Method and arrangement for handling of information search results

• US 8,423,537 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2008
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Documill Oy
• Original Assignee: Documill Oy
• Inventors: Laakso, Terho, Nummisalo, Pasi, Knnl, Mika, Hnninen, Rami
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Wilson
• Application Number:
  US12/219,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20090150353A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,734 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707722-738, 707758-763, 715/760
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for handling of information search results. The method includes at least: entering a search query; sending the query to a search engine; and receiving a search result having a list of data files matching to the search query. And the method comprises at least: paginating the content of the data files retrieved; rendering page previews of the data files; selecting the pages to be previewed; and previewing the matching pages associated with the data files retrieved.

Claims

1. A method for handling of information search results comprising:

entering a search query;

sending the query to a search engine;

retrieving a search result having a list of data files each representing a document matching the search query; and

for each of the data files in the list;

retrieving the data file;

paginating the content of the retrieved data file into discrete pages;

generating preview pages each representing a respective discrete page of the retrieved data file; and

sending the preview pages to a client device which constructs a data file preview which can simultaneously display multiple preview pages generated from the retrieved data file,

wherein the constructed data file preview is configured to allow an end user of the client device to;

select preview pages, which are displayed in the data file preview, in order to view higher resolution versions of those preview pages matching the corresponding discrete pages of the retrieved data file, and

wherein the preview pages simultaneously displayed by the data file preview are limited to those preview pages matching the search query in accordance with content filtering which is performed on a discrete page level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the preview pages are indexed for content filtering, and

wherein only those preview pages that match the search query according the results of the content filtering are selected to be displayed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the used search keywords or phrases are highlighted in the displayed preview pages.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one or more preview pages of each of data files in the list are shown to the user.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data file content is paginated according to original layout.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein each preview page is compiled from a layered presentation of HTML content and image content associated with the data file or the preview page is compiled from a vector file.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein in generating the preview pages at least one or more image files are created from each discrete page of the data file.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preview pages whose content matches the search query are selected for the data file preview, and

the search query keyword(s) or phrases are highlighted in the matching preview pages.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein a search result area is reserved to display the preview pages associated to the data file.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preview pages are displayed in an m by n matrix format in the data file preview, and

a user selectable zoom-in to the preview pages is provided inside the matrix format.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preview pages are displayed in the data file preview in connection with the data file information provided by the search engine.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein an m by n matrix of preview pages are populated essentially immediately when preview data becomes partially available.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preview pages that are not currently displayed in the data file preview are pre-loaded in a memory of a preview engine for later viewing.

14. A system for handling of information search results comprising:

a client device having a user interface for entering a search query;

a preview engine that performs the following;

receives the search query from the client device;

sends the query to a search engine;

retrieves, from the search engine, a search result having a list of data files each representing a document matching the search query; and

for each of the data files in the list;

retrieves the data file;

paginates the content of the retrieved data file into discrete pages;

generates preview pages each representing a respective discrete page of the retrieved data file;

sends the preview pages to a client device which constructs a data file preview which can simultaneously display multiple preview pages generated from the retrieved data file,

wherein the constructed data file preview is configured to allow an end use of the client device to;

select preview pages, which are displayed in the data file preview, in order to view higher resolution versions of those preview pages matching the corresponding discrete pages of the retrieved data file, and

wherein the preview pages simultaneously displayed by the data file preview are limited to those preview pages matching the search query in accordance with content filtering which is performed on a discrete page level.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the preview engine has at least a user interface manager, connectors, a content converter, a page indexer, a highlighter and a cache manager.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the connectors are equipped to connect the preview engine to the search engine and to content servers, and the connectors are configured to send the search query to the search engine, receive the search result list from the search engine, and download the data files in the list from the content servers to the preview engine.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein in connection with the preview engine the content converter is configured to paginate the content of the retrieved data file and generate the page previews;

wherein the page indexer is configured to index the preview pages for filtering purposes, and search for and select the matching preview pages from each data file;

wherein the highlighter module is arranged to highlight the search query text in the preview pages;

wherein the cache manager is configured to store the page previews into a storage and crawling the data files page previews in the storage according to the specified rules.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a display for displaying the list of search results provided by the search engine,

wherein the preview engine is configured to;

reserve a search result area to display preview pages associated to the data file;

generate the preview pages in an m by n matrix format; and

provide a user selectable zoom-in to the preview pages inside the matrix format.

19. The system according to claim 14,

wherein preview pages are displayed in the data file preview in connection with the data file information provided by the search engine,

wherein the data file preview has a display area to present page previews in m by n matrix.

20. The system according to claim 14, wherein the data file preview comprises a button, link or area adapted to be clicked by a user for additional preview pages.

21. The system according to claim 14, wherein the preview engine is configured to provide the user an additional matrix of preview pages in a new output screen in case there are more than m by n search result pages associated with the data file and the user requests an additional preview page.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the output screen created by the preview engine comprises navigation buttons, links or areas adapted for a user to navigate backward and forward through preview pages stored in the memory, and

wherein the preview engine is configured to include one or more buttons adapted to be used to navigate between a search result list provided by the preview engine.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the preview pages in the matrix in new output screen are user selectable for zoom-in.

24. The system according to claim 14, wherein the preview engine includes a memory into which preview pages that are not currently displayed are pre-loaded for later viewing.

25. The system according to claim 14, wherein the preview engine is configured to populate an m by n matrix of the preview pages essentially immediately when preview data becomes partially available.