Mobile friendly internet searches

• US 8,219,567 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2005
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Serdy, Frank S. Jr., Romatka, Rainer J, Hennessy, Tyler E., Brench, Neil A
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAYE, CHELCIE L
• Application Number:
  US11/080,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212451A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,674 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/7, 707/10, 707/748, 707/756, 715/205, 715/207, 715/744
• US Class Current: 707/756
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1737 for reducing power consumption or coping with limited storage space, e.g. in mobile devices saving storage space on storage devices G06F3/0608; power saving in storage systems G06F3/0625
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Mobile friendly internet searches are enabled by determining if individual internet sites are mobile friendly. In a described implementation, a mobile-friendliness indication is determined for an internet site. The determined mobile-friendliness indication is stored in association with the internet site in an index that may be used for internet searching. In another described implementation, a data structure comprises an internet index with multiple internet site entries having one or more associated mobile-friendliness indications. The mobile-friendliness indications may be general affirmative indications of mobile friendliness or specific indications of mobile-friendliness that identify a specific user agent type. In yet another described implementation, a search request having search terms is received, and a search is performed based thereon to produce a search results set. If the search requestor is a mobile device, the search results are ordered responsive to mobile-friendliness indications associated with the internet sites of the search results set.

Claims

1. A method implemented by processor-executable instructions located in a storage media, the method comprising:

determining a mobile-friendliness indication that is associated with a uniform resource locator (URL), wherein the mobile-friendliness indication indicates a compatibility of a page associated with the URL with one or more display characteristics of a mobile device;

determining the mobile-friendliness indication based on a site comparator, a markup language comparator, a mobile-specific response examiner, and a site content analyzer to identify multiple mobile friendliness scores;

identifying the multiple mobile friendliness scores based on a first weight mobile friendliness score from the site comparator, a second weight mobile friendliness score from the markup language comparator, a third weight mobile friendliness score from the mobile-specific response examiner, and a fourth weight mobile friendliness score from the site content analyzer;

producing a weighted average mobile friendliness score from the multiple mobile friendliness scores;

in response to the weighted average mobile friendliness score, determining the mobile friendliness indication; and

storing the determined mobile-friendliness indication.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the storing comprises:

storing the determined mobile-friendliness indication in association with the URL in a network index.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a search request having at least one search term; and

performing a search based on the at least one search term and using the network index to produce a set of search results including multiple URLs.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

determining if the search request originated from a mobile device;

if the search request is determined to have originated from a mobile device;

ordering the multiple URLs of the set of search results responsive to multiple respective mobile-friendliness indications associated with respective ones of the multiple URLs of the set of search results to produce a mobile-friendly set of search results; and

providing at least a portion of the mobile-friendly set of search results to the mobile device.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

receiving a traditional response from the URL;

receiving an unknown response from the URL, the unknown response corresponding to a request for made while impersonating a mobile-friendly user agent;

comparing the traditional response to the unknown response; and

determining the mobile-friendliness indication based on the previously presented comparing.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

requesting a response from the URL while impersonating a mobile-friendly user agent type;

ascertaining a markup language type of the response;

comparing the markup language type of the response to the mobile-friendly user agent type; and

determining the mobile-friendliness indication based on the comparing.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

injecting a URL-relevant term that is applicable to a mobile-friendly user agent type into the URL to form a modified URL;

requesting a response from the URL using the modified URL;

examining the response received from the requesting; and

determining the mobile-friendliness indication based on the examining.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

extracting at least one content characteristic from a response received from the URL;

analyzing the at least one content characteristic for mobile-friendliness; and

determining the mobile-friendliness indication based on the analyzing.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the analyzing comprises at least one of:

checking for a script or a frame in the response;

detecting a size of an image in the response;

or

detecting a total memory size of the response.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises at least one of:

checking for a script or a frame in the response;

detecting a size of an image in the response;

or

detecting a total memory size of the response.

11. One or more processor-accessible storage media comprising a data structure including multiple entries, each respective entry of the multiple entries comprising a respective uniform resource locator (URL) that is associated with one or more mobile-friendliness indications, wherein the one or more mobile-friendliness indications indicate a compatibility of a page associated with the URL with a one or more display characteristics of a mobile device, wherein a mobile-friendliness indication is further determined by producing a weighted average mobile friendliness score from multiple mobile friendliness scores based on a a site comparator, a markup language comparator, a mobile-specific response examiner, and a site content analyzer, the weighted average mobile friendliness score ranges from about 0 to about 100, and wherein the multiple mobile friendliness scores are based on a first weight mobile friendliness score from the site comparator, a second weight mobile friendliness score from the markup language comparator, a third weight mobile friendliness score from the mobile-specific response examiner, and a fourth weight mobile friendliness score from the site content analyzer.

12. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the data structure comprises an internet index, and the URLs of the multiple entries correspond to websites of an internet.

13. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the data structure further includes at least one entry comprising a URL that is not associated with a mobile-friendliness indication.

14. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the multiple entries include a particular entry comprising a particular URL that is associated with a particular mobile-friendliness indication, the particular mobile-friendliness indication comprising a general affirmative indication of mobile-friendliness.

15. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the multiple entries include a particular entry comprising a particular URL that is associated with a particular mobile-friendliness indication, the particular mobile-friendliness indication comprising a specific indication of mobile-friendliness that identifies at least one specific user agent type.