System level search user interface

• US 9,037,565 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Vaidyanathan, Priya, Monk, Stephanie M., Paddock, Brandon H., White, Richard Jacob, Averett, Edward Boyle, Ebeling, Rolf A., Gilmore, Michael J., Mishra, Manav, Satterfield, Jesse Clay, Wautier, Marc, Sarkar, Dona, Elliott, Brendan D., Leung, Kwong K., Gurunathan, Arun
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Brannon W
• Application Number:
  US13/801,637
• Publication Number:
  US 20130198220A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• Field of Search: 707/707
• US Class Current: 707/707
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/903 Querying for retrieval from the web G06F16/953
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system level search user interface that includes both a data entry portion and an application identification portion is displayed. User data input as a search term is displayed in the data entry portion, and identifiers of each of one or more applications of multiple applications on the computing device that can be searched using the search term are displayed in the application identification portion. The search term is provided to one application of the multiple applications for that one application to generate and display search results based on the search term while the display of at least the data entry portion of the system level search user interface is maintained.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising:

displaying a system level search user interface that includes both a data entry portion and an application identification portion;

displaying, in the data entry portion, user data input as a search term;

displaying, in the application identification portion, identifiers of applications on the computing device that can be searched using the search term, the applications for which identifiers are displayed being determined by;

obtaining, for each application of a set of applications on the computing device, a ranking value by dividing the number of times that the application is selected by a total number of selections of applications in the set of applications over a particular time period, and

determining as the applications for which identifiers are displayed a proper subset of the set of applications having the highest ranking values;

receiving a user selection of multiple identifiers in the application identification portion, the multiple identifiers comprising identifiers of applications on the computing device that the user desires to have searched for the search term; and

determining, independent of any previous user-selected search results, that the multiple applications identified by the user selected multiple identifiers are the ones of the applications that are to be searched; and

displaying search results based on a search of the multiple applications for the search term performed in response to the user selection of the multiple applications.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising launching, in response to user selection of one of the multiple identifiers, an application identified by the one of the multiple identifiers prior to the application being searched for the search term.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein, for each of the applications, the identifier of the application comprises a name of the application.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein, for each of the applications, the identifier of the application comprises an icon representing the application.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying, in the data entry portion until a user data input is received, a data input cue received from a currently active application of the applications.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing characters of the user data input to a currently active application of the applications as each character is received for the currently active application to generate and display search results based on the characters of the user data input that have been received.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the search results for each of the multiple applications identified by the user selected multiple identifiers is displayed in a window separate from the system level search user interface.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

providing characters of the user data input to a currently active application of the applications as each character is received;

receiving, from the currently active application, one or more suggested search terms; and

displaying the one or more suggested search terms.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

providing characters of the user data input to a linguistic alternatives generation module as each character is received;

receiving one or more linguistic alternatives for the characters;

providing both the characters of the user data input and the one or more linguistic alternatives to a currently active application of the applications as each character is received;

receiving, from the currently active application, one or more suggested search terms based on the user data input and the one or more linguistic alternatives; and

displaying the one or more suggested search terms.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, as each character of the user data input is received, search results generated based on the characters of the user data input that have been received.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, the displaying the search results generated based on the characters of the user data input that have been received comprising displaying, for each of the multiple applications, the search results for the application as associated with the application.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, the applications on the computing device comprising applications that are installed on the computing device and that have registered with a system level search module as applications to be searched for the search term, the system level search module providing the system level search user interface.

13. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

display a search user interface including a first portion via which user data input as a search term is displayed, and a second portion via which identifiers of applications on the computing device that can be searched using the search term are displayed, the applications for which identifiers are displayed being determined by;

receiving, for each application of a set of applications on the computing device, a ranking value specified by the user, and

determining as the applications for which identifiers are displayed a proper subset of the set of applications having the highest ranking values;

receive a user selection of multiple identifiers of applications on the computing device that are displayed in the second portion, the multiple identifiers comprising identifiers of applications on the computing device that the user desires to have searched for the search term;

determine, independent of any previous user-selected search results, that the multiple applications identified by the multiple identifiers are the ones of the applications to be searched; and

display search results generated based on at least a search of the multiple applications on the computing device for the search term; and

maintain display of the search user interface including at least the first portion in a current display location while the search results are displayed.

14. A computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the multiple instructions further cause the one or more processors to launch, on the computing device and in response to user selection of one of the multiple identifiers, one of the multiple applications identified by the user selected identifier prior to the application being searched for generation of search results based on the search term.

15. A computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the multiple instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

provide characters of the user data input to a currently active application of the applications as each character is received;

receive, from the currently active application, one or more suggested search terms; and

display the one or more suggested search terms concurrently with the display of the identifiers of the applications in the second portion.

16. A computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein, for each of the applications, the identifier of the application comprises one or both of a name of the application and an icon representing the application.

17. A computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the multiple instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

display, as each character of the user data input is received, search results generated based on the characters of the user data input that have been received.

18. A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising:

displaying a system level search user interface that includes both a data entry portion and an application identification portion;

displaying, in the data entry portion, user data input as a search term;

displaying, in the application identification portion, identifiers of applications on the computing device that can be searched using the search term, the applications for which identifiers are displayed being determined by;

obtaining, for each application of a set of applications on the computing device, a ranking value identifying how long ago the application was last selected as an application to be searched via the system level search user interface, and

determining as the applications for which identifiers are displayed a proper subset of the set of applications having the highest ranking values;

receiving a user selection of multiple identifiers of applications on the computing device that are displayed in the application identification portion, the multiple identifiers comprising identifiers of applications on the computing device that the user desires to have searched for the search term;

determining, independent of any previous user-selected search results, that the multiple applications identified by the multiple identifiers are the ones of the applications to be searched; and

displaying search results generated based on at least a search of the multiple applications on the computing device for the search term.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein, for each of the applications, the identifier of the application comprises one or both of a name of the application and an icon representing the application.

20. A method as recited in claim 18, the applications on the computing device comprising applications that are installed on the computing device and that have registered with a system level search module as applications to be searched for the search term, the system level search module providing the system level search user interface.