Storing searches in an e-mail folder

• US 7,680,856 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2004
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Qureshi, Imran I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown; Sheree N
• Application Number:
  US10/996,117
• Publication Number:
  US 20060112081A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,939 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method for saving search query information on a server coupled to the Internet as a search folder. The method may include the steps of: identifying a user communicating with the server; storing the search query associated with the user in a data store on the server responsive to a user instruction to store the search query; and submitting the query to an Internet search engine for execution based on a triggering event. A data structure for storing the search folder is also described.

Claims

1. A method for saving search query information on a server coupled to the Internet, comprising:

receiving search results from a search service, the search results are based on a search query containing search terms that were entered by a user and submitted to an Internet search engine able to find information stored on other websites;

displaying the search results in a search service user interface in a list format displaying each search result as a link to a website page and a summary of the content displayed in the website page, the search service user interface provides the user with a mechanism to save the search results;

in response to a user instruction to save the search results, creating a new folder definition containing a search query including the search terms entered by the user, the new folder definition is created by an email service;

storing the newly created folder definition in an email service database; and

executing the search query on an email data store associated with the user, the email data store storing email messages intended for delivery to the user;

executing the search query on a contact store associated with the user, the contact store storing calendar events associated with the user;

receiving email messages from the email data store and calendar events from the contact store based on executing the search query;

displaying an email service user interface, the email service user interface displaying a search folder labeled with the search terms entered by the user, and further displaying the email messages, calendar events and search results stored in the search folder in an email inbox format.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the email service database stores personal user information associated with the user, including at least email information.

3. The method of claim 2 further including the step of executing the search query against the email service database.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the personal user information includes contact and calendar information.

5. The method of claim 4 further including the step of displaying search results of the search query run against the email service database in a common email inbox format.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the email inbox format includes displaying one or more characteristics of each search result in a sortable column.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein one of said one or more characteristics includes a date received characteristic indicating when a search result was first received.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein one of said one or more characteristics includes a date modified characteristic indicating when a search result was last changed.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving search results from the search service includes the step of receiving annotation data associated with the search results.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing a list of search results in an email format to a user, the list of search results displaying a folder view representing the search query.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the search results are in RSS format.

12. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing a notification to the user that the new folder definition has been stored in the email service database.

13. The method of claim 1 further including the step of sharing said new folder definition with other users.

14. The method of claim 13 further including the step of storing permission information for other users in the new folder definition.

15. The method of claim 13 further including the step of storing the query associated with each other user for whom the search is shared.