User task completion via open market of actions and/or providers

• US 9,811,850 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2012
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Macbeth, Steven William, O'Connor, Michael William, Jiang, Zhaowei Charlie, Van Snellenberg, Michael, Jiang, Li, Sadhukha, Shajib, Kumar, Amit
• Primary Examiner(s): PYO, MONICA M
• Application Number:
  US13/441,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20130268507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,039 Days
• Field of Search: 707708, 707709, 715256, 715271
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services

Abstract

Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are provided for facilitating the completion of a user task. That is, user intent (e.g., intentions of a user to perform a user task) may be identified. The user intent may comprise an entity (e.g., a movie entity) and/or an action (e.g., an order movie tickets action) that the user wants to perform on the entity. A provider list may be created based upon one or more providers capable of performing the action on the entity (e.g., a movie application may be capable of performing the order movie tickets action on the movie entity). Providers may be dynamically selected for inclusion within the provider list at run-time. For example, an open market of providers may be maintained (e.g., providers may be added, removed, and/or updated over time), such that providers may be selected from the open market to complete user tasks.

Claims

1. A method, implemented at least in part via at least one processor, for facilitating completion of a task, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user;

identifying the task from the query, wherein the task is associated with an entity and a first action that is to be performed on the entity;

identifying a context data structure comprising an entry defining the entity and one or more actions supported for the entity;

based on the identified context data structure, creating a provider list comprising one or more providers configured to perform the first action on the entity, wherein creating the provider list comprises;

dynamically selecting, from a provider description data structure, a first provider for inclusion within the provider list, wherein the first provider is identified based upon personalized context data associated with the user, the personalized context data being stored in a personalization data structure, wherein the provider description data structure comprises an entry defining the first provider, the entity and the first action, wherein the provider description data structure is different from the context data structure, and wherein the inclusion of the first provider is based upon;

the provider description data structure indicating that the first provider is configured to perform the first action on the entity; and

a ranking of the first provider;

maintaining the personalization data structure; and

providing the provider list to facilitate completion of the task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first provider or the second provider corresponding to at least one of a website, a web service, a command on a user device, a native application on the user device, or a remote application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically ranking one or more potential providers configured to perform the first action on the entity; and

selecting one or more ranked potential providers for inclusion within the provider list as the one or more providers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first provider is different than the second provider.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a context data structure comprising one or more entity entries, an entity entry defining the entity and one or more actions supported for the entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a provider list further comprises selecting, from the provider description data structure, a third provider for inclusion within the provider list based upon the provider description data structure indicating that the third provider is configured to perform the first action on the entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a provider list further comprises creating the provider list at runtime.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of the first provider; and

sending a context comprising the entity and the first action to the first provider.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising discovering one or more new providers for inclusion within the provider description data structure based upon at least one of a web crawl, an application manifest, local device application functionality or a direct feed.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a provider registration from a provider, the provider registration specifying at least one of a set of supported entities or a set of supported actions supported by the provider; and

creating a new provider entry within the provider description data structure based upon the provider registration.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a second user intent associated with a second user task of a second user, the second user intent comprising the entity and the first action that is to be performed on the entity;

creating a second provider list comprising one or more providers configured to perform the first action on the entity, the second provider list different than the first provider list; and

providing the second provider list to the second user to facilitate completion of the second task.

12. A computer-readable device comprising instructions that when executed, perform a method for facilitating completion of a task, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user;

identifying the task from the query, wherein the task is associated with an entity and a first action that is to be performed on the entity;

identifying a context data structure comprising an entry defining the entity and one or more actions supported for the entity;

based on the identified context data structure, creating an action-provider list comprising one or more providers configured to perform the one or more actions on the entity, wherein creating the action-provider list comprises;

dynamically selecting, from a provider description data structure, a first provider for inclusion within the action-provider list, wherein the first provider is identified based upon personalized context data associated with the user, the personalized context data being stored in a personalization data structure, wherein the provider description data structure comprises an entry defining the first provider, the entity and the first action, wherein the provider description data structure is different from the context data structure, and wherein the inclusion of the first provider is based upon;

the provider description data structure indicating that the first provider is configured to perform a first action on the entity; and

a ranking of the first provider;

maintaining the personalization data structure; and

providing the action-provider list to the user to facilitate completion of the task.

13. The computer-readable device of claim 12, the method further comprising:

receiving a user selection of the first provider and the first action; and

sending a context comprising the entity and the first action to the first provider.

14. A system, implemented at least in part via a hardware processor, for facilitating completion of a user task, comprising:

a task completion component configured to;

receiving a query from a user;

identify the user task from the query, wherein the user task is associated with an entity and a first action that is to be performed on the entity;

identify a context data structure comprising an entry defining the entity and one or more actions supported for the entity;

based on the identified context data structure, create a provider list comprising one or more providers configured to perform the first action on the entity, the creating a provider list comprising;

dynamically selecting, from a provider description data structure, a first provider for inclusion within the provider list, wherein the first provider is identified based upon personalized context data associated with the user, the personalized context data being stored in a personalization data structure, wherein the provider description data structure comprises an entry defining the first provider, the entity and the first action, wherein the provider description data structure is different from the context data structure, and wherein the inclusion of the first provider is based upon;

the provider description data structure indicating that the first provider is configured to perform the first action on the entity; and

a ranking of the first provider;

maintain the personalization data structure; and

provide the provider list to facilitate completion of the task.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the task completion component is further configured to:

receive a user selection of the first provider; and

send a context comprising the entity and the first action to the first provider.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the first provider is different than the second provider.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

an entity-action tracking component configured to maintain a context data structure comprising one or more entity entries, wherein an entity entry defines the entity and one or more actions supported for the entity.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the task completion component is configured to create the provider list at runtime.