Patent Document ID: 8010523
Application ID: 11321075

Base Claim:
1. A method, comprising: receiving, by one or more processors in one or more computing devices, one or more character sequences of a search query provided by a specific user; automatically identifying, by one or more processors in one or more computing devices, historical prior search queries that include the one or more character sequences of the search query, where the historical prior search queries are based on prior search queries associated with the specific user; providing, by one or more processors in one or more computing devices and before search results are generated for the search query, historical query refinement options for display to the specific user, the historical query refinement options including the historical prior search queries as suggested queries for possible selection by the specific user; automatically identifying, via one or more processors in one or more computing devices, suggested prior search queries that include the one or more character sequences of the search query, where the suggested prior search queries are based on third-party search queries associated with other users; before the search results are generated for the search query, providing, from one or more processors in one or more computing devices and to the specific user, suggested query refinement options for display to the specific user, the suggested query refinement options being provided separately from the historical query refinement options and including the suggested prior search queries as suggested queries for possible selection by the specific user; after providing the historical query refinement options and the suggested query refinement options, receiving, at one or more processors in one or more computing devices, one or more additional character sequences of the search query provided by the specific user; updating, by one or more processors in one or more computing devices, the historical query refinement options and the suggested query refinement options, including: removing, from the historical query refinement options, one or more of the historical prior search queries that do not include the one or more additional character sequences of the search query, and removing, from the suggested query refinement options, one or more of the suggested prior search queries that do not include the one or more additional character sequences of the search query; and before the search results are generated for the search query, providing, from one or more processors in one or more computing devices and to the specific user, the updated historical query refinement options and the updated suggested query refinement options.

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Claim 5:
5. The method of claim 1 , where the identifying historical prior search queries further comprises: determining whether a prior search query, that is from the history of prior search queries associated with the specific user and that is different from the search query, begins with an identical sequence of characters as the search query; and identifying the prior search query as a matching search query when the prior search query is different from the search query and begins with the identical sequence of characters as the search query.