Collaborative searching

• US 8,886,630 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2011
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Pearcy, Derek Patton
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US13/340,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173569A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,048 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-899
• US Class Current: 707/713
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/903 Querying for retrieval from the web G06F16/953
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 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 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A collaborative search session is provided hosted by one or more computing devices. First query data is received from a first computing device in a collaborative search session. Further, second query data is received from a second computing device in the collaborative search session. A corpus of resources can be caused to be searched based at least in part on the first and second query data to identify a particular search result set for the collaborative search session. At least a portion of the particular search result set can be caused to be presented on each of the first and second computing devices participating in the collaborative search session.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory, machine-accessible storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions when executed on a machine, cause the machine to:

receive first query data from a first computing device in a collaborative search session;

receive second query data from a second computing device in the collaborative search session;

cause a corpus of resources to be searched based at least in part on the first and second query data to identify a particular search result set; and

cause at least a portion of the particular search result set to be presented on each of the first and second computing devices, wherein presentation of the portion on the first computing device is to be organized according to a first search context and presentation of the portion on the second computing device is to be organized according to a different, second search context.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to develop aggregate query data from the first and second query data.

3. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein receipt of the first query data causes a first search result set to be identified based at least in part on the first query data and receipt of the second query data causes the first search result set to be modified based on the second query data to form the particular search result set.

4. The storage medium of claim 3, wherein first query data includes a search query and the first search result set is an initial search result set responsive to the search query and second query data includes a request to filter the first search result set according to a first criteria.

5. The storage medium of claim 3, wherein first query data includes a request to apply a first filter to a pre-determined search result set to form the first search result set and second query data includes a request to apply a second filter to the first search result set to form the particular search result set.

6. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the particular search result set is an initial search result set within the collaborative search session.

7. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first query data is different from the second query data.

8. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to establish the collaborative search session, including associating the first and second computing devices with the particular collaborative search session.

9. The storage medium of claim 8, wherein establishing the collaborative search session includes:

sending an invitation to join the collaborative search session to at least the second computing device, and

identifying that the second computing device has joined the collaborative search session.

10. The storage medium of claim 8, wherein establishing the collaborative search session includes identifying that the first and second computing devices have joined the collaborative search session.

11. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second search contexts are selected by users at the respective first and second computing devices respectively.

12. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein at least one user input at the first computing device assigns the second search context to the second computing device.

13. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

receive additional query data from the first computing device within the collaborative search session;

revise the particular search result set based on the additional query data;

cause the presentation on the first computing device applying the first search context to be modified in accordance with the revision of the particular search result set; and

cause the presentation on the second computing device applying the second search context to be modified in accordance with the revision of the particular search result set.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the modification of the presentation on the first computing device applying the first search context is different from the modification of the presentation on the second computing device applying the second search context.

15. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to close the collaborative search session by at least one of saving the collaborative search session and tearing down the collaborative search session.

16. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the collaborative search session is hosted, at least in part, by the first computing device.

17. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the collaborative search session is hosted by a remote search server.

18. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein query data includes at least one of a search query, additional search query term, a filter to be applied to a set of search results, a request to sort a set of search results, inputs from a query branching by one of the devices participating in the collaborative search session, an interaction with a presentation of a set of search results, and feedback data relating to one or more results returned in a set of search results.

24. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first search context defines a first organization of at least the portion of the particular search result set in the presentation of the portion on the first computing device and the second search context defines a different, second organization of at least the portion of the particular search result set in the presentation of the portion on the second computing device.

19. A method comprising:

receiving first query data from a first computing device in a collaborative search session;

receiving second query data from a second computing device in the collaborative search session;

causing a corpus of resources to be searched based at least in part on the first and second query data to identify a particular search result set; and

causing at least a portion of the particular search result set to be presented on each of the first and second computing devices, wherein presentation of the portion on the first computing device is to be organized according to a first search context and presentation of the portion on the second computing device is to be organized according to a different, second search context.

20. A system comprising:

a memory configured to store data;

a processor operable to execute instructions associated with the data; and

a collaborative search tool, adapted when executed by the at least one processor device to;

receive first query data from a first computing device in a collaborative search session;

receive second query data from a second computing device in the collaborative search session;

cause a corpus of resources to be searched using the first and second query data to identify a particular search result set; and

cause at least a portion of the particular search result set to be presented on each of the first and second computing devices, wherein presentation of the portion on the first computing device is to be organized according to a first search context and presentation of the portion on the second computing device is to be organized according to a different, second search context.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the first computing device comprises the collaborative search tool.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein a server remote from the first and second computing devices comprises the collaborative search tool.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the server further comprises a search engine adapted to search the corpus of resources to identify resources satisfying particular search queries.

25. At least one non-transitory, machine-accessible storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions when executed on a machine, cause the machine to:

identify a search result set based at least in part on particular search query data, wherein at least a portion of the particular search result set is presented on each of a first computing device and a second computing device in a collaborative search session, wherein presentation of the portion on the first computing device is organized according to a first search context and presentation of the portion on the second computing device is organized according to a different, second search context;

receive additional query data from the first computing device within the collaborative search session;

revise the search result set based on the additional query data;

cause the presentation on the first computing device applying the first search context to be modified in accordance with the revision of the particular search result set; and

cause the presentation on the second computing device applying the second search context to be modified in accordance with the revision of the particular search result set.