Granted Patent B1

US 12,216,669 · App. 18/519,321 · Granted Feb 4, 2025

Inventors: Anwis Das (San Francisco, CA); Abhinandan Sujit Das (Cupertino, CA); Nitin Gupta (Santa Clara, CA); Renshen Wang (Sunnyvale, CA)

Assignee: GOOGLE LLC

G06F16/24578G06F16/9535

Abstract

Claims (68)

1. A method implemented by one or more processors, comprising:

at a first time:

receiving a partial query that is inputted by a user via a user interface input device of a computing device;

identifying a plurality of candidate query suggestions for the partial query;

determining that no past query, submitted by the user and via the computing device prior to the input of the partial query at the first time, satisfies at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the first time; and

in response to determining that no past query satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the first time:

causing one or more of the candidate query suggestions to be displayed as a selectable suggestion for the partial query, and without taking into any past queries, at the first time via a user interface output device of the computing device; and

at a second time that is subsequent to the first time:

receiving the partial query that is inputted by the user via the user interface input device of the computing device:

identifying the plurality of candidate query suggestions for the partial query;

determining that a past query, submitted by the user via the computing device subsequent to input of the partial query at the first time and prior to input of the partial query at the second time, satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the second time;

in response to determining that the past query satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the second time:

selecting a given candidate query suggestion, from among the plurality of candidate suggestions, for display as a selectable suggestion for the partial query, and based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to a particular entity, at the second time; and

causing the selected given candidate query suggestion to be displayed as the selectable suggestion for the partial query at the second time via the user interface output device of the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one criterion includes a temporal criterion.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the temporal criterion is that the partial query is inputted within a threshold amount of time following the past query.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one criterion includes a positional criterion.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the positional criterion is that the partial query is the first query inputted via the computing device following the past query.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the given candidate query suggestion based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to the particular entity, comprises:

identifying an initial ranking of the given candidate query suggestion, for the partial query, at the second time;

modifying the initial ranking based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to the particular entity; and

selecting the given candidate query suggestion based on the modification of the initial ranking.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining an overall popularity measure for the particular entity;

wherein modifying the initial ranking is based on the overall popularity measure for the particular entity.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular entity is an entity collection.

9. A system comprising:

memory storing instructions;

one or more processors operable to execute the instructions stored in the memory to:

at a first time:

receive a partial query that is inputted by a user via a user interface input device of a computing device;

identify a plurality of candidate query suggestions for the partial query;

determine that no past query, submitted by the user and via the computing device prior to the input of the partial query at the first time, satisfies at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the first time; and

in response to determining that no past query satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the first time:

cause one or more of the candidate query suggestions to be displayed as a selectable suggestion for the partial query, and without taking into any past queries, at the first time via a user interface output device of the computing device; and

at a second time that is subsequent to the first time:

receive the partial query that is inputted by the user via the user interface input device of the computing device;

identify the plurality of candidate query suggestions for the partial query;

determine that a past query, submitted by the user via the computing device subsequent to input of the partial query at the first time and prior to input of the partial query at the second time, satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the second time;

in response to determining that the past query satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the second time:

select a given candidate query suggestion, from among the plurality of candidate suggestions, for display as a selectable suggestion for the partial query, and based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to a particular entity, at the second time; and

cause the selected given candidate query suggestion to be displayed as the selectable suggestion for the partial query at the second time via the user interface output device of the computing device.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one criterion includes a temporal criterion.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the temporal criterion is that the partial query is inputted within a threshold amount of time following the past query.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one criterion includes a positional criterion.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the positional criterion is that the partial query is the first query inputted via the computing device following the past query.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein, in selecting the given candidate query suggestion based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to the particular entity, the one or more processors are further operable to:

identify an initial ranking of the given candidate query suggestion, for the partial query, at the second time;

modify the initial ranking based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to the particular entity; and

select the given candidate query suggestion based on the modification of the initial ranking.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors are further operable to:

determine an overall popularity measure for the particular entity;

wherein modifying the initial ranking is based on the overall popularity measure for the particular entity.

16. The system of claim 9 , wherein the particular entity is an entity collection.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computing device instructions executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:

at a first time:

receiving a partial query that is inputted by a user via a user interface input device of a computing device;

identifying a plurality of candidate query suggestions for the partial query;

determining that no past query, submitted by the user and via the computing device prior to the input of the partial query at the first time, satisfies at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the first time; and

in response to determining that no past query satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the first time:

causing one or more of the candidate query suggestions to be displayed as a selectable suggestion for the partial query, and without taking into any past queries, at the first time via a user interface output device of the computing device; and

at a second time that is subsequent to the first time:

receiving the partial query that is inputted by the user via the user interface input device of the computing device;

identifying the plurality of candidate query suggestions for the partial query;

determining that a past query, submitted by the user via the computing device subsequent to input of the partial query at the first time and prior to input of the partial query at the second time, satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the second time;

in response to determining that the past query satisfies the at least one criterion relative to the input of the partial query at the second time:

selecting a given candidate query suggestion, from among the plurality of candidate suggestions, for display as a selectable suggestion for the partial query, and based on determining that the given candidate query suggestion and the past query are both related to a particular entity, at the second time; and

causing the selected given candidate query suggestion to be displayed as the selectable suggestion for the partial query at the second time via the user interface output device of the computing device.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (24)