Abstract:
A system for creating keywords or phrases to be used for mining online information has a text source accessible by the system, a keyword aggregation function, and a mechanism for configuring the system. The system extracts keywords and phrases from the text source according to the configuration, for submission to a search facility.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS 
     The instant application claims priority to U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/670,422 filed on Apr. 11, 2005. The application is incorporated herein in it&#39;s entirety at by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is in the field of information search applications used on a information network to return data search results as a consequence of keyword or phrase input and pertains more particularly to a system for dynamic keyword or phrase aggregation on the client side and for automated submission thereof into a search engine interface causing return of keyword or phrase-relevant results. 
     2. Discussion of the State of the Art 
     In the field of information searching over a data network like the World Wide Web, for example, it is well known that any user operating a network-capable device hosting a browser application for network navigation may use a search engine interface provided within the browser application in order to search web-based sources for information relevant to information search criteria entered into the search interface and submitted to a host providing the interface. Well known examples of search providers include Altavista™, Google™, Yahoo™, Excite™, and others. 
     Data returned from an information-search submission of keyword, keywords, or a phrase is typically presented within the browser interface as an electronic search result page listing interactive hyperlinks that, when invoked, direct the browser to the page associated with the universal resource locator (URL) invoked by the link, which may be textual, graphic, audio, or video data depending upon options selected for data return when the search criteria is submitted from the search interface. 
     More recently, search providers have created special compilations of information that may be searched as a specific type or class of information. For example, a user may limit an information search to news stories only. One of the most noted classes of information that may now be exclusively searched are research related documents published by students, professors, authors, and other academia-related practitioners. 
     It has occurred to the inventor that a capability of exclusively searching for academia-related documents proves particularly useful to students who must perform some kind of research in order to obtain relevant information for completing assignments. Many of these students use laptops, computers, personal digital assistants, and even third-generation (3G) network-capable telephones to conduct such information searches. 
     A problem with such information searching activity is that it is often ad hoc and must be performed manually by the user when the user desires to perform the research. Likewise, it may require some skill to determine keywords, phrases, and the like that will return optimally relevant results that the user may actually use. Often keywords and phrases entered by a user with good intent cause return of many links to information that is not relevant to what the user was actually searching for. Therefore much time is wasted sifting through data and refining and resubmitting keywords for additional searches. The process can be quite frustrating to an untrained user, especially one not familiar with information search processes. 
     Therefore, what is clearly needed in the art is an electronic system and software that can compile lists of keywords or phrases from parsing such as existing course descriptions, assignment descriptions, and other computer inputs or created documents that may exist on a users network-capable device, and an do so without intervention from the user, and submit those keywords or phrases in one or a series of information search operations causing one or a series of returns of relevant results to a user interface. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In an embodiment of the present invention a system is provided for extracting keywords and phrases to be used for mining online information, comprising a text source accessible by the system, a keyword aggregation function, and a mechanism for configuring the system. The system extracts keywords and phrases from the text source according to the configuration, for submission to a search facility. 
     In one embodiment configuration includes nature of words or phrases to be selected as keywords or phrases for submission. Also in one embodiment the nature of words includes whether the words are nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Also in one embodiment configuration includes selecting words or phrases repeated in the text source. 
     In some embodiments of the system the text source may be a course schedule, including date or time constraints and the configuration prioritizes keyword or phrase extraction according to the date or time constraints. Also in some embodiments the text source may be a document, and the configuration manages keyword or phrase extraction according to specific portions of the document. 
     In some embodiments the specific portions may include sentences, paragraphs, pages or chapters. In other embodiments the text source may be a real-time typing mechanism. In some embodiments the configuration may manage keyword or phrase extraction by word, sentence, paragraph or page typed. In still other embodiments the configuration may manage keyword or phrase extraction by time periodicity. 
     In some embodiments there is a mechanism for submitting keywords and phrases extracted from the text source to a search facility, and the configuration may manage submissions by time periods or structural characteristics of the text source. The structural characteristics may include sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters, or subheadings. In some instances the system may connected to the Internet network, and submissions to the search facility may be managed to occur in real time. In other instances keyword and phrase extraction may occur while the system is unconnected to the Internet, and submissions are managed to be made at times that the system is connected to the Internet. 
     In some embodiments there may be a mechanism for receiving and using results of searches done by the search facility using keywords or phrases extracted by the system, and in some cases the system may display links to Internet-connected information sources found as a result of a search. The text source may be a real-time typing mechanism, and the search results may be displayed proximate the typed text. 
     In another aspect of the invention a method for creating keywords or phrases to be used for mining online information is provided, comprising the steps of (a) configuring an extraction mechanism; (b) accessing a text source; and (c) extracting keywords or phrases from the text source according to configuration set in step (a). In step (a) configuration may include nature of words or phrases to be selected as keywords or phrases, and the nature of words may include whether the words are nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. In some embodiments configuration may include selecting words or phrases repeated in the text source. The text source may be a course schedule, including date or time constraints, and the configuration prioritizes keyword or phrase extraction according to the date or time constraints. In some cases the text source may be a document, and the configuration may manage keyword or phrase extraction according to specific portions of the document, which may be sentences, paragraphs, pages or chapters. 
     In some embodiments the text source may be a real-time typing mechanism, and the configuration may manage keyword or phrase extraction by word, sentence, paragraph or page typed. In some embodiments the configuration may manage keyword or phrase extraction by time periodicity. 
     In some embodiments there may further be a mechanism for submitting keywords and phrases extracted from the text source to a search facility, and in some embodiments the configuration may manage submissions by time periods or structural characteristics of the text source. The structural characteristics might include sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters, or subheadings. 
     In some cases there is connection to the Internet network, and submissions to the search facility are managed to occur in real time. Also in some cases keyword and phrase extraction occurs while unconnected to the Internet, and submissions are managed to be made at times connected to the Internet. In some embodiments there may be a mechanism for receiving and using results of searches done by the search facility using keywords or phrases extracted. Also in some embodiments the results displayed may be links to Internet-connected information sources found as a result of a search. In some cases the text source may be a real-time typing mechanism, and the search results are displayed proximate the typed text. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a communications network wherein automated keyword aggregation and information search submission is practiced according to embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a user interface adapted for dynamic keyword aggregation, submission and return of results according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating dynamic keyword aggregation, submission, and search result return according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a communications network  100  wherein automated keyword aggregation and information search submission is practiced according to embodiments of the present invention. Communications network  100  includes a data packet network  102  illustrated herein as the well known world wide web (WWW) and will be referred to hereinafter as WWW  102 . Network  102  may be another wide area network (WAN) other than the WWW such as a corporate Intranet, a private WAN, or a wireless municipal area network (MAN). The WWW is used in this example because of its public-access characteristics and because it has a wide geographic reach. Therefore, the practice of the present invention over the WWW is not geographically limited. 
     A search provider  107  is illustrated within the domain of WWW  102  and represents any service provider that enables information search services to clients accessing the WWW to perform such services. Search provider  107  may be an enterprise such as Google™, Yahoo™, Altavista™, or others. 
     Search provider  107  has a Web server (WS)  108  illustrated within its domain and directly connected to the WWW for communication. WS  108  is adapted to provide information search operations and to return information search results to users, typically in the form of hypertext transfer protocol language (HTML) electronic pages wherein those results are presented as a list of relevant hyperlinks to content that is relevant to search criteria entered by the users. Content results returned are typically compiled before presentation from content databases maintained by provider  107  and illustrated herein as databases  109 ( a - n ) directly connected to WS  108  for data access and also connected in some embodiments to the WWW. The art of maintaining content for serving to users operating a search engine interface is well known and documented in the art. Therefore, detailed descriptions of the various methods for maintaining content-relevant links and content for information search services will not be provided here accept to say that in some cases search providers share databases and that some search providers maintain special content of a specific class for users to search as mentioned above in the background section. 
     Database  109   a , for example, may contain links to WWW-based news articles from many WWW-based news services. Database  109   n , for example, may contain links to WWW-based academia papers or research papers. Search provider  107  may provide users a special option when using a search engine to access links to information. For example, Google™ has recently provided a search engine option for searching links to research-based materials or other academically-related information, reports, articles, papers, and the like. The option is known as Google Scholar™. Providers also have options for culling returned links to more manageable numbers of links that are most relevant to the entered criteria. 
     A user  104  is illustrated in this example as a computer laptop icon representing a device commonly operated for Internet access and for conducting information searches of the WWW. In one embodiment, user  104  represents a student user operating client software  113  adapted for communicating with a university system illustrated in this embodiment as university system  103 . Client software  113  may be a software application developed as a standalone or browser plug-in that enables user  104  to aggregate and organize his or her academic tasks. 
     University system  103  in this example operates on a campus area network, or a local area network  116  and supports at least one education server  115  connected to network  116  and also connected to WWW  102  for access and communication. User  104  has connection to WWW  102  through an Internet service provider (ISP)  105 . The method of Internet connection may be dial-up, integrated services digital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL), or cable/modem connection wired or wireless. In this example, ISP  105  has a connection server  115  illustrated therein and adapted to connect customers like user  104  to the Internet. 
     An educational portal (EDU/Portal)  106  is illustrated in this example, and represents a service provider (known to the inventor) that provides software and communication brokering services to education customers like user  104 . EDU/Portal  106  has a main server  110  illustrated therein and directly connected to WWW  102  for data access and communication. Server  110  has a database  111  associated therewith. Database  111  may be adapted to contain client data including contact information, registration information, password information, and other client data. In one embodiment, EDU/Portal  106  helps user  104  running client software  113  to bridge services provided by university system  103  and other services that may be available over WWW  102  and may be subscribed to by user  104 . 
     Main server  110  has a server application  112  illustrated thereon and adapted as a main application to client instance  113  running at user  104 . In one embodiment, using client  113 , which as described above may be a standalone application or a Web browser plug in, user  104  may aggregate and organize educational tasks, calendar information, and access tasks related to more than one separate learning system such as university system  103 . University system server  115  may provide online course education to user  104 . Likewise user  104  may engage in other online course education provided by still other educational servers not illustrated in this example. Without EDU/Portal  106 , user  104  may be required to separately manage more than one online educational service or system with regard to scheduling, course completion, grade management, and so on. 
     EDU/Portal  106 , may access university system  103 , and more particularly ES  115  for the purpose of acquiring information from and submitting information to the server on behalf of the user. Likewise, EDU/Portal  106  may, in one embodiment, function as a proxy between user  104  and other Internet or WWW-based services. In one embodiment of the invention user  104  operating client software  113  may manage his online life and academic life through a same user interface. 
     Although the present architecture includes EDU/Portal  106 , an intermediary service provider is not specifically required in order to practice the present invention. Likewise, user  104  may practice the present invention whether he or she is a student engaging in academia or not. The present example where user  104  is a student subscribing to educational services provided by university system  103  is for discussion purposes only as an example to enable clear description the present invention. 
     User  104  has a software capability provided in this example as a software option module  114  packaged with client software  113 . Module  114  is known to  15  the inventor as “My Teaching Associate” or MYTA as an acronym. Module  114  may be provided as a software option in a software application like client software  113 , or it may be provided as a plug in module to other software programs like word processors or electronic calendar applications in other embodiments. It may also be packaged as a standalone application running on laptop  104 . In yet another embodiment module  114  may be provided as a server side implement at server  115  or at sever  110 . 
     User  104  may connect online and may establish through navigation a direct connection to WS  108  or to ES  115  and partake in normally offered services without using MYTA  114  for any purpose. In this embodiment, user  104  may connect online and navigate to EDU/Portal  106 , more particularly, to main server  110  and with the aid of MYTA  114 , the user may engage services provided by search provider  107  in a way that is directly relevant to educational tasks the user may have related to university system  103 . 
     MYTA  114  is an intelligent software module that can parse certain keywords or phrases from educational task descriptions that may be part of course descriptions, assignment tasks, or other requirements that may be pending in the calendar or schedule of user  104 . In one embodiment, those keywords parsed may include certain proper nouns like book titles, authors, course titles, chapter titles, and proper nouns included in assignment descriptions. In one embodiment, certain phases may be parsed where those phrases are found in pertinent targeted descriptions. In addition, MYTA  114  can note and understand due date information associated with educational tasks. 
     MYTA  114  includes a search operation submitting engine (not illustrated) that can format the parsed data into one or more search queries for submission to a search provider like search provider  107 . MYTA may perform this submission directly to WS  108  while user  104  is connected to WWW  102  through ISP  105 . MYTA may also be configured to work in conjunction with EDU/Portal  106  such that search submissions may be performed for user  104  at such times when user  104  has no active connection to WWW  102 . User  104  may connect online to WWW  102  and then navigate to EDU/Portal  106  and server  110 . By activating MYTA user  104  may update his or her assignment schedule and course work requirements. According to user configuration, MYTA may be adapted to submit keyword searches ahead of any due dates for assignments or other educational tasks. Search results returned from a search provider like provider  107 , for example, are saved for user  104  and are accessible from MS  110  the next time user  104  logs in to EDU/Portal  106 . In the case of a direct online connection between user  104  and search provider  107 , the search results are sent directly back to user  104  whereupon they may be displayed in a window adapted for the purpose within client application  113 . 
     An advantage of enabling a proxy embodiment through EDU/Portal  106  is that new assignments or other educational tasks that user  104  may be responsible for may be discovered and one or more keyword aggregation and search submissions may be performed without requiring an online connection or direct involvement from user  104 . In this case a server-side implementation  112  is used and MYTA  114  remains a client interface for receiving and displaying the information. 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, MYTA  114  also includes a real time keyword parser that may be tied to active user typed input when actively working on a document. In this case, user  104  may be actively taking notes or preparing an assignment using a word processor or a typing interface adapted for the purpose. The keyword aggregator has a real time mode that may be pre-configured according to several available options to actively parse, aggregate, and format those aggregated keywords into one or more search submissions conducted either while the user is typing or optionally during a pause between typing in the document. 
     The search results returned for each submission are displayed as hyperlinks to the content such that when activated, the content appears in a new browser window. The keyword aggregator may also be configured to parse phrases, keyword pairs, proper nouns, dates, numbers, names of people, names of places, or names of things. This is accomplished using a literary rules database containing constraints and other parameters governing the parsing process. All keyword aggregation and search operations are conducted, if the user is online, in the background enabling the user to continue working in a document without being distracted. 
     The methods and apparatus of the present invention enable a student, for example, to have relevant information available at the time that it may be required or desired or the purpose of optimizing assignment tasks in terms of efficiency and in terms of quality of work. There are many conceivable embodiments for student users and other user types that routinely complete assignments, articles, research, or other professional reporting requirements. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a user interface  113  and components of MYTA  114  adapted for dynamic keyword aggregation, submission and return of results according to an embodiment of the present invention. Interface  113  as described further above, may be a browser interface or a standalone educational interface adapted with Web browsing capability. Interface  113  has a scheduled assignments window  202  provided therein and adapted to display a user&#39;s schedule including, in this example, any pending assignments or tasks. A pending assignment  203  is illustrated in this example as one assignment that has been added to the schedule. Assignment  203  is, for purpose of discussion, a term paper. The subject is Roman influence. A textbook title and chapter title may be referenced as student textbook material that covers the subject of the assignment. 
     The author of the student textbook or other reference materials may be cited by name. The term paper may have a word count minimum requirement. The term paper may have a parseable due date, and an indication of the grade percentage of the class grade the paper is worth. MYTA  114  may be invoked from within interface  113  and when invoked, immediately refreshes to the user schedule. MYTA  114  has a keyword aggregation engine  200  provided thereto and adapted to take keywords from items  203  for eventual submission to a search provider. In this example, only useful and important keywords may be aggregated from assignment  203 . For example, subject Roman influence may be parsed. The textbook title may be parsed. The name of a relevant author may be parsed. Using these keywords together, MYTA  114  may format the information into a relatively narrow search phrase to return any relevant information associated with the assignment subject. 
     A keyword/Phrase submission engine  201  is provided within MYTA  114  and adapted to forge a connection to a search provider server analogous to WS  108  described further above. During a search submission round, engine  201  sends a query formatted according to the search provider&#39;s required format and then receives any search results sent back as a result of the submission. The search results may appear in a separate window  205  labeled relevant results page. In this example, there are 3 listed hyperlinks to relevant content that a user may navigate to and analyze to see if that content might help with the pending assignment. In one embodiment, MYTA works in the background and the results are automatically saved as hyperlinks and displayed whenever the user expands the assignment for review or refresh. The results may be labeled MYTA research links. In some cases, MYTA  114  may even invoke certain hyperlinks to documents like .pdf files or the like in the background and may automatically save those files to the user&#39;s device in a pre-assigned folder linked to the assignment. 
     Interface  113  has an active typing window  204  provided therein and adapted, in this case for taking notes during a presentation, seminar, or class discussion. In one embodiment, window  204  may be a window to a word processing document that may be used to prepare papers. In either case, a user may configure MYTA  114  to take certain keyword types from the active window as they are typed in. For example, relevant keywords that might be leveraged from the existing text in window  204  may include “Dr. Henry Smith” “early Roman Empire” and “Constantinople”. Aggregation engine  200  may take these keywords as they become available and may format them for query submission by engine  201 . Window  204  may split into two windows in one embodiment whereupon the relevant search results similar to those shown in window  205  may appear in the second window, the first window remaining the typing interface. In one embodiment, the results may be sent to a separate window. MYTA  114  may be pre-configured to take keywords and perform one submission every other paragraph, each paragraph, one time per page, or according to some other directive. Using the real time active typing embodiment, the user is typically online and the results stream in as they become available. However, the user may type some pre-determined amount of words or paragraphs while off line, and then may go online during a pause to initiate the searching process. The search is performed in the background without requiring the user to navigate to a search page or to manually supply or configure a query. In addition to returned hyperlinks, advertisements (sponsored links) may also appear in window  205 , in this case, Barnes and Noble and Museum of Rome. These may also be considered viable resources to a student even though ad relevancy in the case of sponsored links is performed by another system. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating writing interface  204  and results interface  205  according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this example, interface  204  is an active note-taking or writing interface as described in  FIG. 2  above. Search results interface  205  appears as a second window, linked to interface  204  by result relevancy to content that is typed in the interface. 
     In interface  204  there are distinct paragraphs that are separated from each other. In this case a rule (illustrated above interface  205 ) is provided to govern the keyword aggregation and submission engines. The rule or constraint directs to search (Srch) one time per paragraph using keywords that are proper nouns and which are repeated in the paragraph at minimum one time. Therefore each time a proper noun is used more than one time, it is aggregated as a keyword to use for a search operation performed for that paragraph. 
     Interface  205  has a search result list  301  and a search result list  302  roughly corresponding in position to the associated paragraphs of text in interface  204 . List  301  contains hyperlinks  1  through  4  to relevant content related to a keyword or keywords taken from the first paragraph typed into interface  204 . Search result list  302  contains hyperlinks  1  through  3  to relevant content related to a keyword or keywords taken from the second paragraph typed into interface  204 . Results returned to interface  205  might be optimized according to another rule designed to reduce the possible number of links returned. For example, a keyword Rome, used by itself is broad and may return many hyperlinks related in general to Rome. Therefore, by adding other relevant key words to Rome the scope of the search may be more narrowly defined and should return fewer links. Likewise, it may be defined by rule that only the top 5 links that are most relevant to the search criteria entered are returned in a given exchange. 
     If a user clicks on any of the returned links, a new browser window  303  may be triggered to open, connect to the content source address specified in the hyperlink and download the relevant content for display in the window. Although this method works in real time (links being delivered while typing still commences) it may also be conducted during a pause in writing. For example, the first paragraph may be completed and may automatically trigger the process of getting the keyword or words and submitting the keyword or words. If the user is off line, the software may automatically start the user&#39;s Internet connection software to connect. Once connected to the WWW, the keyword submission engine connects to the appropriate Web server and submits the query on behalf of the user in the background while the user is still typing. When finished receiving the results the user may terminate the connection or it may automatically terminate the session until the next round is needed. 
     Searching may be conducted with granularity down to once per sentence. However, depending on the content, broader searching may be conducted by paragraph, every 2 paragraphs, or once per page of input. In the schedule embodiment formerly described, a similar fine-tuning of granularity may be practiced. For example, instead of conducting a broad search using a course title only “Health”, the system may add more keywords like to health like modern. An authors name and textbook title may be added as well as generic keywords that may be added to the formula like “news articles”, “white papers”. Phrasing like “definition of”, or “description of” may also be inserted by the system to narrow a search to more relevant results. There are many possibilities.