Apparatus and method for searching for address book information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9798785-B2
Application number	US-201213978826-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2012
Priority date	Jan 24, 2011
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for searching for address book information. To this end, the present invention, upon receiving a search request message for searching address book information from a client, checks a search preference, searches for the address book information based on the checked search preference, applies a priority to the found address book information to create a final search result, creates a response message including the created final search result, forwards the response message to the client, and updates the preset search preference based on the final search result, thereby providing a search result optimized for a user.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for searching for address book information by an apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving a search request message for searching for address book information using preference information of a requesting client form the requesting client;
in response to receiving the search request message, obtaining address information of a plurality of external directories and the preference information representing at least one external directory preferred by the requesting client from an external server;
checking address information of at least one external directory form among the address information of the plurality of external directories based on the preference information and the address information;
forwarding an external search request message to the at least one external directory using the address information of the at least one external directory;
receiving an external search response message including an external search result searched by the at least one external directory from the at least one external directory;
prioritizing the external search result and arranging the prioritized external search result; and
forwarding a final search result including at least part of the arranged external search result to the requesting client,
wherein the preference information further comprises information regarding application or non-application of a search preference to the search request of the address book information, information regarding application or non-application of the search preference to at least one external search domain corresponding to the at least one external directory, and information regarding application or non-application of the search preference for a dynamic search according to a user's location, and
wherein the information regarding application or non-application of the search preference to the at least one external search domain comprises the at least one external search domain and a preference weight value per domain.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search request message comprises an Application Usage ID (AUID).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information regarding application or non-application of the search preference for the dynamic search according to the user's location comprises location information and time-zone information of the user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the preference information further comprises information regarding application or non-application of a search preference to the external search result, information regarding application or non-application of prioritized preference to the external search result, and filter information for filtering the external search result.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the information regarding application or non-application of a prioritized preference to the external search result comprises preference for prioritization of the external search result and a weight value for the search preference.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein external search request message comprises a preference weight value corresponding to the at least one external search domain and a preference level for the at least one external search domain.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
filtering the arranged external search result using a prioritized preference; and
forwarding the final search result including the filtered external search result to the requesting client.

8. An article of manufacture for searching for address book information, comprising a non-transitory machine readable medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:
receiving a search request message for searching for address book information using preference information of a requesting client form the requesting client;
in response to receiving the search request message, obtaining address information of a plurality of external directories and the preference information representing at least one external directory preferred by the requesting client from an external server;
checking address information of at least one external directory form among the address information of the plurality of external directories based on the preference information and the address information;
forwarding an external search request message to the at least one external directory using the address information of the at least one external directory;
receiving an external search response message including an external search result searched by the at least one external directory from the at least one external directory;
prioritizing the external search result and arranging the prioritized external search result; and
forwarding a final search result including at least part of the arranged external search result to the requesting client,
wherein the preference information further comprises information regarding application or non-application of a search preference to the search request of the address book information, information regarding application or non-application of the search preference to at least one external search domain corresponding to the at least one external directory, and information regarding application or non-application of the search preference for a dynamic search according to a user's location, and
wherein the information regarding application or non-application of the search preference to the at least one external search domain comprises the at least one external search domain and a preference weight value per domain.

9. An apparatus for searching address book information, the apparatus comprising:
A database for storing a search preference corresponding to a requesting client; and
A server configured to:
receive a search request message for searching for address book information using preference information of a requesting client form the requesting client;
in response to receiving the search request message, obtaining address information of a plurality of external directories and the preference information representing at least one external directory preferred by the requesting client from an external server;
check address information of at least one external directory form among the address information of the plurality of external directories based on the preference information and the address information;
forward an external search request message to the at least one external directory using the address information of the at least one external directory;
receive an external search response message including an external search result searched by the at least one external directory from the at least one external directory;
prioritize the external search result and arranging the prioritized external search result; and
forward a final search result including at least part of the arranged external search result to the requesting client,

wherein the preference information further comprises information regarding application or non-application of a search preference to the search request of the address book information, information regarding application or non-application of the search preference to at least one external search domain corresponding to the at least one external directory, and information regarding application or non-application of the search preference for a dynamic search according to a user's location, and
wherein the information regarding application or non-application of the search preference to the at least one external search domain comprises the at least one external search domain and a preference weight value per domain.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the database is implemented in the server.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 ,

Assignees

• Oh Gyu-Bong
• Gu Sun-Gi
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oh Gyu-Bong
• Gu Sun-Gi

Classifications

• G06F17/30554 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• Y02B60/188

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F17/30979

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/90335 Primary

  Query processing · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title