Travel Search Engine Real-Time Collaboration Session
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional travel search engines do not allow users traveling together to share and collaborate on search results in real-time, requiring users to conduct separate searches and communicate manually to plan trips.
Innovation Solution
A travel search engine enables users to share search results in real-time, allowing multiple users to see a common set of results and selectively share specific results while maintaining independent filtering and sorting preferences, with each user having a separate session state and shared session state.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users conduct separate searches on conventional travel search engines, then each user can independently explore results, but users cannot share or collaborate on search results in real-time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple users into a single shared search session, allowing them to simultaneously access and interact with the same search results. The system combines individual user preferences and filters into a unified search experience where results are dynamically updated for all participants, eliminating the need for separate searches and manual communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The travel search engine acts as an intermediary that manages real-time collaboration between users. It mediates the sharing of search results, coordinates filtering and sorting preferences from multiple users, and dynamically updates results based on aggregated preferences, enabling seamless collaboration without direct user-to-user communication.
2Ease of operation
If users share the same search results, then collaboration is enabled, but individual filtering and sorting preferences cannot be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the search session into two distinct states: a shared session state that contains common search results accessible to all users, and individual session states that store each user's personal filtering and sorting preferences. This segmentation allows the system to maintain both collaboration and individuality simultaneously by managing different types of data in separate but coordinated structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a temporal and hierarchical dimension to session management by maintaining multiple levels of session states (shared vs. individual) that operate simultaneously. Individual user preferences are applied as layers on top of the shared results, allowing the system to process and display personalized views while maintaining the underlying shared data structure.
3Productivity
If real-time sharing is implemented, then collaboration efficiency improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous real-time updates of search results across all users in a shared session. As any user modifies filters, sorting, or selects results, the system continuously propagates these changes to all other participants without interruption. This continuous synchronization maintains trip planning efficiency by ensuring all users always have access to the most current search state.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where each user's actions (filtering, sorting, selecting) are immediately communicated back to the shared session and reflected in real-time for all participants. This feedback loop enables dynamic collaboration where users can observe and respond to each other's preferences, efficiently converging on mutually acceptable travel options.
Data Source
AI summary
A travel search engine enables a user to share his or her search results with one or more other users in real time. Each of the users has a common set of search results and any user can select share a specific result within the common set. The remaining results in the common set can be independently filtered and sorted. By selectively sharing various ones of the search results, while being able to separately manipulate the remaining search results, users have access to a common set of potentially mutually acceptable results, but can still individually explore the search results by filtering along different criteria.