213 results about "Online search" patented technology

The present invention presents embodiments of methods, systems, and computer-readable media for advanced computer file organization, computer file and web search and information retrieval, and intelligent assistant agent to assist a user's creative activities. The embodiments presented herein categorize search results based on the keywords used in the search, provide user selectable ranking, use user's search objectives and advices to refine search, conduct search within an application program and using a file based, provide always-on search that monitors changes over a period of time, provide a high level file system that organizes files into categories, according to relations among files, and in ranking orders along multiple categorization and ranking dimensions and multiple levels of conceptual relationships, conduct searches for associations between keywords, concepts, and propositions, and provide validations of such associations to assist a user's creative activity.

An exemplary system and method for contextually correlating web page document text is disclosed as comprising inter alia: a context engine for analyzing at least a portion of web page document content in order to identify textual components therein as correlation candidates; and a correlation engine for marking-up or otherwise identifying textual components in association with related keywords and / or link destinations. Disclosed features and specifications may be variously controlled, adapted or otherwise optionally modified to improve correlation and / or embedded markup of web page document content for any application or operating environment. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention generally provide enhanced online searching and advertising capabilities.

The present invention presents embodiments of methods, systems, and computer-readable media for advanced computer file organization, computer file and web search and information retrieval, and intelligent assistant agent to assist a user's creative activities. The embodiments presented herein categorize search results based on the keywords used in the search, provide user selectable ranking, use user's search objectives and advices to refine search, conduct search within an application program and using a file based, provide always-on search that monitors changes over a period of time, provide a high level file system that organizes files into categories, according to relations among files, and in ranking orders along multiple categorization and ranking dimensions and multiple levels of conceptual relationships, conduct searches for associations between keywords, concepts, and propositions, and provide validations of such associations to assist a user's creative activity.

A graphical user interface for accessing, managing, organizing and using local and online content from a personal computer. The graphical user interface is divided into several modules, displayed on the display screen of the computer. Some of these modules are categories, which contain links to content online and on the hard drive of the computer. The user can customize these categories and the links within them to suit his or her personal needs, interests, and tastes. One of the modules within the GUI are media players. The user can select content by dragging and dropping a link from the desktop, another application, or a category within the GUI onto the media player. Applications required to access content referred to by links within the categories of the graphical user interface are launched at the time that the GUI is launched. The GUI also contains a search tool for searching content stored on the hard drive of the computer as well as accessing online search engines. The GUI is framed by a skin, which is user-customizable. User changes and behavioral logic are tracked and stored in the form of a user profile. The user profile is used to created tailored communications from selected business partners to the user via the GUI.

A search system, method and computer program are disclosed in which characters of a search term are captured as they are entered into a client system (20) and used to predict search terms. Search results are obtained for a predetermined number of the predicted search terms and cached at the client system (20). Upon determining the complete search term has been entered, search results corresponding to the complete search term are displayed.

A system and a method for selecting tickets on-line according to one or more parameters by the user. Optionally and preferably, the user is also able to purchase the tickets on-line as well. According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the user may optionally and preferably search on-line for a ticket according to a plurality of parameters, including but not limited to, price, dates / times, exact show, type of show and / or type of seat. Optionally and preferably the user is able to view available tickets through the secondary market, preferably simultaneously with tickets in the primary market and more preferably while also viewing one or more discounts. More preferably, the original and current ticket prices of a ticket in the secondary market are indicated to the user. The user may also optionally and preferably view at least the available tickets on one or more seating charts and / or maps, which are more preferably interactive. The user may also optionally interact with a theater community.

A search system, method and computer program are disclosed in which characters of a search term are captured as they are entered into a client system (20) and used to predict search terms. Search results are obtained for a predetermined number of the predicted search terms and cached at the client system (20). Upon determining the complete search term has been entered, search results corresponding to the complete search term are displayed.

A query directed password scheme is disclosed that employs attack-resistant questions having answers that generally cannot be correlated with the user using online searching techniques, such as user opinions, trivial facts, or indirect facts. During an enrollment phase, the user is presented with a pool of questions from which the user must select a subset of such questions to answer. Information extraction techniques optionally ensure that the selected questions and answers cannot be correlated with the user. A security weight can optionally be assigned to each selected question. The selected questions should optionally meet predefined criteria for topic distribution. During a verification phase, the user is challenged with a random subset of the questions that the user has previously answered and answers these questions until a level of security for a given application is exceeded as measured by the number of correct questions out of the number of questions asked. Security may be further improved by combining the query directed password protocol with one or more additional factors such as Caller ID that assure that the questions are likely asked only to the registered user.

A method for improving web search results based on analysis of users' offline activities that are related to their online search. Web search results, including local search results, for a user may be improved by monitoring the actions of users when not interacting with the web search engine. By monitoring “offline” activities (e.g., telephone calls) and matching a person participating in an activity (e.g., the person making a telephone call) to a search engine user, a set of preferences for a given user may be determined, which may be used to select and sort web search results for that user. Preference data for one user may be used to select and sort web search results for other users, including those for which the search engine does not have preference data.

A method and apparatus are provided for processing search results obtained in response to a user query. This may include examining document pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source from which the documents are available and generating at least two visual abstracts of each of the documents. Each of the visual abstracts may be of a different size. The method and system may also include formatting a stream of data such that when the data is displayed, a smaller one of the visual abstracts appears adjacent to a corresponding search result.

A joint search method for UAV multiobjective path planning in an urban low altitude environment first constructs a static safety index map based on static known obstacles. Meanwhile, based on proactively detected obstacles that are not marked on a geographic map by a UAV, the method constructs online a dynamic safety index map. Second, a multiobjective path planning problem is solved using a joint offline and online search method. Moreover, this method first plans offline the least cost path from a starting point to an end point and then invokes the online search scheme to replan online a changed path when the UAV detects unknown obstacles. Thus, the UAV can avoid dynamic obstacles effectively. The online search scheme has a small search space and can quickly replan a safe path for the UAV, thus satisfying the requirement of UAV on the real-time path planning.

There is disclosed reverse billing in online search. A telephony server may receive a request from a user to cause a telephone call to be established between the user and a merchant. A notice to the merchant may be generated. The notice may include an offer to establish a telephone call with the user in exchange for payment of a definite fee. An acceptance of the offer may be received from the merchant to a phone number associated with the merchant. A first voice communication leg with the user and a second voice communication leg with the merchant may be bridged to establish the telephone call between the user and the merchant. The definite fee may be appear on the merchant's bill for telephone service.

A computer-implemented system that facilitates sale of advertising space on a plurality of web pages by way of a posted-price market comprises an interface component that receives pricing information relating to a plurality of spaces on the plurality of search pages. A posting component communicatively coupled to the interface component posts the pricing information so that the pricing information is accessible to a prospective buyer. For example, the pricing information can be based at least in part on one or more of size of a space on a search page, location of a space on a search page, duration that a space will be utilized for advertising, and demand associated with a space on a search page. In accordance with another aspect of the subject invention, the pricing information can relate to a percentage of page views that will display advertisements relating to a purchaser on at least one of the plurality of spaces.

A system and method for determining and identifying dissemination and potential success of items, services, innovations and the like uses an entropy analysis to ascertain the formation of clusters / kernels of adoptions in a population. The analysis is based on dividing a population into cyber neighborhoods, which can be geographic based and / or logically related through common online interactions and experiences. Extensions of this technique can be used to identify artificial cross-linking between web pages as well, which are sometimes the cause of biased online search engine results.

A method for improving web search results based on analysis of users' offline activities that are related to their online search. Web search results, including local search results, for a user may be improved by monitoring the actions of users when not interacting with the web search engine. By monitoring “offline” activities (e.g., telephone calls) and matching a person participating in an activity (e.g., the person making a telephone call) to a search engine user, a set of preferences for a given user may be determined, which may be used to select and sort web search results for that user. Preference data for one user may be used to select and sort web search results for other users, including those for which the search engine does not have preference data.

The invention relates to an information on-line searching method adopted on information devices such as computer, mobile phone and so on. A text string on a computer screen is transformed into a searching string via mouse searching actions such as moving a mouse pointer or dragging and dropping the mouse and so on. And a mouse searching operation is processed automatically and corresponding immediate on-line searching result is displayed on a mouse searching window. Clicking a special searching key can activate a keyboard searching window and in a course of inputting the searching string, a keyboard immediate on-line searching is processed automatically and corresponding immediate on-line searching result is displayed. Clicking a return key can process to determine on-line searching and then a corresponding searching result web page is displayed in a browser window.

The invention provides a multi-target route planning and united searching method of a drone in an urban low-altitude environment, and belongs to the technical field of drone route planning. The method comprises steps of firstly, based on a static-state known obstacle, constructing a static-state safe index map, and based on an obstacle which is actively detected by the drone in a flight process and is not marked in a geographical map, constructing a dynamic state safe index map on an airborne platform; and then, based on offline searching and online searching, solving and optimizing a multi-target route planning problem of flight time and flight safety of the drone in an united manner. According to the invention, a path costing little from a start point to a termination point is planned in an offline manner; when an unknown obstacle is detected, a changed flight track is planned in an online manner through online searching, so a dynamic obstacle is avoided; and there is a quite small searching space in the online searching, so a safe route can be planned again from the drone rapidly, so requirements on real-time planning of routes for drones are met.

A machine-implemented search method comprises inputting a search query from a user, and before the query is executed, inputting from the user a weighting factor that has a specified relationship to the query. The method further includes initiating a search by causing the query to be applied according to the weighting factor, and returning a result of the search to the user. The weighting factor may represent, for example, a weight to be given to one of multiple information sources that are available to be searched in response to the query, such as an online search engine or a merchant online commerce web site. Alternatively, the weighting factor may represent a weight to be given to a term in the query.

A multi-tier syndication system is provided to enable each business within a supply chain to publish and consume multiple information feeds on a data network (e.g., the Internet), resulting in a virtual yellow page, which search engine and directories can aggregate in order to easily provide the information to their customers.

A method and apparatus are provided for processing search results obtained in response to a user query. This may include examining document pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source from which the documents are available and generating at least two visual abstracts of each of the documents. Each of the visual abstracts may be of a different size. The method and system may also include formatting a stream of data such that when the data is displayed, a smaller one of the visual abstracts appears adjacent to a corresponding search result.

A method and system for real-time online search processing over inter-connected computer networks of search requests received from wireless handheld clients, in which a server communicates with a wireless handheld client using an XML-like protocol, and an offline database information is maintained for a plurality of vendor sites from the inter-connected computer networks. The information includes URLs, search form URLS, description of domains, and vendor descriptions which include generalized rules about how product information is organized on each of the vendor sites. A product keyword request from the wireless handheld device client is processed using the information maintained in the offline database. Real-time price and product information are extracted from identified ones of the plurality of vendor sites in a native language of the site; and the extracted price and product information are communicated to the user through the server.

A method / algorithm allows database queries to be saved and an efficient mechanism that matches records whenever they are added or modified to all of the saved queries and returns the list of those queries that match a given record as soon as the record is added or modified. If used in an online search portal example (e.g. a job search site), this invention would allow the searcher to submit and save his search criteria once and the application would return the listings that match the search criteria at that point in time and will also automatically match any new listings that get added after the query gets saved and if a match occurs would notify the user of the listing as soon as the listing is added. This matching on new listings to the saved search will happen continuously until the search is removed. According to an aspect of the invention, by matching a record that is added or changed to the database to all saved queries, it provides convenience to the users and it also reduces the computational cost to achieve the same result relative to other existing techniques to address the same scenario.

A service marketplace system is disclosed for searching and finding service orders and offers, governing the negotiations and conclusions of service agreements between a number of service providers and service users, and which includes an after sale support web service interface to promote to sale of goods in remote online shops by offering related services.An after sale support web service interface allows a remote online shop's proprietor to incorporate an online search for product-related services available at customers' locations offered on the independent service marketplace. The search results may be displayed on the remote online shop's website along with the product offers the services relate to.Product-related services are mainly assembly, installation, maintenance and repair services for certain products.

An improved system and method using text features for click prediction of sponsored search advertising is provided. A maximum entropy click prediction model that predicts the click probability of query-advertisement pairs may be generated from click feedback features and word pair features of a query and an advertisement. The maximum entropy click prediction model may be used to obtain click probabilities for query-advertisement pairs to determine and serve a ranked list of advertisements for display with query results in an online keyword search auction. A search query may be received and word features from the search query may be input into the maximum entropy click prediction model to obtain click probabilities for query-advertisement pairs. A list of advertisements may be ranked using click probabilities for query-advertisement pairs, the list of ranked advertisements may be priced in an online search keyword auction and served for display with search query results.

The invention provides a method and a device for picture recommendation. The method particularly includes: receiving a user's searching request, searching to obtain target pictures corresponding to the searching request and result pictures identical or similar to the target pictures; extracting key words describing semantic features of the picture according to the webpage text of the result pictures as the key words of the target pictures; matching the key words in a search log which records the target pictures corresponding to online search requests from users in the network and corresponding key words and recommending the target pictures matched with the key words to the user. The method and the device for picture recommendation are capable of providing pictures meeting personal demands of the users, and expanding access for information the users are interested in.

A method for advertisers to promote their services or products on the Internet using a cost-per-action fee with a low to zero pay-per-click fee. A business method provides for an online search advertising company that dynamically customizes webpages for content and advertising based on searches performed by users and other important criteria. Advertisers can opt-in to an automated rebate system that automatically pays them and the user back for sales made through the system.

A method and apparatus are provided for evaluating the security of authentication information that is extracted from a user. The disclosed authentication information security analysis techniques determine whether extracted authentication information can be obtained by an attacker. The extracted authentication information might be, for example, personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords and query based passwords (questions and answers). A disclosed authentication information security analysis process employs information extraction techniques to verify that the authentication information provided by a user is not easily obtained through an online search. The authentication information security analysis process measures the security of authentication information, such as query based passwords, provided by a user. Information extraction techniques are employed to find and report relations between the proposed password and certain user information that might make the proposed password vulnerable to attack.

The invention discloses a Chinese Web document online clustering method based on common substrings. As known to all, search engines are important in application of information searching and positioning with sharp increase of information on the internet. Web document clustering can automatically classify return results of the search engines according to different themes so as to assist users to reduce query range and fast position needed information. The Web document online clustering is characterized in that non-numerical and non-structured characteristics of Web documents are required to be met on the one hand, and clustering time is required to meet online search requirements of users on the other hand. According to the two characteristics, the invention provides the Chinese Web document online clustering method based on common substrings, and the method comprises steps as follows: (1) firstly, preprocessing the first n query results returned by the search engines so as to realize deleting and replacing operation of non-Chinese characters in the return results of the search engines, (2) extracting common substrings in the Web documents by utilizing GSA, (3) presenting a weighting calculation formula referring to TF*IDF according to the common substrings which are extracted and then building a document characteristic vector model, (4) computing pairwise similarity of the Web documents on the basis of the model to acquire a similarity matrix, (5) adopting an improved hierarchical clustering algorithm to achieve clustering of the Web documents on the basis of the matrix, and (6) executing clustering description and label extraction. The Chinese Web document online clustering method based on common substrings has obvious advantages on performance, clustering label generation and clustering time effects.