Cross-Platform Content Search Service

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

The growing population of digital content consumers faces challenges in enhancing searchability and user experience across various electronic devices due to the proliferation of content items and devices, with existing technologies failing to provide efficient cross-platform content searching.

Innovation Solution

A cross-platform content-searching service that indexes textual content from multiple sources, allowing users to query and prioritize search results based on the location of the query term within content items, such as eBooks, periodicals, or blogs, using a content processing service with modules for text extraction, weighting, and result prioritization.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If cross-platform content searching is implemented across multiple devices and content sources, then content accessibility and user experience are improved, but system complexity and data management difficulty increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecross-platform content searchingVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a content processing service as an intermediary layer between users and multiple content sources. This service centralizes indexing, text extraction, and search result prioritization logic, allowing complex cross-platform searching without increasing complexity at individual device levels. The service acts as a mediator that handles the computational burden of unified search across diverse platforms.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If search results are prioritized based on query term location (title vs body), then search precision and user satisfaction improve, but additional processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesearch result precisionVSAvoidprocessing requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary text extraction and indexing of query term locations during content ingestion, before actual search queries are executed. By pre-processing content to identify and tag the location of terms (title, author, body, etc.), the system avoids complex real-time analysis during search operations. This preliminary action stores location information in the index structure, enabling efficient prioritization during query processing without adding significant complexity to the search execution phase.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS9607105B1Content searching techniques
Publication Date: 2017.03.28 AMAZON TECH INC
  • US9607105B1 patent drawing
  • US9607105B1 patent drawing
  • US9607105B1 patent drawing

AI summary

Methods and systems of searching for text across platforms are usable to guide users to additional content for consumption. Search queries are based on text found within digital content and results are provided to indicate content from multiple different content items that contain the same or similar text. Cross-platform searches provide extensive breadth when a consumer is searching for similar information among a myriad of different sources. Additionally, search filtering may help provide more relevant results and search result weighting may provide prioritized lists of relevant content.