Assisting users in searching for tagged content based on historical usage patterns

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9251266-B2
Application number	US-16739708-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 3, 2008
Priority date	Jul 3, 2008
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

A tagging event can be detected where a software entity is associated with a tag resulting from a user interaction. At least one situational attribute relating to the tagging event can be automatically determined. The one or more situational attribute can be stored in a data repository so that the stored situational attribute is associated with the tag. The detecting, determining, and storing can be repeated for a set of different tags, each associated with a software entity. A search of tagged software entities can be conducted. The results of the search can be modified based at least in part upon the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for improving searches of tagged entities based upon usage patterns comprising:
detecting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a tagging event where a user manually enters a tag for a software entity responsive to a user interaction;
automatically determining, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one situational attribute relating to the tagging event where said automatically determined situation attribute relates to a state of a computer or browser at the time of the user interaction, wherein said situation attribute comprises a time, a date, a location of the user interaction, a program used for tagging, and type of content being tagged, wherein the situation attribute is determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the situation attribute;
storing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the at least one situational attribute in a data repository so that the stored situational attribute is associated with the tag;
repeating, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the detecting, determining, and storing for a plurality of different tags, each associated with a software entity;
receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a request for performing a search;
receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a tag keyword for performing a search;
suggesting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one of an additional tag keyword and the situational attribute based on search patterns of the user;
receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a term comprising the at least one selected additional tag keyword and the attribute;
conducting, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a search of tagged software entities using the tag keyword and the term that are matched against previously stored tag values to produce search results; and
automatically determining a search-time attribute existing at a time the search is conducted, wherein the search-time attribute corresponds to the situational attribute, wherein said search-time attribute comprises a time, a date, and a location of the user interaction, wherein the search-time attribute is determined without manual user input needed to enter values for the search-time attribute, wherein the search results are modified based at least in part upon a correspondence between the stored situational attribute of the tagged software entities and the search-time attribute of the search.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one search-time attribute existent at a time of the search, said search-time attribute comprising a time and date of the user interaction that caused the tagging event;
comparing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one search-time attribute to a corresponding at least one stored situational attribute for each of the tagged software entities to determine a correspondence between the at least one search-time attribute and the stored situational attribute of each of the tagged software entities, wherein the correspondence limits the search results to a time window based on the time and date; and
modifying, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the search results based upon the correspondence.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interaction used when detecting the tagging event comprises a user manually entering text for the tag for a URI of the software entity via a Web browser interface, wherein the situation attributes stored with the tag, are not manually entered by the user; and wherein the conducting of the search occurs responsive to a user initiated action from within a Web browser to search for a set of URI's tagged with the value of the tag that was manually entered by the user, wherein the user further manually enters one or more values for specific ones of the situation attributes that are to be compared against the stored situation attributes when conducting the search.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the situational aspects that is stored is a location of a computer used by a user that performed the user interaction, wherein the search is conducted at the location, wherein the search results only show those results having the location associated, wherein the modifying of the search results occurs in a user transparent manner without requiring explicit user interactions.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a user initiated bookmark from a Web browser of a client device to a bookmark server, wherein the bookmark comprises the tag, wherein the bookmark server performs the storing, wherein the conducting of the search occurs from the Web browser from a client to the bookmark server; and
utilizing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the at least one situational attribute to determine if each of the tagged software entities should be included in the search results.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interaction occurs from a Web browser of a computing device, wherein the tag is stored in a Web server, with which the Web browser was interacting, wherein the at least one situational attribute is stored in a tagging server implemented in middleware, which is remotely located from the computing device and form the Web server and that is connected to the computing device and the Web server via a network, said method further comprising:
utilizing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, at least one of the tag and one of the tagged software entities;
storing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, usage data relating to utilization specifics in the data repository so that the stored usage data is associated with the tagged software entity; and
repeating, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, the utilizing and storage of the usage data for a plurality of different software entities; wherein the search results are modified based at least in part upon the stored situational attributes of the tagged software entities.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one situational attribute comprises a plurality of situational attributes, said method further comprising:
assigning, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium that are executable by at least one processor, a weighed value to each of the situational attributes; and
utilizing, via computer program instructions stored in at least one storage medium

Assignees

• Carter Bernadette A
• Chang Belinda Y
• Li Fuyi
• Nesbitt Pamela A
• Seacat Lisa A
• IBM

Inventors

• Carter Bernadette A
• Chang Belinda Y
• Li Fuyi
• Nesbitt Pamela A
• Seacat Lisa A

Classifications

• G06F16/9562

  Bookmark management · CPC title

• G06F16/955

  using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] · CPC title

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F17/30884

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30876

  Physics · mapped topic