Patent Document ID: 20050080769
Application ID: 10684620
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. In a computer system having a user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a process for graphically displaying the results of a search to a user on said display via an interactive search results window in which the user views and filters search results items, comprising process actions for: computing a clustering of the search results items in terms of a user-specified independent variable corresponding to a common attribute of at least some of the search results to form a plurality of cluster subdivisions each comprising a portion of the search results items within a particular range of the independent variable determined by the clustering; displaying a graphic data presentation sector in the search results window which comprises a series of said cluster subdivisions displayed in the order dictated by the independent variable, wherein each subdivision is visually distinguished from the other subdivisions and has a length along the axis of the independent variable proportional to the number of search results items within that subdivision; and upon the user selecting one of the cluster subdivisions via said selection device, those search results items associated with the selected subdivision are re-clustered and cluster subdivisions associated with the re-clustered search result items are displayed in the graphic data presentation sector in lieu of the previously displayed higher-order clustering, thereby effecting a user specified filtering of the search results.