System and method of searching for providing clue-based context searching

• US 20070033183A1
• Filed: 03/03/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Nathaniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,707,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The invention is directed to a system and method of reordering conventional search results provided by a remote search engine such as Google. The invention may leverage a chronological timeline of user action information to infer relationships between objects in a search result. The search result reordering process may be iterative and does not require direct interaction by the user.

Claims

1. A method of improving a display of a search result, comprising:

intercepting an initial search result of a web search performed by a user, wherein the initial search result includes a plurality of objects;

determining an action performed by the user proximate in time to the web search;

reordering, based upon the action, objects within the initial search result to create a reordered search result; and

displaying the reordered search result to the user.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the action performed by the user occurs before the web search.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the action performed by the user includes a chronological history of user actions and the reordering is based upon information extracted from the chronological history.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing information associated with the action;

comparing the information associated with the action with each object within the initial search result to determine a relevance of each object; and

reordering the initial search results based on the relevance of each object to form a reordered search result.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the action performed by the user includes a chronological history of user actions proximate in time to the web search and the reordering is based upon information extracted from the chronological history of user actions.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein information associated with user action includes content related to (i) applications, (ii) documents, (iii) files, (iv) electronic mail messages, (v) chat sessions, (vi) web sites, (vii) address book entries, (viii) calendar entries or any combination of (i) to (viii).

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein reordering is performed as an iterative process until a threshold value is attained.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the threshold is based on a number of times a reorder operation is performed, or a ranking of a user action object within the search result.

9. A system for improving a display of a search result, comprising:

a search result interceptor for intercepting an initial search result of a web search performed by a user, wherein the initial search result includes a plurality of objects;

a user action analyzer for determining an action performed by the user proximate in time to the web search;

a relevance engine for reordering objects within the initial search result, based upon the action, to create a reordered search result; and

an interface for displaying the reordered search result to the user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the action occurs before the web search.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the action performed by the user occurs before the web search.

12. The system according to claim 9, wherein the action performed by the user includes a chronological history of user actions and the reordering is based upon information extracted from the chronological history.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the relevance engine comprises:

a search result object analyzer for determining a relevance of each object within the initial search result based upon information associated with the action; and

a search result object organizer for reordering the initial search results based on the relevance of each object to form a reordered search result.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the action performed by the user includes a chronological history of user actions proximate in time to the web search and the reordering is based upon information extracted from the chronological history of user actions.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein information associated with user action includes content related to (i) applications, (ii) documents, (iii) files, (iv) electronic mail messages, (v) chat sessions, (vi) web sites, (vii) address book entries, (viii) calendar entries or any combination of (i) to (viii).

16. The system according to claim 9, wherein reordering is performed as an iterative process until a threshold value is attained.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the threshold is based on a number of times a reorder operation is performed, or a ranking of a user action object within the search result.