Selection-based item tagging

• US 7,831,913 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2005
• Issued: 11/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: MacLaurin, Matthew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): WIENER, ERIC A
• Application Number:
  US11/193,586
• Publication Number:
  US 20070028171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 715/705, 715230-233, 715/708, 715/710, 715/816, 715/825, 715/968, 707/696, 707736-747, 704/251, 706/12, 706/59, 706/934
• US Class Current: 715/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/934 Information retrieval or Information management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

Item selections along with user inputs are leveraged to provide users with automated item tagging. Further user interaction with additional windows and other interfacing techniques are not required to tag the item. In one example, a user selects items and begins typing a tag which is automatically associated with the selected items without further user action. Tagging suggestions can also be supplied based on a user'"'"'s selection, be dynamically supplied based on a user'"'"'s input action, and/or be formulated automatically based on user data and/or tags and the like associated with selections by an external source. Machine learning can also be utilized to facilitate in tag determination. This increases the value of the tagged items by providing greater item access flexibility and allowing multiple associations (or tags) with each item.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable components of a system that facilitates tagging of computerized data, the system comprising:

a graphical user interface having a window to display information regarding at least one file of a file system and including at least one element of a graphical user interface that, when the window is in a tagging state, displays information regarding at least one suggested tag that may be applied to at least one first file, wherein the window enters into the tagging state upon detecting a selection of the at least one first file by the user and detecting at least one user input corresponding to successive characters of a tag that is desired to be applied to the at least one first file, wherein the window enters into the tagging state without requiring the user to enter a separate user interface or to provide user inputs other than the user inputs corresponding to the successive characters of the tag desired to be applied to the at least one first file; and

a tagging component to provide dynamically, when the window enters the tagging state, the at least one suggested tag to the user via the window in response to the at least one user input, the at least one suggested tag being suggested based on, at least in part, the user input, and to associate at least one first tag with the at least one first file upon selection of the at least one first tag by the user.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the tagging component dynamically provides the at least one suggested tag in response to one or more successive keyboard keystrokes respectively corresponding to the successive characters of the tag desired to be applied to the at least one first file as provided by the user as user input subsequent to selection of the at least one first file.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the tagging component heuristically determines the at least one suggested tag based on at least one of a first file of the at least one first file, a tag associated with a file similar to the at least one first file, a recently-utilized tag, a commonly-used tag, a rule-based criterion, or a heuristic-based criterion.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the tagging component employs machine learning to determine the at least one suggested tag.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the tagging component employs at least one external source to facilitate in determining the at least one suggested tag.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the tagging component employs user data to determine the at least one suggested tag.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising a tag reconciliation component that obtains one or more tags from a plurality of respective users at disparate computing devices and reconciles the tag sets corresponding to respective users to create a common tag set for the plurality of users based on the obtained tags.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising a component that stores the at least one suggested tag provided by the tagging component and one or more explicit tags provided by the user.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising a component that assigns a first confidence level to respective suggested tags and a second confidence level to respective explicit tags, wherein the window of the graphical user interface displays an indication of confidence levels applied to tags associated with the at least one first file.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the tagging component provides the at least one suggested tag from a formal taxonomy obtained from the at least one external source based on context information relating to the user.

7. A method for facilitating tagging of computerized data, the method comprising:

operating at least one programmed processor to carry out a series of acts identified by executable instructions with which the at least one programmed processor is programmed, the series of acts comprising;

detecting a selection by a user of at least one file via a computing interface having a graphical window to display information about contents of a file system, the contents comprising the at least one file;

detecting one or more inputs corresponding to successive characters of a tag desired to be applied to at least one first file;

activating a tagging mode for the graphical window upon detecting the user selection and the one or more inputs without requiring any user action other than the user selection and the one or more inputs corresponding to successive characters of the tag to be applied to at least one first file, wherein the graphical window includes at least one element of a user interface that, when the graphical window is in the tagging mode, displays information regarding suggested tags that may be applied to the at least one first file; and

in response to activation of the tagging mode;

determining at least one local suggested tag from at least one local data store of tags;

retrieving a set of tags from at least one external data store of tags based on at least one characteristic of the at least one first file, the at least one external data store of tags being different from the at least one local data store of tags;

determining at least one external suggested tag from the set of tags; and

automatically providing, via the at least one element of the user interface of the graphical window, the at least one local suggested tag and the at least one external suggested tag to the user as the suggested tags for the at least one first file.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

relaying an indication to the user via the computing interface, upon activation of the tagging mode, that the tagging mode is activated.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

dynamically providing the at least one local suggested tag and/or the at least one external suggested tag for the at least one first file to the user via the computing interface in response to the one or more inputs by repeating the acts of determining based on additional inputs provided by the user.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

heuristically determining the at least one local suggested tag based on one or more of a selected file of the at least one first file, a tag associated with a similar file, a recently-utilized tag, a commonly-used tag, a rule-based criterion, or a heuristic-based criterion.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

employing machine learning to facilitate in determining the at least one local suggested tag and/or the at least one external suggested tag.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

accumulating the one or more inputs into a buffer as they are successively detected; and

utilizing the buffer to facilitate in determining the at least one local suggested tag and/or the at least one external suggested tag for the at least one first file.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

relaying an indication of a current optimal suggested tag to the user via the computing interface.

19. The method of claim 7, wherein the series of acts further comprises:

determining at least one user characteristic relating to the user, and

wherein retrieving the set of tags from the at least one external data store of tags based on at least one characteristic comprises retrieving the set of tags based on the at least one characteristics of the at least one file and the at least one user characteristic.

14. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable components of a system that facilitates tagging of computerized data, the system comprising:

a user interface having a graphical window that interacts with a user to facilitate display of information regarding at least one file of a file system and selection of at least one first file of the at least one file, wherein when the graphical window of the user interface detects a selection of at least one file by the user and an input of successive keyboard keystrokes from the user corresponding to successive characters of a tag desired to be applied to the at least one first file, the graphical window enters a tagging state and displays, via at least one element of the graphical window, information regarding at least one suggested tag that may be applied to the at least one first file;

a component that, upon triggering of the tagging state, determines the at least one suggested tag for the at least one first file based at least in part on the successive keyboard keystrokes from the user, a common characteristic of the at least one first file, and a characteristic of the user and provides the at least one suggested tag to the at least one element of the graphical window for display; and

a tagging component that applies one or more tags selected by the user to the at least one first file.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the characteristic of the user is at least one of an identity property of the user, a type of work engaged in by the user, and a current project on which the user is working.