System, method, and article of manufacture for seamless integrated searching

• US 7,739,357 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ServStor Technologies, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Blue Dolphin Solutions LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Gould, Eric Justin
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US11/512,904
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061416A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,386 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/219
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A search system (10) employing a scheme of meta-folders (14) in which conventional objects (18) and search objects (20) may be stored in an intermingling manner. Upon opening a meta-folder (14) the search objects (20) are resolved into conventional static pointers, and thus into conventional objects (18). Optionally, an unresolved meta-folder (14a) may very fleetingly appear while this occurs. A resolved meta-folder (14a) then results, presenting only conventional objects (18). In particular, the search objects (20) may be search criteria which the process of resolving causes to produce only such searched out conventional objects (18) which are currently available. Users (80) of the search system (10) may employ it in large network environments (82), including the Internet (96).

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a display unit;

a selection unit;

a non-visual output unit;

a memory having program instructions stored thereon that are executable by the computer system to;

display a first representation of a meta-folder on the display unit, wherein the meta-folder is a file system object that is associated with search criteria and one or more conventional objects unrelated to the search criteria;

receive a selection of the meta-folder via the selection unit;

responsive to the selection;

perform a search of the computer system for conventional objects that satisfy the search criteria associated with the meta-folder; and

display a second representation of said meta-folder on said display unit, wherein the second representation of said meta-folder is different from the first representation and includes visual indicia representing the results of the search and representing the one or more conventional objects unrelated to the search criteria;

wherein the computer system is configured to output one or more non-visual representations of the meta-folder via the non-visual output unit.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one server coupled to the computer system via a network stores one or more items from the group consisting of:

conventional objects, said search criteria, and said meta-folders.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein said meta-folder is transferable and storable via the network.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the display unit comprises the non-visual output unit.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the non-visual output unit is configured to output one or more tactile representations of said meta-folder.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the non-visual output unit is configured to output one or more audible representations of said meta-folder.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said selection unit is a user operated input device.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said selection unit is an automated process.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said meta-folder further includes other meta-folders.

10. A method for searching for and presenting collections of conventional objects in a computerized system having a display unit, a non-visual output unit and a selection unit, the method comprising:

the computerized system depicting a meta-folder on the display unit using a first representation, wherein said meta-folder is a file system object associated with at least one previously defined search criteria and one or more conventional objects unrelated to the search criteria;

the computerized system receiving a selection of said meta-folder via the selection unit; and

in response to receiving the selection;

searching for conventional objects that satisfy the search criteria associated with the meta-folder;

depicting said meta-folder on the display unit using a second representation, wherein the second representation of the meta-folder is different from the first representation and includes indicia representing the results of the searching and representing the one or more conventional objects unrelated to the search criteria; and

outputting one or more non-visual representations of the meta-folder via the non-visual output unit.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transferring said meta-folder from an external storage medium into the computerized system.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the meta folder is stored on a server coupled to the computerized system via a network.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein said meta-folder includes one or more other meta-folders and wherein the searching includes searching for conventional objects that satisfy search criteria associated with the one or more other included meta-folders.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second representations are output by the non-visual output unit as tactile representations.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second representations are output by the non-visual output unit as audible representations, wherein the non-visual output unit comprises one or more speakers.

16. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform operations including:

depicting a meta-folder on a display unit using a first representation, wherein said meta-folder is a file system object associated with at least one previously defined search criteria and one or more conventional objects unrelated to the search criteria;

receiving a selection of said meta-folder via a selection unit;

in response to the received selection;

performing a search for conventional objects that satisfy the search criteria associated with the meta-folder;

depicting a second representation of said meta-folder on the display unit, wherein the second representation of the meta-folder is different from the first representation and includes indicia representing the results of the search and the one or more conventional objects unrelated to the search criteria; and

outputting one or more non-visual representations of the meta-folder via a non-visual output unit coupled to the computing device.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the operations further include transferring said meta-folder from an external storage medium into the computing device.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the meta folder is stored on a server coupled to the computing device via a network.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the first and second representations are output via the non-visual output unit as tactile braille representations.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the first and second representations are output via the non-visual output unit as audible representations.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein said meta-folder includes one or more other meta-folders and wherein performing the search includes searching for conventional objects that satisfy search criteria associated with the one or more other meta-folders.

22. A computer-implemented method comprising:

a first computer system receiving a command to access a meta-folder;

in response to receiving the command;

the first computer system searching over a network for conventional objects that satisfy search criteria associated with the meta-folder;

the first computer system outputting non-visual representations of icons within the meta-folder, wherein the icons represent the conventional objects resulting from the searching and one or more conventional objects otherwise associated with the meta-folder.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the meta-folder is stored as a file on a storage medium.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising representing the meta-folder by an icon on a display unit of the first computer system.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the meta-folder is transferable over a network connection.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the meta-folder is transferable over the network connection via email.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the meta-folder is stored on the first computer system.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein at least some of the conventional objects resulting from the searching are located on the first computer system.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the first computer system is connected to a second server computer via the Internet, wherein at least some of the conventional objects resulting from the searching are located on the second server computer.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the second server computer is a web-page server, an FTP server, or a news server.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the first computer system is connected to a third server computer via the Internet, wherein the third server computer is a vendor server.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the vendor server includes a search engine or media products.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the vendor server includes conventional objects associated with media products including books, video tapes, DVDs, CDs and audio tapes.

34. The method of claim 22, wherein the network includes a local area network, a wide area network, or the Internet, wherein the network includes a collection of storage systems for storing at least some of the conventional objects.

35. The method of claim 22, wherein the conventional objects are associated with media products including books, video tapes, DVDs, CDs and audio tapes.

36. The method of claim 22, wherein the conventional objects include conventional folders, conventional files, electronic mail, notes, contact or address book items, or files containing text, audio, or video information.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein one or more of the conventional objects include audio or video information, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a command to access the one or more conventional objects; and

playing the audio or video information.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the audio or video information includes music.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the meta-folder includes icons that indicate whether or not each conventional object has been purchased previously by the user.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving a command to purchase a conventional object resulting from the searching, wherein the conventional object includes a music file.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein a purchase of a conventional object including music is enabled via link from which the music can be purchased.

42. The method of claim 22, wherein the meta-folder includes descriptive text.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the descriptive text describes the search criteria.

44. The method of claim 22, wherein the search criteria include wildcard characters.