Patent ID: 7752237

Claim:
A method of search preview on a user interface, the method comprising: initiating interaction with one of a plurality of services accessible via a service provider; displaying a search portion of the user interface, the search portion being configured to interact with a search service and a display of data; receiving one or more characters input via the search portion of the user interface; determining that a cursor is positioned proximally to a representation of one of the plurality of services in the user interface after the one or more characters are received, wherein the representation of one of the plurality of services is selected from a group consisting of: email service; instant messaging service; Internet search service; image search service; web log service; ecommerce service; and news service, in response to determining that the cursor is positioned proximally to the representation of the email service, displaying an overlay comprising: a folders pane configured to display a plurality of folders representing email storage locations; an email preview pane configured to display a preview of email; in response to determining that the cursor is positioned proximally to the representation of the image search service, displaying the overlay including a selection of images based on the received one or more characters input via the search portion of the user interface; in response to determining that the cursor is positioned proximally to the representation of one of the plurality of services, displaying the overlay within the user interface comprising: a list of most relevant search term suggestions and actions associated with the one of the plurality of services containing the received one or more characters, a search performed using the received one or more characters and one of the plurality of services positioned proximally to the cursor; a list of services, the list of services comprising services other than the one of the plurality of services positioned proximally to the cursor, the list of services displayed based on a determined relevancy; the determined relevancy performed as one or more characters are received; refining the displayed overlay as each additional character is entered via the search portion; and in an event the cursor is re-positioned proximally to the representation of a second service of the plurality of services, changing the overlay to present results associated with the second service, based on the received one or more characters and the second service of the plurality of services positioned proximally to the re-positioned cursor, the changing occurring while still maintaining an interaction with the one of the plurality of services.