Information search, retrieval and distillation into knowledge objects

• US 7,844,594 B1
• Filed: 08/25/2000
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accessify, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: SurfWax, Inc.
• Inventors: Burke, Larry Stephen, Holt, Thomas D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Khanh B
• Application Number:
  US09/649,436
• Time in Patent Office: 3,749 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707/706, 707/708, 707/722, 715/513, 715/523
• US Class Current: 707/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users

Abstract

The invention provides for various methods and apparatuses for searching bodies of knowledge, such as previously indexed source documents reachable over a network, search results from previous searches, and results from performing meta-searches. Search criteria is received from a client, and the bodies of knowledge are searched based on the search criteria, and search results provided responsive to said searching. Search results may be configured to have associated distillation triggers, where selecting a trigger causes its associated search result to be distilled in real-time. Distilled search results can be indexed into portions of the source document for focused entry, and can also be grouped and analytically presented on mid-menus to allow the user to review distilled data in summary form. Results may also have associated status symbols indicating by symbol a particular topic area to which a result is related, and by opacity or other indicator the apparent relevance of a result to the particular topic area. Search and viewing preferences may be determined according to psychometrics, user selection of a default user category, through a question/answer session, or based on monitoring user activity which incrementally defines a profile.

Claims

1. A method for real-time distillation of a source document, comprising:

receiving search criteria from a client;

searching at least one source based on the search criteria;

determining search results responsive to said searching;

distilling a selected one of the search results in substantially real time relative to the time of selection, the selected search result having a first content and wherein the distillation comprises the step of extracting content from the first content in accordance with at least one data type criterion selected from a plurality of predefined data type criteria; and

creating a distilled version of the selected search result including the extracted content, wherein the distilled version constitutes a data entity having a predefined format and that is distinct from the search result.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the step of creating an index in the distilled version, wherein the index allows selective entry into the content of the corresponding search result.

3. A method for displaying search results, comprising:

receiving search criteria from a client;

searching at least one source based on the search criteria;

determining search results responsive to said searching, the search results comprising source documents;

selecting one of the source documents, the selected document having a first content;

at substantially the time of selection, distilling the selected source document into a result object having a predefined format and that is created as a distinct data entity from the selected source document, wherein the result object includes a second content and the second content is derived from the first content in accordance with at least one predefined distillation criterion; and

creating an index from the result object into the selected source document, wherein selection of the index provides a display of a corresponding portion of the first content.

4. A method for displaying search results, comprising:

receiving search criteria from a client;

searching at least one source based on the search criteria;

determining a plurality of search results responsive to said searching;

distilling a selected one of the search results into a result object, wherein the result object is created as a separate data entity from the selected search result, and comprises content extracted from the selected search result;

creating a mid-menu that corresponds to the result object, the mid-menu comprising a plurality of menu options, each menu option including

at least one result category; and

a content metric, the content metric being a measure of a relative value of the result category; and

displaying the mid-menu.

5. A method as in claim 4, wherein the content metric comprises a quantitative measure of the relative value of the result category.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein the quantitative measure comprises a number of results for the result category.

7. A method as in claim 5, wherein the quantitative measure comprises a number of occurrences of pre-specified data.

8. A method as in claim 4, wherein the content metric comprises a qualitative measure of the relative value of the result category.

9. A method as in claim 8, wherein the qualitative measure comprises an indicator of the relevance of the results of the result category to the search criteria.

10. A method as in claim 4, wherein at least one result category comprises a data type.

11. A method as in claim 4, wherein at least one result category comprises a user-defined type.

12. A method as in claim 4, additionally comprising determining user preferences, and dynamically creating the mid-menu in accordance with the user preferences.

13. A method for displaying search results, comprising:

receiving search criteria from a client;

searching a plurality of sources based on the search criteria;

determining search results responsive to said searching;

distilling a selected one of the search results into a result object, wherein the result object is created as a separate data entity from the selected search result, and comprises content extracted from the selected search result;

determining user preferences;

creating a mid-menu in accordance with the user preferences, the mid-menu corresponding to the result object and comprising a plurality of menu options, each menu option including

a result category, each result category having a number of results; and

a content metric for each result category, the content metric being a measure of the value of the result category; and

displaying the mid-menu.

14. A method as in claim 13, wherein the content metric comprises a quantitative measure for each result category.

15. A method as in claim 13, wherein the content metric comprises a qualitative measure for each result category.

16. A method for searching, comprising:

receiving search criteria;

searching at least one body of knowledge based on the search criteria;

providing a plurality of search results that are responsive to the searching;

displaying on a display device a list of at least some of the search results, the list comprising;

a separate and unique identifier corresponding to each one of the search results in the list; and

a separate distillation trigger associated with each unique identifier; and

wherein selection by a user of a distillation trigger causes a substantial real-time creation of a distilled version of the search result corresponding to the unique identifier associated with the selected distillation trigger, and wherein the distilled version is created as a data entity distinct from the corresponding search result and includes content extracted from the search result.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the unique identifier is a URL corresponding to the search result in the list.

18. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the unique identifier is a title corresponding to the search result in the list.

19. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the unique identifier is an abstract corresponding to the search result in the list.

20. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein selection by a user of the unique identifier causes a full content version of the corresponding search result to be displayed on the display device.

21. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the distilled version includes content extracted from the corresponding search result in accordance with at least one predefined data type.

22. A method as defined in claim 21, wherein the at least one predefined data type is selected from one of the following data types:

a key point;

a focus word;

a matched-in-context key point;

a title; and

a URL.

23. A method as defined in claim 21, wherein the at least one data type provides an index to content of the corresponding search result.

24. A method as defined in claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

displaying the distilled version on the display device; and

wherein selection by a user of a predefined data type within the displayed distilled version causes a substantially real time entry into the content of the corresponding search result.

25. A method as defined in claim 24, further comprising the step of displaying a predefined portion of the content of the search result, wherein the predefined portion is adjacent to the data type selected by the user within the distilled version.

26. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the step of displaying the distilled version on the display device.

27. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein at least some of the search results are comprised of textual documents.

28. A method for searching, comprising:

receiving search criteria;

searching at least one body of knowledge based on the search criteria;

providing a plurality of search results that are responsive to the searching;

distilling a selected one of the search results into a result object that is created as a data entity having a predefined format and that is distinct from the search result, the result object including content extracted from the selected search result in accordance with a plurality of data type preferences selected from a plurality of predefined data type preference types;

creating a menu corresponding to the result object, the menu including a plurality of menu options, wherein each menu option defines a result category that is descriptive of a predefined portion of the content of the result object; and

graphically displaying the menu on a display device, wherein a user may optionally select any one of the menu options.

29. A method as defined in claim 28, wherein at least one result category comprises one of the selected data type preference types used to distil the search result.

30. A method as defined in claim 28, wherein selection of a menu option causes a corresponding content portion of the result object to be displayed on the display device.

31. A method as defined in claim 28, wherein selection of a menu option causes a corresponding content portion of the selected search result to be displayed on the display device.

32. A method as defined in claim 28, further comprising a plurality of content metrics that are associated with a corresponding menu option, wherein each content metric is representative of a value for the result category of the menu option.

33. A method as defined in claim 32, wherein the value represented by the content metric is a quantitative measure of the corresponding result category.

34. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the quantitative measure comprises a number of results for the corresponding result category.

35. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the quantitative measure comprises a number of occurrences of a data type specified by the corresponding result category.

36. A method as defined in claim 32, wherein the value represented by the content metric is a qualitative measure of the corresponding result category.

37. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the qualitative measure is indicative of the degree of relevance of the corresponding result category to the search criteria.