Accessing a search interface in a structured presentation

• US 8,977,645 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2009
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Crow, Daniel N., Loreto, Daniel, Pavese, Antonella, Aiuto, Anthony J., Komoroske, John Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US12/355,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20100185666A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,244 Days
• Field of Search: 707/770, 707/790, 707/805, 707/E17.008, 715/212, 715/273
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs stored on computer storage media, for accessing a search interface from a structured presentation. One aspect can be embodied in machine-implemented methods that include the actions of displaying a structured presentation on a display device, receiving data characterizing a user interaction with the displayed structured presentation, the data including a specification of a first instance and a first attribute of the structured presentation, and displaying a formerly concealed search interface on the display device in response to receiving the data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more computers programmed to interact with client devices and to perform operations comprising;

receiving a search query;

providing a structured presentation for display on a display device responsive to the search query, the structured presentation visually presenting information in a systematic and structured arrangement that conforms with a structured design, the structured presentation denoting associations between an instance and values that characterize attributes of an entity corresponding to the instance using an arrangement of the values in respective cells of the structured presentation, wherein one or more values of in the respective cells are populated from one or more electronic documents identified from a search of an unstructured collection of electronic documents;

receiving a user interaction with a first cell of the structured presentation, the first cell having a first value for a particular attribute of an instance associated with the first cell; and

in response to the received user interaction with the first cell;

determining that the first value of the first cell provided in the structured presentations resulted from a prior search of the unstructured collection of electronic documents that identified one or more particular electronic documents as including content characterizing the particular attribute of the instance, wherein the first value was determined from the content of the one or more particular electronic documents; and

in response to determining that the prior search was conducted, providing information regarding the prior search including providing a search interface associated with the first value of the first cell for presentation on the display device, the search interface configured to present search result information characterizing the prior search including providing information identifying a first electronic document of the particular electronic documents from which the first value for the attribute of the instance was determined including providing for display a link to the first electronic document.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interaction with the first cell comprises receiving data characterizing a manual user specification of the first instance and the first attribute that are associated with the first cell.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing information identifying a plurality of electronic documents from which the first value could have been determined in response to determining that the prior search was conducted.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing the information identifying the electronic document in a display element of the search interface, wherein the search interface was concealed wholly or partially from view in the display of the structured presentation on the display screen prior to the user interaction with the first cell.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the electronic document is inoperable to provide the first value; and

displaying a visual indication of the inoperability of the electronic document.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise updating a display of the value in the first cell of the structured presentation in response to the user interaction.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing a snippet characterizing a context of the first value in the electronic document of the electronic document collection in response to determining that the prior search was conducted.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the unstructured collection of electronic documents comprises electronic documents available on the Internet; and

the electronic documents comprise web pages.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the structured presentation comprises a collection of cards.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein providing information regarding the prior search further includes providing information identifying multiple source electronic documents of the collection of electronic documents including one or more electronic documents having different values from the first value.

11. The system of claim 1, comprising performing a new search in response to determining that the first value of the first cell resulted from the prior search and providing information characterizing one or more electronic documents returned by the new search.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

providing a structured presentation for display on a display device responsive to the search query, the structured presentation visually presenting information in a systematic and structured arrangement that conforms with a structured design, the structured presentation denoting associations between an instance and values that characterize attributes an entity corresponding to of the instance using an arrangement of the values in respective cells of the structured presentation responsive to the search query;

receiving a user interaction with a first cell of the structured presentation, the first cell having a first value for a particular attribute of an instance associated with the first cell; and

in response to the received user interaction with the first cell;

determining that the first value of the first cell provided in the structured presentations resulted from a prior search of the unstructured collection of electronic documents by a system comprising one or more computers that identified one or more particular electronic documents as including content characterizing the particular attribute of the instance, wherein the first value was determined from the content of the one or more particular electronic documents; and

in response to determining that the prior search was conducted, providing information regarding the prior search including providing a search interface associated with the first value of the first cell for presentation on the display device, the search interface configured to present search result information characterizing the prior search including providing information identifying a first electronic document of the particular electronic documents from which the first value for the attribute of the instance was determined including providing for display a link to the first electronic document.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user interaction with the first cell comprises receiving data characterizing a manual user specification of the first instance and the first attribute that are associated with the first cell.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising identifying a collection of electronic documents from which the first value could have been determined.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the second identifier identifying the first of the electronic documents comprises providing the information for display in a display element of the search interface, wherein the search interface was concealed wholly or partially from view in the display of the structured presentation on the display screen prior to the user interaction with the first cell.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that a second electronic document is inoperable to provide the first value; and

providing for display a visual indication of the inoperability of the second electronic document.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

updating a display of a value in the first cell of the structured presentation in response to the user interaction.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising displaying a snippet characterizing a context of the first value in a first document of the electronic document collection.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the collection of electronic documents comprises electronic documents available on the Internet; and

the electronic documents comprise web pages.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the structured presentation comprises a collection of cards.

21. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving a search query;

providing a structured presentation for display on a display device responsive to the search query, the structured presentation visually presenting information in a systematic and structured arrangement that conforms with a structured design, the structured presentation denoting associations between an instance and values that characterize attributes of an entity corresponding to the instance using an arrangement of the values in respective cells of the structured presentation, wherein one or more values of in the respective cells are populated from one or more electronic documents identified from a search of an unstructured collection of electronic documents;

receiving a user interaction with a first cell of the structured presentation, the first cell having a first value for a particular attribute of an instance associated with the first cell; and

in response to the received user interaction with the first cell;

determining that the first value of the first cell provided in the structured presentations resulted from a prior search of the unstructured collection of electronic documents by a system comprising one or more computers that identified one or more particular electronic documents as including content characterizing the particular attribute of the instance, wherein the first value was determined from the content of the one or more particular electronic documents; and

in response to determining that the prior search was conducted, providing information regarding the prior search including providing a search interface associated with the first value of the first cell for presentation on the display device, the search interface configured to present search result information characterizing the prior search including providing information identifying a first electronic document of the particular electronic documents from which the first value for the attribute of the instance was determined including providing for display a link to the first electronic document.

22. The computer storage medium of claim 21, the user interaction with the first cell comprises receiving data characterizing a manual user specification of the first instance and the first attribute that are associated with the first cell.

23. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the wherein the operations further comprise providing information identifying a collection of electronic documents from which the first value could have been determined.

24. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein providing information identifying the electronic document from which the first value was determined comprises providing the information for display in a display element of the search interface that was concealed wholly or partially from view in the display of the structured presentation on the display screen prior to the user interaction with the first cell.

25. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that a second electronic document is inoperable to provide the first value; and

providing for display a visual indication of the inoperability of the second electronic document.

26. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise updating a display of a value in the first cell of the structured presentation in response to the user interaction.

27. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the operations further comprise displaying a snippet characterizing a context of the first value in a first document of the electronic document collection.

28. The computer storage medium of claim 27, wherein:

the collection of electronic documents comprises electronic documents available on the Internet; and

the electronic documents comprise web pages.

29. The computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the structured presentation comprises a collection of cards.

30. A system, comprising:

a user device comprising a display device;

one or more computers programmed to interact with the user device and to perform operations comprising;

receiving a search query;

providing a structured presentation for display on the display device responsive to the search query, the data specifying a first cell of the structured presentation displayed, the structured presentation visually presenting information in a systematic and structured arrangement that conforms with a structured design, the structured presentation denoting associations between an instance and values that characterize attributes of an entity corresponding to the instance using an arrangement of the values in respective cells of the structured presentation, wherein one or more values of in the respective cells are populated from one or more electronic documents identified from a search of an unstructured collection of electronic documents;

receiving a user interaction with a first cell of the structured presentation, the first cell having a first value for a particular attribute of an instance associated with the first cell; and

in response to the received user interaction with the first cell;

determining, in response to receipt of the data characterizing the user interaction, that the first value of the first cell provided in the structured presentations resulted from a prior search of the unstructured collection of electronic documents by the one or more computers that identified one or more particular electronic documents as including content characterizing the particular attribute of the instance, wherein the first value was determined from the content of the one or more particular electronic documents; and

in response to determining that the prior search was conducted, providing information regarding the prior search including providing a search interface associated with the first value of the first cell for presentation on the display device, the search interface configured to present search result information characterizing the prior search including providing information identifying a first electronic document of the particular electronic documents from which the first value for the attribute of the instance was determined for display on the display device including providing for display a link to the first electronic document.