Method and system for usage analyzer that determines user accessed sources, indexes data subsets, and associated metadata, processing implicit queries based on potential interest to users

• US 7,162,473 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2003
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dumais, Susan T., Gupta, Anoop, Cadiz, Jonathan J., Horvitz, Eric J., Robbins, Daniel C., Robertson, George G., Jancke, Gavin, Sarin, Raman K., Cutrell, Edward B., Goecks, Jeremy, Ringel, Meredith J.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US10/607,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20040267700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,293 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 5, 707/10, 707100-1041, 707/200, 715811-819, 715/854, 715/963, 715/968, 709220-226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/963 Calendar or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods providing content-access-based information retrieval. Information items from a plurality of disparate information sources that have been previously accessed or considered are automatically indexed in a data store, whereby a multifaceted user interface is provided to efficiently retrieve the items in a cognitively relevant manner. Various display output arrangements are possible for the retrieved information items including timeline visualizations and multidimensional grid visualizations. Input options include explicit, implicit, and standing queries for retrieving data along with explicit and implicit tagging of items for ease of recall and retrieval. In one aspect, an automated system is provided that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of information sources. A usage analyzer determines user accessed items and a content analyzer stores subsets of data corresponding to the items, wherein at least two of the items are associated with disparate information sources, respectively. An automated indexing component indexes the data subsets according to past data access patterns as determined by the usage analyzer. A search component responds to a search query, initiates a search across the indexed data, and outputs links to locations of a subset and/or provides sparse representations of the subset.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of sources, comprising:

a usage analyzer that determines user accessed items and a content analyzer that stores subsets of data corresponding to the items and sparse representations of the subsets, at least two of the items being associated with disparate sources, respectively, the disparate sources comprise local or remote data locations including files, folders, applications, images, audio files, appointments, email, and web information;

an indexing component that indexes the data subsets and associates metadata with the accessed items, the metadata employed to retrieve the accessed items, and wherein the metadata includes at least one of a file path, a hyperlink, and a tag;

a filter that extracts portions of the accessed items and creates sparse representations of accessed data in a content index;

a search component that in response to a search query, initiates a search across the indexed data and outputs search results in the form of data, wherein the data includes documents, files, folders, applications, images, email, web information and links to locations of a subset and sparse representation of the subset;

an implicit query that is derived from the search query; and

a component to process implicit queries based upon potential interest to a user.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a gatherer component that specifies an interface to different content sources in their native format.

3. The system of claim 1, the filter decodes individual file formats and emits a character stream for further processing.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a tokenizer component that breaks the character stream into words and provides linguistic processing.

5. The system of claim 4, the linguistic processing includes at least one of date normalization and stemming.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a retriever component supporting a query language for accessing stored information.

7. The system of claim 6, the retriever component provides Boolean functions and best match retrieval on full text and metadata properties that enable at least one of phrase, wildcard and proximity searches.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a protocol handler to extract individual messages from exchange mail stores, local mail files, and public folders.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a component index attachments to email, which generalizes to other container objects.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an event component that monitors user and makes determinations with respect to user actions.

11. The system of claim 10, the event component includes to determine user actions or goals.

12. The system of claim 11, the event component employs evidential patterns of user activity including at least one of:

a Focus of attention, an Introspection, an Undesired piece of information, and a Domain-specific syntactic and semantic content.

13. The system of claim 1, the implicit queries automatically invoke related information actions directed to a user, the information actions associated with a query at hand or a current context.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising at least one of context-sensitive queries, application-context queries, and item-centric integrations.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that enables users to share selected electronic files with other users.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to remove accessed information items.

17. The system of claim 1, the search component employs effective time computations when presenting calendar items.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to perform background storage operations to processes volatile data.

19. The system of claim 1, at least one of the usage analyzer and the indexer is executed on at least one of a client machine and a server machine, the client and server machines including at least one computer respectively.

20. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing at least one of the usage analyzer and the indexer of claim 1.

21. A method that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of sources, comprising:

automatically monitoring a user and automatically analyzing a data source to determine whether the user has contemplated the data source;

automatically determining whether the user has contemplated the data source selected from at least two disparate data sources;

automatically storing subsets of data corresponding to the data source and sparse representations of the subsets;

automatically indexing the contemplated data source in a computerized index and associating metadata with the contemplated data source, the metadata employed to retrieve the contemplated data sources, and wherein the metadata includes at least one of a file path, a hyperlink, and a tag;

automatically filtering the contemplated data source and creating sparse representations of the contemplated data source;

automatically initiating a search across the indexed data in response to a search query;

automatically outputting search results in the form of data, wherein the data includes documents, files, folders, applications, images, email, web information and links to locations of a subset and sparse representation of the subset;

automatically deriving an implicit query from the search query; and

automatically processing implicit queries based upon potential interest to a user.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing at least one of explicit query options and implicit query options to access the computerized index.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising automatically updating a metadata file associated with the data source with at least one of explicit tag information and implicit tag information.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing at least one of a file sharing option, a file scrubbing option, an effective time computation, and a background storage option.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising displaying at least one of a timeline visualization and a grid visualization to represent queries derived from the computerized index.

26. A system that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of sources comprising:

means for determining when a user has accessed an information item;

means for filtering the information item;

means for storing subsets of data corresponding to the information item and sparse representations of the subsets, at least two of the items being associated with disparate sources, such as local and remote data sources;

means for indexing the subsets of data and sparse representations of the subsets in a content index and associating metadata with the information item, the metadata employed to retrieve the information item, and wherein the metadata includes at least one of a file path, a hyperlink, and a tag;

means for querying the content index;

means for initiating a search across the indexed data in response to the query;

means for outputting search results in the form of data, wherein the data includes documents, files, folders, applications, images, email, web information and links to locations of a subset and sparse representation of the subset;

means for deriving an implicit query from the search query; and

means for processing implicit queries based upon potential interest to a user.