USER INTERFACES FOR SEARCH SYSTEMS USING IN-LINE CONTEXTUAL QUERIES

• US 20100070484A1
• Filed: 09/03/2009
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Andreas Hartmann, Paulien Strijland, Reiner Kraft
• Inventors: Hartmann, Andreas, Strijland, Paulien, Kraft, Reiner
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,385 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Systems and methods, including user interfaces, are provided for implementing searches using contextual information associated with a Web page (or other document) that a user is viewing when a query is entered. The page includes a contextual search interface that has an associated context vector representing content of the page. When the user submits a search query via the contextual search interface, the query and the context vector are both provided to the query processor and used in responding to the query.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client, a request that includes both query data and a context vector;

wherein the query data is a first set of one or more terms;

wherein the context vector comprises a second set of one or more terms;

wherein the query data is different from the context vector;

wherein the request further includes data indicating that the first set of one or more terms is a set of one or more search terms entered by a user;

wherein the request further includes data indicating that the second set of one or more terms is a set of one or more context terms representative of content being presented at the client during a time that the user entered the set of one or more search terms;

in response to the request, generating, using at least the query data and the context vector, a search result comprising an aggregated ranked list of hits;

wherein generating the search result includes performing a first search and a second search against a search corpus to generate, respectively, a first ranked list of hits and a second ranked list of hits;

wherein the first search and the second search are each performed using search criteria and ranking criteria based on one of;

a) the query data, but not the context vector;

b) the context vector, but not the query data;

or c) both the query data and the context vector;

wherein at least one of the search criteria and the ranking criteria differs between the first search and the second search; and

aggregating at least the first ranked list of hits with the second ranked list of hits;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first search is performed using search criteria based on the query data, but not the context vector;

wherein the second search is performed using search criteria based on at least the context vector.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first search is performed using ranking criteria based on the query data, but not the context vector;

wherein the second search is performed using ranking criteria based on at least the context vector.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the search result further includes:

performing a third search to produce a third ranked list of hits using search criteria and ranking criteria based on one of;

a) the query data, but not the context vector;

b) the context vector, but not the query data;

or c) both the query data and the context vector;

aggregating at least the first ranked list of hits with the second ranked list of hits and the third ranked list of hits;

wherein at least one of the search criteria and the ranking criteria differs between each of the first search, the second search, and the third search.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first search and the second search are performed in parallel.

16. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 1.

17. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 2.

18. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 3.

19. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 4.

20. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 5.

6. A method comprising:

receiving input from a user indicating a request to perform a search;

in response to said input, performing an analysis of content presented to the user in a first application, wherein the content was being presented to the user during a time the input from the user was received;

based on said analysis of the content, generating a context vector representative of the content, the context vector including one or more terms derived from the content;

causing submission of a search request to a search engine, wherein the search request includes the context vector;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the input includes query data indicating one or more search terms, wherein the search request also includes the query data.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the content is a document presented by the first application.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the content is a portion of a document presented by the first application, said portion having been selected by the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said portion was selected by the user in the first application at the time the input was received.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising, in response to the input, accepting input indicating the user'"'"'s selection of said portion.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the method is performed by a second application that is different than the first application.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the second application is one of a plugin associated with the first application or a toolbar.

21. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 6.

22. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 7.

23. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 8.

24. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 9.

25. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 10.

26. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 11.

27. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 12.

28. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 13.

14. A method for providing access to a search engine, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

sending, to a client, a page of content comprising first code, wherein execution of

said first code by a content presentation application at the client causes the client to perform the steps of;

displaying at least first content, wherein said first content is a subset of the content in said page;

displaying one or more contextual search icons, each contextual search icon associated with a different portion of the content of the page, said contextual search icons including a particular contextual search icon associated with the first content;

detecting a user selection of the particular contextual search icon;

in response to detecting the user selection, and while continuing to display at least a portion of said page, displaying an expanded contextual search interface corresponding to the particular contextual search icon, the expanded contextual search interface including both (a) a query entry area configured to accept entry of one or more query terms from the user and (b) a search submission control element;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

prior to the user submitting any query data, sending a context vector derived from the first content to a first server;

prior to the user submitting any query data, in response to sending the context vector to the first server, receiving from the first server, for display with said expanded contextual search interface, a list of hits generated based on a search using the context vector; and

while continuing to display at least a portion of said page, prior to the user submitting any query data, displaying the list of hits in or adjacent to said expanded contextual search interface.

29. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 14.

30. One or more storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method of claim 15.