Automatic continued search

• US 10,685,016 B1
• Filed: 10/18/2017
• Issued: 06/16/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Champaneria, Amay Nitin, Brewin, Frederick Peter, Raghunathan, Vivek, Lakshminarayanan, Karthik, Chennapragada, Aparna, Srikant, Ramakrishnan, Gupta, Vineet, Lischeske, Carl, Manjunatha, Mahesh Keralapura, Au, Carolyn, Guha, Ramanathan, Kolluri, Ravi, Bellver, Pablo, Panesar, Kiran, Dai, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Alex C
• Application Number:
  US15/787,269
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2423 Interactive query statement specification based on a database schema
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• 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 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for providing travel-related information for a location to a user based on activity indications of the user that are related to the location. The location may be determined based on a set of one or more related activity indications and a travel-related score may be determined for the location that is indicative of likelihood that the user has interest in travelling to the location. The user may be provided the travel-related information for the location based on the travel-related score.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more processors, comprising:

determining one or more computer-based activity indications of a user that are related to an entity, the one or more computer-based activity indications including one or more search query indications indicating submission by the user of one or more search queries related to the entity;

determining a score for the entity, wherein the score is indicative of likelihood that the user has interest in the entity;

identifying one or more attributes of the user;

selecting, from a collection of information indications related to the entity, at least one information indication, wherein selecting the at least one information indication is based on the one or more attributes of the user;

based on the score for the entity satisfying a threshold, and at a later time that is after search results responsive to the one or more search queries have been provided and that is after cessation of the one or more computer-based activity indications related to the entity;

providing the at least one information indication for presentation to the user via the computing device,

wherein providing the at least one information indication for presentation causes the at least one information indication to be surfaced independent of any new search query submission, by the user, that is related to the entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at least one information indication based on the one or more attributes of the user comprises:

selecting at least one of the information indications based on past utilization of the at least one information indication by other users having the one or more attributes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes of the user include preferences of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one information indication includes one or more of:

a snippet from and a link to a document, directions, and a point of interest suggestion.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at least one information indication from the collection further comprises:

identifying a plurality of documents related to the entity;

ranking the documents based on the one or more attributes of the user;

selecting at least one document based on the ranking; and

determining the at least one information indication based on the selected at least one document.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the score for the entity includes determining a submission time of at least one of the one or more search queries, and determining the score based on comparing the submission time with a current time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-based activity indications further include a given indication indicating a web page access.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, from one or more of the computer-based activity indications, a time indicative of when the user has interest in interacting with the entity;

wherein determining the score for the entity is based on the time.

9. A method implemented by one or more processors, comprising:

determining one or more computer-based activity indications of a user that are related to an entity, the one or more computer-based activity indications including one or more search query indications indicating submission by the user of one or more search queries related to the entity;

automatically formulating a new search query based on at least one of the search queries indicated by the computer-based activity indications of the user;

identifying one or more new search results for the formulated new search query;

at a later time that is after cessation of the one or more computer-based activity indications related to the entity, and that is after search results responsive to the one or more search queries, indicated by the computer-based activity indications, have been provided;

providing at least one of the new search results for presentation to the user via the computing device,

wherein providing the at least one of the new search results for presentation causes the at least one the new search results to be surfaced independent of any new search query submission, by the user, that is related to the entity.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein automatically formulating the new search query is based on at least a first search query and a second search query, of the search queries indicated by the computer-based activity indications of the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein automatically formulating the new search query comprises including, in the formulated new search query:

a first term that is based on the first search query and a second term that is based on the second search query.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the formulated new search query omits at least one additional term of the first search query.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the formulated new search query omits at least one further term of the second search query.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a score for the entity, wherein the score is indicative of likelihood that the user has interest in the entity;

wherein providing the at least one of the new search results for presentation to the user is based on the score for the entity satisfying a threshold.

15. A system comprising:

non-transitory memory storing instructions;

one or more hardware processors operable to execute the instructions stored in the memory, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to;

determine an entity based on the entity being related to each of a plurality of computer-based activity indications of a user and based on the computer-based activity indications occurring within a threshold time of each other, the computer-based activity indications including one or more search query submissions by the user;

identify one or more attributes of the user;

determine, based on the one or more attributes of the user, a plurality of information indications related to the entity;

at a later time that is after search results responsive to the one or more search query submissions have been provided and that is after cessation of the one or more computer-based activity indications related to the entity;

provide the plurality of information indications for presentation to the user via the computing device,

wherein the instructions to provide the plurality of information indications for presentation cause the plurality of information indications to be surfaced independent of any new search query submission, by the user, that is related to the entity.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions to determine the plurality of information indications based on the one or more attributes of the user comprise instructions to:

select at least one of the plurality of information indications based on past utilization of the at least one of the plurality of information indications by other users having the one or more attributes.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more attributes of the user include preferences of the user.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the plurality of information indications includes one or more of:

a snippet from and a link to a document, directions, and a point of interest suggestion.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the instruction to determine the plurality of information indications based on the one or more attributes of the user comprise instructions to:

identify a plurality of documents related to the entity;

rank the documents based on the one or more attributes of the user;

select at least one document based on the ranking; and

determine at least one of the plurality of information indications based on the selected at least one document.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer-based activity indications further include a web page access.