Interface for managing search term importance relationships
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsRobert S. Dietz, Douglas W. Herman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A graphical user interface is disclosed for management and easy reorganization of graphical objects displayed over the graphical user interface. The graphical user interface may relate to prioritizing and organizing the results of a database search. The graphical user interface may alternatively relate to prioritizing and organizing graphic objects such as personalized topics on a homepage and formatting icons in a productivity application program, such as a word processing application program, a spreadsheet application program, a presentation application program and a drawing application program.
Claims17
A method of displaying content on a graphical user interface in a ranked order, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) displaying a reference position on the graphical user interface;
- (b) receiving input from the user with respect to at least two criteria;
- (c) displaying at least first and second movable graphical objects, representative of the input received by the user in said step (b), on the graphical user interface, positions at which the movable graphical objects are displayed representing a relative importance to the user of each of the at least two criteria;
- (d) detecting a position of the first and second graphical objects on the graphical user interface;
- (e) detecting a position of the first graphical object with respect to the second graphical object;
- (f) awarding a bonus when the first and second graphical objects are spaced from each other but within one of first and second a predefined distances distance of each other, the bonus increasing the relevance of an item of content in a ranked order of the content and the bonus for being within the first predefined distance of each other being greater than the bonus for being within the second predefined distance of each other;
- and
- (g) positioning the content in ranked order on the graphical user interface, the ranked order based at least in part on a proximity of the graphical objects to the reference position, and in part on any bonus due to the proximity of the first graphical to the second graphical object.
A method of displaying results of a database search on a graphical user interface in a ranked order, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) displaying a reference position on the graphical user interface;
- (b) receiving at least two queries to be searched in the database;
- (c) receiving the results generated based on the queries;
- (d) displaying at least two movable graphical objects, representative of the queries received by the user in said step (b), on the graphical user interface;
- (e) detecting a position of the graphical objects on the graphical user interface;
- (f) awarding a bonus when the graphical objects are within a predefined distance of each other, the bonus increasing the relevance of a result in a ranked order of the results and the bonus being awarded on a sliding scale proportional to a distance between the graphical objects;
- and
- (g) positioning the results in ranked order on the graphical user interface, the ranked order based at least in part on a proximity of the graphical objects to the reference position, a bonus award to a result, and the frequency of the queries in the results.
A method of ranking results of a database search, comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving a plurality of queries to be searched;
- (b) receiving an indication of an importance of the plurality of queries by positioning query objects representing the queries on a graphical user interface;
- (c) receiving an indication of an importance of a first query of the plurality of queries relative to a second query of the plurality of queries, such that two queries indicated to have a high importance relative to each other provide a bonus to a search result having a high frequency of the two queries together, the bonus increasing the relevance of that search result in a ranking of the search results and the amount of the bonus awarded to a pair of queries dependent on a distance between the pair of query objects for the pair of queries such that the pair of queries receive a first bonus when the pair of query objects are a first distance away from each other, a second bonus greater than the first bonus when the pair of query objects are a second distance away from each other and a third bonus greater than the second bonus when the pair of query objects are a third distance away from each other, the first distance being greater than the second distance and the second distance being greater than the third distance;
- and
- (d) basing the ranking of the search results at least in part on the importance of the plurality of queries indicated in said step (b), and the importance of the first query relative to the second query indicated in said step (c).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.