determining a time increment based on the query.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein determining the relevance of each event comprises determining the relevance of each event based on the search component of the query.

23. The system of claim 20, in which the pre-determined relationship includes a geographical proximity.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein determining the relevance of an event includes determining a numerical relevance of the event.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the processor executes instructions to generate the query.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein generating the query includes randomly generating the query.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein generating the query includes generating the query based on a property of a user.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein generating the query includes generating the query based on a query-history of the user.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein generating the query includes generating the search component of the query based on the query-history of the user.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the search component of the query is supplied by a user, and generating the query includes generating the time interval of the query.

31. The system of claim 20 in which the time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, day, or hour.

32. The system of claim 20 in which the partitioning comprises partitioning, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions, the length of each partition being independent of the events in the partition.

33. The system of claim 20 in which the pre-determined relationship comprises a geographical proximity.

34. The system of claim 20 in which the query also includes the time increment, and determining the time increment comprises determining the time increment according to the time increment in the query.

35. The system of claim 20 in which the processor also executes instructions to perform partitioning each partition into sub-partitions based on a second time increment, and

for each sub-partition, determining, based on the one or more search terms in the query, a relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur in the sub-partition and having a pre-determined relationship with the place.

36. The system of claim 35 in which the first time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, or day, and the second time increment comprises at least one of month, week, day, or hour, the second time increment being shorter than the first time increment.

37. A computer-readable storage medium bearing instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to:

select a query, the query including a time component that specifies a time interval, a place component that describes a place, and a search component that comprises one or more search terms;

determine a time increment associated with the time interval;

partition, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions;

determine, for each partition, based on the one or more search terms in the search component, a measure of relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur in the partition and having a pre-determined relationship with the place; and

display a pre-determined number of the relevant events.

38. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37, wherein the instructions for determining a time increment includes instructions for determining a time increment based on the query.

39. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37, wherein the instructions for determining the relevance of each event includes instructions to determine the relevance of each event based on the search component of the query.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, in which the pre-determined relationship includes a geographical proximity.

41. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37, wherein the instructions for determining the relevance of an event includes instructions for determining a numerical relevance of the event.

42. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the computer to generate the query.

43. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 42, wherein the instructions for generating the query include instructions for randomly generating the query.

44. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 42, wherein the instructions for generating the query include instructions for generating the query based on a property of a user.

45. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 44, wherein the instructions for generating the query include instructions for generating the query based on a query-history of the user.

46. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 44, wherein the instructions for generating the query include instructions for generating the search component of the query based on the query-history of the user.

47. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 42, wherein the search component of the query is supplied by a user, and the instructions for generating the query include instructions for generating the time interval of the query.

48. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37 in which the time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, day, or hour.

49. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37 in which partition the time interval into partitions comprises partition, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions, the length of each partition being independent of the events in the partition.

50. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37 in which the pre-determined relationship comprises a geographical proximity.

51. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37 in which the query also includes the time increment, and determine the time increment comprises determine the time increment according to the time increment in the query.

52. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 37, further comprising instructions that cause the computer to partition each partition into sub-partitions based on a second time increment, and

for each sub-partition, determine, based on the one or more search terms in the query, a relevance of each event in a collection of events that occur in the sub-partition and having a pre-determined relationship with the place.

53. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 52 in which the first time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, or day, and the second time increment comprises at least one of month, week, day, or hour, the second time increment being shorter than the first time increment.

54. A method comprising:

selecting events associated with a calendar;

selecting a query, the query including a time interval, a place component that describes a place, and a search component that comprises one or more search terms;

partitioning, based on a time increment, the time interval into partitions;

for each partition, determining, based on the one or more search terms in the search component, a relevance of each event in a collection of events in the calendar that occur in the partition, the event having a pre-determined relationship with the place; and

displaying one or more relevant events.

55. The method of claim 54 in which the pre-determined relationship comprises a geographical proximity.

56. The method of claim 54 in which the time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, day, or hour.

57. The method of claim 54 in which the partitioning comprises partitioning, based on the time increment, the time interval into partitions, the length of each partition being independent of the events in the partition.

58. The method of claim 54, comprising receiving the query from a user of the calendar.

59. The method of claim 54, further comprising partitioning each partition into sub-partitions based on a second time increment, and

for each sub-partition, determining, based on the search component, a relevance of each event in a collection of events in the calendar that occur in the sub-partition.

60. The method of claim 59 in which the first time increment comprises at least one of year, month, week, or day, and the second time increment comprises at least one of month, week, day, or hour, the second time increment being shorter than the first time increment.

61. The method of claim 59 in which the query includes the first and second time increments.

62. The method of claim 54 in which the query comprises the time increment.

63. The method of claim 54, in which displaying one or more relevant events comprises displaying one or more relevant events partitioned according to the time increment.