Presenting forked auto-completions

• US 10,210,242 B1
• Filed: 04/01/2016
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Zivkovic, Dragan, Tajima, Hidetoshi, Hong, Peter Jin
• Primary Examiner(s): Mobin, Hasanul
• Application Number:
  US15/088,306
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for presenting forked auto-completions. In one aspect, a method includes receiving characters from a user device, obtaining an auto-completion that corresponds to the received characters, obtaining corpora and respective corpus scores associated with the auto-completion, selecting corpora based on the corpus scores, and providing the user device with data identifying the auto-completion and the selected corpora.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a query entered using a user interface displayed on the user device;

in response to receiving the query, obtaining a first corpus score of a first search corpus and a second corpus score of a second search corpus;

determining that the first corpus score of the first search corpus satisfies a threshold and that the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfies the threshold;

based on determining that the first corpus score of the first search corpus satisfies the threshold and that the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfies the threshold, providing, to the user device, a response configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, (i) a first autocompletion user interface element that includes autocompletion text and a first corpus identifier that identifies a first search corpus, (ii) a second autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and a second corpus identifier that identifies a second search corpus, and (iii) a third autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and corresponds to a third search corpus that includes the first search corpus and the second search corpus;

receiving, from the user device, data indicating a user selection of the first autocompletion user interface element;

searching for resources in the first search corpus using the auto completion text as a search query, wherein the searching is restricted to the first search corpus; and

providing, in response to receiving the data indicating the user selection of the first autocompletion user interface element, search results from the first search corpus identified by the searching.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first corpus score is based on a first measure of confidence that the user will select the first autocompletion user interface element, and

the second corpus score is based on a second measure of confidence that the user will select the second autocompletion user interface element.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first corpus score is based on previous selection rates of user interface elements that include the autocompletion text and that correspond to the first search corpus, and

the second corpus score is based on previous selection rates of user interface elements that include the auto completion text and that correspond to the second search corpus.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is further configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, the first autocompletion user interface element, the second autocompletion user interface element, and the third autocompletion user interface element in a drop-down menu.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is further configured cause the user device to present, on the user interface, (i) the first autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text in line with the first corpus identifier, and (ii) the second autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text in line with the second corpus identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

obtaining a corpus score for each of multiple search corpora; and

determining that, of the multiple search corpora, only the first corpus score of the first search corpus and the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfy the threshold,

wherein the response is configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, the third autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and corresponds to the third search corpus that includes the first search corpus and the second search corpus based on determining that only the first corpus score of the first search corpus and the second corpus score of the second search corpus are associated with corpus scores that satisfy the threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first autocompletion user interface element includes the autocompletion text without including additional text,

the second autocompletion user interface element includes the autocompletion text without including additional text, and

the third autocompletion user interface element includes the autocompletion text without including additional text.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the third search corpus includes the first search corpus, the second search corpus, and additional search corpora.

7. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a user device, a query entered using a user interface displayed on the user device;

in response to receiving the query, obtaining a first corpus score of a first search corpus and a second corpus score of a second search corpus;

determining that the first corpus score of the first search corpus satisfies a threshold and that the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfies the threshold;

based on determining that the first corpus score of the first search corpus satisfies the threshold and that the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfies the threshold, providing, to the user device, a response configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, (i) a first autocompletion user interface element that includes autocompletion text and a first corpus identifier that identifies a first search corpus, (ii) a second autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and a second corpus identifier that identifies a second search corpus, and (iii) a third autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and corresponds to a third search corpus that includes the first search corpus and the second search corpus;

receiving, from the user device, data indicating a user selection of the first autocompletion user interface element;

searching for resources in the first search corpus using the auto completion text as a search query, wherein the searching is restricted to the first search corpus; and

providing, in response to receiving the data indicating the user selection of the first autocompletion user interface element, search results from the first search corpus identified by the searching.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the first corpus score is based on a first measure of confidence that the user will select the first autocompletion user interface element, and

the second corpus score is based on a second measure of confidence that the user will select the second autocompletion user interface element.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the first corpus score is based on previous selection rates of user interface elements that include the autocompletion text and that correspond to the first search corpus, and

the second corpus score is based on previous selection rates of user interface elements that include the auto completion text and that correspond to the second search corpus.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the response is further configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, the first autocompletion user interface element, the second autocompletion user interface element, and the third autocompletion user interface element in a drop-down menu.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the response is further configured cause the user device to present, on the user interface, (i) the first autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text in line with the first corpus identifier, and (ii) the second autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text in line with the second corpus identifier.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining a corpus score for each of multiple search corpora; and

determining that, of the multiple search corpora, only the first corpus score of the first search corpus and the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfy the threshold,

wherein the response is configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, the third autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and corresponds to the third search corpus that includes the first search corpus and the second search corpus based on determining that only the first corpus score of the first search corpus and the second corpus score of the second search corpus are associated with corpus scores that satisfy the threshold.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a query entered using a user interface displayed on the user device;

in response to receiving the query, obtaining a first corpus score of a first search corpus and a second corpus score of a second search corpus;

determining that the first corpus score of the first search corpus satisfies a threshold and that the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfies the threshold;

based on determining that the first corpus score of the first search corpus satisfies the threshold and that the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfies the threshold, providing, to the user device, a response configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, (i) a first autocompletion user interface element that includes autocompletion text and a first corpus identifier that identifies a first search corpus, (ii) a second autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and a second corpus identifier that identifies a second search corpus, and (iii) a third autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and corresponds to a third search corpus that includes the first search corpus and the second search corpus;

receiving, from the user device, data indicating a user selection of the first autocompletion user interface element;

searching for resources in the first search corpus using the auto completion text as a search query, wherein the searching is restricted to the first search corpus; and

providing, in response to receiving the data indicating the user selection of the first autocompletion user interface element, search results from the first search corpus identified by the searching.

16. The medium of claim 13, wherein:

the first corpus score is based on a first measure of confidence that the user will select the first autocompletion user interface element, and

the second corpus score is based on a second measure of confidence that the user will select the second autocompletion user interface element.

17. The medium of claim 13, wherein:

the first corpus score is based on previous selection rates of user interface elements that include the autocompletion text and that correspond to the first search corpus, and

the second corpus score is based on previous selection rates of user interface elements that include the auto completion text and that correspond to the second search corpus.

18. The medium of claim 13, wherein the response is further configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, the first autocompletion user interface element, the second autocompletion user interface element, and the third autocompletion user interface element in a drop-down menu.

19. The medium of claim 13, wherein the response is further configured cause the user device to present, on the user interface, (i) the first autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text in line with the first corpus identifier, and (ii) the second autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text in line with the second corpus identifier.

20. The medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining a corpus score for each of multiple search corpora; and

determining that, of the multiple search corpora, only the first corpus score of the first search corpus and the second corpus score of the second search corpus satisfy the threshold,

wherein the response is configured to cause the user device to present, on the user interface, the third autocompletion user interface element that includes the autocompletion text and corresponds to the third search corpus that includes the first search corpus and the second search corpus based on determining that only the first corpus score of the first search corpus and the second corpus score of the second search corpus are associated with corpus scores that satisfy the threshold.