Method and system enabling Web content searching from a remote set-top control interface or device
AssigneeAlcatel
InventorPrasad Golla
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for conducting a data search operation for content stored at nodes on a network includes a menu interface for enabling an interaction sequence of content category selection and definition-narrowing of those categories selected, a server application for interpreting the interaction sequence and for formulating a search query based on the interpretation, and a session application for submitting the query to a third party node, and for receiving and filtering results returned, the results forwarded to the menu interface for subsequent display and interaction. The network may combine wireless and land-based telephone, Internet, cable and satellite television.
Claims20
A system for conducting a data search operation for content stored at nodes on a network, comprising:
- a menu interface for enabling an interaction sequence of content category selection and definition-narrowing of those categories selected;
- a server application for interpreting the interaction sequence and for formulating a search query based on the interpretation;
- and
- a session application for submitting the query to a third party node, and for receiving and filtering results returned, the results forwarded to the menu interface for subsequent display and interaction.
A method for searching a network for content including steps for:
- (a) in an interactive content menu accessible from a terminal, selecting a content category categories offered;
- (b) repeating content category selection one or more times from subsequent content menu screens resulting from previous selections;
- (d) formulating a search query based on data describing the content selection sequence;
- (e) submitting the search query to one or more search engines;
- (f) receiving results from the one or more search engines;
- (g) optimizing the received results against a set of rules;
- and
- (h) forwarding the optimized results to the television terminal for display and further interaction in a subsequent menu screen.
A filtering application for optimizing universal resource locators returned from a search engine comprising:
- a first portion for eliminating duplicate universal resource locators that point to a same content resource;
- a second portion for eliminating universal resource locators that are not relevant to a certain degree to search subject matter;
- and
- a third portion for appending network path information to the universal resource locators to enable invocation of the links for initiating streaming of or download and display of the associated content.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.