Assisting users in searching for tagged content based on historical usage patterns

• US 9,251,266 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2008
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Fuyi, Nesbitt, Pamela A, Carter, Bernadette A, Chang, Belinda Y, Seacat, Lisa A
• Primary Examiner(s): KINSAUL, DANIEL W
• Application Number:
  US12/167,397
• Publication Number:
  US 20100005106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,770 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management

Abstract

A tagging event can be detected where a software entity is associated with a tag resulting from a user interaction. At least one situational attribute relating to the tagging event can be automatically determined. The one or more situational attribute can be stored in a data repository so that the stored situational attribute is associated with the tag. The detecting, determining, and storing can be repeated for a set of different tags, each associated with a software entity. A search of tagged software entities can be conducted. The results of the search can be modified based at least in part upon the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities.

Claims

1. A method for improving searches of tagged entities based upon usage patterns comprising:

detecting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a tagging event where a user manually enters a tag for a software entity responsive to a user interaction;

automatically determining, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one situational attribute relating to the tagging event where said automatically determined situation attribute relates to a state of a computer or browser at the time of the user interaction, wherein said situation attribute comprises a time, a date, a location of the user interaction, a program used for tagging, and type of content being tagged, wherein the situation attribute is determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the situation attribute;

storing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the at least one situational attribute in a data repository so that the stored situational attribute is associated with the tag;

repeating, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the detecting, determining, and storing for a plurality of different tags, each associated with a software entity;

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a request for performing a search;

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a tag keyword for performing a search;

suggesting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one of an additional tag keyword and the situational attribute based on search patterns of the user;

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a term comprising the at least one selected additional tag keyword and the attribute;

conducting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a search of tagged software entities using the tag keyword and the term that are matched against previously stored tag values to produce search results; and

automatically determining a search-time attribute existing at a time the search is conducted, wherein the search-time attribute corresponds to the situational attribute, wherein said search-time attribute comprises a time, a date, and a location of the user interaction, wherein the search-time attribute is determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the search-time attribute, wherein the search results are modified based at least in part upon a correspondence between the stored situational attribute of the tagged software entities and the search-time attribute of the search.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one search-time attribute existent at a time of the search, said search-time attribute comprising a time and date of the user interaction that caused the tagging event;

comparing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one search-time attribute to a corresponding at least one stored situational attribute for each of the tagged software entities to determine a correspondence between the at least one search-time attribute and the stored situational attribute of each of the tagged software entities, wherein the correspondence limits the search results to a time window based on the time and date; and

modifying, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the search results based upon the correspondence.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction used when detecting the tagging event comprises a user manually entering text for the tag for a URI of the software entity via a Web browser interface, wherein the situation attributes stored with the tag, are not manually entered by the user;

and wherein the conducting of the search occurs responsive to a user initiated action from within a Web browser to search for a set of URI'"'"'s tagged with the value of the tag that was manually entered by the user, wherein the user further manually enters one or more values for specific ones of the situation attributes that are to be compared against the stored situation attributes when conducting the search.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the situational aspects that is stored is a location of a computer used by a user that performed the user interaction, wherein the search is conducted at the location, wherein the search results only show those results having the location associated, wherein the modifying of the search results occurs in a user transparent manner without requiring explicit user interactions.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a user initiated bookmark from a Web browser of a client device to a bookmark server, wherein the bookmark comprises the tag, wherein the bookmark server performs the storing, wherein the conducting of the search occurs from the Web browser from a client to the bookmark server; and

utilizing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the at least one situational attribute to determine if each of the tagged software entities should be included in the search results.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interaction occurs from a Web browser of a computing device, wherein the tag is stored in a Web server, with which the Web browser was interacting, wherein the at least one situational attribute is stored in a tagging server implemented in middleware, which is remotely located from the computing device and form the Web server and that is connected to the computing device and the Web server via a network, said method further comprising:

utilizing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one of the tag and one of the tagged software entities;

storing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, usage data relating to utilization specifics in the data repository so that the stored usage data is associated with the tagged software entity; and

repeating, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the utilizing and storage of the usage data for a plurality of different software entities;

wherein the search results are modified based at least in part upon the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one situational attribute comprises a plurality of situational attributes, said method further comprising:

assigning, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a weighed value to each of the situational attributes; and

utilizing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the weighed value when modifying the search results.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sharing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the situational attribute data among a plurality of users, so that each of the plurality of users is able to utilize the stored situational attributes when conducting searches.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each software entity is associated with a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), wherein the search result is a search result from a web engine comprising a plurality of hyperlinks, one for each of the software entities, wherein each hyperlink is associated with a corresponding Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

10. A computer program product for improving searches of tagged entities based upon usage patterns comprising:

a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to detect a tagging event where a software entity is associated with a tag responsive to a user interaction, wherein the tagging event is to bookmark a URL of a Web page by a user specified tag value input by a user via a Web browser interface;

computer usable program code configured to automatically determine at least one situational attribute relating to the tagging event, wherein the at least one situational attribute is an automatically determined value associated with a state of the computer upon which the Web browser executes or the Web browser at a time that the URL bookmarking occurred, wherein the at least one situational attribute comprises a date and time that the bookmarking occurred and a location of the computer used at the time the bookmarking occurred;

computer usable program code configured to store the at least one situational attribute and the user specified tag value in a data repository so that the stored situational attribute is associated with the tag;

computer usable program code configured to repeat the detecting, determining, and storing for a plurality of different tags, each associated with a software entity computer usable program code configured to receive a request for performing a search;

computer usable program code configured to receive a tag keyword for performing a search;

computer usable program code configured to suggest at least one of an additional tag keyword and the situational attribute based on search patterns of the user;

computer usable program code configured to receive a term comprising the at least one selected additional tag keyword and the attribute; and

computer usable program code configured to conduct a search of tagged software entities when the user searches for previously bookmarked Web pages from the Web browser, wherein the search results are modified based at least in part upon the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities, wherein the search of the tagged software entities is restricted by user input to the date, wherein the search results comprise only those bookmarked Web pages that were bookmarked on the date indicated by the user input.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to determine at least one search-time attribute existent at a time of the search;

computer usable program code configured to compare at least one search-time attribute to a corresponding at least one stored situational attribute for each of the tagged software entities to determine a correspondence between the at least one search-time attribute and the stored situational attribute of each of the tagged software entities; and

computer usable program code configured to modify the search results based upon the correspondence, wherein an order of tagged software entities included in the search results is based at least in part upon the correspondence.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to utilize the at least one situational attribute to determine if each of the tagged software entities should be included in the search results.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein one of the situational attributes comprises a location of the computer at which the bookmarking occurred, wherein the search of the tagged software entities is restricted by user input to the location, wherein the search results comprises only those bookmarked Web pages that were bookmarked using the computer at the location.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to utilize at least one of the tag and one of the tagged software entities;

computer usable program code configured to store usage data relating to utilization specifics in the data repository so that the stored usage data is associated with the tagged software entity; and

computer usable program code configured to repeat the utilizing and storage of the usage data for a plurality of different software entities;

wherein the search results are modified based at least in part upon the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein said at least one situational attribute comprises a plurality of situational attributes, said method further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to assign a weighed value to each of the situational attributes; and

computer usable program code configured to utilize the weighed value when modifying the search results.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to share the situational attribute data among a plurality of users, so that each of the plurality of users is able to utilize the stored situational attributes when conducting searches.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein each software entity is associated with a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), wherein the search result is a search result from a web engine comprising a plurality of hyperlinks, one for each of the software entities, wherein each hyperlink is associated with a corresponding Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

18. A method for improving searches of tagged entities based upon usage patterns comprising:

detecting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a tagging event where a manually entered tag keyword is referenced against a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that is unique to a software entity;

automatically determining, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one situational attribute relating to the tagging event, wherein said situation attributes are automatically determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the situation attributes, wherein the at least one situational attribute comprises a date and time that the bookmarking occurred and a location of the computer used at the time the bookmarking occurred;

storing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the manually entered tag keyword and the related at least one situational attribute in a data repository so that the stored situational attribute is indexed to the tag keyword;

repeating, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the detecting, determining, and storing for a plurality of different tags, each associated with a software entity;

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a request for performing a search;

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a tag keyword for performing a search;

suggesting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one of an additional tag keyword and the situational attribute based on search patterns of the user;

receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a term comprising the at least one selected additional tag keyword and the attribute;

a Web engine conducting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a search of tagged software entities by matching criteria for the search against previously stored tag keywords, which include said tag keyword to determine search results of a set of one or more software entities each having a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), each software entity in the search results having an associated hyperlink to the URI;

automatically determining one or more search-time attributes existing at a time the search is conducted, wherein each of the search-time attributes is determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the search-time attribute, and wherein each search time attribute corresponds to one of the at least one situational attributes;

modifying the search results at least in part upon a correspondence between the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities and the search-time attributes; and

providing the modified search results as hyperlinks to the user via a browser as a response to the search.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the situation attributes comprise a location, a time, and a date at which the user interaction resulting in the tagging event took place, wherein said situation attributes are automatically determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the situation attributes.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

sharing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the situational attribute data among a plurality of users, so that each of the plurality of users is able to utilize the stored situational attributes when conducting searches.