Method and system for displaying real time trends

• US 8,140,562 B1
• Filed: 03/24/2009
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kuraoka, Hiroshi, Tei, Takayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Casanova, Jorge A
• Application Number:
  US12/409,849
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 707/736, 707/767
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence

Abstract

Displaying an information product that includes exceptional search queries to a user can include receiving search queries, measuring the frequencies of search queries received, determining the search queries whose frequencies are rising in the most relevant manner, and then displaying these exceptional queries on a user interface. The user then can select one of the displayed exceptional queries, and then the system can provide search results corresponding with the exceptional queries. The activity of a particular query can be based on the frequency of the search query'"'"'s reception over a given period of time, whether in relation to an expected frequency level or the rate of change of the frequency level. Additionally, the relevant periods of time over which activity is measured can be relatively short to maximize their relevance at a given instant.

Claims

1. A mobile device for displaying query information to a user and for receiving requests from the user regarding query information, the mobile device comprising:

a user interface on the mobile device, for data entry, the user interface comprising at least a display;

processing capacity coupled to a memory, in the mobile device, for allowing receipt of data from the user interface, transmission of instructions to the user interface, communication with at least one server handling search queries and serving responses to queries, and communication with at least one server generating sets of exceptional queries, the mobile device allowing for use of the processing capacity to;

receive, by the mobile device, over a network, a set of exceptional queries, the exceptional queries being queries that have been selected, prior to receipt over the network by the mobile device, selected according to at least one preselected criterion, and selected within a given time frame measured from receipt of at least one of the search queries at the at least one server, the search queries from which the set of exceptional queries are selected having been normalized and combined, the set of exceptional queries including at least one query that satisfies the at least one preselected criterion;

display, by the mobile device, the at least one received exceptional query on the display of the user interface;

receive, by the mobile device, from the user interface, input data from the user, the input data representing a selection of at least one of the set of exceptional queries;

transmit, by the mobile device, over the network the selection of at least one of the set of exceptional queries;

in response to transmitting, by the mobile device, over the network the selection of at least one of the set of exceptional queries;

receive, by the mobile device, from the server handling search queries search results associated with the at least one of the set of exceptional queries; and

display, by the mobile device, on the display the search results associated with the at least one of the set of exceptional queries.

2. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one preselected criterion for identifying exceptional queries comprises a degree to which a rate of receipt of user requests involving a particular query in the given time frame exceeds a predicted rate of receipt of user requests for the particular query.

3. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the exceptional queries are received and displayed by the mobile device within a time frame of less than or equal to one half of an hour of the occurrence of the queries prior to their selection as exceptional queries.

4. The mobile device according to claim 3, wherein the time frame comprises a time frame of less than or equal to one quarter of an hour.

5. The mobile device according to claim 4, wherein the time frame comprises a time frame of less than or equal to five minutes.

6. The mobile device according to claim 4, wherein the time frame comprises a time frame of less than or equal to one minute.

7. A method for retrieving and displaying query information on a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a set of exceptional queries at the mobile device, the set of exceptional queries being queries that have been selected from search queries according to at least one preselected criterion, and selected within a given time frame measured from receipt of at least one of the search queries at a server, the search queries from which the set of exceptional queries are selected having been normalized and combined, the set of exceptional queries including at least one query that satisfies the at least one preselected criterion;

displaying the at least one received exceptional query on a display of a user interface if the set includes at least one such exceptional query;

receiving from the user interface input data from a user, the input data representing a selection of at least one of the set of exceptional queries if the set includes at least one query;

transmitting to a computing device via a network the selection of at least one of the set of exceptional queries; and

in response to transmitting over the network the selection of at least one of the set of exceptional queries;

receiving from the computing device search results associated with the at least one of the set of exceptional queries; and

displaying on the display of the user interface the search results associated with the at least one of the set of exceptional queries.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one preselected criterion for identifying exceptional queries comprises a degree to which a rate of receipt of a particular query in the given time frame exceeds a predicted rate of receipt of the particular query.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the exceptional queries are received and displayed by the mobile device within a time frame of less than or equal to one half of an hour of an occurrence of the queries prior to their selection as exceptional queries.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the time frame comprises a time frame of less than or equal to one quarter of an hour.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the time frame comprises a time frame of less than or equal to five minutes.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the time frame comprises a time frame of less than or equal to one minute.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein the computing device comprises a server.

14. A process for generating an information product representing a set of one or more most emergent Internet search queries, the process comprising the steps of:

establishing a threshold function for defining whether Internet search queries are rising at a preselected rate;

accessing from a storage device data representing queries received substantially

(i) within a preselected time frame measured from receipt of the queries at a server, the queries having been normalized and combined, and

(ii) ranked according to a measure of the frequency of the queries within the preselected time frame; and

measuring the data representing the queries against the threshold function and if the data surpass the threshold function, making the data available in a physical storage medium for retrieval as the information product representing the set of most emergent Internet search queries, for storage in physical storage medium and adapted for use in tangible applications.

15. The process according to claim 14, wherein the data representing the queries accessed from the storage device and received substantially from the preselected time frame are also from substantially within a preselected target geographic area.

16. The process according to claim 14, wherein the data representing the queries accessed from the storage device are scaled according to the percentage of total queries that originated from within the target geographic area.

17. The process according to claim 14, further comprising, prior to the step of establishing a threshold, receiving a threshold-related input from a customer for the information product and wherein the step of establishing the threshold function for defining whether Internet search queries are rising at a preselected rate comprises setting the threshold function equal to the threshold-related input received from the customer.

18. A system for generating an information product representing one or more most emergent Internet search queries, the system comprising:

one or more servers to access Internet query data and to generate the one or more emergent Internet queries;

the one or more servers, configured to generate the one or more most emergent Internet search queries by selecting queries received at the one or more servers, the selected queries received within a given time frame measured from receipt of at least one of the selected queries at the one or more servers, generating the Internet query data by normalizing and combining the selected queries, and applying functionality for thresholding the Internet query data accessed by the one or more servers, thereby generating the one or more most emergent Internet search queries; and

a plurality of client computer devices comprising a processing unit and memory, each client computer device configured to be activatable by a user to retrieve the one or more most emergent Internet search queries from the one or more servers, and to perform at least the step of;

displaying, at least one or more of the one or more most emergent Internet search queries, the one or more most emergent Internet search queries for use in tangible applications.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the server receiving the search queries and the server generating sets of exceptional queries comprise the same server.

20. The system according to claim 18, wherein the server receiving the search queries and the server generating sets of exceptional queries comprise separate servers.

21. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for retrieving and outputting query information, the computer program product comprising;

computer executable program code for receiving at least one criterion for determining whether a search query comprises an exceptional query;

computer executable program code for receiving a plurality of search queries;

computer executable program code for selecting queries from the plurality of received search queries, the selected queries received within a given time frame measured from a time of receipt of at least one of the selected queries, normalizing and combining the selected queries, and identifying at least one of the selected queries in the plurality of received search queries as an exceptional query, the identification being based on the at least one criterion; and

computer executable program code for outputting the at least one exceptional query.

22. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the at least one criterion comprises a degree to which a rate of receipt for a particular search query in a given time frame exceeds a predicted rate of receipt for the particular search query.