Method and means for browsing by walking

• US 9,824,381 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2016
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mikko Vaananen
• Original Assignee: Suinno Oy
• Inventors: Vaananen, Mikko
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Angelica
• Application Number:
  US15/090,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20160217516A1
• Time in Patent Office: 595 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0619 Neutral agent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A mobile station is arranged to determine its location, which is searched against street addresses from a database, and at least one matching street address is retrieved. The street address is searched on the mobile station and/or over the network. The search engine conducts a search in the mobile station file system and/or the Internet and/or a file system over the network with the at least one query term,—at least one search result is arranged to be displayed to user on the screen of the mobile station. This facilitates on-demand effortless Mobile Internet Search that allows the users to access opportunities that they did not know about, or would not have had time to find out about with minimum effort as the software of the mobile phone is scanning the Internet and information pages for these opportunities and displaying the results dynamically on the mobile phone screen.

Claims

1. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more memories storing a search engine process and an index relation for an index; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and executing the search engine process, receiving queries from at least one mobile station, and using the index relation to calculate a numerical weight to an association between one of (i) at least one specific location of the mobile station and a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, and (ii) a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, the one or more processors storing into the one or more memories a click-through rate for at least one result of a search based on a frequency at which the result of the search is selected, the one or more processors ranking documents associated with facilities that are open for business at the time of the incoming query higher than documents associated with facilities that are closed at the time of the incoming query,

wherein the search engine system is connected to the mobile station by client software on the mobile station, the search engine system receiving at least one query term and a space-time position of the mobile station by the client software, the search engine system using the received at least one query term and the received space-time position and sending the search result to the client software for display on the mobile station, and

the search engine system causes the client software to navigate to a reservation web page, based on the search result.

2. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the search engine system receives, from the at least one mobile station, a query term input by a user via the mobile station, the query term being used by the search engine system as at least a portion of the incoming query, and/or

wherein the search engine system stores into the one or more memories a location of a mobile station as a function of time and/or the query term received from the at least one mobile station.

3. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the search engine system includes a web crawler that crawls for keywords pertaining to space-time access relevant information, the space-time access relevant information being one or more of location, opening hours at the location, and price information at the location, and/or

wherein for time-sensitive information, the search engine system alerts to the web crawler to revisit a webpage frequently, and/or

wherein the web crawler crawls webpages for opening times and time ranges of businesses to which the webpages relate.

4. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein contextual parameters of a user of the at least one mobile station are used for any of the following:

adding to the incoming query, and ranking search results, the contextual parameters including one or more of income data and schedule data of the user.

5. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein documents of the search results are each assigned a relevance by the search engine system, and when the relevance of each of the respective documents exceeds a threshold value, an alert is signaled at the at least one mobile station.

6. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein numerical location data of the specific location of the at least one mobile station is obtained via one or more of a Global Positioning System (GPS), base stations, and base station or WIFI identities, and the numerical location data is converted to natural language location data search terms used to determine the specific location of the at least one mobile station, and/or

wherein the search engine system stores into the one or more memories the click-through rate of the search result for the specific location of the at least one mobile station.

7. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the time of the incoming query is one or more of the current time, the point in time when the incoming query is input at the at least one mobile station or received at the search engine system, and a time indicated in the incoming query.

8. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the index contains a vector value that specifies whether a facility matching the search result is open for business or not at the time of the incoming query.

9. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors ranks documents based on user data, and/or the user data is one or more of a user inbox, system files, and desktop files.

10. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors derive additional search results based on metadata and contextual user data, the contextual user data being data from one or more of an inbox and desktop files.

11. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein query parameters of the incoming query are updated by the one or more processors as the at least one mobile station moves in space and time passes.

12. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the search engine system generates a plurality of machine-generated queries per one user-generated query, and produces an aggregated search result list of all queries.

13. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the search engine system facilitates or allows client software to facilitate filling of online form entry fields, except at least one entry field, which is left blank to receive input from a user to fill in order to authenticate the user.

14. The search engine system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the search result comprises at least one link corresponding to a reservation web page, and

wherein the search engine system transmits said reservation web page to the client software in response to receiving an indication from the client software corresponding to a selection of said reservation web page.

15. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more memories storing a search engine process and an index relation for an index; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and executing the search engine process, receiving queries from at least one mobile station, and using the index relation to calculate a numerical weight to an association between one of (i) at least one specific location of the mobile station and a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, and (ii) a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, the one or more processors storing into the one or more memories a click-through rate for at least one result of a search based on a frequency at which the result of the search is selected, the one or more processors ranking documents associated with facilities that are open for business at the time of the incoming query higher than documents associated with facilities that are closed at the time of the incoming query,

wherein the search engine system causes the client software of the mobile station to navigate to a reservation web page, based on the search result.

16. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the search engine system receives, from the at least one mobile station, a query term input by a user via the mobile station, the query term being used by the search engine system as at least a portion of the incoming query, and/or

wherein the search engine system stores into the one or more memories a location of a mobile station as a function of time and/or the query term received from the at least one mobile station.

17. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the search engine system includes a web crawler that crawls for keywords pertaining to space-time access relevant information, the space-time access relevant information being one or more of location, opening hours at the location, and price information at the location, and/or

wherein for time-sensitive information, the search engine system alerts to the web crawler to revisit the webpage frequently, and/or

wherein the web crawler crawls webpages for opening times and time ranges of businesses to which the webpages relate.

18. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein contextual parameters of a user of the at least one mobile station are used for any of the following:

adding to the incoming query, and ranking search results, the contextual parameters including one or more of income data and schedule data of the user.

19. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein documents of the search results are each assigned a relevance by the search engine system, and when the relevance of each of the respective documents exceeds a threshold value, an alert is signaled at the at least one mobile station.

20. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein numerical location data of the specific location of the at least one mobile station is obtained via one or more of a Global Positioning System (GPS), base stations, and base station or WIFI identities, and the numerical location data is converted to natural language location data search terms used to determine the specific location of the at least one mobile station, and/or

wherein the search engine system stores into the one or more memories the click-through rate of the search result for the specific location of the at least one mobile station.

21. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the time of the incoming query is one or more of the current time, the point in time when the incoming query is input at the at least one mobile station or received at the search engine system, and a time indicated in the incoming query.

22. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the index contains a vector value that specifies whether a facility matching the search result is open for business or not at the time of the incoming query.

23. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the one or more processors ranks documents based on user data, and/or the user data is one or more of a user inbox, system files, and desktop files.

24. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the one or more processors derive additional search results based on metadata and contextual user data, the contextual user data being data from one or more of an inbox and desktop files.

25. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the search engine system is connected to the mobile station by client software on the mobile station, the search engine system receiving at least one query term and a space-time position of the mobile station by the client software, the search engine system using the received at least one query term and the received space-time position and sending the search result to the client software for display on the mobile station.

26. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein at least two search queries are processed by the search engine system at the same time in parallel.

27. The search engine system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the search result comprises at least one link corresponding to a reservation web page, and

wherein the search engine system transmits said reservation web page to the client software in response to receiving an indication from the client software corresponding to a selection of said reservation web page.

28. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more memories storing a search engine process and an index relation for an index; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and executing the search engine process, receiving queries from at least one mobile station, and using the index relation to calculate a numerical weight to an association between one of (i) at least one specific location of the mobile station and a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, and (ii) a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, the one or more processors storing into the one or more memories a click-through rate for at least one result of a search based on a frequency at which the result of the search is selected, the one or more processors ranking documents associated with facilities that are open for business at the time of the incoming query higher than documents associated with facilities that are closed at the time of the incoming query,

wherein at least two search queries are processed by the search engine system at the same time in parallel.

29. The search engine system as claimed in claim 28, wherein the search engine system is connected to the mobile station by client software on the mobile station, the search engine system receiving at least one query term and a space-time position of the mobile station by the client software, the search engine system using the received at least one query term and the received space-time position and sending the search result to the client software for display on the mobile station.

30. The search engine system as claimed in claim 28, wherein the search engine system causes the client software to navigate to a reservation web page, based on the search result.

31. The search engine system as claimed in claim 30, wherein the search result comprises at least one link corresponding to a reservation web page, and

wherein the search engine system transmits said reservation web page to the client software in response to receiving an indication from the client software corresponding to a selection of said reservation web page.

32. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more memories storing a search engine process and an index relation for an index; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and executing the search engine process, receiving queries from at least one mobile station, and using the index relation to calculate a numerical weight to an association between one of (i) at least one specific location of the mobile station and a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, and (ii) a time of an incoming query from the mobile station and at least one document, the one or more processors storing into the one or more memories a click-through rate for at least one result of a search based on a frequency at which the result of the search is selected, the one or more processors ranking documents associated with facilities that are open for business at the time of the incoming query higher than documents associated with facilities that are closed at the time of the incoming query,

wherein the search engine system is connected to the mobile station by client software on the mobile station, the search engine system receiving at least one query term and a space-time position of the mobile station by the client software, the search engine system using the received at least one query term and the received space-time position and sending the search result to the client software for display on the mobile station, and

at least two search queries are processed by the search engine system at the same time in parallel.