System, method, and solfware application for enabling a user to search an external domain within a visual mapping interface

• US 20090228447A1
• Filed: 11/10/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Corel Corporation (Corel Holdings LP)
• Original Assignee: Corel Corporation (Corel Holdings LP)
• Inventors: Creekbaum, William J., Bashford, Steven, Jetter, Michael B.
• Application Number:
  US12/291,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20090228447A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

The present invention provides a system, method, and software application for enabling a user to initiate a search of a domain and view search results via a visual mapping interface on a computer. Visual mapping software on a computer provides a visual mapping interface into which a user can enter one or more search terms. The search terms entered by the user are used to search a search domain, such as an external website. Within the visual mapping interface, the visual mapping software provides the user with one or more search domain options, and the user selects a search domain. After the user enters search terms into the visual mapping interface and selects a search domain, the visual mapping software initiates a search of the selected domain based on the search terms. The visual mapping software subsequently receives search results for the search, and displays the search results in a visual map.

Claims

1. A method for enabling a user to search a domain within a visual mapping interface on a computer, the method comprising:

providing a visual mapping interface on a computer, wherein a user can enter one or more search terms into the visual mapping interface;

providing the user with one or more search domain options within the visual mapping interface;

in response to the user entering one or more search terms and selecting a search domain within the visual mapping interface, initiating a search of the search domain based on the search terms;

receiving search results from the search; and

displaying the search results in a visual map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the search terms are entered in a topic in the visual map, and the search results are displayed as subtopics to such topic.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating a search comprises making a call to a Web service associated with the search domain.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising transforming search results from the Web service into a format that can be used to display a visual map.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises providing the user with the ability to select one or more Web search engines for performing the search.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein one of the search engines is GOOGLE.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein one of the search engines is YAHOO.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein one of the search engines is MSN.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises providing the user with the ability to select one or more websites on which to perform the search.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein one of the websites is EBAY.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein one of the websites is AMAZON.COM.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user enters search terms into a topic in a visual map, and wherein a user selects a search option by dragging an icon representing a search domain to the topic with the search terms.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the user enters search terms into a topic in a visual map, and wherein a user selects a search option by selecting the topic and then selecting an icon representing a search domain.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the search results are displayed as subtopics to the topic with the search terms.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises displaying an icon associated with each search domain option.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises displaying a list of search domain options.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein:

in response to a user selecting a search domain and prior to initiating a search of the search domain, determining if there are any user-defined parameters associated with such search domain; and

in response to determining that there are user-defined parameters associated with such search domain, prompting the user to enter the user-defined parameters.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the search domain options in a social networking website.

18. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium and comprising code, that, when executed by a computer, enables the computer to perform the following method:

providing a visual mapping interface on the computer, wherein a user can enter one or more search terms into the visual mapping interface;

providing the user with one or more search domain options within the visual mapping interface;

in response to the user entering one or more search terms and selecting a search domain within the visual mapping interface, initiating a search of the search domain based on the search terms;

receiving search results from the search; and

displaying the search results in a visual map.

19. The computer program of claim 18, wherein the search terms are entered in a topic in the visual map, and the search results are displayed as subtopics to such topic.

20. The computer program of claim 18, wherein initiating a search comprises making a call to a Web service associated with the search domain.

21. The computer program of claim 20, further comprising transforming search results from the Web service into a format that can be used to display a visual map.

22. The computer program of claim 18, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises providing the user with the ability to select one or more Web search engines for performing the search.

23. The computer program of claim 22, wherein one of the search engines is GOOGLE.

24. The computer program of claim 22, wherein one of the search engines is YAHOO.

25. The computer program of claim 22, wherein one of the search engines is MSN.

26. The computer program of claim 18, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises providing the user with the ability to select one or more websites on which to perform the search.

27. The computer program of claim 26, wherein one of the websites is EBAY.

28. The computer of claim 26, wherein one of the websites is AMAZON.COM.

29. The computer program of claim 18, wherein the user enters search terms into a topic in a visual map, and wherein a user selects a search option by dragging an icon representing a search domain to the topic with the search terms.

30. The computer program of claim 18, wherein the user enters search terms into a topic in a visual map, and wherein a user selects a search option by selecting the topic and then selecting an icon representing a search domain.

31. The computer program of claim 18, wherein the search results are displayed as subtopics to the topic with the search terms.

32. The computer program of claim 18, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises displaying an icon associated with each search domain option.

33. The computer program of claim 18, wherein providing the user with one or more search domain options comprises displaying a list of search domain options.

34. The computer program of claim 18, wherein:

in response to a user selecting a search domain and prior to initiating a search of the search domain, determining if there are any user-defined parameters associated with such search domain; and

in response to determining that there are user-defined parameters associated with such search domain, prompting the user to enter the user-defined parameters.

36. The computer program of claim 18, wherein one of the search domain options is a social networking website.