Relevancy sorting of user's browser history

• US 9,292,578 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2013
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Vaughan, Christopher M., Wallace, Oliver, Yeung, Carlos, Gupta, Amit, Marle, Christophe
• Primary Examiner(s): PHILLIPS, III, ALBERT M
• Application Number:
  US13/915,433
• Publication Number:
  US 20130304750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,015 Days
• Field of Search: 707/766
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a Web browser that employs a relevancy algorithm to make an educated guess as to the likelihood of a user'"'"'s intended destination when the user begins to enter text into a browser'"'"'s address bar. In one or more embodiments, the relevancy algorithm employs various parameters and assigns weights to the parameters to arrive at a collection of suggestions to provide to the user. By using various rules, associated weightings, and the relevancy algorithm, relevant suggestions can be provided to a user to facilitate their navigation activities.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least a memory and a processor configured to;

process weighted metadata using a relevancy algorithm, the weighted metadata being weighted with numerical weights that represent how important a particular piece of metadata is in respect to total relevance of maintained metadata, the maintained metadata associated with browser-accessible items and including at least two of;

a title associated with an item, a URL associated with an item, a last date an item was visited by a user, frequency with which an item has been visited by a user, or whether or not an item was selected from a list, the weighted metadata being weighted with at least two different numerical weight values; and

responsive to receiving a user action associated with accessing one or more items, cause presentation of suggestions based upon the user action and an output of the relevancy algorithm, the presenting comprising displaying the suggestions with a visible identifier of a type of each of the suggestions, wherein individual types of suggestions are associated with a different user action related to the browser that caused an associated suggestion to be presented.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the user action is associated with receiving text input into a Web browser user interface.

3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the Web browser user interface comprises an address bar into which the text has been typed.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the user action is associated with accessing a drop down menu associated with a Web browser.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the drop down menu is provided in connection with a browser'"'"'s address bar.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the maintained metadata further includes a date an item was last modified.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the maintained metadata further includes one or more of the following:

an unread count associate with an item, whether the user typed an entire string associated with an item, how a user interacted with the page, tags or key words associated with an item, and whether a term provided by the user was used in a full text search.

8. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed, implement operations comprising:

maintaining metadata associated with browser-accessible items, wherein the metadata includes at least two of;

a title associated with an item, a URL associated with an item, a last date an item was visited by a user, frequency with which an item has been visited by a user, or whether or not an item was selected from a list;

processing weighted metadata using a relevancy algorithm, the metadata being weighted with weights to represent how important a particular piece of metadata is in respect to total relevance of maintained metadata, the weighted metadata being weighted with at least two different numerical weight values; and

responsive to receiving a user action associated with accessing one or more items, causing presentation of suggestions based upon the user action and an output of the relevancy algorithm, wherein the suggestions are associated with different types and wherein each suggestion includes a visible identifier of a corresponding different type, wherein at least one of the suggestions utilizes different parameters for the relevancy algorithm than another of the suggestions based, at least in part, on the type of suggestion.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein one type includes an URL type.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein one type includes a history type.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, where in one type includes a favorites type.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein one type includes an RSS type.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein types comprise an URL type, a history type, a favorites type, and an RSS type.

14. A method comprising:

maintaining metadata associated with browser-accessible items, wherein the metadata includes at least two of;

a title associated with an item, a URL associated with an item, a last date an item was visited by a user, frequency with which an item has been visited by a user, or whether or not an item was selected from a list;

processing weighted metadata using a relevancy algorithm, said metadata being weighted with weights to represent how important a particular piece of metadata is in respect to total relevance of maintained metadata, the weighted metadata being weighted with at least two different numerical weight values; and

responsive to receiving a user action associated with accessing one or more items, causing presentation of suggestions based upon the user action and an output of the relevancy algorithm, wherein presenting comprises displaying the suggestions and visibly identifying a type of each of the suggestions.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user action is associated with receiving text input into a Web browser user interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the Web browser user interface comprises an address bar into which the text has been typed.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the user action is associated with accessing a drop down menu associated with a Web browser.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the drop down menu is provided in connection with a browser'"'"'s address bar.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the metadata further includes a date an item was last modified.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the metadata further includes one or more of the following:

an unread count associate with an item, whether the user typed an entire string associated with an item, how a user interacted with the page, tags or key words associated with an item, or whether a 5 term provided by the user was used in a full text search.