Search Extender Service Augmenting Web Results

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Solution Overview

Problem

Web-based search services struggle to provide comprehensive search results due to limited access to user engagement history and protected content from third-party applications, which diverts traffic away from Web-based search services and hinders the fulfillment of user intent.

Innovation Solution

A system that registers third-party applications with a search extender service, allowing annotated search queries to be communicated to apps with matching entity types, enabling them to execute queries against protected content and return relevant results, which are then aggregated, ranked, and presented alongside Web-based search results.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If Web-based search services crawl and index publicly available information, then search coverage is improved, but access to protected third-party application content and user engagement history remains limited

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesearch coverageVSAvoidaccess to protected content

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a search extender service as an intermediary between Web-based search services and third-party applications. This mediator receives search queries from search services, identifies relevant third-party applications through registered entity types, and retrieves protected content from those applications without requiring direct access. The intermediary resolves the contradiction by enabling information access while maintaining the security boundaries of third-party applications.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the search process into distinct components: Web-based search services handle public web content, while the search extender service handles protected third-party application content. Each component operates independently with specialized capabilities, allowing both public and protected information to be accessed through their appropriate channels and then integrated in the final results.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Measurement precision

If users utilize specialized third-party applications for domain-specific search needs, then search accuracy for specific domains is improved, but traffic to Web-based search services decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesearch accuracyVSAvoidtraffic volume

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges the capabilities of specialized third-party applications with Web-based search services by integrating their search results into a unified interface. Users can access both public web results and protected application content through a single search service, combining the broad coverage of web search with the domain-specific accuracy of specialized applications without requiring users to switch between multiple services.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Reliability

If third-party applications protect their content through user login, then content security is improved, but search services cannot access user engagement history and app-specific content

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent securityVSAvoidaccess to user data

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The search extender service acts as a trusted intermediary that third-party applications can configure to access specific user data on behalf of search queries. Applications maintain security by controlling what data the intermediary can access through registered entity types and permissions, while still enabling search services to retrieve relevant protected content without direct user login credentials.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

4Ease of operation

If Web-based search services provide comprehensive results, then user intent fulfillment is improved, but they lack access to protected content from third-party applications

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser intent fulfillmentVSAvoidcontent accessibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The search extender service provides universal functionality by working with multiple different third-party applications across various domains. It registers with numerous applications, each with different entity types and content, creating a multi-functional bridge that enables a single Web-based search service to access diverse protected content from many different sources through a unified interface.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS10990634B2Augmenting search results with relevant third-party application content

Publication Date: 2021.04.27 MICROSOFT CORP

AI summary

Methods, computer systems, and computer-storage media are provided for augmenting Web-based search results with relevant content received from third-party applications. Each of a plurality of third-party applications is registered to obtain an indication of entity types associated with the each registered third-party application. A user input including at least a search query is received. The search query is communicated to those third-party applications that are identified as being relevant to the search query. Search results that are relevant to the user input are received from the relevant third-party applications and are presented on a results page.