METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING LINKS TO SEARCH RESULTS WITH CORRESPONDING IMAGES

• US 20080222143A1
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AB Inventio LLC
• Original Assignee: AB Inventio LLC
• Inventors: Polito, Marzia, BACKER, Alejandro
• Granted Patent: US 9,043,268 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Methods and systems for displaying search engine results where the file links are displayed with corresponding images of things that fall within a given category are disclosed. Object detection software can be used with a search engine to provide search results to a user that contain specific images found within the result pages (i.e. the pages of the websites returned as the results). For a given class of objects, the user can be presented with images that contain that class of object along with the result hyperlinks, allowing the user to make a more informed choice as to which hyperlink is the most appropriate search result, without being inundated with all of image files present in the result pages. For example, a search engine geared toward searching on the Internet for information about people could be augmented to show images of the people associated with each of the page results, allowing the user to see the faces of the people described in the pages before selecting the hyperlinks and visiting those pages.

Claims

1. A method for displaying to a user links to files on a network, comprising:

collecting at least one keyword related to information being sought from the user;

searching the network for at least one file containing information related to the at least one keyword;

if a file of said at least one file contains at least one graphical image, determining, by way of an object recognition engine, which of said at least one graphical image is an image of an object within a class of objects;

displaying links corresponding to each of at least one file to the user; and

displaying said at least one graphical image to the user in conjunction with the link corresponding to the file that contains said at least one graphical image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said object is a person and said class of objects is people.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining at least one identification of people referred to in the at least one file containing information related to the at least one keyword;

using the at least one identification to search the network for at least one information specialized website that refers to said people referred to; and

displaying to the user social network links to the at least one social network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the links to the at least one information specialized website are links to a member page in a social network, the member page being designated for one of said people referred to.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the user inputs the keywords via text messaging from a mobile telephonic device and

all displaying is performed on said mobile telephonic device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the links to each of said at least one file are prioritized by relevance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining which of said at least one graphical image is an image of an object within a class of objects further includes analyzing the text of the markup language tag for said image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying links corresponding to each of at least one file to the user and displaying said at least one graphical image to the user includes placing said links and said at least one graphical image in a report file to be presented to the user.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying links corresponding to each of at least one file to the user, displaying said at least one graphical image to the user, and displaying to the user social network links to the at least one social network includes placing said links corresponding to each of at least one file, said at least one graphical image, and said social network links in a report file to be presented to the user.

10. A World Wide Web enabled file or collection of files, wherein:

when the file or collection of files is accessed by a Web browser, said Web browser displays search results generated based on one or more keywords and a class of objects, the search results comprising;

a plurality of information links corresponding to information specialized websites, wherein;

an information link of said information links provides access to one or more pages that list pages that are within the information specialized website corresponding to said information link and that contain the one or more keywords;

a plurality of web file links, wherein each of the plurality of web file links is a link to a website page that contains information related to the one or more keywords;

one or more images that are of objects that are both related to the one or more keywords and are in the class of objects, wherein the images are contained in the website pages from the plurality of web file links and each image of the one or more images is displayed in conjunction with the web file link to the website page in which that image is contained.

11. The file or files of claim 10, wherein the information specialized websites include social network websites.

12. A system for displaying to a user links to files on a network, comprising:

a web server adapted for collecting at least one keyword from the user;

a computer adapted for searching the network for at least one file containing information related to the at least one keyword;

an object recognition engine, capable of determining if an image file referenced by the at least one file is an image of an object within a predetermined class of objects; and

a computer and/or web server adapted for displaying text, links, and/or images related to each of said at least one file to the user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the displaying text, links, and/or images related to relevant files in priority is performed by exclusively showing text, links, and/or images related to relevant files.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein said computers and said web servers are incorporated as a single device.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the object recognition engine is an object detection engine.