User interface for a resource search tool

• US 7,721,192 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2003
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Milic-Frayling, Natasa, Sommerer, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): Hailu; Tadesse
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tan; Alvin H
• Application Number:
  US10/361,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20040100510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,654 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user

Abstract

A resource search tool provides important context assistance and control for viewing resources on an incompatible display, such as a handheld display. A handheld device, for example, does not provide a large enough display space to provide a quick and comfortable search tool interface for a user. The search tool provides annotated search result pages and search result target pages to signify search hits in one or more documents or logical unites of the individual documents. In addition, progress indicators are provided to inform the user of the progress of the background layout and linguistic processing used to annotate for each search result target page.

Claims

1. A method of annotating a representation of a search result target resource among a plurality of target resources identified in a resource search based on at least one search criterion, the method comprising:

generating the representation of one of the search result target resource identified among the plurality of target resources identified in the resource search,

wherein the search result target resource is not another plurality of target resources identified in a resource search based on at least one search criterion;

performing layout analysis of the search result target resource to identify two or more logical sections of the search result target resource,

wherein performing layout analysis comprises identifying two or more logical sections based on a physical display layout of the search result target resource,

wherein a logical section of the two or more logical sections constitutes a target section;

performing linguistic analysis of the search result target resource;

associating at least a portion of the linguistic analysis with the target section;

annotating the representation of the search result target resource with an annotation based on the linguistic analysis to indicate the target section includes an element that satisfies the at least one search criterion,

wherein the annotating operation comprises determining a number of one or more hits contained in the target section, inserting into the representation of the search result target resource an annotation, the annotation indicating the number of the one or more hits contained in the target section, and the annotation farther indicating the target section which has the existence of the at least one hit;

caching results of the layout analysis and the linguistic analysis for use by the annotating operation;

reformatting resource data corresponding to the target section for display on an incompatible display,

wherein reformatting comprises reformatting the target section with the annotation and the resource data that are modified based on the reformatting;

automatically analyzing one or more other search result target resources among the plurality of target resources identified in the resource search based on the at least one search criterion, automatically analyzing including;

determining whether each of the one or more other search result target resources is accessible;

determining one or more annotations for the accessible one or more other search result target resources; and

displaying a progress indicator for each of the one or more other search result target resources, each progress indicator indicating whether automatically analyzing is complete for one of the one or more other search result target resources, each progress indicator being selectable by a user to cause the one of the one or more other search result target resources to be displayed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the representation of the search result target resource includes a thumbnail image of the search result target resource.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the search result target resource includes a Web page.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource search includes a Web search performed by a Web search engine.

5. The method of claim 1 farther comprising:

caching the search result target resource that includes the at least one logical section.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

caching the representation of the search result target resource.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

caching search statistics for the search result target resource relating to the resource search.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a thumbnail image of a search results page that includes at least one search result referencing the at least one search result target resource; and

annotating the thumbnail image of the search results page to indicate a relative strength of the at least one search result.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a selection of an annotated logical section defined in the representation of the search result target resource;

extracting resource data corresponding to the annotated logical section from the search result target resource;

annotating the resource data corresponding to the annotated logical section to highlight an element satisfying the at least one search criterion.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

reformatting the resource data corresponding to the annotated logical section for display on an incompatible display.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource search includes a search through cached data from a previous resource search.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein an element that satisfies the at least one search criterion constitutes a hit, the cached data includes at least one search result target page, and further comprising:

annotating a logical section of the search result target page to indicate that the logical section contains the most hits for display in a detailed view mode.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

creating a searchable inverted index from the linguistic analysis of content elements of the search result target resource.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing statistical analysis of the target section of the search result target resource; and

creating a searchable inverted index from the statistical analysis of content elements of the search result target resource.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing statistical analysis of the target section of the search result target resource; and

caching results of the layout analysis and the statistical analysis for use by the annotation operation.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

creating a searchable inverted index from the linguistic analysis of content elements of the search result target resource; and

associating at least a portion of the searchable inverted index with the target section.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing statistical analysis of the search result target resource;

creating a searchable inverted index from the statistical analysis of content elements of the search result target resource; and

associating at least a portion of the searchable inverted index with the target section.

18. A computer program product encoding a computer program on a computer readable storage medium that when executed on a computer system executes a computer process for annotating a representation of a search result target resource among a plurality of target resources identified in a resource search based on at least one search criterion, the computer process comprising:

generating the representation of one of the search result target resource identified among the plurality of target resources identified in the resource search,

wherein the search result target resource is not another plurality of target resources identified in a resource search based on at least one search criterion;

performing layout analysis, on the computer system, of the search result target resource to identify two or more logical sections of the search result target resource,

wherein performing layout analysis comprises identifying two or more logical sections based on a physical display layout of the search result target resource,

wherein a logical section of the two or more logical sections constitutes a target section;

performing linguistic analysis of the search result target resource;

associating at least a portion of the linguistic analysis with the target section;

annotating the representation of the search result target resource with an annotation based on the linguistic analysis to indicate the target section includes an element that satisfies the at least one search criterion,

wherein the annotating operation comprises determining a number of one or more hits contained in the target section, inserting into the representation of the search result target resource an annotation, the annotation indicating the number of the one or more hits contained in the target section, and the annotation further indicating the target section which has the existence of the at least one hit;

reformatting resource data corresponding to the target section section for display on an incompatible display,

wherein the reformatting modifies the resource data and the annotation in the target section;

automatically analyzing one or more other search result target resources among the plurality of target resources identified in the resource search based on the at least one search criterion, automatically analyzing including;

determining whether each of the one or more other search result target resources is accessible;

determining one or more annotations for the accessible one or more other search result target resources; and

displaying a progress indicator for each of the one or more other search result target resources, each progress indicator indicating whether automatically analyzing is complete for one of the one or more other search result target resources, each progress indicator being selectable by a user to cause the one of the one or more other search result target resources to be displayed.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the representation of the search result target resource includes a thumbnail image of the search result target resource.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the search result target resource includes a Web page.

21. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the resource search includes a Web search performed by a Web search engine.

22. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

caching results of the layout analysis and the linguistic analysis for use by the annotating operation.

23. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

caching the search result target resource that includes the at least one logical section.

24. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

caching the representation of the search result target resource.

25. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

caching search statistics for the search result target resource relating to the resource.

26. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

generating a thumbnail image of a search results page that includes at least one search result referencing the at least one search result target resource; and

annotating the thumbnail image of the search results page to indicate a relative strength of the at least one search result.

27. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

receiving a selection of an annotated logical section defined in the representation of the search result target resource;

extracting resource data corresponding to the annotated logical section from the search result target resource;

annotating the resource data corresponding to the annotated logical section to highlight an element satisfying the at least one search criterion.

28. The computer program product of claim 27 wherein the computer process further comprises:

reformatting the resource data corresponding to the annotated logical section for display on an incompatible display.

29. The computer program product of claim 22 wherein the resource search includes a search through cached data from a previous resource search.

30. The computer program product of claim 29 wherein an element that satisfies the at least one search criterion constitutes a hit, the cached data includes at least one search result target resource page, and further comprising:

annotating a logical section of the search result target page to indicate that the logical section contains the most hits for display in a detailed view mode.

31. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

creating a searchable inverted index from the linguistic analysis of content elements of the search result target resource.

32. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

performing statistical analysis of the target section of the search result target resource; and

creating a searchable inverted index from the statistical analysis of content elements of the search result target resource.

33. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

performing statistical analysis of the target section of the search result target resource; and

caching results of the layout analysis and the statistical analysis for use by the annotation operation.

34. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

creating a searchable inverted index from the linguistic analysis of content elements of the search result target resource; and

associating at least a portion of the searchable inverted index with the target section.

35. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the computer process further comprises:

performing statistical analysis of the search result target resource;

creating a searchable inverted index from the statistical analysis of content elements of the search result target resource; and

associating at least a portion of the searchable inverted index with the target section.

36. A resource search apparatus for annotating a representation of a search result target resource among a plurality of target resources identified in a resource search based on at least one search criterion, the resource search apparatus comprising:

an image generator creating the representation of the search result target resource identified among the plurality of target resources identified in the resource search,

wherein the search result target resource is not another plurality of target resources identified in a resource search based on at least one search criterion;

a computer implemented layout analysis module analyzing the layout of the search result target resource to identify two or more logical sections of the search result target resource,

wherein the layout analysis module identifies the two or more logical section based on a physical display layout of the search result target resource,

wherein a logical section of the two or more logical sections constitutes a target section;

a linguistics analysis module performing linguistic analysis of the search result target resource;

an annotation module annotating the representation of the search result target resource with an annotation based on the linguistic analysis to indicate the target section includes an element that satisfies the at least one search criterion,

a memory configured to cache results of the layout analysis and the linguistic analysis for use by the annotating operation;

a display formatting module that reformats resource data corresponding to the target section for display on an incompatible display,

wherein the reformatting reformats both the annotation and the resource data in the target section;

an annotation module configured to automatically analyze one or more other search result target resources among the plurality of target resources identified in the resource search based on the at least one search criterion, the annotation module including;

a first determiner configured to determine whether each of the one or more other search result target resources is accessible;

a second determiner configured to determine one or more annotations for the accessible one or more other search result target resources; and

a display unit configured to display a progress indicator for each of the one or more other search result target resources, each progress indicator indicating whether automatically analyzing is complete for one of the one or more other search result target resources, each progress indicator being selectable by a user to cause the one of the one or more other search result target resources to be displayed.

37. The resource search apparatus of claim 36 wherein the representation the search result target resource includes a thumbnail image of the search result target resource.