Predictive information retrieval

• US 8,768,958 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Baluja, Shumeet, Rowley, Henry Allan
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US13/615,791
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/759, 707/758, 707/765, 707/766, 707/767, 707999003-999005, 707/770
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for generating results for a client-requested query involves receiving a query produced by a client communication device, generating a result for the query in response to reception of the query, determining one or more predictive follow-up requests before receiving an actual follow-up request from the client device, and initiating retrieval of information associated with the one or more predictive follow-up requests, and transmitting at least part of the result to the client device, and then transmitting to the client device at least part of the information associated with the one or more predictive follow-up requests.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, a query that was generated based on query input at a client communication device;

generating, by the computing system, a search result that is responsive to the query;

identifying, by the computing system, predicted information that the client communication device would request in response to a selection of the search result by user input at the client communication device; and

causing the search result and the predicted information to be transmitted to the client communication device both (i) after the query has been received by the computing system and (ii) before the selection of the search result by the user input at the client communication device, thereby enabling the client communication device to display the predicted information upon the selection of the search result by the user input at the client communication device without the client communication device specifically requesting the predicted information from the computing system, wherein the search result comprises data for causing the client communication device to generate a display of the search result that includes (i) a display of a hyperlink to a web page that is responsive to the query, and (ii) a separate display of a description of the web page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the query comprises a search request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted information includes information from the web page that is identified by the search result.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the search result and the predicted information to be transmitted to the client communication device results in the predicted information being stored by the client communication device so that the client communication device is able to display the predicted information upon the selection of the search result by the user input at the client communication device, without the client communication device issuing a request over the internet for the predicted information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the query was sent by the client communication device for receipt by the computing system as a result of user selection of a search button.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmission of the search result and the predicted information to the client communication device results in a presentation of the search result by the client communication device in the web page, wherein the web page also displays one or more advertisements.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmission of the search result and the predicted information to the client communication device results in a presentation of the search result by the client communication device in the web page, wherein the web page also displays a user interface element that indicates that the predicted information is only partially downloaded by the client communication device.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a programmable processor, cause performance of operations that comprise:

receiving, by a computing system, a query that was generated based on query input at a client communication device;

generating, by the computing system, a search result that is responsive to the query;

identifying, by the computing system, predicted information that the client communication device would request in response to a selection of the search result by user input at the client communication device; and

causing the search result and the predicted information to be transmitted to the client communication device both (i) after the query has been received by the computing system and (ii) before the selection of the search result by the user input at the client communication device, thereby enabling the client communication device to display the predicted information upon the selection of the search result by the user input at the client communication device without the client communication device specifically requesting the predicted information from the computing system, wherein the search result comprises data for causing the client communication device to generate a display of the search result that includes (i) a display of a hyperlink to a web page that is responsive to the query, and (ii) a separate display of a description of the web page.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the query comprises a search request.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the predicted information includes information from the web page that is identified by the search result.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein causing the search result and the predicted information to be transmitted to the client communication device results in the predicted information being stored by the client communication device so that the client communication device is able to display the predicted information upon the selection of the search result by the user input at the client communication device, without the client communication device issuing a request over the internet for the predicted information.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the query was sent by the client communication device for receipt by the computing system as a result of user selection of a search button.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein transmission of the search result and the predicted information to the client communication device results in a presentation of the search result by the client communication device in the web page, wherein the web page also displays one or more advertisements.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein transmission of the search result and the predicted information to the client communication device results in a presentation of the search result by the client communication device in the web page, wherein the web page also displays a user interface element that indicates that the predicted information is only partially downloaded by the client communication device.