Context-Aware Search History Filtering Across Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face the inconvenience of having to recreate searches across different devices and remember specific details when seeking information, as existing technologies do not effectively synchronize or present prior search history across devices, leading to a suboptimal search experience, especially on mobile devices with slower connections and more challenging input methods.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that identify and filter prior search history using contextual signals to select relevant search results, generating information items that can be presented to users on different devices, allowing seamless access to previous search information based on location, time, and user interaction data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users initiate searches on different devices (desktop, tablet, mobile), then search coverage and accessibility improve, but users must recreate searches on each device increasing time and effort
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal search history system that synchronizes search data across multiple device types (desktop, tablet, mobile). The server stores and retrieves search history associated with user accounts, allowing any device to access searches initiated on other devices without recreation, thus providing multi-device functionality that resolves the contradiction between search accessibility and time investment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically storing search history and results on the server immediately when a search is conducted on any device. This preliminary storage action ensures that when the user switches to another device, the search history is already available for retrieval, eliminating the need to recreate searches and reducing time loss.
2Loss of information
If complete search history is provided to users, then information availability improves, but information overload and difficulty in finding relevant results increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by filtering search history results based on device-specific characteristics and user context. Different devices receive customized presentations of search history - for example, mobile devices may receive simplified summaries while desktops receive detailed results. This localized adaptation ensures information is available but presented in the most useful form for each specific context, reducing overload while maintaining completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters such as time decay weights, relevance thresholds, and result formatting based on contextual signals including device type, user location, and time since original search. These parameter changes dynamically adjust how search history is filtered and presented, ensuring that older or less relevant results are deprioritized while maintaining access to complete history when needed, thus balancing information availability with ease of finding relevant results.
3Measurement precision
If search results are filtered using multiple contextual signals, then relevance and personalization improve, but system complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the filtering process into distinct modular components: contextual signal collection, signal weighting, relevance scoring, and result ranking. Each component handles specific aspects of the filtering independently. This segmentation allows the system to implement complex multi-signal filtering while maintaining manageable complexity through modular architecture, where each segment can be optimized and maintained separately.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is configured to identify prior search history associated with a user, where the prior search history includes information regarding searches initiated by the user and information regarding search results provided based on the searches. The system is further configured to filter the prior search history to select one of the search results, generate an information item for the search result, and provide the information item to a client, associated with the user, for presentation on a display associated with the client.