Patent ID: 9355179
Filing Date: 2016-05-31
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. One or more computer hardware storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method of refining query results using visual cues, the method comprising: receiving a user query from a user; determining a first plurality of query results that satisfy the user query from one or more search engines, each of the first plurality of query results comprising a preview image corresponding to each query result; generating one or more query result groups, each query result group containing one or more query results from the first plurality of query results, wherein the one or more query results from the first plurality of query results are a coordinated set of query results that are identified as sharing at least one common characteristic that is associated with each of the one or more query results; associating a visual cue with each of the one or more query result groups, wherein each visual cue associated with each of the one or more query result groups comprises a representative visual cue image derived from one or more preview images corresponding with the one or more query results associated with a corresponding query result group, wherein each representative visual cue image represents the one or more query results in the corresponding query result group; presenting at least one portion of the one or more preview images in association with the one or more query results of the first plurality of query results; presenting at least one portion of the visual cues in a visual cue preview area, wherein the visual cue preview area is separate from the presented at least one portion of the one or more preview images wherein each presented visual cue is selectable; and presenting a query suggestion area separate from the visual cue preview area and the presented at least one portion of the one or more preview images, wherein the query suggestion area comprises a plurality of image visual cues, wherein upon a user selection of an image visual cue from the query suggestion area, a refined user query is indicated, wherein the refined user query reflects the user's intent for the user query.