Searching and accessing software application functionality using application connections

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10157210-B2
Application number	US-201514967186-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2015
Priority date	Dec 11, 2015
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

Techniques include, for an application (app) state record including an app access mechanism (AAM) that references a native app and indicates operations for it to perform and app state information (ASI) that describes a state of the app after it performs the operations, determining connections (e.g., links with other resources) associated with the app and generating a quality value indicating quality of the app based on the connections. The techniques further include identifying the record based on a search query and the quality value (e.g., using the value as a boost factor within Lucene® information retrieval software). Additionally, or alternatively, the techniques include generating a result score for the record based on the quality value and selecting the record from among other records based on the score. The techniques also include selecting the AAM from the record and transmitting the AAM to the user device as a search result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
for each of a plurality of application (app) state records each including an app access mechanism (AAM) and app state information (ASI), wherein the AAM references a native app and indicates one or more operations for the app to perform, and wherein the ASI describes a state of the app after the app has performed the one or more operations, determining, by one or more processors of an electronic device, one or more connections associated with the app, and generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a quality value indicating a degree of quality associated with the app based on the one or more connections;
receiving, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a search query from a user device;
identifying, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, one or more of the plurality of app state records based on the search query and based on the quality value associated with each identified record;
selecting, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the one or more AAMs from the identified one or more of the plurality of app state records; and
transmitting, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the one or more AAMs to the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more connections associated with the native app referenced by the AAM included in at least one of the plurality of app state records comprise one or more of the following:
an outbound link configured to enable the native app to access another resource; and
an inbound link configured to enable another resource to access the native app.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more connections associated with the native app referenced by the AAM included in at least one of the plurality of app state records comprise one or more of the following:
a link between the native app and another native app;
a link between the native app and a native app programming interface (API);
a native app library included in the native app; and
a link between the native app and a web resource.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more connections associated with the native app referenced by the AAM included in at least one of the plurality of app state records comprises performing, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a static connection analysis including identifying one or more software instructions associated with the app that cause the app to communicate with another resource.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more connections associated with the native app referenced by the AAM included in at least one of the plurality of app state records comprises performing, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a dynamic connection analysis including detecting that the app is communicating with another resource.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the quality value based on the one or more connections associated with the native app referenced by the AAM included in at least one of the plurality of app state records comprises:
generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a set of one or more rules including one or more software instructions configured to compute the quality value based on the one or more connections;
applying, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the set of one or more rules to the one or more connections; and
in response to applying the set of one or more rules, computing, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the quality value.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein generating the set of one or more rules comprises:
receiving, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, an indication of one or more of a degree of quality a user perceives to be associated with a connection associated with a native app, a degree of quality the user perceives to be associated with the app, whether the user has selected a search result specifying the app, and how often the user has selected a search result specifying the app; and
generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the set of one or more rules based on the received indication.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the quality value based on the one or more connections associated with the native app referenced by the AAM included in at least one of the plurality of app state records comprises:
generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, training data including an indication of one or more training connections associated with each of one or more training native apps and one or more training quality values each indicating a degree of quality associated with one of the one or more training native apps;
generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a machine-learned model based on the training data, wherein the machine-learned model includes one or more software instructions configured to compute the quality value based on the one or more connections;
providing, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, an indication of the one or more connections to the machine-learned model as one or more inputs; and
in response to providing the indication, receiving, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the quality value from the machine-learned model.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein generating the training data comprises:
receiving, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, an indication of one or more of a degree of quality a user perceives to be associated with a connection associated with a native app, a degree of quality the user perceives to be associated with the app, whether the user has selected a search result specifying the app, and how often the user has selected a search result specifying the app; and
generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, the training data based on the received indication.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying at least one of the one or more of the plurality of app state records based on the quality value associated with the record comprises using the quality value as a boost factor within Lucene® information retrieval software developed by the Apache Software Foundation.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying at least one of the one or more of the plurality of app state records based on the quality value associated with the record comprises determining, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, that the quality value is greater than a threshold value.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the one or more of the plurality of app state records based on the search query comprises identifying, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, each record based on one or more matches between one or more terms of the search query and one or more terms of the ASI included in the record.

13. A method comprising:
for each of a plurality of application (app) state records each including an app access mechanism (AAM) and app state information (ASI), wherein the AAM references a native app and indicates one or more operations for the app to perform, and wherein the ASI describes a state of the app after the app has performed the one or more operations, determining, by one or more processors of an electronic device, one or more connections associated with the app, and generating, by the one or more processors of the electronic device, a quality value indicating a degree of quality associated with the app based on the one or more connections;
receiving,

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Glover Eric
• Mark Gilead
• Sankaranarasimhan Manikandan

Classifications

• G06F17/30964

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06N99/005

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30867

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06N5/025

  Extracting rules from data · CPC title