Abstract:
A method of generating a context-inferenced search query and of sorting a result of the query is described. The method includes analyzing an event associated with the user to determine a contextual setting, dynamically generating a search query based on the contextual setting, and searching at least one information source using the search query to generate a search result. Additionally, the method includes calculating an importance value for each item of the search result, sorting the items of the search result according the importance value, and displaying the sorted search result to the user.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The invention relates to computerized searching. More specifically, the invention relates to searching documents and displaying the results of the search based on contextual information associated with a user.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Search utilities are common throughout various computing environments such as the world-wide-web and in various computer applications such as electronic mail, word processing, and other desktop applications. A large number of computer users still only enter a single search term into the search utility, because complex search queries are difficult for the average computer user to construct. As a result, the search utility often returns an overwhelming amount of data that satisfies the search query. The user manually sorts through the search results to find the desired information.  
         [0003]     To address this problem, programmers developed various mechanisms to aid computer users in constructing search queries. One such mechanism is Query by Example (QBE), which is a method of query creation that allows the computer user to search for documents based on an example in the form of a selected text string, a document name, or a list of documents. Because the QBE system formulates the actual query, QBE is easier to learn than formal query languages, such as the standard Structured Query Language (SQL), and can produce powerful searches. For example, in QBE the location of the user&#39;s cursor on a computer display can be used to determine if the user is looking at his or her calendar program. The user can highlight a term of calendar entry and ask the QBE mechanism to search for other documents containing that term.  
         [0004]     Often, the result of the QBE is displayed to the user based on a single property (e.g., a date or a keyword). For example, a document containing an exact match of the QBE term is determined to be more likely of interest to the user than a document containing a derivative of the QBE term. Accordingly, the result of the QBE is displayed to the user based upon this assumption. However, in some circumstances the user may actually be more interested in the document containing the derivative of the QBE term, because the user may have an upcoming event focused on the derivative QBE term. Basing the QBE search results on a single property often does not produce an accurate reflection of what is important to the user.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     In one aspect, the invention features a method of organizing and presenting information to a user based on a present or past contextual setting of the user. The method includes analyzing an event associated with the user to determine a contextual setting, dynamically generating a search query based on the contextual setting, and searching at least one information source using the search query to generate a search result. Additionally, the method includes calculating an importance value for each item of the search result, sorting the items of the search result according the importance value, and displaying the sorted search result to the user. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]     The above and further advantages of this invention may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals indicate like structural elements and features in various figures. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an embodiment of client-server environment within which the present invention can operate.  
         [0008]      FIG. 2  is a conceptual block diagram of a software system according to principles of the invention.  
         [0009]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method of organizing and presenting a search result to a user according to the principles of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0010]     The present invention relates to a software application for searching, organizing, and presenting a result of a dynamically generated search query to a user of the software application. The functionality of the software application can be incorporated into existing applications such as office applications, email applications, and time management applications. Alternatively, the software application of the present invention can be a stand-alone application. The software application retrieves documents from various sources. As used herein, the term documents includes, but is not limited to, e-mail messages, meetings notices, calendar entries, task list items, instant messages, web pages, word processing files, presentation files, spreadsheet files, database records, and the like.  
         [0011]     The dynamic search query and its associated result are generated based on a contextual setting of the user. As used herein, the contextual setting for the dynamic search query refers to past, present and future events such as meetings, conference calls, video conferences and the like that are important to the user. Refining functions, which are also based on a contextual setting, operate on the returned results of the search engine to provide further values for ranking the returned search results. A contextual setting for refining refers to all of the personal information of the user, including but not limited to email, events, and documents of the user. A combiner analyzes the results of the refining functions and the search results to provide a final ordering of the search results. The software application presents the final ordering to a user. The final ordering indicates an order of importance or priority to the user.  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  shows an embodiment of a computing environment  2  in which the invention can be practiced. The computing environment  2  includes a client system  4  in communication with a server system  6  over a network  8 . The client system  4  can be any personal computer (e.g., 486, Pentium, Pentium II, Macintosh), Windows-based terminal, wireless device, information appliance, RISC Power PC, X-device, workstation, mini-computer, mainframe computer, cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other computing device that has hardware such as a display screen, one or more input devices (e.g., keypad, stylus, keyboard, mouse, touch-pad, and trackball), a processor for executing application programs, and sufficient persistent storage for storing such application programs and related information.  
         [0013]     Application programs on the client system  4  include, but are not limited to, an electronic mail client program  12 , browser software  14 , office applications  16  such as a spread sheet, a word processor, and a slide presentation, an instant messaging program  18 , a time management application  19 , and briefing software  20 . The email client program  12 , browser software  14 , office applications  16 , instant messaging program  18 , time management application  19 , and briefing software  20  can be a proprietary or commercially available program, such as Lotus WORKPLACE™ for email, time management, and briefing, Lotus Same Time for instant messaging, Microsoft Internet Explorer™ for browser software, and Microsoft WORD for word processing. The browser software  14  can incorporate a JAVA™ virtual machine for interpreting JAVA™ code (i.e., applets, scripts) and applications. The time management application  19  typically includes a calendar, communications, and task management functions. The briefing software  20  provides the functionality of the invention.  
         [0014]     The application programs execute within an operating system. Examples of operating systems supported by the client system  4  include Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows CE, Macintosh, Java, LINUX, and UNIX. The client system  4  also includes a network interface (not shown) for communicating over the network  8 . The network  8  can be a local-area network (LAN), a metro-area network (MAN), or wide-area network (WAN), such as the Internet or World Wide Web. Users of the client system  4  can connect to the network  8  through one of a variety of connections, such as standard telephone lines, digital subscriber line, LAN or WAN links (e.g., T1, T3), broadband connections (Frame Relay, ATM), and wireless connections (e.g., 802.11(a), 802.11(b), 802.11(g)).  
         [0015]     In one embodiment, the server system  6  includes an instant messaging server  24 - 1 , a search server  24 - 2 , a document management and application server  24 - 3 , and an e-mail and directory server  24 - 4  (generally, server  24 ). Although shown separately, these servers  24  can be integrated in a single computing machine. Alternatively, different computing machines geographically collocated or distributed across the network  8 , can be used to implement the server  24 .  
         [0016]     Each server  24  includes programs for performing particular services and persistent storage for keeping data related to those services. The instant messaging server  24 - 1  includes software  26  for providing instant messaging services and persistent storage  28  for storing all or some of the instant messages for a predetermined period of time. Components of the search server  24 - 2  are software  30  for performing search services and persistent storage  32  for maintaining an index of searching keywords to be used in searching for documents.  
         [0017]     The document management and application server  24 - 3  includes software  34  for providing document management services. Documents managed by the document management software  34  reside in persistent storage  38 . The e-mail and directory server  24 - 4  includes software  42  for supporting email communication among users on the network  8  and software  44  for providing directory services. The email services software  42  accesses persistent storage  46 , which stores the email messages, and the directory services software  44  accesses user directory information in persistent storage  48 . In a preferred embodiment, the briefing software  20  is integrated into the time management application  19 . The briefing software  20  communicates with each of the email  12 , browser  14 , office  16 , and instant messaging  18  applications and the instant messaging server  24 - 1 , the search server  24 - 2 , the document management and application server  24 - 3 , and the e-mail and directory server  24 - 4  as required to retrieve documents related to the contextual setting of the user.  
         [0018]     When a user activates the briefing software  20 , the briefing software  20  of the client system  4  communicates over the network  8  with the server system  6  to accomplish the search and organizational activities of the invention. To communicate information across the network  8 , in one embodiment, the client and server systems  4 ,  6  use standard transport protocols, such as TCP/IP and the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).  
         [0019]      FIG. 2  is a conceptual block diagram of an embodiment of the briefing software  20  of  FIG. 1 . The briefing software  20  includes searcher software  50 , refiner software  54 , and combiner software  58 .  
         [0020]     In general the searcher  50  includes a search engine for searching through the documents  49  in response to the dynamically generated search query produced by dynamic search query generator software  52 . In some embodiments, the search engine can be a part of the search server  24 - 2 , of the time management application  19 , or of a stand-alone search engine. The searcher  50  includes a searching function for identifying documents in response to the dynamically generated search query of the invention and a ranking function for assigning search scores to each document identified by the searching function. The searcher  50  is in communication with the combiner  58  to forward a search score  51  for each document identified by the search function and with the refiner  54  to forward search result information  53  that correlates a search score to a respective document. The search result information  53  can be the documents identified by the searcher  50  or pointers to those documents.  
         [0021]     The refiner  54  includes refining functions R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , and R 6  (referred to generally as refining functions R). It should be understood that the invention is not limited to six refining functions. Instead any number of refining functions can be included as part of the briefing software  20 . In general, each refining function analyzes the search result information  53  and provides a refiner score  55  for each document identified by the searcher  50 . For example, one of the refining functions R can score a document based on who receives or authors the document. Another refining function R can score based on whether the document is a calendar entry or includes an attachment. Yet another refining function can score the document based on the temporal nature of the document. Each refining function can cause an increase or decrease in the ranking of the document within the briefing view  62 . Each refining function R can be implemented as a software class that is called by the briefing software  20  while the briefing software  20  is executing.  
         [0022]     Some parameters of the refining functions can be controlled by a dynamic interest profile  66  that is associated with the user of the briefing software  20 . In general, the dynamic interest profile  66  includes various parameters related to the interests of the user. The parameters can be dynamically determined based upon the activities of the user, statically configured by the user, or be a combination of statically configured parameters and dynamically configured parameters. An example of a dynamically determined parameter is a value assigned to various authors of documents that are read by the user. As the user reads more documents authored by a particular user, the score associated with that author increases. An example of a statically configured parameter is a value that is set by the user to indicate a higher degree of relevance to the user of a receipt of a document.  
         [0023]     For example, the refining function RI, referred to as the “recipient importance” refining function, scores documents retrieved by the searcher  50  based on the average importance of the recipients. The average importance is calculated by querying the user&#39;s dynamic interest profile  66  to retrieve an importance value for each recipient of the document. Expressed mathematically, the recipient importance refining function R 1  can be expressed as:  
               f   ⁡     (   d   )       =     {               1        S          ⁢       ∑     r   ∈   S       ⁢     DipScore   ⁡     (   r   )                   if   ⁢           ⁢        S          &gt;   0             0       otherwise         .               (   1   )             
 
 In equation 1, S is the set of recipients for the document that is being scored by the refining function R 1 . DipScore (r) is the score associated with the recipient. This value is retrieved from the dynamic interest profile  66  of the user of the briefing software  20 . 
 
         [0024]     The refining function R 2 , referred to as the “author importance” refining function, scores the documents retrieved by the searcher  50  based upon who authored the document. Mathematically, the author importance refining function R 2  can be expressed as: 
 
ƒ( d )=DipScore( S )   (2). 
 
 In equation 2, the DipScore (S) relates to the importance of the author or sender of a document as viewed by the user of the briefing software  20 . The dynamic interest profile  66  of the user of the briefing software  20  calculates a value DipScore (S) for certain authors of documents. The value DipScore (S) can be dynamically or manually configured in the dynamic interest profile  66 . Generally, the value of DipScore (S) is determined by the user and user&#39;s habits related to the respective author. For example, documents authored by the user&#39;s manager may be of more importance to the user than documents authored by the other attendees of the meeting. Thus, the value calculated for DipScore (S) for the user&#39;s manager is greater than the value calculated for DipScore (S) for the other attendees. 
 
         [0025]     The refining function R 3 , referred to as the “participant overlap” refining function, scores document that were sent by a non-meeting participant to each of the user and the meeting participants higher than documents that were sent by the non-meeting participant to only the user. Also, the participant overlap refining function R 3  scores documents that are sent by meeting participants to the user or that were sent to the meeting participants by the user higher than documents that were not sent to or by meeting participants. For example, an email that was sent to a meeting participant is more likely to be relevant to the upcoming meeting when compared to an email that was sent to non-meeting participant. The participant overlap refining function R 3  can be expressed mathematically as:  
               f   ⁡     (   d   )       =              P   ⋂     (     N   ⋃   S     )                   P   ⋃   N   ⋃   S            .             (   3   )             
 
 In equation 3, P represents the set of meeting participants, N represents the set of recipients of the document being scored, and S represents the author or sender of the document. The resulting score generated by the participant overlap refining function is associated with the document for use by the briefing software  20 . 
 
         [0026]     The refining function R 4 , referred to as the “calendar entry” refining function, scores the documents returned by the searcher  50  based on whether the document is a calendar entry. In one embodiment, the calendar entry refining function R 4  increases the relevance of the document if the document is a calendar entry. For example, when the document is a calendar entry a scoring factor is applied to the document; however, if the document is not a calendar entry then the scoring factor is not applied. Expressed mathematically, the calendar entry refining function R 4  can be viewed as:  
               f   ⁡     (   d   )       =     {           1         if   ⁢           ⁢   the   ⁢           ⁢   document   ⁢           ⁢   is   ⁢           ⁢   a   ⁢           ⁢   calendar   ⁢           ⁢   entry             0       otherwise         .               (   4   )             
 
 This refining function accounts for the fact that upcoming events in the users calendar are important to the user. 
 
         [0027]     Similar to the calendar entry refining function R 4 , the briefing software  20  includes the “attachment included” refining function R 5  that scores the documents returned by the search engine based on whether the document includes an attachment. In one embodiment, the attachment included refining function R 5  applies a scoring factor to the document when the document includes an attachment. Conversely, when the document does not include an attachment, the attachment refining function R 5  does not apply the scoring factor to the document. A mathematical expression of the attachment included refining function R 5  can be:  
               f   ⁡     (   d   )       =     {           1         if   ⁢           ⁢   the   ⁢           ⁢   document   ⁢           ⁢   has   ⁢           ⁢   an   ⁢           ⁢   attachment             0       otherwise         .               (   5   )             
 
         [0028]     The refining function R 6 , referred to as the “time-based” refining function, scores the documents returned by the searcher  50  based on temporal parameters of the documents. In one embodiment, the time-based refining function R 6  scores the documents based on when the document was created or on the time of the occurrence of the document (i.e., the time the document was received, the last time the document was modified, or the last time the document was accessed). Often documents that are created closer in time to the upcoming event are more relevant to the event and should be scored higher when compared to documents created two months prior to the upcoming event. For example, a document created one day prior to an upcoming meeting typically includes information that is up to date. Therefore, the score applied to the one-day old document is greater than the score applied to a document that was created two weeks ago. In one embodiment, the time-based refining function R 6  is expressed mathematically as:  
               f   ⁡     (   d   )       =       1              t   e     -     t   d            +   1       .             (   6   )             
 
 In equation 6, t e  represents the time of the upcoming or past event and t d  represents the time of creation of the document or the time of occurrence of the document. 
 
         [0029]     The resulting score generated by each of the refining functions R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , and R 6  are associated with the document for use by the combiner  58 . Although shown as having six refining functions R, the refiner  54  can include various numbers of refining functions R. Various combinations of the refining functions R are applied to the documents returned from the search  50 . It is not required that every refining function R generate a score for each document returned by the searcher  50 .  
         [0030]     In one embodiment, the combiner  58  is a weighting algorithm that combines the scores returned from both the searcher  50  and the refiner  54  for each document. The combiner  58  applies a weighting algorithm having at least one weighting factor related to the contextual setting to each of the scores. The weighting applied to each of the refining function scores and the search result score can be dynamically determined based on the history of the user or manually set using the dynamic interest profile  66  of the user. The combining function produces the final rankings of the documents that are used to generate the briefing view  62 .  
         [0031]      FIG. 3  depicts an embodiment of a method  100  of operation of the briefing software  20 . To generate the briefing view  62 , the user launches the time management application  19  (e.g., Lotus WORKPLACE™) and selects the “briefing view” from the view menu of the time management application  19 .  
         [0032]     When the briefing view is selected, the dynamic query generation software  52  dynamically constructs (step  110 ) a search query based upon information within the time management application  19 . For example, the dynamic query generation software  52  analyzes a calendar entry to determine the contextual setting for the user. In addition to calendar entries, the briefing software  20  can analyze email, instant messages, thread postings, task list items, reminder notices, or a combination thereof to dynamically generate the search query.  
         [0033]     As an illustrative example, if a calendar entry reads “meet to discuss Windows patch deployment adoption” and lists the participants as Joe Smith, John Price, Fred Randolf, the resulting dynamically generated search query is: 
        text:meet, text:to, text:discuss, text:windows, text:patch, text:deployment, text:adoption, author:“joe smith”, author:“john price”, author:“fred randolf” sentto:“joe smith”, sentto:“john price”, sendto:“fred randolf.”
 
 In this example, text:x indicates that the body or subject of any returned document should contain text x, author:x indicates that the author of any returned document should contain text x, and sendto:x indicates that any returned document should have been sent to recipient x. In one embodiment, the dynamically generated search query is displayed to the user to allow the user to modify the dynamically generated search query. 
       
 
         [0035]     The briefing software  20  requests (step  120 ) a search of the documents  49  accessible by the user using the dynamically generated search query. Documents fulfilling any subset of the dynamically generated search query conditions are returned by the searcher  50  and ranked based on a ranking algorithm associated with the searcher  50 . Generally the searcher  50  scores documents based on the number of fulfilled search criteria; documents with more conditions fulfilled score higher than those documents with fewer fulfilled conditions. For example, referring to the previous exemplary search query an email (i.e., document D 1 ) authored by John Price sent to Fred Randolph having a subject line “widows patch” scores higher than an email (i.e., document D 2 ) authored by John Price sent to Joe Smith having a subject line “let&#39;s have lunch” having an attachment titled “windows patch deployment meeting”.  
         [0036]     The refiner  54  refines (step  130 ) the search results returned from the searcher  50 . The various refining functions R of the refiner  54  operate on the search results to score each retrieved document. After any one or combination of refining functions operate on each document returned by the searcher  50 , the combiner  58  combines (step  140 ) the scores produced by the search engine and the scores produced by the refining function to create an importance value for each document. After the final rankings are set, the briefing software  20  displays (step  150 ) the final result to the user.  
         [0037]     The following example is provided to illustrate various features and advantages of the invention. Referring back to the search results above, the searcher  50  scores document D 1  at 70.0 and D 2  at 60.0. However, applying various refining functions R of the refiner  54  and using the refining results  55  in the combiner  58  alters the final rankings in the briefing view  62 . In this example, the briefing software  20  applies the refining functions R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , and R 6  to the documents returned from the searcher  50 . Consider that each document was created at roughly the same time; therefore, the time based refining function R 6  does not influence the final rankings in the briefing view  62 . Similarly, the calendar entry refining function R 4  does not influence the final rankings, because neither document D 1  or D 2  is a calendar entry. Each document has the same author; therefore, the author importance refining function R 2  does not influence the ranking. Neither document D 1  nor document D 2  is from or sent to any other meeting participant than John Price so the participant overlap refining function R 3  returns 0.0 for each of the documents D 1 , D 2  and therefore does not influence the final ranking.  
         [0038]     However, documents D 1  and D 2  have different recipients that are of greater and lesser importance to the user. Applying the recipient importance refining R 1  returns different values for the documents D 1 , D 2 . For example, Fred Randolph (recipient of document D 1 ) is the administrative assistant of John Price while Joe Smith (recipient of document D 2 ) is the supervisor of John Price. Accessing the dynamic interest profile  66  of the user reveals that Fred Randolph has a recipient importance value of 10.0 and Joe Smith has a recipient importance value of 90.0.  
         [0039]     The document D 2  also includes an attachment, while document D 1  does not. Therefore the attachment refining function R 5  returns a score of 0.0 for document D 1  and a score of 1.0 for document D 2 .  
         [0040]     The combiner  58  uses a weighted linear combination function to calculate the final score for the documents D 1 , D 2 . In the weighted linear combination function, the searcher scores  51  are given a weight of 1.0, the recipient importance refiner R 1  is given a weight of 0.1 and the attachment refiner R 5  is given a weight of 3.0. For clarity, assume that all refining functions R that returned identical values for the two documents D 1 , D 2  are ignored by the combiner  58 . The combiner  58  assigns document D 1  a final score of 71.0 which is calculated as shown in equation 7: 
 
((1.0×70.0)+(0.1×10.0)+(3.0×0.0))   (7) 
 
 The combiner assigns document D 2  a final score of 72.0 that is calculated as shown in equation 8: 
 
((1.0×60.0)+(0.1×90.0)+(3.0×1.0))   (8) 
 
 Therefore in the briefing view  62  the document D 2  is displayed as ranking higher than document D 1 . As shown, the operation of the refiner  54  and the combiner  58  reverse the final rankings of the documents D 1  and D 2  when compared to the searcher  50  alone. 
 
         [0041]     Although described using a single calendar entry, the principles of the invention can be applied to multiple calendar entries and multiple other documents depending on the preference of the user. For example, if the user has multiple meetings scheduled for a particular day, the text for each of those meetings is used to create a compound search. In the returned search results, the documents related to the next scheduled meeting are displayed first. This concept can be applied to generate a “sliding window” of important documents related to the upcoming meetings of the user. To implement the sliding window concept, the user configures the briefing software  20  to run at predetermined intervals (e.g., every 15 minutes) so the resulting briefing view  62  generated by the briefing software  20  updates continually.  
         [0042]     Another example of the sliding window concept includes not only upcoming events for the user, but includes recently completed events. A meeting that the user just attended may still be important to the user because, for example, the user was assigned action items as a result of the meeting. The briefing view  62  can include documents related to the recently completed event.  
         [0043]     While the invention has been shown and described with reference to specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, although described as a method and data file the invention can be embodied as a computer readable medium (e.g., compact disk, DVD, flash memory, and the like) that is sold and distributed in various commercial channels. Also, the computer readable instructions contained on the computer readable medium can be purchased and download across a network (e.g., Internet). Additionally, the invention can be embodied as a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave for organizing and presenting information to a user.