Search tools and techniques

• US 7,882,097 B1
• Filed: 02/12/2008
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Resource Consortium Limited, LLC
• Original Assignee: Resource Consortium Limited
• Inventors: OGILVIE, JOHN W.
• Primary Examiner(s): LeRoux, Etienne P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cindy
• Application Number:
  US12/030,179
• Time in Patent Office: 1,085 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/706, 707/707, 709/245
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering

Abstract

The invention provides tools and techniques for assisting searches of large information collections, such as the Internet or databases. An initial search from a given user A is used to help identify related productive searches by other users. Those searches (keywords and/or searched portions) are then used to focus the search effort of user A. Activities by other users in response to search results are tracked to help a search assistant automatically identify the results those other users deemed of greatest interest.

Claims

1. A method of assisting a search, comprising:

receiving an initial search of a user A;

from the initial search identifying at least one related productive search of at least one other user, wherein a search is identified as productive if the search ends at an official site; and

using the related productive search to focus a search by user A;

wherein a search is identified as related if the search includes at least one of the following;

a keyword search which has at least one keyword that is semantically linked to at least one keyword of the initial search;

a keyword search which has at least one keyword that is lexically linked to at least one keyword of the initial search;

a search result of the other user which has a significant number of the same search results as the initial search.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises identifying a search as productive because the search led to a “

.gov”

official site.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises identifying a search as productive because the search led to a “

.org”

official site.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search ends at an official site when a user copies data from it by at least one of the following:

saving an image to disk, performing a print screen, cut-and-paste copying of text, printing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the search ends at an official site when a user makes a purchase there.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying at least one related productive search of at least one other user comprises tracking activity by the other user on a computer device of the other user.

7. A method of assisting a search, comprising:

receiving an initial search of a user A;

from the initial search identifying at least one related productive search of at least one other user, wherein a search is identified as productive if the search ends with a user scrolling to get to part of a search result document that was not initially displayed; and

using the related productive search to focus a search by user A;

wherein a search is identified as related if the search includes at least one of the following;

a keyword search which has at least one keyword that is semantically linked to at least one keyword of the initial search;

a keyword search which has at least one keyword that is lexically linked to at least one keyword of the initial search;

a search result of the other user which has a significant number of the same search results as the initial search.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user copies data after scrolling by at least one of the following:

saving an image to disk, performing a print screen, cut-and-paste copying of text, printing.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the user makes a purchase after scrolling.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of identifying at least one related productive search of at least one other user comprises tracking activity by the other user on a computer device of the other user.

11. A method of assisting a search, comprising:

receiving an initial search of a user A;

from the initial search identifying at least one related productive search of at least one other user, wherein a search is identified as productive if the search ends with multiple browsers and/or other windows being spawned on a computer device by a user in a depth-first search by the user rooted at a search result document after the search result document is displayed to the user; and

using the related productive search to focus a search by user A;

wherein a search is identified as related if the search includes at least one of the following;

a keyword search which has at least one keyword that is semantically linked to at least one keyword of the initial search;

a keyword search which has at least one keyword that is lexically linked to at least one keyword of the initial search;

a search result of the other user which has a significant number of the same search results as the initial search.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the user copies data from one of the spawned windows by at least one of the following:

saving an image to disk, performing a print screen, cut-and-paste copying of text, printing.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the user makes a purchase using one of the spawned windows.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of identifying at least one related productive search of at least one other user comprises tracking activity by the other user on a computer device of the other user.