Persistent user interface for providing navigational functionality

• US 20050097089A1
• Filed: 11/05/2003
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Nielsen, Tom, Singh, Sanjeev, Sriver, Joe
• Application Number:
  US10/702,120
• Publication Number:
  US 20050097089A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9032 Query formulation

Abstract

A method and apparatus, including a graphical user interface, for allowing quick processing of queries, including display of results, without requiring opening of a traditional browser program application window. Queries may be input and processed directly from a persistent or otherwise on-demand query input area, without the need to open a browser or other program separately for entering/processing a query, navigating to a search engine or particular document, etc. A number of query types may be supported by the user interface of the present invention, such that depending on a particular query type selected for/indicated by a query, a particular information retrieval mechanism processes the query to obtain one or more results. A on-demand result window is generated in response to a query request to output one or more results obtained in response to a given query, and optionally is hidden when a user accesses other windows, functionality, etc.—i.e., when the result window loses focus.

Claims

1. A method for providing a user interface for providing navigational functionality, the method comprising:

providing a query input area persistently on a desktop of a computer user interface;

responsive to a query received via the query area, obtaining a result; and

generating an on-demand result window from which to output the result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the on-demand result window is generated for display dominantly relative to other open applications windows.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the result includes a link to a web document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the result is obtained by searching user data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user data is stored locally by at least one user device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the result is obtained via an intranet.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the on-demand result window represents an instance of a browser program having a subset of a set of navigational functionality provided by a default window of the browser program.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option to open a browser program window and display the result in the browser program window.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the result includes using a web search engine to search for one or more web documents relevant to the query.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the on-demand result window displays a search results page generated by the web search engine.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a uniform resource locator (URL) contained in the query; and

returning the document to which the uniform resource locator (URL) corresponds as the result output via the on-demand result window.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a plurality of search type options for the query.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing an option to customize the plurality of search types by at least one of a user and a domain administrator.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

recalling a last query type selected; and

automatically selecting the last query type selected as a current query type.

15. The method of claim of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the on-demand result window as a slide-open and slide-close window from a desktop toolbar.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising highlighting the query input area in response to a user input.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising auto-entering selected characters from an application not associated with the query area into the query area in response to the user input.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein highlighting the query input area includes:

detecting the user input as focus on the query area; and

resizing the query area in response to detecting the focus on the query area.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a dynamic object in the query input area when the query input area is out of focus.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a static object in the query input area when the query input area is out of focus.

23. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

providing a menu from which to select one of the plurality of search types.

24. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

providing a keyboard shortcut with which to select one of the plurality of search types.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the keyboard shortcut is customizable by a user.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an option to hide at least a portion of the query area in the absence of focus on the query area and to display a representation of the query area; and

displaying the at least portion of the query area upon detection of user focus on the query area.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a resize option for the query area, including;

allowing a user to define an active size for the query area, the active size corresponding to the size of the query area when the query area is in focus;

allowing the user to resize the query area to an inactive size when the query area is out of focus; and

toggling between displaying the query area in the active size and the inactive size depending on whether the query area is in or out of focus, respectively.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option not to close the on-demand result window when focus is detected in other user interface functionality.

31. The machine-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the method comprises:

providing a plurality of query type options.

32. The machine-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises:

allowing customization of the plurality of query type options, including at least one of adding or deleting query type options.

33. The machine-readable medium of claim 32, wherein customization of the plurality of query options includes customizing the query type options for a plurality of users on a domain basis.

19. The method of 7, further comprising re-formatting the result, relative to a default window of the browser program, for display in the on-demand result window.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein re-formatting the result includes reducing a font size of HTML text.

29. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, that when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

providing a query input area persistently on a desktop of a computer user interface;

responsive to a query received via the query area, obtaining a result; and

generating an on-demand result window from which to output the result.

30. The machine-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the method further comprises:

detecting a uniform resource locator (URL) contained in the query; and

returning the document to which the uniform resource locator (URL) corresponds as the result output via the on-demand result window.

34. The machine-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the on-demand result window represents a re-formatted instance of a browser program window, the browser program window being provided by a default browser program.

35. The machine-readable medium of claim 34, wherein the on-demand result window displays the result in a reduce-size format relative to the browser program window.

36. The machine-readable medium of claim 34, wherein the on-demand window provides a subset of a set of functionality provided by the browser program window.

37. A system for providing on-demand query processing, comprising:

a memory to store a browser program and an on-demand query processing program, the on-demand query processing program to provide a persistent query area on a desktop and a result window representing a re-formatted instance of a browser window provided by the browser program; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, to process a query received via the persistent query and to generate a result, obtained in response to the query, for display via the result window.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the result window is an on-demand window generated for display in response to the query and hidden when focus is detected outside the result window.