Systems to provide electronic searching of information are well known. Generally, a client transmits search terms to a search engine and receives search results in response. The search engine may search any type of data and/or database structure in order to generate the search results. Conventionally, an index is created based on selected data sources and the search engine searches the index based on the search terms.
Each of the search results received by the client identifies an electronic item (e.g., a Web page, a document, a report, a personal profile). Each search result also includes metadata describing the search result. The metadata may include a title of the item, a measure of the relevancy of the search result to the search terms, a creation date of the item, or the like.
Search results are typically displayed in a list format, in order of relevancy. Identifying a desired search result from such a list can be inefficient, particularly in a case that the user is interested in a metadata type other than relevancy. Some systems allow a user to reorder the list based on an alternative type of metadata, such as item creation date. In other systems, the user can filter the search results by one or more types of metadata to eliminate unwanted search results (e.g., creation date>two months ago) from the list.
Systems are desired for improving the presentation of search results.
The following description is provided to enable any person in the art to make and use the described embodiments and sets forth the best mode contemplated for carrying out some embodiments. Various modifications, however, will remain readily apparent to those in the art.
View 100 includes graphical indications 110a through 110g, each of which corresponds to a respective search result. Each search result, in turn, is associated with at least two types of metadata. Moreover, each search result is associated with a value for each of the at least two types of metadata. For example, graphical indication 110a is associated with title type metadata (value=“Employee Sales (Quarterly Report)”) and a relevancy type metadata (value=95%).
Within view 100, graphical indication 110a is located at coordinates (A1, B1) of a coordinate system comprising axis A and axis B. Axis A is represented by graphical bar 120, which denotes regions 125a through 125d. As shown, region 125a of the A axis is associated with values of the title type metadata beginning with “E’ and “F’. Graphical indication 110a is therefore present at coordinate A1 because the value of the title type metadata associated with the search result (i.e., “Employee Sales (Quarterly Report)” is equal to one of the values (i.e., “first letter E”) associated with region 125a.
Similarly, the coordinate B1 is based on the value of the relevancy type metadata associated with the search result. Axis B is not shown in view 100 but is represented adjacent thereto for explanatory purposes. Embodiments may or may not include a representation of axis B or of any other axis described herein. Points along axis B are associated with decreasing values of relevancy type metadata. In the present embodiment, coordinate B1 is associated with a relevancy value equal to the relevancy value (i.e., 95%) associated with the search result represented by graphical indication 110a. In some embodiments, axis B may consist of regions as described above with respect to axis A, with each region associated with more than one relevancy value. Graphical indications of search results associated with any of the more than one relevancy values of a region may be positioned at any B coordinate in the region in some embodiments. Alternatively, such graphical indications may each be positioned at a same B coordinate.
Accordingly, a horizontal position of indication 110a represents a first letter of the associated search result's title, and a vertical position of indication 110a represents a relevancy of the associated search result. Of course, some embodiments may use vertical positioning to represent a first letter of an associated search result's title (or any other type of metadata) and horizontal positioning to represent relevancy (or any other type of metadata) of the associated search result. In this regard, embodiments are not limited to horizontal and vertical positions.
Continuing with
Similar descriptions apply to graphical indications 110c through 110g. Graphical indications 110e through 110g do not indicate associated relevancy values due to space constraints. In this regard, the appearance, shape, sizes, and displayed information of graphical indications 110a through 110g are not limited to the illustrations herein.
According to the
Each of graphical indications 110a through 110g also represents a value of category type metadata associated with a respective search result. Search results of a first category value are represented by graphical indications having a solid border (i.e., 110a, 110b, 110f and 110g), and search results of a second category value are represented by graphical indications having a dotted border (i.e., 110c, 110d and 110e). Category values may be represented by a graphical indication in any suitable manner, including but not limited to color, animation, font, etc. Moreover, such representations are not limited to category values and may reflect values of any metadata type.
Distribution bar 130 of view 100 represents the category values, relevancy values, and title values associated with each represented search result. Each graphical indication is represented by a line within bar 130. A thickness, a length and a vertical position of each line each represent a relevancy value, a format (solid, dotted, dashed, etc.) represents a category value, and a horizontal position represents a title value of an associated search result. Highlighted portion 132 indicates the spectrum of graphical indications displayed above distribution bar 130. Arrows 134 and 136 may be operated to move highlighted portion 132 and to thereby scroll through the graphical indications represented in distribution bar 130.
A search query is initially submitted at 202. The search query may be submitted by any type of search client to any type of search result provider using any querying protocol that is or becomes known. System 300 of
Search client 310 may comprise any suitable device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a tablet PC, and a smartphone. Search client 310 may execute program code of a rich client application, an applet in a Web browser, or any other application to perform the processes attributed thereto herein.
Search engine 320 receives the search query and formulates search results according to any known, proprietary, or other procedure. Such a procedure may include acquiring data from search index 330. Search index 330 may provide an index of searchable items (e.g., a Web page, a document, a report, a personal profile) and metadata values associated with each item. Search engine 320 may assist in the creation of search index 330. Embodiments may operate in conjunction with any system for providing search results.
A plurality of search results are received at 204 based on the submitted search query. Each of the plurality of search results is associated with a first value of a first type of metadata and a second value of a second type of metadata.
Next, at 206, a view is created including a graphical indication of at least one of the plurality of search results. The graphical indication is located at coordinates (A1, B1) of a coordinate system comprising axis A and axis B. As described with respect to view 100, the coordinate A1 is based on a first value of the first type of metadata and the coordinate B1 is based on a second value of the second type of metadata.
However, each of graphical indications 510a through 510g exhibits a same size as each other of graphical indications 510a through 510g. Accordingly, a relevancy value of each of graphical indications 510a through 510g is represented only by vertical position (i.e., coordinate Bx). Distribution bar 530 also differs from distribution bar 130 to reflect the equal widths of each of graphical indications 510a through 510g.
602 and 604 of process 600 may be performed by system 300 as described with respect to 202 and 204 of process 200. Embodiments are not limited to such an implementation.
An entity (e.g., search client 310) receiving the plurality of search results at 604 may create a view at 606. The view may include a graphical indication of one of the plurality of search results at coordinate A1 of coordinate axis A, wherein the coordinate A1 is based on a first value of a first type of metadata associated with the search result. A size of the graphical indication is based on a second value of a second type of metadata associated with the search result.
As mentioned, view 100 may be created at 606 according to some embodiments. Specifically, each of graphical indications 110a through 110g of view 100 is positioned at a coordinate of axis A (i.e., bar 120) according to a value of title type metadata associated with the graphical indication. A size of each of graphical indications 110a through 110g of view 100 is based on an associated value of relevancy type metadata.
View 700 of
In contrast to view 100 and view 500, a vertical position (e.g., along axis B) of graphical indications 710a through 710g is not based solely on a value of associated relevancy type metadata. Rather, each of graphical indications 710a through 710g is located at a highest available vertical position that avoids overlap with another graphical indication. Such an arrangement may result in a graphical indication associated with a first relevancy value (e.g., graphical indication 710c) having a same (or higher) vertical position as a graphical indication associated with a second, greater, relevancy value (e.g., graphical indication 710b).
Potential overlaps are resolved by positioning the potentially-overlapping graphical indications according to relevancy. In this regard, graphical indication 710a is positioned above graphical indication 710c because these graphical indications occupy a common region of axis A and because a relevancy value associated with graphical indication 710a is greater than a relevancy value associated with graphical indication 710c.
Each of the above-described views is based on a same set of search results and associated metadata values. According to some embodiments, a user may issue a command to change from any of the above-described views to any other of the above-described views. Additionally, a user may issue a command to change the type of metadata with which the A coordinate, the B coordinate, or the size of the graphical indications is associated. For example, a user viewing view 100 may issue a command to associate axis A with a Date Modified type metadata. Client device 310 may, in response, create a new view in which the A coordinate of each of graphical indications 110a through 110g is based on its Date Modified value. Graphical bar 120 and distribution bar 130 of the new view would therefore reflect dates instead of alphabetic characters. The B coordinate (and/or the size) of each of graphical indications 110a through 110g may remain based on its associated relevancy value.
Although the foregoing examples are related to the display of search results, embodiments are not limited thereto. Embodiments may include querying a semantic layer of an enterprise system, receiving objects and measures in response, and creating views including graphical indications based on the measures. For example, embodiments may include a view comprising graphical indications of personal contacts (e.g., stored locally as .vcf files) at coordinates (A1, B1), where one of coordinates A1 or B1 and/or a size of a graphical indication is based on the number of mails exchanged with the corresponding contact. In another example, a view may include graphical indications of all sales associated with a sales representative at coordinates (A1, B1), where one of coordinates A1 or B1 and/or a size of a graphical indication is based on a total revenue associated with the corresponding sale.
The embodiments described herein are solely for the purpose of illustration. Those in the art will recognize that other embodiments may be practiced with modifications and alterations limited only by the claims.