Efficient Dataset Search

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016196347-A1
Application number	US-201514589822-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 5, 2015
Priority date	Jan 5, 2015
Publication date	Jul 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Efficient display of search results. A method includes receiving a query specifying a search object for a dataset. Data items in the dataset are able to be viewed or navigated to in an active region of a user interface. The active region is a portion of a display which is primarily configured for use by a user to view, navigate to for viewing, add, remove or edit the data items in the dataset. The method rearranges data items in the dataset to aggregate together data items of the dataset that include a match for the search object. The method includes providing the rearranged dataset through the active region of the user interface, such that a user can view or navigate to the aggregated data items in the dataset as well as other data items in the dataset.

First claim

1 . In a computing environment, a system for efficient searching, the system comprising:
one or more computer processors; and one or more computer-readable media coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the one or more computer-readable media comprise computer-executable instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processors cause the following to be performed:
receiving a query specifying a search object for a dataset comprising data items, wherein the data items in the dataset are able to be viewed or navigated to in an active region of a user interface, wherein the active region is a portion of a display in which is primarily configured for use by a user to view, navigate to for viewing, add, remove or edit the data items in the dataset;
a dataset sort module rearranging the order of the data items in the dataset to aggregate together a subset of the data items that include a match for the search object; and
providing the rearranged dataset, including data items that have a match for the search object and data items that do not have a match for the search object, through the active region of the user interface such that a user can view or navigate to the aggregated data items in the dataset as well as other data items in the dataset.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the dataset is an unstructured dataset.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein each of the aggregated data items is a paragraph.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein each of the aggregated data items is a sentence.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the dataset is a structured dataset.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein each of the aggregated data items is a row.

7 . The system of claim 5 , wherein each of the aggregated data items is a column.

8 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the query is specified as tabular data.

9 . The system of claim 1 , the computer readable media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the system to replace matches for the search object with an object that is a different type than the search object.

10 . The system of claim 1 , the computer readable media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the system to receive input specifying exceptions for bulk replacement of matches for the search object, and as a result, when performing a bulk replacement of matches for the search object, exclude matches marked as exceptions for being replaced.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one match for the search object is the search object.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one match for the search object is an object related to the search object, but is not the search object itself.

13 . The system of claim 1 , the computer readable media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the system to receive user input specifying a replacement object for matches for the search object, and as a result, display to the user a preview of the replacement object for one or more of the matches in the active region.

14 . In a computing environment, a system for searching a dataset comprising data items, the system comprising:
one or more computer processors; and one or more computer-readable media coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the one or more computer-readable media comprise computer-executable instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processors cause the following to be performed:
identifying one or more user specified search objects;
a search engine identify search results in the dataset based on the search objects according to predetermined result criteria;
sorting the search results according to a similarity measure to the search objects by rearranging the order of the data items in the dataset; and
providing the sorted search results to an active region of a user interface, wherein the active region is a portion of a display in which is primarily configured for use by a user to view, navigate to for viewing, add, remove or edit the data items in a dataset.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising receiving user input of a replacement object and providing a preview of the replacement object in the displayed sorted search results.

16 . The method of claim 14 or claim 15 , further comprising receiving user input indicating that certain search entitles should be excluded from replacement operations and as a result excluding the excluded objects from replacement.

17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the result criteria is evaluated according to a predictive algorithm to identify similar objects.

18 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising sorting the search results according to a similarity measure to the search objects; and wherein displaying the sorted search results to a user comprises resorting a main underlying representation of the dataset and displaying the resorted underlying representation of the dataset to the user.

19 . In a computing environment, a method for efficient display of search results to a user, the method comprising:
receiving a query specifying a search object for a dataset comprising data items, wherein the data items in the dataset are able to be viewed or navigated to in an active region of a user interface, wherein the active region is a portion of a display in which is primarily configured for use by a user to view, navigate to for viewing, add, remove or edit the data items in the dataset; a dataset sort module rearranging the order of the data items in the dataset to aggregate together a subset of the data items that include a match for the search object; and providing the rearranged dataset, including data items that have a match for the search object and data items that do not have a match for the search object through the active region of the user interface such that a user can view or navigate to the aggregated data items in the dataset as well as other data items in the dataset.

20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising receiving input specifying exceptions for bulk replacement of matches for the search object, and as a result, when performing a bulk replacement of matches for the search object, excluding matches marked as exceptions for being replaced.

21 . In a computing environment, a system for efficient display of search results, the system comprising:
a dataset means for receiving a query specifying a search object for a dataset, wherein data items in the dataset are able to be viewed or navigated to in an active region of a user interface, wherein the active region is a portion of a display in which is primarily configured for use by a user to view, navigate to for viewing, add, remove or edit the data items in the dataset; means for rearranging the order of the data items in the dataset to aggregate together a subset of the data items that include a match for the search object; and means for providing the rearranged dataset, including data items that have a match for the search object and data items that do not have a match for the search object through the active region of the user interface, such that a user can view or navigate to the aggregated data items in the dataset as well as other data items in the dataset.

22 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the dataset is an unstructured dataset.

23 . The system

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Cheung Chairy Chiu Ying
• Jones Taurean Addair
• Netz Amir

Classifications

• G06F40/18

  of spreadsheets (form-filling G06F40/174) · CPC title

• G06F16/338

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F16/9038 Primary

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F16/951 Primary

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/2428

  Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms (G06F16/2423 takes precedence) · CPC title