Sharing user distributed search results

• US 8,122,019 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2006
• Issued: 02/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lucovsky, Mark, Collison, Derek L., Sjogreen, Carl P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital, Pierre M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nofal, Christopher P
• Application Number:
  US11/420,970
• Publication Number:
  US 20070130126A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,093 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications

Abstract

A universal distributed search system allows users to find and distribute search results (possibly including advertisements) to those with whom they communicate. The search results can be easily distributed by the user via a simple interface that allows the search results to be easily added to the user'"'"'s content. In one implementation, the search results may be automatically generated by the system based on user input to a content creation application.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a memory to store instructions to provide to a user a content creation application comprising;

a first interface comprising logic to;

facilitate composition of a message from a user,

receive text from the user via the first interface,

recognize entities in the received text, where the entities include at least one of terms corresponding to a postal address or terms corresponding to commercial products,

generate, in response to receiving the text, a search query based on the received text, where the search query includes at least one of the recognized entities, and

a second interface comprising logic to;

display one or more search results relating to the generated search query,

provide a save link associated with each of the one or more search results, and

receive a selection of one or more save links from the user; and

logic to automatically incorporate, in response to receiving the selection, particular ones of the one or more search results, corresponding to the selected one or more save links, into the message in the first interface; and

a processor to execute the instructions.

2. The device of claim 1, where the content creation application additionally comprises:

logic to submit the generated search query to a network search component.

3. The device of claim 2, where the network search component includes a web search component, an image search component, a video search component, a local search component, a geographic search component, a product search component, a listing search component, an email search component, a blog search component, a message group search component, a news search component, a digitized content search component, a desktop search component, or an advertisement search component.

4. The device of claim 1, where the generated search query is submitted to a plurality of network search components.

5. The device of claim 1, where the logic to generate a search query further includes logic to recognize terms that define an address.

6. The device of claim 1, where the logic to generate a search query is trained to take into account a type of content creation application that is used by the user.

7. The device of claim 6, where the content creation application includes an email application, an instant messaging application, a blog post creation application, an application for posting messages to Internet message boards, or a web site creation application.

8. The device of claim 1, where the logic to generate a search query generates the search query in response to a triggering event.

9. The device of claim 8, where the triggering event includes a predetermined user action or user inactivity for a predetermined period.

10. A method performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising:

providing, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, an interface to facilitate composition of text by a user;

receiving, by one of the one or more server devices, message text from the user via the interface, where the message text is presented to another user;

identifying, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, a particular topic associated with the provided interface;

recognizing, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, entities in the received text, where the entities include at least one of terms corresponding to a postal address, terms corresponding to commercial products, or terms corresponding to organizations;

generating, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices and in response to receiving the message text, a search query based on the message text, where the search query includes at least one of the recognized entities;

modifying, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices and in response to generating the search query, the search query by adding one or more terms relating to the identified particular topic;

initiating, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices and in response to modifying the search query, a search based on the search query by submitting the search query to a network search component;

receiving, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, one or more results of the search;

providing, by one of the one or more server devices, the one or more results of the search in the interface, the provided one or more results of the search each including a selection object;

receiving, by one of the one or more server devices, a selection of the selection objects from the user; and

incorporating, using one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices and in response to receiving the selection, the one or more results of the search that correspond to the selection of the selection objects into the text in the interface.

11. The method of claim 10, where the interface includes:

a first sidebar displayed in the interface for displaying results of the search, the first sidebar including a button that, when selected by the user, removes the first sidebar from the interface.

12. The method of claim 11, where the interface further includes:

a second sidebar displayed in the interface for receiving a second search query that is manually entered by the user.

13. The method of claim 10, where the network search component is selected from one of

an image search component, a video search component, a local search component, a geographic search component, a product search component, a listing search component, an email search component, a blog search component, a message group search component, a news search component, a digitized content search component, a desktop search component, or an advertisement search component.

14. The method of claim 10, where generating the search query includes generating the search query in response to a triggering event.

15. The method of claim 14, where the triggering event includes a predetermined user action or user inactivity for a predetermined period.

16. The method of claim 10, where the recognized entities include products or organizations.

17. The method of claim 10, where the entities are recognized by taking into account a type of the application provided by the interface.

18. The method of claim 10, where initiating the search additionally includes transmitting the search query to a plurality of search services, the plurality of search services returning one or more search result types.

19. The method of claim 18, where the search result types include web search results, image search results, video search results, local search results, geographic search results, product search results, listing search results, email search results, blog search results, message group search results, news search results, digitized content search results, desktop search results, or advertisements.

20. The method of claim 10, where the interface configured to facilitate composition of a message by the user includes one of an email interface, an instant messaging interface, a blog post interface, an interface for an application for posting messages to Internet message boards, or a web site creation interface.

21. One or more memory devices containing instructions for execution by one or more processing devices, the one or more memory devices comprising:

one or more instructions to provide, to a user, a content creation application;

one or more instructions to receive text entered by the user while composing a message using the content creation application;

one or more instructions to identify a particular topic associated with the provided content creation application;

one or more instructions to recognize entities in the received text, where the entities include at least one of terms corresponding to a postal address, terms corresponding to commercial products, or terms corresponding to organizations;

one or more instructions to generate a search query based on the received text, where the search query includes at least one of the recognized entities;

one or more instructions to add terms to the generated search query, where the terms are selected based on the identified particular topic;

one or more instructions to initiate a search based on the generated search query;

one or more instructions to receive one or more results of the search;

one or more instructions to provide the one or more results of the search to the user, the provided one or more results of the search each including a first graphical object;

one or more instructions to receive a selection of the one or more results of the search based on a selection of one of the first graphical objects, where the selection of one of the first graphical objects comprises a drag and drop operation relating to one of the first graphical objects by clicking and dragging the selected one of the first graphical objects from an area where the one or more results are displayed to an area where the message is being composed; and

one or more instructions to automatically incorporate the one or more results of the search into the message based on the selection.

22. One or more memory devices of claim 21, where the instructions for initiating the search based on the search query additionally include instructions for transmitting the search query to a plurality of search services, the search services returning one or more search result types.

23. One or more memory devices of claim 22, where the search result types include web search results, image search results, video search results, local search results, geographic search results, product search results, listing search results, email search results, blog search results, message group search results, news search results, digitized content search results, desktop search results, or advertisements.

24. One or more memory devices of claim 21, further comprising:

instructions for implementing entity recognition techniques on the text entered by the user.

25. One or more memory devices of claim 24, where the instructions for implementing entity recognition techniques implement entity recognition techniques trained to recognize products or organizations in the text entered by the user.