User interface providing localized search capabilities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9529924-B2
Application number	US-201213563027-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2012
Priority date	Jul 31, 2012
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

A user interface is disclosed that operates in conjunction with a search engine browser to present localized information that pertains to specific areas of interest. As characters of a search query are being entered into the browser, they are provided to one or more servers that are associated with respective domains of information. If information within those domains corresponds to the search query being entered, an indication is provided to the user of those results, in addition to any input provided by the search engine browser. The user interface enables the user to access the results, even before the search is conducted, to quickly learn about items from the domains that may be of possible interest.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
at an electronic device with a display and a battery:
receiving a first portion of text for a search query;
in response to receiving the first portion of the text:
displaying, on the display, a first set of localized results retrieved based on the first portion of text without displaying remote search results from a remote search engine;

while displaying the first set of localized results, receiving a second portion of text for the search query;
in response to receiving the second portion of the text:
in accordance with a determination that the first portion of text and the second portion of text together include more than a predetermined number of characters, wherein the predetermined number of characters is greater than 1 and is based on a low battery charge state of the battery, concurrently displaying, on the display, a plurality of results that include:
a set of results received from a remote search engine; and
a second set of localized results associated with one or more applications retrieved based on the first portion of the text and the second portion of the text.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein an application of the one or more applications is a map applet, and in response to selection of a respective result in the first set of localized results, displaying a map showing a location that corresponds to the respective result.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a third portion of the text; and
updating the displayed plurality of results in response to receiving the third portion of the text.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forwarding location information to the remote search engine with the received text.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising filtering the plurality of results in accordance with location information.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting selection of a respective result in the plurality of results; and
in response to the detected selection:
in accordance with a determination that the result is a result associated with a first application, launching the first application; and
in accordance with a determination that the result is a result associated with a second application, launching the second application.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of results are displayed in-line with indications that the one or more applications are installed on the electronic device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of results received from the remote search engine includes a website.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of results received from the remote search engine includes a suggested search term.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second set of localized results is obtained independently of the set of results received from the remote search engine.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote search engine is an Internet search engine.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in accordance with a determination that the first portion of text and the second portion of text together include less than the predetermined number of characters, displaying a third set of localized results associated with one or more applications on the device retrieved based on the first portion of text and the second portion of text without displaying remote search results from the remote search engine.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of results further include located resources associated with a domain, the domain being separate from the remote search engine; the method further comprising:
detecting a user input related to the located resources; and
responsive to the user input, removing the domain from a set of domains of interest.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting each character of the text to the remote search engine as the text is received; and
receiving a separate set of results from the remote search engine in response to each transmitted character of the text.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the displaying of the first set of localized results comprises displaying a summary of the set of localized results; and
further comprising:
detecting selection of the summary; and
in response to the detection, displaying a listing of the set of localized results.

16. A system comprising:
a user device having a display and a battery;
one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising:
providing an interface that:
receives text for a search query;
communicates with at least one search engine server via a network;
in response to the receipt of a first portion of the text for the search query:
displays a first set of localized results retrieved based on the first portion of text without displaying remote search results from the search engine server;

while displaying the first set of localized results, receives a second portion of text for the search query; and
in response to receiving the second portion of the text:
in accordance with a determination that the first portion of text and the second portion of text together include more than a predetermined number of characters, wherein the predetermined number of characters is greater than 1 and is based on a low battery state of the battery, concurrently displays a plurality of results that include:
 a set of results received from the search engine server; and
 a second set of localized results associated with one or more applications on the device retrieved based on the first portion of the text and the second portion of the text.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the interface separately transmits each character of the text to the search engine server as the text is received, and a set of results is received from the search engine server in response to each transmitted character of the text.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the set of localized results is filtered in accordance with location information.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein:
the display of the first set of localized results comprises a display of a summary of the set of localized results; and
the interface is further configured to:
detect selection of the summary; and
in response to the detection, display a listing of the first set of localized results.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the interface further:
in accordance with a determination that the first portion of text and the second portion of text together include less than the predetermined number of characters, displays a third set of localized results associated with one or more applications on the device retrieved based on the first portion of text and the second portion of text without displaying remote search results from the search engine server.

21. The system of claim 16 , wherein an application of the one or more applications is a map applet, and in response to selection of a respective result in the first set of localized results, displaying a map showing a location that corresponds to the respective result.

22. The system of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a third portion of the text; and
updating the displayed plurality of results in response to receiving the third portion of the text.

23. The system of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:
forwarding location information to the search engine server with the received text.

Assignees

• Grant Scott A
• Carson David A
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Grant Scott A
• Carson David A

Classifications

• G06F16/9537 Primary

  Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries · CPC title

• G06Q30/0256

  User search · CPC title

• G06F17/3087 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic