Using joint communication and search data

• US 8,150,868 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2007
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Richardson, Matthew R., Singla, Parag
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): MOSER, BRUCE M
• Application Number:
  US11/761,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20080306935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,758 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/999.003, 707/999.004, 707/999.005, 707/723, 707/748, 707/749, 707/751, 707/767, 707/7, 707/104.1, 707/999.007, 707/999.107
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

Conventionally, there are communities of individuals who perform Internet searches and communities of individuals who utilized Internet communications. While there is commonly a large amount of overlap between the two communities, there is little interaction between the two communities. Internet searches can be used to recommend interesting people to a user. Furthermore, Internet communications can be used to recommend content that is likely to be of interest to the user. In addition, previously engaged communications or searches can be used to disambiguate terms in a subsequent search.

Claims

1. A system for proposing content to a user of an electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a receiver component executable by the processor to obtain information from the electronic device concerning at least one communication session engaged in by the user of the electronic device with an additional user of an additional electronic device; and

a suggestion component executable by the processor to;

determine a probability that the content is related to an interest of the user of the electronic device;

determine whether to recommend the content to the user of the electronic device by comparing the probability that the content is related to the interest of the user to a threshold, wherein the threshold becomes higher when the user of the electronic device has a history of not accepting recommendations from the suggestion component; and

when the probability that the content is related to the interest of the user is greater than the threshold, recommend the content to the user of the electronic device based on words, phrases, or a combination thereof, included in the at least one communication session engaged in by the user of the electronic device with the additional user of the additional electronic device, based on interests of the additional user of the additional electronic device, and based on a record of recommended searches that were not performed by the user of the electronic device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the suggestion component predicts relevance of one or more topics of the at least one communication session based on searches performed by the user of the electronic device.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a geographical determination component that is executable by the processor to obtain geographical characteristics of at least some of the information obtained by the receiver component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication session includes an instant messaging session between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a supplemental information capturer that is executable by the processor to gather personal information of the user of the electronic device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a storage component that holds one or more records that relate to the content recommended to the user of the electronic device.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a text analyzer that is executable by the processor to scan content of one or more messages of the at least one communication session engaged in between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device and to perform a keyword search of the content of the one or more messages.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement component executable by the processor to provide promotion information to the electronic device, wherein the promotion information is related to the content recommended to the user of the electronic device, one or more searches performed by the user of the electronic device, or both.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication session engaged in by the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device includes at least one e-mail message.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the suggestion component is executable by the processor to recommend a party for the user of the electronic device to contact based on at least one search performed by the user of the electronic device and based on at least one search performed by the party, wherein the at least one search performed by the user and the at least one search performed by the party are related to a particular topic.

11. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computer including a processor executing a context component, text of a search query from an electronic device;

associating, by the computer, at least one word of the search query with information pertaining to at least one previous communication session between a user of the electronic device and an additional user of an additional electronic device;

determining, by the computer, one or more contexts of the at least one word of the search query by examining past searches of the user and recent communication sessions of the user;

determining, by the computer, a particular meaning of the at least one word from among a plurality of respective meanings of the at least one word based on the one or more contexts of the at least one word and based on the association between the at least one word of the search query and the information pertaining to the at least one previous communication session between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device;

providing, by the computer, the particular meaning of the at least one word to the electronic device;

receiving, by the computer, an indication from the user of the electronic device whether the particular meaning of the at least one word is correct;

ranking, by the computer, results of the search query based on the one or more contexts of the at least one word of the search query and based on the indication from the user of the electronic device whether the particular meaning of the word is correct;

providing, by the computer, the results of the search query to the electronic device in accordance with the ranking of the results; and

receiving, by the computer, a recommendation indicating a party for the user of the electronic device to contact based on at least the search query and based on at least one search performed by the party, wherein the search query and the at least one search performed by the party are related to a particular topic.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving, by the computer, a response from the electronic device indicating that the particular meaning of the at least one word is incorrect.

13. A method comprising:

determining, by a computer including a processor executing an analysis component, a probability that content relates to at least one interest of a user of an electronic device;

determining, by the computer, whether to recommend the content to the user of the electronic device by comparing the probability that the user of the electronic device will find the content relates to the at least one interest of the user to a threshold;

providing, by the computer, a recommendation of the content to the user of the electronic device when the probability that the content relates to the at least one interest of the user is greater than the threshold, the recommendation is based on words, phrases, or a combination thereof, included in at least one communication session engaged in by the user of the electronic device with an additional user of an additional electronic device;

associating, by the computer, at least one word of a search query with information pertaining to the at least one communication session between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device;

determining, by the computer, one or more contexts of the at least one word of the search query by examining past searches of the user of the electronic device and recent communication sessions of the user of the electronic device;

determining, by the computer, a particular meaning of the at least one word from among a plurality of meanings of the at least one word based on the one or more contexts of the at least one word and based on the association between the at least one word of the search query and the information pertaining to the at least one communication session between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device;

providing, by the computer, the particular meaning of the at least one word to the user of the electronic device;

receiving, by the computer, an indication from the user of the electronic device whether the particular meaning of the at least one word is correct; and

determining, by the computer, a party for the user of the electronic device to contact based on at least one search performed by the user of the electronic device and based on at least one search performed by the party, the at least one search performed by the user of the electronic device and the at least one search performed by the party are related to a particular topic.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

transmitting to the electronic device a recommendation for the user of the electronic device to contact the party.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a topic discussed during the at least one communication session between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing a recommendation to the electronic device to invite a third party to join the communication session between the user of the electronic device and the additional user of the additional electronic device.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising sending a proposal to the electronic device recommending that the user of the electronic device join a real-time communication session between particular individuals.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the proposal is based on a topic of the real-time communication session and based on searches performed by the user of the electronic device.