Patent ID: 7461059

Claim:
A system for guiding a search for information, comprising: a processor for executing the following software components: a user interface that accepts a phrase and receives at least one suggestion based at least in part on the phrase, wherein the user interface includes a handwriting processing component that accepts handwritten data input to recognize the phrase and includes a speech processing component that accepts an audio data input to recognize the phrase; a phrase suggestion engine that matches the phrase with the at least one suggestion, wherein the phrase suggestion engine interacts with the user interface to assist in providing suggestions, and which takes into account context and most likely desired results, in order to maximize likelihood that a user obtains responsive information to its query; wherein the phrase suggestion engine suggests queries that include sound-alike phrases, substitute phrases, spelling correction phrases, noisy input correction phrases and grammar correction phrases based upon available dictionary words, past searches by the user and phrases from a phrase data store; a search engine that provides a result set based at least in part upon a query created using the suggestion; wherein upon completion of a query that includes one or more suggested phrases, the user interface sends the query to the search engine which performs the searches incrementally as each individual phrase is suggested by the phrase suggestion engine, the user interface provides dynamically updated search results based upon a continuously-evolving search query that is based at least in part upon suggestions, the search engine then uses previous result sets and performs additional search tasks on the query as the user enters additional data; a feedback module that adjusts a manner in which the query would otherwise be completed, the feedback module provides information and assists the phrase suggestion engine in suggesting a partial query for the user based on a user's interactions with results of previous search queries, and searches and search queries from other users; and a result display component that displays at least a part of the result set from the search engine; and wherein the user interface further comprises a presentation component that presents the suggestion to the user.