Automatic task creation and execution using browser helper objects

• US 7,933,914 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2005
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yao, Qi Steven, Katariya, Sanjeev, Ramsey, William D., Chen, Zhanliang
• Primary Examiner(s): Mahmoudi; Tony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong; Dennis
• Application Number:
  US11/294,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20070130186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,968 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/601, 707/751, 707/755, 707/760, 707/771, 715/500, 715/700, 715/224
• US Class Current: 707/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A task system and method are provided. The system provides an automated approach for task creation, maintenance and/or execution. The system includes a browser that receives search results and at least one task associated with a query from a search engine. The system further includes a browser helper object that binds to the browser at runtime. The browser helper object provides information associated with a user'"'"'s action with respect to the search results and/or at least one task. The information can be employed as feedback to update model(s) (e.g., query classification model(s) and/or slot-filling model(s)) of a semantic reasoning component that retrieves task based, at least in part, upon user query(ies).

Claims

1. A task system, including a processor communicatively coupled to a memory, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the task system comprising:

a browser that receives a query, and in response to receiving the query,

further receives search results from a search engine for a search based at least in part on the query received, and

further receives information related to at least one task object, wherein the at least one task object is selected from one or more sets of task objects stored in one or more memories, each task object comprises at least one modifiable parameter facilitating selection of the at least one task object based at least in part on the query received by the browser;

a browser helper object that binds to the browser at runtime, the browser helper object provides information associated with a user'"'"'s action with respect to the received search results or the received information related to at least one task object, the browser helper object creates an object model corresponding to a schema associated with a web page associated with the user'"'"'s action, the browser helper object further inserts at least one of the at least one modifiable parameter into a form associated with a web page associated with the user'"'"'s action, the browser helper object further provides click-through information when the user'"'"'s action comprises selecting a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the received search results, the click-through information including the selected URL, the browser helper object further provides information regarding a website when the user'"'"'s action comprises manually navigating to the website, the information regarding the website including the URL of the website;

a task retrieval model that is updated when the search results are received, the task retrieval model updated based on the click-through information obtained from the browser helper object; and

a slot-filling model that is updated when the search results are received, the slot-filling model having one or more slots that hold pieces of information about the at least one task object, the slot-filling model being updated with at least one new parameter representing one new piece of information not currently present in the slot-filling model when the search results include the new piece of information and the new piece of information is not present in the slot-filling model, the slot-filling model also learning one or more new patterns for filling slots based on the search results.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a semantic reasoning component that identifies the at least one task object based, at least in part, upon the query.

3. The system of claim 2, the semantic reasoning component comprising an information retrieval model and a query classification model.

4. The system of claim 3, the semantic reasoning component updates the information retrieval model and/or the query classification model based, at least in part, upon the information associated with the user'"'"'s action.

5. The system of claim 2, the semantic reasoning component, the browser and the browser helper object resident on a user'"'"'s computer system.

6. The system of claim 2, the semantic reasoning component creates a new task object based, at least in part, upon the information associated with the user'"'"'s action.

7. The system of claim 2, the semantic reasoning component further comprises a slot-filling model that provides a slot value based upon a particular task object and the query.

8. The system of claim 7, the slot-filling model updated based, at least in part, upon the information associated with the user'"'"'s action.

9. The system of claim 1, the information associated with the user'"'"'s action comprising a clicked-through URL.

10. The system of claim 1, the information associated with the user'"'"'s action comprising a manually entered URL.

11. The system of claim 1, the information associated with the user'"'"'s action does not contain any information which is constituted as personally identifiable.

12. The system of claim 1, the task object comprising at least a name parameter, a title parameter, a description parameter and a keyword parameter.

13. A method facilitating a user query session, comprising:

receiving search results and information related to at least one task object comprising at least one modifiable parameter, the at least one task object selected from a task object database, the search results and information being responsive to a query;

using a browser helper object to obtain information from the search results, the browser helper object;

binding to a browser at runtime, the browser helper object providing information associated with a user'"'"'s action with respect to the received search results or the received information related to the at least one task object;

creating an object model corresponding to a schema associated with a web page associated with the user'"'"'s action, the browser helper object inserting at least one of the at least one modifiable parameter into a form associated with the web page associated with the user'"'"'s action;

providing click-through information when the user'"'"'s action comprises selecting a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the received search results, the click-through information including the selected URL; and

providing information regarding a website when the user'"'"'s action comprises manually navigating to the website, the information regarding the website including the URL of the website;

providing the information obtained from the browser helper object regarding the selected URL;

performing form filling on the form associated with the selected URL based, at least in part, upon the query;

providing information extracted from the form filled by the user, if any information from the query is included in the form;

updating a task retrieval model when the search results are received, the task retrieval model updated based on the click-through information obtained from the browser helper object when the search results are obtained; and

updating a slot-filling model when the search results are received, the slot-filling model having one or more slots that hold pieces of information about the at least one task object, the slot-filling model being updated with at least one new parameter representing one new piece of information not currently present in the slot-filling model when the search results include the new piece of information and the new piece of information is not present in the slot-filling model, the slot-filling model also learning one or more new patterns for filling slots based on the search results.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing information regarding a manually navigated website.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

submitting the query to a search engine.

16. The method of claim 13, the performing of form filling on a form comprises inserting a value into at least one of one or more input boxes or one or more selection boxes.

17. A computer-implemented task object library system facilitating automatic form filling comprising:

a processor communicatively coupled to a memory, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the task object library system including;

a task store comprising one or more task objects, wherein each task object further comprises at least one modifiable parameter;

a browser that receives a user query and based at least in part on the received query;

facilitates relaying the user query to a search engine and receives the results of the search engine operations on the relayed user query,

accesses at least one task object of the task store, and receives at least one parameter value therefrom, when a task object related to the query is accessible in the task store, and

generates a task object with at least one modifiable parameter and facilitates storing the generated task object in the task store, when a task object related to the query is not accessible in the task store;

a runtime browser helper object that automatically populates form fields or forms related to an accessed Uniform Resource Locator (URL) based at least in part on the user query and the at least one received modifiable parameter, the runtime browser helper object creating an object model corresponding to a schema associated with a web page associated with a user'"'"'s action, the browser helper object further provides click-through information when the user'"'"'s action comprises selecting a URL from the received results of the search engine operations, the click-through information including the selected URL, the browser helper object further provides information regarding a website when the user'"'"'s action comprises manually navigating to the website, the information regarding the website including the URL of the website;

a task retrieval model that is updated when the search results are received, the task retrieval model updated based on the click-through information obtained from the browser helper object; and

a slot-filling model that is updated when the search results are received, the slot-filling model having one or more slots that hold pieces of information about the at least one task object, the slot-filling model being updated with at least one new parameter representing one new piece of information not currently present in the slot-filling model when the search results include the new piece of information and the new piece of information is not present in the slot-filling model, the slot-filling model also learning one or more new patterns for filling slots based on the search results.