Augmenting search results with relevant third-party application content

• US 9,104,787 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kumar, Amit, Sadhukha, Shajib, Jiang, Zhaowei, O'Connor, Michael William
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleurantin, Jean B
• Application Number:
  US13/714,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20140172840A1
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/707, 707/709, 707/723, 701/533, 701/537, 701/538
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

Methods, computer systems, and computer-storage media are provided for augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications. Each of a plurality of third-party applications is registered to obtain an indication of entity types associated with the each registered third-party application. An annotated search query is received that includes the original inputted search query and at least an entity type associated with the search query. The annotated search query is communicated to those third-party applications having an indicated entity type that matches the entity type associated with the inputted search query. Search results that are relevant to the annotated search query are received from the applications and presented on a results page.

Claims

1. One or more computer-storage devices accessible by a computing device having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method of augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications, the method comprising:

registering each of a plurality of third-party applications to obtain an indication of one or more entity types associated with the each registered third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications;

receiving an annotated search query, the annotated search query comprising at least an inputted search query and at least one entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

communicating the annotated search query to at least a first third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications, the at least the first third-party application having an indicated entity type that matches the at least one entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

receiving at least one search result from the at least the first third-party application, the at least one search result relevant to the inputted search query and the at least one entity type associated with the inputted search query; and

presenting Web-based search results associated with the inputted search query simultaneously with the at least one search result on a results page, wherein the at least one search result is presented in a first area of the results page and the Web-based search results are presented in a second area of the results page, the first area being separate from the second area.

2. The one or more computer-storage devices of claim 1, wherein the annotated search query further comprises one or more selected from the following:

(A) an action intent determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

(B) a location of a user who inputted the search query;

(C) search queries determined to be related to the inputted search query;

(D) Web-based search results determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

(E) advertisements determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

(F) an identity of the user who inputted the search query;

or

(G) a search history associated with the user who inputted the search query.

3. The one or more computer-storage devices of claim 1, wherein the at least the first third-party application is installed locally on the computing device.

4. The one or more computer-storage devices of claim 1, wherein the at least the first third-party application is a cloud-based application.

5. The one or more computer-storage devices of claim 1, further comprising receiving additional information from the at least the first third-party application, the additional information comprising one or more selected from the following:

(A) an identity of a user associated with the at least the first third-party application;

(B) user engagement history with the at least the first third-party application;

(C) actions and associated uniform resource locators that are relevant to the annotated search query; and

(D) rendering information.

6. The one or more computer-storage devices of claim 5, further comprising rendering the at least one search result utilizing the rendering information and a predefined template.

7. A computer system for performing a method of augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications, the system comprising:

one or more storage devices comprising a data store, the data store storing one or more registration requests associated with one or more third-party applications, each registration request including an indication of one or more entity types associated with the request'"'"'s respective third-party application;

a search extender server having one or more computer-storage devices coupled with the data store, wherein the search extender server;

receives annotated search queries, each annotated search query comprising at least an inputted search query and at least one entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

communicates the annotated search queries to the one or more third-party applications based on entity types associated with the one or more third-party applications; and

receives from the one or more third-party applications search results relevant to the annotated search queries;

one or more third-party applications locally installed on a client device utilizing system resources of the client device, the one or more third party applications being associated with the one or more registration requests, each third-party application of the one or more third-party applications configured to receive an annotated search query from the search extender server;

execute the annotated search query against at least one of local cached content or cloud-based content;

identify at least one search result relevant to the inputted search query and the at least one entity type associated with the inputted search query; and

communicate the at least one search result to the search extender server; and

a rendering component configured to present, on one or more presentation components, Web-based search results associated with the annotated search queries simultaneously with the one or more third-party applications search results relevant to the annotated search queries, wherein the one or more third-party applications search results relevant to the annotated search queries are presented in a first area of a results page and the Web-based search results are presented in a second area of the results page, the first area being separate from the second area.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the local cached content and the cloud-based content are protected by a set of user credentials.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the search extender server further monitors user engagement with the aggregated search results and adjusts ranking of the search results based on the user engagement.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the search extender server asynchronously receives from the one or more third-party applications the search results relevant to the annotated search queries.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the each annotated search query received by the search extender server further comprises at least one action intent determined to be associated with the inputted search query.

12. A computerized method carried out by a search extender server having at least one processor on a user device for augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content from one or more third-party applications, the method comprising:

registering each of a plurality of third-party applications to obtain an indication of one or more entity types associated with the each registered third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications;

receiving an annotated search query, the annotated search query comprising at least an inputted search query, an entity type determined by the at least one processor to be associated with the inputted search query, and an action intent determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

communicating the annotated search query to the one or more third-party applications, each of the one or more third-party applications having an indicated entity type that matches the entity type determined to be associated with the inputted search query;

receiving a plurality of search results from the one or more third-party applications, each search result of the plurality of search results relevant to the inputted search query and the entity type associated with the inputted search query, at least a portion of the each search results of the plurality of search results including a selectable action relevant to the action intent associated with the inputted search query; and

presenting the plurality of search results simultaneously with Web-based search results associated with the inputted search query, wherein at least one search result in the plurality of search results is presented in a first area of a results page and the Web-based search results are presented in a second area of the results page, the first area being separate from the second area.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of search results is ranked prior to presentation on the results page.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of at least one search result selectable action associated with a third-party application of the one or more third-party applications;

launching the third-party application; and

initiating the action within the third-party application.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising monitoring subsequent user selections with the at least one search result selectable action.

16. The method of claim 15, adjusting a ranking of the at least one search result based on the subsequent user selections with the at least one search result selectable action.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the third-party application overlies a portion of the results page.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the third-party application is dismissed by selecting an area on the results page.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving additional information from at least one third-party application of the plurality of third-party applications, the additional information comprising one or more selected from the following:

(A) an identity of a user associated with the at least one third-party application;

(B) user engagement history with the at least one third-party application;

(C) actions and associated uniform resource locators that are relevant to the annotated search query; and

(D) rendering information.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising rendering the at least one search result in the plurality of search results utilizing the rendering information and a predefined template.