Adding new attributes to a structured presentation

• US 8,615,707 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2009
• Issued: 12/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fortuna, Vinicius J., Bihun, Andriy, Loreto, Daniel, Erbiceanu, Elena, Reynar, Jeffrey C., Hogue, Andrew William, Bhargava, Ankur
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cortes, Howard
• Application Number:
  US12/355,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20100185934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• Field of Search: 707/708, 707/999.003, 715/234, 715/253, 715/205, 715/227, 715/212, 715/200
• US Class Current: 715/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs stored on computer storage media, for retrieval and display of information from an electronic document collection. One aspect can be embodied in machine-implemented methods that include the actions of receiving description data describing a preexisting structured presentation, comparing characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with content of electronic documents in an unstructured collection of electronic documents to locate electronic documents that identify a new attribute that is relevant to the preexisting structured presentation, adding an identifier of the new attribute to the preexisting structured presentation to form an expanded structured presentation, and outputting instructions for presenting the expanded structured presentation.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at the machine, description data describing a preexisting structured presentation, a visual presentation of the preexisting structured presentation visually presenting information in a systematic arrangement that conforms with a structured design, the preexisting structured presentation including values that each characterize a respective attribute of an instance, the preexisting structured presentation denoting characterization of attributes of a particular instance by particular values by virtue of an arrangement of an identifier of the particular instance and the particular values in a visual presentation of the preexisting structured presentation;

conducting, by the machine, a search of an unstructured collection of electronic documents by comparing characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with content of electronic documents in the unstructured collection of electronic documents to locate electronic documents that identify a new attribute that is relevant to the preexisting structured presentation;

adding, by the machine in response to the locating of the electronic documents, an identifier of the new attribute to the preexisting structured presentation to form an expanded structured presentation, wherein adding the identifier of the new attribute comprises;

formulating a collection of attribute suggestions, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises;

identifying a first document in the electronic document collection that is relevant to one of the instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation and that is arranged in accordance with a template, where the template is a pattern for the arrangement of the content of the first document; and

adding an attribute used in the first document to characterize the instance in the attribute suggestion collection;

providing the attribute suggestion collection to a user; and

receiving a user selection of the new attribute, wherein the new attribute is in the collection of attribute suggestions; and

outputting, from the machine, instructions for presenting the expanded structured presentation on a display screen.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying documents in the electronic document collection that include structured components related to instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying documents in the electronic document collection that include information regarding one or more instances in the preexisting structured presentation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying the new attribute in a stored collection of associations of instances with attributes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing the instances characterized in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying additional instances related to the instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing an attribute or a value of an attribute used to characterize an instance in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing a category of instances that includes instances in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the collection of electronic documents comprises the electronic documents available on the Internet; and

the electronic documents comprise web pages.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanded structured presentation comprises a table.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanded structured presentation comprises a collection of cards.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually presenting the expanded structured presentation on a display screen, including physically transforming one or more elements of the display screen.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the preexisting structured presentation is a table, the table including the values in a collections of cells, groups of the cells being arranged in rows that are each associated with the identifier of the particular instance that is characterized by the values in that row.

14. An apparatus comprising one or more non-transitory-machine-readable data storage media storing instructions operable to cause one or more data processing machines to perform operations, the operations comprising:

formulating a collection of attribute suggestions based on content of two or more documents in an unstructured electronic document collection by conducting a search of the unstructured collection of electronic documents, wherein the electronic document collection is unstructured in that the format of the electronic documents in the electronic document collection is neither restrictive nor permanent;

providing the attribute suggestion collection to a user;

receiving a user selection of a first attribute in the collection of attribute suggestions; and

adding an identifier of the first attribute suggestion to a structured presentation presented on a display screen, wherein a visual presentation of the structured presentation visually presents information in an organized arrangement, the structured presentation including values that each characterize a respective attribute of an instance, the structured presentation denoting characterization of attributes of a particular instance by particular values by virtue of an arrangement of an identifier of the particular instance and the particular values in the presentation of the structured presentation, wherein adding the identifier of the new attribute comprises;

formulating a collection of attribute suggestions, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises;

identifying a first document in the electronic document collection that is relevant to one of the instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation and that is arranged in accordance with a template, where the template is a pattern for the arrangement of the content of the first document; and

adding an attribute used in the first document to characterize the instance in the attribute suggestion collection;

providing the attribute suggestion collection to a user; and

receiving a user selection of the new attribute, wherein the new attribute is in the collection of attribute suggestions.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises comparing characteristics of a preexisting structured presentation with content of electronic documents in the electronic document collection.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises identifying documents in the electronic document collection that include structured components that characterize instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein formulating the attribute suggestion collection comprises:

identifying a first document in the electronic document collection that is relevant to an instance identified in the preexisting structured presentation and that is arranged in accordance with a template; and

including an attribute used to characterize the instance in the attribute suggestion collection.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises identifying documents in the electronic document collection that include information regarding one or more instances in the preexisting structured presentation.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing an attribute or a value of an attribute used to characterize an instance in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises:

identifying a category of instances that includes instances in the preexisting structured presentation; and

formulating the collection of attribute suggestions from attributes used to characterize instances in the category of instances.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises identifying the attribute suggestions in a stored collection of associations of instances with attributes.

23. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein:

the collection of electronic documents comprises electronic documents available on the Internet; and

the electronic documents comprise web pages.

24. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the structured presentation comprises a table.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the structured presentation comprises a collection of cards.

26. A system comprising:

a client device comprising a display screen; and

one or more computers programmed to interact with the client device and to perform operations comprising;

receiving description data describing a preexisting structured presentation, a visual presentation of the preexisting structured presentation visually presenting information in a systematic arrangement that conforms with a structured design, the preexisting structured presentation including values that each characterize a respective attribute of an instance, the preexisting structured presentation denoting characterization of attributes of a particular instance by particular values by virtue of an arrangement of an identifier of the particular instance and the particular values in a visual presentation of the preexisting structured presentation;

conducting, by the machine, a search of an unstructured collection of electronic documents by comparing characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with content of electronic documents in an unstructured collection of electronic documents to locate electronic documents that identify a new attribute that is relevant to the preexisting structured presentation;

adding in response to the locating of the electronic documents an identifier of the new attribute to the preexisting structured presentation to form an expanded structured presentation, wherein adding the identifier of the new attribute comprises;

formulating a collection of attribute suggestions, wherein formulating the collection of attribute suggestions comprises;

identifying a first document in the electronic document collection that is relevant to one of the instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation and that is arranged in accordance with a template, where the template is a pattern for the arrangement of the content of the first document; and

adding an attribute used in the first document to characterize the instance in the attribute suggestion collection;

providing the attribute suggestion collection to a user; and

receiving a user selection of the new attribute, wherein the new attribute is in the collection of attribute suggestions; and

outputting instructions for presenting the expanded structured presentation on the display screen.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying documents in the electronic document collection that include structured components related to instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying documents in the electronic document collection that include information regarding one or more instances in the preexisting structured presentation.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying the new attribute in a stored collection of associations of instances with attributes.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing the instances characterized in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises identifying additional instances related to the instances identified in the preexisting structured presentation.

32. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing an attribute or a value of an attribute used to characterize an instance in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

33. The system of claim 26, wherein comparing the characteristics of the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents comprises comparing a category of instances that includes instances in the preexisting structured presentation with the content of the electronic documents.

34. The system of claim 26, wherein:

the collection of electronic documents comprises the electronic documents available on the Internet; and

the electronic documents comprise web pages.

35. The system of claim 26, wherein the expanded structured presentation comprises a table.

36. The system of claim 26, wherein the expanded structured presentation comprises a collection of cards.

37. The system of claim 26, further comprising visually presenting the expanded structured presentation on a display screen, including physically transforming one or more elements of the display screen.

38. The system of claim 26, wherein the preexisting structured presentation is a table, the table including the values in a collections of cells, groups of the cells being arranged in rows that are each associated with the identifier of the particular instance that is characterized by the values in that row.