Patent ID: 8005919

Claim:
A method of presenting information to a user, the method comprising: receiving, from a user, a character stream of one or more non-completion characters that indicate that additional characters may be received; providing the character stream to a host that analyzes the character stream to generate results that are responsive to the user's predicted interest; receiving, from the host, a first result that includes a first argument and an identifier of a first web application, wherein the first web application is configured to provide first specialized services and the first argument is passed to the first specialized services in response to user selection of the first result; receiving, from the host, a second result that includes a second argument that is different from the first argument, and an identifier of a second web application, wherein the second web application differs from the first web application in function, wherein the second web application is configured to provide second specialized services and the second argument is passed to the second specialized services in response to user selection of the second result; displaying the first result in a manner enabling the user to perceive, before selecting the first result, the first argument and the identifier of the first web application; displaying the second result in a manner enabling the user to perceive, before selecting the second result, the second argument and the identifier of the second web application; and enabling the user to select from among the first and second results, wherein receiving the character stream of one or more non-completion characters comprises receiving a character stream of one or more non-completion characters that have been entered, by the user, to an address line of a web browser, receiving the first result that includes the first argument and the identifier of the first web application comprises receiving a mapping result that includes a first location and an identifier of a web mapping application, the mapping result including cartographic information, and displaying the first result in a manner enabling the user to perceive, before selecting the first result, the first argument and the identifier of the first web application comprises displaying the mapping result with an indication of an overview map that the user may select to display more detailed mapping information related to the overview map selected.