Dynamic image result stitching

• US 9,325,804 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2010
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Ma, Yue, Hamilton, Justin David
• Primary Examiner(s): Buttram, Todd
• Application Number:
  US12/941,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20120113148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,996 Days
• Field of Search: 345/629
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

Methods and systems for compiling image results into compilation images so that multiple image results may be downloaded via a single browser-download connection are provided. An image search request is received and a plurality of image results that satisfy the image search request are determined. At least a portion of the image results determined to satisfy the search request are dynamically stitched together to create a compilation image. Upon receiving an image download request for a satisfying image result, the compilation image is returned to the user'"'"'s browser rather than a single thumbnail image. In this way, a plurality of image results is returned via a single browser-download connection and the latency in returning a large number of request-satisfying image results is decreased.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage memory devices having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for compiling a plurality of image results into compilation images, the method comprising:

at a search engine, receiving a search request for an image;

determining a plurality of individual image search results, each of which satisfies the search request for the image, wherein each individual image search result is associated with its own uniform resource locator (URL);

stitching at least two URLs, each associated with its own respective individual image search result of the plurality of individual image search results, to create a first stitched URL that corresponds to a first search result compilation image, wherein a quantity of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests required to download the individual image search results associated with the at least two URLs exceeds a quantity of HTTP requests required to download the first search result compilation image; and

providing the first search result compilation image for display in association with a search engine results page (SERP).

2. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 1, wherein the first search result compilation image is capable of being downloaded via a single HTTP request.

3. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises displaying each individual image search result comprising the first search result compilation image as a single image search result in association with the search engine results page (SERP).

4. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 3, wherein displaying each individual image search result as the single image search result in association with the search engine results page (SERP) comprises applying a masking window to the first search result compilation image such that only a portion of the first search result compilation image that corresponds to each single image search result is visible to the user.

5. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 1, wherein stitching the at least two URLs, each associated with its own respective individual image search result of the plurality of individual image search results to create the first stitched URL that corresponds to the first search result compilation image, further comprises stitching at least two additional URLs, each associated with its own respective individual image search result of the plurality of individual image search results other than the individual image search results used to create the first search result compilation image, to create a second stitched URL that corresponds to a second search result compilation image, thereby creating a plurality of stitched URLs each corresponding to a respective search result compilation image.

6. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 5, wherein a quantity of HTTP requests required to download all individual image search results associated with URLs used to create the first and second compilation images exceeds a quantity of HTTP requests required to download the first search result compilation image and the second search result compilation image.

7. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 1, wherein each individual image search result included in the at-least first search result compilation image is displayed in association with a single search engine results page (SERP).

8. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 5, wherein at least one of the individual image search results included in the first search result compilation image is displayed in association with a different search engine results page (SERP) than at least one other of the individual image search results included in the second search result compilation image.

9. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual image search results included in the at least first search result compilation image is resized prior to creation of the first search result compilation image.

10. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 1, wherein a preference on resizing of individual image search results is set by a user prior to the image search request being received.

11. One or more computer storage memory devices having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for compiling a plurality of image search results into search result compilation images, the method comprising:

receiving one or more stitching instructions from a user, wherein the one or more stitching instructions comprise a preference on resizing of individual image search results;

receiving an image search request from the user;

determining a plurality of image search results, each of which satisfies the image search request, wherein each individual image search result of the plurality of image search results is associated with its own respective uniform resource locator (URL);

applying the one or more stitching instructions to at least two URLs, each associated with its own respective individual image search result of the plurality of individual image search results, to create one or more stitched URLs, each corresponding to a respective search result compilation image; and

using the respective stitched URLs, providing the one or more search result compilation images for display in association with a search engine results page (SERP).

12. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 11, wherein providing the one or more search result compilation images for display in association with the search engine results page (SERP) comprises further providing a description file that describes a layout of the one or more search result compilation images on the search engine results page (SERP) and contains a reference to each individual image search result associated with the one or more search result compilation images.

13. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 11, wherein each of the one or more search result compilation images is capable of being downloaded via a respective single hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

14. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises displaying each individual image search result associated with the one or more search result compilation images as a single image search result in association with the search engine results page (SERP).

15. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 14, wherein displaying each individual image search result associated with the one or more search result compilation images as the single image search result in association with the search engine results page (SERP) comprises applying a masking window to the one or more search result compilation images such that only a portion of the one or more search result compilation images that corresponds to each single image search result is visible to the user.

16. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 11, wherein stitching at least two URLs, each associated with its own respective individual image search result of the plurality of image search results, to create the one or more stitched URLs, each corresponding to a respective search result compilation image, comprises stitching at least two unique URLs, each associated with its own unique search result compilation image.

17. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 11, wherein each individual image search result associated with the one or more search result compilation images is displayed in association with a single search engine results page (SERP).

18. The one or more computer storage memory devices of claim 11, wherein at least one of the individual image search results associated with the one or more search result compilation images is displayed in association with a different search engine results page (SERP) than at least one other of the individual image search results associated with the one or more search result compilation images.

19. An image search result compilation system, comprising:

a computing device associated with one or more processors and one or more computer storage media;

a data store coupled with the computing device;

an image search results compilation engine that receives a search request for an image at a search engine, and determines a plurality of individual image search results, each of which satisfies the image search request;

a uniform resource locator (URL);

stitching component configured to stitch URLs associated with each of the plurality of individual image search results to form a stitched URL; and

an output component configured to transmit the stitched URL to a thumbnail server, wherein the thumbnail server stitches at least two individual search result images in the plurality of individuals image search results to create a search result compilation image, and provides the search result compilation image for display in association with a search engine results page (SERP), wherein providing each individual image search result in the plurality of individual image search results requires a quantity of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests that exceeds a quantity of HTTP requests required to provide the search result compilation image.