Location management of off-premise resources

• US 7,836,056 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2006
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: MacLaurin, Matthew B., Meijer, Henricus Johannes Maria, Raghavan, Kartik N., Glasser, Daniel S., Bergstraesser, Thomas F., Connolly, Michael, Ozzie, Raymond E
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Spieler; William
• Application Number:
  US11/613,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,427 Days
• Field of Search: 707/741
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The innovation enables generation of an index of cloud-based resources (e.g., data, services, applications). The index can be used to retrieve a subset of the cloud-based resources by analyzing a user-generated or standing query. ‘Identity’ and contextual factors can be incorporated to enable rich indexing as well as subsequent retrieval of meaningful resources. The cloud-based resources can be indexed and/or searched in accordance with diverse criteria including, but not limited to, type, size, data created, date modified, author core identity, object size, etc. As well, the innovation can provide for dynamically indexing and/or searching resources in accordance with current contextual factors including, but not limited to, author current acting capacity (e.g., current identity), current engaged activity of a user, location, time, date, etc. All of these criteria can facilitate indexing and categorizing of the resources for later retrieval and rendering via a rich index view.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices comprising one or more processors coupled to computer-readable storage media;

a store in communication with the one or more computing devices, wherein a plurality of files received from a user via a network are stored in the store;

an analysis component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to establish, for each file within a non-empty subset of the files received from the user, a context related to the subset, the context being derived from analysis of the subset based upon a set of criteria, the set of criteria comprising at least one of a current location or a current activity of the user from which the files within the subset were received, wherein the analysis component establishes contexts related to one or more additional subsets of the files received from the user such that a context is established for each file within the plurality of files received from the user;

a metadata generation component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to create metadata for the plurality of files received from the user based on the context established for each file of the plurality of files; and

an index generation component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to generate an index that represents the plurality of files received from the user as a function of the metadata.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of files are at least one of image files, audio files, word processing document files, or application files.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plug-in that is accepted at the one or more computing devices for expanding types of file formats accepted by the system.

4. The system of claim 1, the metadata generation component automatically creating the metadata, wherein the metadata is further associated to semantics of the subsets of the files.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein there are a plurality of the subsets of the files, wherein each of the subsets of the files is indexed in a disparate manner.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the index is maintained at the one or more computing devices, and also maintained locally on a client computing device of the user.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a search component to accept a search request from the user and employing the index to locate one or more of the files in accordance with the search request.

8. The system of claim 7, the search component employing the index to retrieve one or more files associated with a current context of the user.

9. The system of claim 8, the search component determining the current context of the user from at least one of a current location of the user, a current time at which the search request is made by the user, or a current activity of the user.

10. The system of claim 8, the search component determining the current context of the user from a device profile of a device from which the search request is submitted.

11. The system of claim 10, the search component filtering results retrieved from the index in response to the search request to limit exposure of the one or more files located as a result of the search request, wherein the filtering is based on the current context determined for the user.

12. The system of claim 9, the search component ranking the one or more files based at least in part upon the current context determined for the user.

13. The system of claim 9, the search component ordering the one or more files based at least in part upon a preference of the user.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning and reasoning (MLR) component that employs a statistical-based analysis that infers how to index a particular file based upon observed user behavior.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a monetization component that provides multiple layers of indexing for particular files of particular file types.

16. A computer-implemented method of managing a plurality of files that correspond to a user, the method being implemented by one or more processers executing instructions stored in computer-readable storage media, the method comprising:

receiving the plurality of files, by the one or more processors, from the user via a network;

storing the plurality of files in a store in communication with the one or more processors;

automatically analyzing each file received from the user to establish, for each file within a non-empty subset of the files received from the user, a context related to the subset, the context being derived from analysis of the subset based upon a set of criteria, the set of criteria comprising at least one of a current location or a current activity of the user from which the files within the subset were received, wherein the analysis component establishes contexts related to one or more additional subsets of the files received from the user such that a context is established for each file within the plurality of files received from the user;

creating metadata for the plurality of files received from the user based on the context established for each file of the plurality of files; and

generating an index that represents the plurality of files received from the user as a function of the metadata.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining a user-specific indexing scheme provided by the user, wherein the generating the index employs the user-specific indexing scheme to generate the index.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising storing the index at one or more server computing devices comprising the one or more processors, and further storing the index locally at a client device of the user.

19. A system for management of a plurality of files received from a user, comprising:

one or more server computing devices comprising one or more processors coupled to computer-readable storage media;

a store in communication with the one or more server computing devices, the plurality of files received from the user being stored in the store;

an analysis component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to automatically establish, for each file within a non-empty subset of the files received from the user, a context related to the subset, the context being derived from analysis of the subset based upon a set of criteria, the set of criteria comprising at least one of a current location or a current activity of the user from which the files within the subset were received, wherein the analysis component further establishes contexts related to one or more additional subsets of the files received from the user such that a context is established for each file within the plurality of files received from the user;

a metadata generation component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to create metadata for the files received from the user based on the context established for each file of the plurality of files, the metadata generation component tagging the metadata created for at least some of the files to the corresponding files stored in the store;

an index generation component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to generate an index from the plurality of files received from the user, wherein the index is generated based at least in part on the metadata created for the established contexts for the plurality of files received from the user;

the index generation component configured to expand capability for generating the index by accepting a plug-in for adding a file format related to a subset of the files received from the user for indexing the subset of files comprising the format added by the plug-in;

a search component maintained on the computer-readable storage media and executed by the one or more processors to receive a search request from the user for locating one or more files of the plurality of files stored in the store;

the search component configured to identify automatically a context of the search request based upon a determined context of the user when the search request is received; and

the search component configured to search the index and identify the one or more files as a function of the search request and the determined context of the user.