Systems and methods for performing background queries from content and activity
First Claim
1. A system that facilitates background searching across a plurality of data sources, comprising:
- a background processor that analyzes a current user input to at least one application in real time to automatically determine terms for potential queries of interest from the current user input and constructs an implicit query from the terms, the determination of terms is based at least on a frequency of occurrence of the terms in the application;
an implicit query interface associated with the application, the implicit query interface presents results retrieved upon a search employing the constructed queries to a user; and
at least one model for estimating a value of the results of the constructed implicit query, so that a rendering of the results is suppressed when the value of the results falls below a threshold of value,wherein the threshold value is dynamically computed based on a user'"'"'s context.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Most information retrieval systems start with a user'"'"'s explicit query. Systems and methods are provided that perform implicit or background queries to one or more information sources based on the ongoing activities of users. The methods provide users with the results of such automated contextualized searches in an unobtrusive manner. In one aspect, implicit queries are run when users are reading, working on or composing an application. Queries can be automatically generated by analyzing an application, and results can be presented in a variety of peripheral display configurations, including a small pane adjacent to a current window to provide peripheral awareness of related information that is automatically determined from existing user context and/or related content from the application. The invention includes methods for building models that predict the value of different queries, and of the results generated by such queries, based on logged data, and for using such models to control query formulation and to mediate decisions about displaying the results of implicit queries.
223 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A system that facilitates background searching across a plurality of data sources, comprising:
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a background processor that analyzes a current user input to at least one application in real time to automatically determine terms for potential queries of interest from the current user input and constructs an implicit query from the terms, the determination of terms is based at least on a frequency of occurrence of the terms in the application; an implicit query interface associated with the application, the implicit query interface presents results retrieved upon a search employing the constructed queries to a user; and at least one model for estimating a value of the results of the constructed implicit query, so that a rendering of the results is suppressed when the value of the results falls below a threshold of value, wherein the threshold value is dynamically computed based on a user'"'"'s context. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer implemented information retrieval system, comprising the following computer components stored at least in a computer readable medium:
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means for performing a background analysis for content of at least one application; means for automatically determining relevant terms from a current user input based at least on a frequency of occurrence of the relevant terms in the application; means for constructing an implicit query from the determined terms, wherein the terms are determined based at least on their frequency of occurrence within the content of the application; means for retrieving information based at least in part on the implicit query; means for displaying the retrieved information; means for estimating a value of the information retrieved in response to the implicit query; and means for suppressing the retrieved information when the value falls below a threshold value, wherein the threshold value is dynamically computed based on a user'"'"'s context.
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26. A method for performing automated information retrieval, implemented at least in part by a computing device, comprising:
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analyzing a user'"'"'s input to at least one application in real time; determining expressions of interest from the user'"'"'s input within the application; automatically ranking the expressions based at least on a frequency of occurrence of the expressions in the application; performing a search in accordance with an implicit query created from the ranked expressions; retrieving results relevant to the implicit query; estimating a value of the result retrieved in response to the implicit query; dynamically computing a threshold value for the retrieved results based at least on a user'"'"'s context; and suppressing a display of the retrieved results if the estimated value of the retrieved results falls below the threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification