Accelerating find in page queries within a web browser

• US 8,433,719 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2012
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Choc, Theodore Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US13/466,967
• Time in Patent Office: 357 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/768
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

Techniques for extending the functionality of a search field within a web browser to include a user-selectable accelerator option to invoke a find in page feature of the web browser are provided. A search query option for the find in page functionality of the browser may be displayed in association with the search field of the web browser. The search query option may include a user-selectable graphical component enabling the user to invoke find in page based on a search term entered into the search field of the browser. The user may select the graphical component to initiate a search for the term within a web page that is either displayed or will be displayed to the user via the web browser. The displayed web page may include a visual indication of each occurrence of the search term within the web page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying, by a web browser of a client device, a web page, including web page data;

receiving input from a user via a search field of the web browser, the search field enabling input for a web-based search, the acquired user input including entry of a search term;

responsive to the received user input, displaying within the web browser at least two search query options for the search term in association with the search field of the web browser, wherein the at least two search query options include performing a web search of the search term and performing a search of the search term within the web page data, the at least two search query options being displayed within a drop-down list control element in association with the search field of the web browser;

upon selection of the search query option to perform the search of the search term within the web page data, identifying for the user one or more occurrences of the search term within the web page data,

performing a search for additional web page data related to at least a portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field;

automatically generating predictions for the at least two search query options to be displayed in real time within the drop-down list control element, based on the portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field; and

dynamically updating in real time the at least two search query options being displayed as entries within the drop-down list control element based on the predictions for the at least two search query options generated by the prediction service.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving a request from the user to navigate to the web page using the web browser, pre-fetching the web page data to be loaded within the web browser,

wherein the displaying of the at least two search query options within the web browser comprises;

determining whether any occurrence of the search term input by the user occurs in the pre-fetched web page data; and

displaying the at least two search query options including a user-selectable graphical component in association with the search field of the web browser, when it is determined that at least one occurrence of the search term appears in the pre-fetched web page data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search field is included within an address bar of the web browser, the address bar enabling the user to enter a uniform resource locator associated with the web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying comprises:

displaying the at least two search query options and a graphical component for selecting one of the at least two search query options within the search field of the web browser.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed search query option includes a graphical component for selecting the search query option, and the search of the search term within the web page data is performed in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the graphical component associated with the search query option.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the at least two search query options based on results of the performed search, a first of the at least two search query option corresponding to performing a search of the search term within the web page data being displayed as a first entry within the drop-down list control element, and a remainder of the at least two search query options being displayed as additional entries within the drop-down list control element, each of the additional entries including a user-selectable graphical component for selecting the respective search query options.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein

automatically generating the predictions for the at least two search query options comprises utilizing a prediction service for automatically generating the predictions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predictions for the at least two search query options include one or more predictions generated by the prediction service based on web search data corresponding to one or more web pages related to the portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the predictions for the at least two search query options include one or more predictions generated by the prediction service based on a browsing history stored for the web browser at the client device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the predictions for the at least two search query options include one or more predictions generated by the prediction service based on a set of uniform resource locators stored at the client device, the uniform resource locators corresponding to user-favored web pages as previously specified by the user via the web browser.

20. The method of claim 5, wherein the web search of the search term is performed in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a portion of the displayed search query option external to the graphical component associated with the search query option to perform the search of the search term within the web page data.

11. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

retrieving web page data to be loaded within a web browser, the web browser being executable at a client device, and the web page data corresponding to a web page to be displayed by the web browser;

acquiring input from a user of the client device via a search field of the web browser, the search field enabling input for a web-based search, the acquired user input including entry of a search term relating to the web page data, and to display within a drop-down list control element in association with the web browser at least two search query options for the search term in response to the acquired user input, the at least two search query options being displayed in association with the search field of the web browser, and the displayed at least two search query options including a user-selectable graphical component for selecting each of the search query option, the at least two search query options including performing a web search of the search term and performing a search of the search term within the web page data;

performing a text-based search for the search term within the retrieved web page data, in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the search query option via the graphical component, and to generate the displayed search query options, the search query option being generated based on the acquired user input;

performing a search for additional web page data related to at least a portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field;

automatically generating predictions for the at least two search query options to be displayed in real time within the drop-down list control element, based on the portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field;

dynamically updating in real time the at least two search query options being displayed as entries within the drop-down list control element based on the predictions for the at least two search query options generated by the prediction service; and

displaying the web page data in a content area of the web browser, wherein the displayed web page data identifies one or more occurrences of the search term within the web page data, when a selection of the search query option corresponding to performing the search of the search term within the web page data is received.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions for:

pre-fetching the web page data to be loaded within the web browser in response to a request from the user to navigate to the web page using the web browser,

determining whether any occurrence of the search term input by the user occurs in the pre-fetched web page data, and

displaying the at least two search query options including the user-selectable graphical component in association with the search field of the web browser, when it is determined by the parser that at least one occurrence of the search term appears in the pre-fetched web page data.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the search field is included within an address bar of the web browser, the address bar enabling the user to enter a uniform resource locator associated with the web page.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions for displaying the at least two search query options and the graphical component for selecting the at least two search query options within the search field of the web browser.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions for displaying the at least two search query options and the graphical component for selecting the search query option corresponding to performing the search of the search term within the web page data as a first entry within a drop-down list control element in association with the search field of the web browser.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions for:

displaying the at least two search query options based on results of the performed search, a remainder of the at least two search query options being displayed as additional entries within the drop-down list control element, each of the additional entries including a user-selectable graphical component for selecting the respective search query options.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein

automatically generating the predictions for the at least two search query options comprises utilizing a prediction service for automatically generating the predictions.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the prediction service automatically predicts the remainder of the at least two search query options based on search activities of the user and other users of a search engine associated with the web browser, the search activities of the user corresponding to a browsing history associated with the web browser.

19. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

acquiring input from a user via a search field of a web browser at a client device, the web browser having web page data for a web page loaded therein, the user input including entry of a search term relating to the web page data;

responsive to the acquired user input, displaying a search query option corresponding to performing a web search of the search term, and a user-selectable graphical component for selecting the search query option as a first entry within a drop-down list control element in association with the search field of the web browser;

performing a search for additional web page data related to at least a portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field;

displaying additional search query options based on results of the performed search, the additional search query options being displayed as additional entries within the drop-down list control element, each of the additional entries including a user-selectable graphical component for selecting the respective search query options;

responsive to the user'"'"'s selection of the search query option via the user-selectable graphical component displayed as one of the additional entries within the drop-down list control element, performing a text-based search for the search term corresponding to the selected additional entry within the web page data;

automatically generating predictions for the first entry and the additional entries to be displayed in real time within the drop-down list control element, based on the portion of the search term being input by the user into the search field;

dynamically updating in real time the at least two search query options being displayed as entries within the drop-down list control element based on the predictions for the at least two search query options generated by the prediction service; and

displaying the web page data in a content area of the web browser, wherein the displayed web page data identifies to the user at least one occurrence of the search term within the web page.