Button-activated contextual search
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsDeepa Ramachandran, Stephen M. Yolleck, William J. Pardi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This patent application relates to button-activated contextual search techniques for providing contextually relevant search functionality on a display. The single button can be a search button on a pointing device (e.g., a computer mouse device, touch pad, track ball device, etc.) configured to move a pointer on the display. The pointer can be moved to a location that is on or near an entity on the display, allowing a search to be enabled and/or performed for that entity when the search button is activated (e.g., with a single user click). Furthermore, the search functionality can be based on one or more automatically generated search terms for the entity, and thus be contextually relevant to the entity.
Claims23
A hardware computer-readable memory device or storage device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts, the acts comprising:
- detecting an activation of a dedicated search button on a pointing device configured to move a pointer to a location on a display;
- and
- responsive to detecting the activation of the dedicated search button:
- identifying an entity proximate the location on the display and obtaining contextual information about a computing experience associated with the activation of the dedicated search button;
- using at least a portion of the contextual information to generate one or more search terms for the entity;
- automatically initiating a search using the one or more search terms without further user input;
- and
- automatically providing search results on the display based on the one or more generated search terms for the entity.
A method comprising:
- receiving an activation of a search control on a search button of a pointing device, the pointing device controlling a location of a pointer on a display;
- responsive to receiving the activation, irrespective of a browser application being open, and irrespective of any program being open on the display, identifying:
- an entity corresponding to the location of the pointer on the display, and
- other displayed information that is not proximate the entity;
- obtaining contextual information about the identified entity based at least in part on the other displayed information;
- using the obtained contextual information to generate one or more search terms for the identified entity;
- and
- providing search functionality on the display for the identified entity based on the one or more generated search terms,
- wherein at least the identifying and the obtaining are performed by a computing device.
A hardware computer-readable memory device or storage device storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to perform acts comprising:
- detecting an activation of a button on a pointing device, the pointing device controlling a location of a pointer on a display, the button configured to automatically initiate a search;
- and
- responsive to detecting the activation of the button:
- identifying an entity proximate the location on the display,
- obtaining contextual information about a computing experience associated with the activation of the button,
- using at least a portion of the contextual information to generate one or more search terms for the entity, and
- automatically initiating the search using the one or more search terms without further user input.
A system, comprising:
- an entity search module, including:
- an activation detection module configured to detect an activation of a button on a pointing device, the pointing device controlling a location of a pointer on a display, the button configured to automatically initiate a search,
- an information extraction module configured to:
- identify an entity proximate the location on the display, and
- obtain contextual information about a computing experience associated with the activation of the button, and
- a search term generator module configured to use at least a portion of the contextual information to generate one or more search terms for the entity,
- wherein the entity search module is configured to automatically initiate the search using the one or more search terms without further user input;
- and
- a processing device that is configured to execute computer-executable instructions associated with the entity search module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.