Information retrieval using time

• US 8,560,520 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gosset, Philip Charles, Harper, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene, John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): MYINT, DENNIS Y
• Application Number:
  US12/868,995
• Publication Number:
  US 20120054171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• Field of Search: 707/709, 707/711, 707/722, 707/723
• US Class Current: 707/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Information retrieval using time is described. In an embodiment a web-crawler creates time objects which are composites of content of different media types obtained from potentially different sources and, for example, are about the same date or date range. For example, a time object may comprise an image and a piece of text about an event in 1977. In this case the time object may have the date 1977 stored with it as well as URLs of originating web pages. In an embodiment a user is able to query a search engine to retrieve time objects which are displayed in a manner related to the dates of the time objects. For example, the time objects may be displayed in chronological order against a time line. In examples time objects may be dynamically created as a web page is requested and displayed with that web page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of information retrieval comprising:

at a date object identifier, accessing a first web page, identifying at least one date in the first web page and converting the at least one date into a specified format;

at a related text identifier, identifying in the first web page a piece of text which is related to the at least one date;

arranging a processor to generate a query using the piece of text and to send the query to a search engine;

receiving a ranked list of web pages in response to the query and selecting one of the web pages;

at a time object creator, downloading content from the selected web page and creating a time object by packaging together the piece of text, the downloaded content, and the at least one date in the specified format; and

causing a display of the first web page at a graphical user interface and causing a display of the time object in conjunction with the first web page, the time object being dynamically generated for display with the first web page.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising using a web-crawler to access the first web page and further web pages in order to create a plurality of time objects and storing the plurality of time objects at a database.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising using an index generator to generate an index of the plurality of time objects stored at the database.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the at least one date in the specified format is a date object, the method further comprising:

accessing further web pages and creating a plurality of time objects including a plurality of corresponding date objects; and

causing a display of at least some of the plurality of time objects at a graphical user interface in a manner dependent on the corresponding date objects of the at least some of the plurality of time objects.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising causing a display of a time line at the graphical user interface and causing a display of the at least some of the plurality of time objects at positions relative to the time line that are related to the corresponding date objects of the at least some of the plurality of time objects.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising causing a display of the time line such that the time line has a scale which is any of:

non-linear, logarithmic, discontinuous.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising causing a display of clusters of the plurality of time objects according to date ranges, the clusters comprising time objects of specified date ranges.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the time object creator includes a universal resource locator (URL) of the first web page and a URL of the selected web page in the time object.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising causing a display of the time object at a graphical user interface, receiving user input selecting at least one of the piece of text or the downloaded content of the time object and downloading and causing a display of a web page using a universal resource locator included with the time object.

10. An information retrieval system comprising;

a processor;

memory having instructions executable by the processor, the memory comprising;

a date object identifier to access a first web page, identify at least one date in the first web page and convert the at least one date into a specified format;

a related text identifier to identify in the first web page a piece of text which is related to the at least one date;

the processor configured to generate a query using the piece of text and to send the query to a search engine;

the processor further configured to receive a ranked list of web pages in response to the query and to select one of the web pages;

the memory further comprising;

a time object creator to download content from the selected web page and create a time object by packaging together the piece of text, the downloaded content, and the at least one date in the specified format; and

a graphical user interface to present the time object in conjunction with the first web page and wherein the time object is dynamically generated for presentation with the first web page.

11. An information retrieval system as claimed in claim 10 the memory further comprising a web-crawler to access further web pages in order to create a plurality of time objects and to store the plurality of time objects at a database.

12. An information retrieval system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the time object creator is further configured to include a universal resource locator (URL) of the first web page and a URL of the selected web page in the time object.

13. An information retrieval system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the at least one date in the specified format is a date object, the information retrieval system further configured to create a plurality of time objects including a plurality of corresponding date objects;

and to present at least some of the plurality of time objects at a graphical user interface in a manner dependent on the corresponding date objects of the at least some of the plurality of time objects.

14. An information retrieval system as claimed in claim 13, further configured to present a time line at the graphical user interface and to present the at least some of the plurality of time objects at positions relative to the time line that are related to the corresponding date objects of the at least some of the plurality of time objects.

15. A computer storage medium, the computer storage medium being hardware, storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors perform actions comprising:

accessing a first web page;

identifying at least one date in the first web page;

converting the at least one date into a specified format;

identifying in the first web page a piece of text which is related to the at least one date;

causing generation of a query using the piece of text and sending the query to a search engine;

receiving a ranked list of web pages in response to the query and selecting one of the web pages;

downloading content from the selected web page and creating a time object by packaging together the piece of text, the downloaded content, and the at least one date in the specified format; and

causing a display of the first web page at a graphical user interface and causing a display of the time object in conjunction with the first web page, the time object being dynamically generated for display with the first web.

16. A computer storage medium as claimed in claim 15, the actions further comprising causing a display of a time line at the graphical user interface and causing a display of a plurality of time objects at positions relative to the time line that are related to the dates of the plurality of time objects.

17. A computer storage medium as claimed in claim 16, the actions further comprising causing a display of the time line such that the time line has a scale which is any of:

non-linear, logarithmic, discontinuous.

18. A computer storage medium as claimed in claim 15, the actions further comprising causing a display of clusters of the plurality of time objects according to date ranges such that each cluster of the plurality of time objects is associated with a different date range, the clusters comprising time objects of specified date ranges.

19. A computer storage medium as claimed in claim 15, the actions further comprising causing a display of the plurality of time objects in chronological order of the dates of the plurality of time objects.