Augmenting search results with device and application history

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10095794-B2
Application number	US-201414478411-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 5, 2014
Priority date	Sep 5, 2014
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for a method for generating search results that indicate to a user whether the applications listed in the search results have been installed on one or more of their user devices. A search engine obtains one or more user device profiles and combines them to generate a master device profile. The search engine is further configured to provide search results that indicate the installation history of the applications appearing in the search results based on the master device profile. The master device profile contains the installation history of applications across the user devices associated to a particular user. A user device can be configured to generate and maintain a master device profile and can tag search results received from the search engine accordingly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, by a processing device of an application search engine, a first user device profile indicating a first set of applications installed on a first user device associated with a user;
obtaining, by the processing device, a second user device profile indicating a second set of applications installed on a second user device associated with the user;
generating, by the processing device, a master device profile based on the first user device profile and the second user device profile, the master device profile including a master application installation history that indicates applications installed on the first user device and applications installed on the second user device;
receiving, by the processing device, a search query from the first user device;
identifying, by the processing device, search results based on the search query, wherein the search results include a plurality of result objects and wherein each result object respectively indicates an application relevant to the search query and includes data an instructions that are used by the first user device to display a link to download a native application edition of the application from a digital distribution platform;
for each result object in the plurality of result objects:
determining, by the processing device, whether the application indicated by the result object appears in the master application installation history; and
in response to the application indicated by the result object appearing in the master application installation history and the master application installation history indicates that the application is installed on the second user device, tagging the result object of the application with a tag to indicate that the application is installed on the second user device, wherein the tag causes the first user device to display an indication that the application is installed on the second user device;

generating, by the processing device, tagged search results based on the search results and any tags applied to any of the result objects of the search results; and
providing, by the processing device, the tagged search results to the first user device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tagged search results are configured to, when rendered by the first user device into displayed result objects, visually indicate which applications indicated by the result objects of the search results have been installed on at least one of the first user device and the second user device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first user device profile includes a first list of application identifiers, each application identifier in the first list indicating one of the applications installed on the first user device;
the second user device profile includes a second list of application identifiers, each application identifier in the second list indicating one of the applications installed on the second user device; and
the master device profile includes a master list of application identifiers, each application identifier in the master list indicating one of the applications installed on at least one of the first user device and the second user device.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein generating the master device profile includes:
adding the first list of application identifiers to the master list of application identifiers; and
adding the second list of application identifiers to the master list of application identifiers.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the application identifiers in the first, second, and master lists of application identifiers are canonical application identifiers.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first user device profile is further indicative of a first set of deleted applications that have been uninstalled from the first user device;
the second user device profile is further indicative of a second set of deleted applications that have been uninstalled from the second user device; and
the master device profile is further indicative of a master set of deleted applications that have been uninstalled from at least one of the first user device and the second user device.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining, by the processing device, whether any of the applications indicated by the result objects of the search results appear in the master set of deleted applications; and
for each application indicated by the result objects and indicated in the master set of deleted applications, tagging the result object of the application to indicate that the application has been uninstalled from at least one of the first user device and the second user device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tagged search results further indicate on which user device each respective application is installed.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tagged search results further indicate from which user device each respective application has been uninstalled.

10. A search engine comprising:
a storage device that stores:
an application data store that stores a plurality of application records, each application record including an application record identifier; and
a master device profile data store that stores a plurality of master device profiles, each master device profile corresponding to a different user and indicating a master application installation history of one or more user devices of the different user; and
a processing device that executes instructions from a computer-readable medium, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to:
obtain a first device profile indicating a first set of applications installed on a first user device associated with a user;
obtain a second device profile indicating a second set of applications installed on a second user device associated with the user;
generate a new master device profile based on the first device provide and the second device profile, the new master device profile including a master application installation history that indicates applications installed on the first user device and applications installed on the second user device;
receive a search query from the first user device;
identify a consideration set of application records from the application data store based on the search query, each application record of the consideration set being indicative of an application relevant to the search query;
generate search results based on the identified application records, wherein the search results include a plurality of result objects and wherein each result object respectively indicates an application relevant to the search query and includes data and instructions that are used by the first user device to display a link to download a native application edition of the application from a digital distribution platform;
for each result object in the plurality of result objects:
determine whether the application indicated by the result object appears in the master application installation history; and
in response to the application indicated by the result object appearing in the master application installation history and the master application installation history indicates that the application is installed on the second user device, tag the result object of the application with a tag to indicate that the application is installed on the second user device, wherein the tag causes the first user device to display an indication that the application is installed on the second user device;

generate tagged search results based on the search results and any tags applied to any of the result objects of the search results; and
provide the tagged search

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Patil Sameer

Classifications

• G06F16/9538

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F17/30867 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic