Providing help information

• US 8,271,875 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2008
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Teunen, Remco, Liu, Suzanne R., Cash, Heather S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Angkool, David Phantana
• Application Number:
  US12/246,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20100088601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,442 Days
• Field of Search: 715/705, 715/714
• US Class Current: 715/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for providing content includes extracting preconfigured content from an application; selecting, from second content associated with the application, a plurality of portions of the second content using the extracted preconfigured content; ranking the plurality of portions based at least in part on the preconfigured content; and associating a reference with the preconfigured content in the application such that the reference is displayed with the application, the reference providing user navigation to at least one of the plurality of portions selected based on the ranking.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing help information, comprising:

extracting, by a content extractor, preconfigured content from an application display of an application, the preconfigured content including multiple first terms;

selecting, from second content associated with the application, a plurality of portions of the second content using the extracted preconfigured content, each of the portions including one or more second terms;

ranking the plurality of portions based at least in part on the preconfigured content, the ranking including performing a relevance evaluation of the one or more second terms with regard to the first terms, each of the first terms having its own determined weight in the relevance evaluation, wherein each of the determined weights is from the application display or the content extractor; and

associating a reference with the preconfigured content in the application such that the reference is displayed with the application, the reference providing user navigation to at least one of the plurality of portions selected based on the ranking.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference contains a content header from the portion of the second content associated with the reference.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the reference at the same time that a user navigates to the preconfigured content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference is generated at least in part from the preconfigured content in the application.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a number of ranked portions of the second content to be associated with the reference.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted preconfigured content includes topics and keywords from a current user display for the application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content is help information associated with the application and is generated by sources external to the application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second content is help information associated with the application and is generated by users of the application.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of portions of the second content each have a predetermined rank that is modifiable.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving feedback from the user to rank the helpfulness of the reference.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising incorporating the user feedback for later rankings.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the ranking of a portion is based at least in part on the number of times an associated reference has been selected.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the relationship between the second content and the predetermined content.

14. An electronic system for providing help information, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to generate;

a content extractor to extract preconfigured content from an application display of an application, the preconfigured content including multiple first terms;

a selector to select, from second content associated with the application, a plurality of portions of the second content using the extracted preconfigured content, each of the portions including one or more second terms;

a ranking module to rank the plurality of portions based at least in part on the preconfigured content, the ranking including performing a relevance evaluation of the one or more second terms with regard to the first terms, each of the first terms having its own determined weight in the relevance evaluation, wherein each of the determined weights is from the application display or the content extractor; and

a reference association module to associate a reference with the preconfigured content in the application such that the reference is displayed with the application, the reference providing user navigation to at least one of the plurality of portions selected based on the ranking.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a proper subset of the reference being displayed with the application, the reference being displayed after a user selects the proper subset.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising the electronic system periodically refreshing the preconfigured content.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the selector only provides a predetermined number of portions of the second content based on previously known rankings.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the ranking module ranks the plurality of portions based at least in part on data provided by an administrator.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising displaying the reference when the user selects a related portion of the application.

20. An electronic system for providing help information, comprising:

one or more processors;

a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to generate;

a content extractor to extract preconfigured content from an application display of an application, the preconfigured content including multiple first terms;

a selector to select, from second content associated with the application, a plurality of portions of the second content using the extracted preconfigured content, each of the portions including one or more second terms; and

a ranking module to rank the plurality of portions based at least in part on the preconfigured content, the ranking including performing a relevance evaluation of the one or more second terms with regard to the first terms, each of the first terms having its own determined weight in the relevance evaluation, wherein each of the determined weights is from the application display or the content extractor; and

means for associating a reference with the preconfigured content in the application such that the reference is displayed with the application, the reference providing user navigation to at least one of the plurality of portions selected based on the ranking.

21. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable storage medium for providing help information, the computer program when executed causing operations to be performed comprising:

extracting, by a content extractor, preconfigured content from an application display of an application, the preconfigured content including multiple first terms;

selecting, from second content associated with the application, a plurality of portions of the second content using the extracted preconfigured content, each of the portions including one or more second terms;

ranking the plurality of portions based at least in part on the preconfigured content, the ranking including performing a relevance evaluation of the one or more second terms with regard to the first terms, each of the first terms having its own determined weight in the relevance evaluation, wherein each of the determined weights is from the application display or the content extractor; and

associating a reference with the preconfigured content in the application such that the reference is displayed with the application, the reference providing user navigation to at least one of the plurality of portions selected based on the ranking.