Displaying items using a reduced presentation

• US 7,761,805 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wooldridge, Andrew, Raju, Swati, Bayley, Oliver Thomas, Hall, Ashley Woodman
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Thanh T
• Application Number:
  US11/519,563
• Publication Number:
  US 20080066017A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,408 Days
• Field of Search: 715/780, 715/816, 715/708, 715/711, 715/864
• US Class Current: 715/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

To reduce the amount of space needed to display an item, while still retaining meaning for the item, a reduced presentation is determined for the item. The reduced presentation is based on analysis of a portion that contains information that may be less important for the user to see in order to understand the whole item. The item may contain a portion that is based on user input. It is this portion upon which the reduced presentation determination may be made. However, the reduced presentation determination may be based on another factor. For example, the technique is applicable to displaying any list of items that have some common pattern in the items. Based on analysis of the common pattern, a reduced presentation can be determined for at least one of the items.

Claims

1. A method comprising performing a machine-executed operation involving instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

receiving, through an interface of a device, user input comprising one or more characters;

accessing one or more responses to the user input, wherein each of the one or more responses comprises a user input portion that is based on the user input, wherein accessing one or more responses to the user input comprises;

accessing one or more potential completions for the user input, wherein each potential completion comprises the user input portion and an extension, wherein the extension specifies a remainder of the potential completion for the user input;

determining, based on display capabilities of the device, that all of the characters of a particular response cannot be displayed within a target region of a display screen of the device if the characters in the particular response are displayed using a particular format;

based, at least in part, on analysis of the user input portion of the particular response, forming a reduced presentation for the user input portion of the particular response by performing at least one of the following steps;

(a) removing at least one character of the user input portion of the particular response;

or

(b) determining a reduced display format for at least one character of the user input portion of the particular response, wherein the reduced display format uses less of the target region to display characters than the particular format;

using the reduced presentation, displaying the particular response within the target region; and

wherein the machine-executed operation is at least one of i) sending said instructions;

ii) receiving said instructions;

iii) storing said instructions;

or iv) executing said instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input comprises a search query.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the search query is a partially formed search query.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more potential completions are suggested completions to the partially formed search query.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of forming a reduced presentation further comprises:

in response to a determination, that after removing one or more characters from the user input portion, the potential completion will not fit within the target region, removing at least one character of the extension of the potential completion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the extension comprises a prefix portion that is prior to the user input portion and a postfix portion that is after the user input portion;

and wherein forming the reduced presentation for the particular response further comprises;

removing one or more characters from selected terms of the postfix portion from the potential completion to attempt to form a version of the potential completion that fits in the target region; and

if removal of one or more characters from selected terms of the postfix portion does not result in a version of the potential completion that fits in the target region, removing at least one character of the prefix portion of the potential completion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

receiving a particular potential completion for the user input that is based on one or more terms in the user input but does not include the one or more terms in the user input; and

in response to a determination that the particular potential completion will not fit into the target region, removing one or more characters from the end of the particular potential completion in order to form a version of the particular potential completion that will fit into the target region.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein forming a reduced presentation for the particular response comprises removing at least one character of the particular response.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the user input portion comprises a plurality of terms, and wherein the step of removing at least one character of the particular response comprises removing one or more characters from the end of a particular term.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein removing one or more characters from the end of the particular term comprises allowing at least a certain number of characters to remain in the particular term.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for only removing a character from a term in the user input portion if the term comprises at least a certain number of characters.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for only removing a character from a term in the user input portion if the term forms a complete word.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

in response to user selection of the reduced presentation for the particular response, displaying the particular response with all characters displayed.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of forming a reduced presentation of the particular response includes removing one or more characters from the user input portion of the particular response.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the user input portion comprises a plurality of terms; and

said one or more characters do not include a) the first character of the first term;

nor b) the last character of the last term.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein:

forming a reduced presentation for the particular response comprises determining a reduced display format for at least one character of the particular response; and

the reduced display format uses less of the target region to display characters than the particular format.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining a reduced format for at least one character of the first item comprises determining at least one of the following for at least one character that will allow the first item to be displayed in the target region:

a font size;

a font type;

a character spacing;

a font style; and

a font effect.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for displaying the user input on the display screen at the same time as the reduced presentation for the particular response.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of determining and forming a reduced presentation of the particular response are performed by the device.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of forming a reduced response includes removing one or more characters from the user input portion of the particular response; and

the instructions further comprise instructions for performing;

determining that removing one or more characters from the user input portion of the particular response does not result in a version of the response that fits in the target region; and

in response to determining that removing one or more characters from the user input portion of the particular response does not result in a version of the response that fits in the target region, removing at least one character of the portion of the response that is not the user input portion of the response.

21. The method of claim 1,

wherein the step of removing at least one character causes at least one word, in the response, to be truncated by causing the word to be displayed with at least one character and fewer than the total number of characters in the word.

22. A method comprising performing a machine-executed operation involving instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

determining that all of the characters of a first item to be displayed on a display screen of a device cannot be displayed within a target region of the display screen if the first item is displayed using a first format;

determining a pattern of characters that is common between the first item and a second item, wherein the second item is one of;

an item to be displayed on the display screen with the first item;

or

an item that has been displayed on the display screen;

based, at least in part, on analysis of the common pattern, forming a reduced presentation for the first item by performing at least one of the following steps;

(a) removing at least one character of the portion of the first item having a common pattern with the second item;

or

(b) determining a reduced display format for at least one character of the portion of the first item having a common pattern with the second item; and

using the reduced presentation, displaying the first item within the target region;

wherein said first item and said second item are both responses to user input received through an interface of the device;

wherein the first item comprises a potential completion for the user input, wherein each potential completion comprises the user input portion and an extension, wherein the extension specifies a remainder of the potential completion for the user input; and

wherein the machine-executed operation is at least one of i) sending said instructions;

ii) receiving said instructions;

iii) storing said instructions;

or iv) executing said instructions.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein forming a reduced presentation for the first item comprises removing at least one character of the first item.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the common portion comprises a plurality of terms, and wherein the step of removing at least one character from the first item to form the reduced presentation comprises removing one or more characters from the end of at least one of the terms.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein removing one or more characters from the end of at least one of the terms comprises allowing at least a certain number of characters to remain.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for only removing a character from a term if the term comprises at least a certain number of characters.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for only removing a character from a term if the term forms a complete word.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for performing:

in response to user selection of the reduced presentation for the first item, displaying the first item with all characters displayed.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein forming a reduced presentation for the first item comprises determining a reduced display format for at least one character of the first item.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein determining a reduced format for at least one character of the first item comprises determining at least one the following for at least one character that will allow the first item to be displayed in the target region:

a font size;

a font type;

a character spacing;

a font style; and

a font effect.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for displaying the second item on the display screen at the same time as reduced presentation for the first item.

32. The method of claim 22, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for displaying the second item on the display screen prior to displaying the reduced presentation for the first item, wherein the first item and second item are not displayed at the same time.

33. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of displaying the first item within the target region comprises displaying all of the common pattern of the first item in a different format than the other portions of the first item.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the different format comprises a different color.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the different format comprises a different font style.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the different format comprises a different font effect.