Aggregating media information

• US 8,533,761 B1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sahami, Mehran, Gossweiler, Richard C. III, Blackburn, John, Patel, Manish G., Brown, David A., Gupta, Neha, Taylor, Thomas H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ingvoldstad, Bennett
• Application Number:
  US11/742,148
• Time in Patent Office: 2,325 Days
• Field of Search: 725/51, 725/53
• US Class Current: 725/53
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes receiving a search request associated with media-related information, identifying a media-related object responsive to the request, and gathering from a plurality of different corpuses of information a plurality of search results associated with the media-related object.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving at a server system from a client computing device a first search request;

determining whether the first search request is or is not media-related; and

in response to determining the first search request is media-related;

identifying at the server system a media-related object responsive to the first search request;

gathering from a plurality of different corpuses of information a plurality of search results associated with the media-related object, the plurality of search results including a listing of a plurality of episodes of a television program, a plurality of dates and times when one or more of the plurality of episodes will be presented, an overview of the television program, and web content retrieved from the internet that relates to the television program, wherein the web content that relates to the television program includes one or more images retrieved in response to performing a query corresponding to a second search request that is generated based at least in part on the first search request, the second search request indicating to the server system to search particular ones of the plurality of different corpuses;

generating code that formats the plurality of search results for display together as a web page by the client computing device, the webpage including (i) a non-list area that includes information about a subject of the first and second search requests (ii) a search list area that includes links to landing pages that correspond to the subject, and (iii) an episode area that includes the plurality of dates and times when the multiple different showings of the television program will be presented, wherein the format of the search results on the web page is different if the search request is determined to be media-related than if the search request was not determined to be media-related; and

providing the code to the client computing device;

wherein the generated code includes code for displaying results from each of the plurality of different corpuses grouped together in an area of a display that is distinct from other areas of the display, including the listing of the plurality of episodes displayed grouped together and with a title, time, and channel associated with each episode, the overview of the television program displayed separately and the web content results displayed grouped together, and a selection by a user of the client computing device of a web content search result can navigate the user to a second web page related to the television program.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first search request is received at the client computing device from a user selection of a link associated with the media-related object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different corpuses include a structured corpus and an unstructured corpus.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured corpus includes information about a plurality of televisions programs or movies, and the unstructured corpus includes web content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the client computing device one or more user commands to move a display of a group of search results, and generating code for displaying the display of the group of search results in an area indicated by the user commands.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving from a client computing device at a server system a first search request;

determining whether the first search request is or is not associated with a media program; and

in response to determining the first search request is associated with a media program;

submitting one or more queries that correspond to the first search request to one or more search engines addressing a plurality of search corpuses, wherein each corpus comprises a repository of information that includes media-related information and a separate search is conducted for each corpus, and receiving a plurality of results in response to the separate searches conducted for each of the plurality of search corpuses, wherein at least one of the queries corresponds to a second search request that is generated based at least in part on the first search request, to retrieve one or more images related to the media program, the second search request indicating to the server system to search particular ones of the plurality of different corpuses;

aggregating the results from the plurality of corpuses for simultaneous display in adjacent areas of a visual display, including identifying distinct areas in a user-configured display for groupings of results from each of the plurality of search corpuses and generating code for creating a web page showing a display of the groupings of results in the distinct areas, the distinct areas including (i) a non-list area that includes information about a subject of the one or more queries (ii) a search list area that includes links to landing pages that correspond to the subject of the one or more queries, and (iii) an episode area that includes a plurality of dates and times when multiple different showings of the media program will be presented, wherein a format of the web page is different than if the search request was determined to be not associated with a media program; and

providing the code to the client computing device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the query includes the first search request.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising appending a media indicating term to the first search request to form the query.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein aggregating the results from the plurality of corpuses comprises associating an upcoming episode list of results with a first display area, a program summary with a second display area, and additional search results with one or more other display areas.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing for a display of a program summary area, an images search result area, a web search result area, and an episode guide area.

11. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

one or more computing devices, including;

one or more memories including a plurality of separate databases each containing media-related information;

a search engine configured to receive a first search request, determine whether the first search request is or is not media-related, and in response to determining the first search request is media-related to generate one or more media-related queries to the plurality of separate databases, wherein at least one of the queries corresponds to a second search request that is generated based at least in part on the first search request, to retrieve one or more images related to the media program, the second search request indicating to the server system to search particular ones of the plurality of different corpuses; and

a page formatter including a search result aggregator for generating information for a display of multiple groups of search results from the plurality of separate databases, and wherein the page formatter configured to generate code that formats the multiple groups of search results for display as a web page, the webpage including (i) a non-list area that includes information about a subject of the first and second search requests (ii) a search list area that includes links to landing pages that correspond to the subject, and (iii) an episode area that includes a plurality of dates and times when multiple different showings of the media program will be presented;

in response to the search engine determining that the first search request is media-related, the format of the search results on the web page includes displaying results from each of the plurality of different databases grouped together in a distinct area of a display, including a plurality of episodes displayed grouped together and with a title, time and channel associated with each episode, an overview of the television program displayed separately and web content results displayed grouped together, and

a selection by a user of a web content search result can navigate the user to a second web page related to the television program.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the request includes a media program name.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the page formatter is further configured to generate mark up code for displaying the multiple groups of search results in a format that includes an upcoming episode listing for the program, and an overview of the program.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of different corpuses include a structured corpus and an unstructured corpus.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the structured corpus includes information about a plurality of televisions programs or movies, and the unstructured corpus includes web content.