WO2015079438A2

WO2015079438A2 - Method of processing user queries and displaying resources

Info

Publication number: WO2015079438A2
Application number: PCT/IL2014/051025
Authority: WO
Inventors: Guy CARMEL; Ovadia COHEN
Original assignee: Tgs8 Information Platforms Ltd.
Priority date: 2013-11-26
Filing date: 2014-11-26
Publication date: 2015-06-04
Also published as: WO2015079438A3

Abstract

Methods, systems, and storage mediums are disclosed for processing a query and generating a display screen by obtaining a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query, determining a tiling scheme, and generating a display screen in accordance with the tiling scheme, the display screen including a plurality of tiles, at least some of the tiles configured to display at least some of the resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

Description

METHOD OF PROCESSING USER QUERIES AND DISPLAYING

RESOURCES

TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD

This present application relates to a method and system for processing user queries and displaying related resources.

BACKGROUND

Searching for relevant resources on a Big Data network containing a myriad of resources, such as the Internet, for example, can be a daunting task. This task is further complicated by the fact that the individual resources are not of uniform type, nor do the resources originate from the same source. For example the Internet contains resources consisting of news articles, reference information, scholarly works, commentary, opinions, videos, pictures, maps, etc. from hundreds of thousands of individual sources. Common search tools such as search engines are often ill-equipped to provide quick viewing of relevant resources, neatly categorized. Usually, common search engines provide at best an uncategorized list of links to individual resources, in which the list itself may span dozens of pages.

There is thus a need in the art for providing resources in response to a query in an organized fashion on a single display screen which enables a user to quickly glance at the display screen and be presented with pertinent content responsive to the user's search for information such that the user can briefly scan each resource, and quickly hone in on one or more resources to view in their entirety. Also needed is a way to generate revenue, for example, by including on a display screen in response to a search query sponsored advertisements.

References considered to be relevant as background to the presently disclosed subject matter are listed below: U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61/908,761, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2009/0199115 discloses systems, methods and computer program products for organizing a search result set into one or more tiles for display on a search results page. The method comprises receiving a search request from a client device, querying one or more search corpora to identify a search result set that is responsive to the search request and categorizing the search result set into one or more categories. One or more tiles are generated, a given tile corresponding to a given category, for organizing the search result set in accordance with the one or more tiles on the basis of a category corresponding to a given tile. The one or more tiles are displayed on the search results page for presentation at the client device.

U.S. Patent 6,724,403 describes a computerized method of presenting information from a variety of sources on a display device. There is described a graphical user interface for organizing the simultaneous display of information from a multitude of information sources. The graphical user interface organizes content from a variety of information sources into a grid of tiles, each of which can refresh its content independently of the others. The grid functionality manages the refresh rates of the multiple information sources.

In addition, the following references describe methods of extracting subject and subject classifications from queries, all of which are incorporated by reference herein: Spoerri, Anselm." InfoCrystal, a visual tool for information retrieval". Diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995., pages 25-46; Buttcher, Stefan, Charles LA Clarke, and Gordon V. Cormack. "Information retrieval: Implementing and evaluating search engines". Mit Press, 2010., pages 33-83; Wen, Ji-Rong, Jian-Yun Nie, and Hong-Jiang Zhang. "Clustering user queries of a search engine." Proceedings of the 10th international conference on World Wide Web. ACM, 2001; XT AG Research Group. "A lexicalized tree adjoining grammar for English. "arXiv preprint cs/9809024 (1998).

Acknowledgement of the above references herein is not to be inferred as meaning that these are in any way relevant to the patentability of the presently disclosed subject matter. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

According to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter there is provided a computer-implemented method of processing a query and generating a display screen including obtaining a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query, determining a tiling scheme, and generating a display screen in accordance with the tiling scheme, the display screen including a plurality of tiles, at least some of the tiles configured to display at least some of the resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

In one embodiment the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on the subject.

In one embodiment the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on a subject classification determined for the subject.

In one embodiment each of the tiles is configured to display at least one of the resources.

In one embodiment each of the tiles is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

In one embodiment non-simultaneously displaying at least two resources includes initially displaying a first one of the at least two resources and subsequently displaying a second one of the at least two resources.

In one embodiment the tiling scheme includes parameters for determining which of the resources are displayed in which of the tiles.

In one embodiment at least one parameter is resource type.

In one embodiment the step of subsequently displaying is performed automatically after a period of time.

In one embodiment the step of subsequently displaying is performed upon receiving a command issued by a user.

In one embodiment the tiling scheme includes, for at least one tile, non- simultaneous display criteria, and the at least one tile non-simultaneous displays the at least two resources according to the non-simultaneous display criteria.

In one embodiment the non-simultaneous display criteria includes a display duration. According to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter there is further provided a computer-implemented method of generating a display screen including multiple resources displayed in tiles including determining a tiling scheme based on a given subject, the tiling scheme including one or more extended queries relating to the subject, executing the one or more extended queries thereby obtaining a plurality of resources related to the one or more extended queries, and generating a display screen in accordance with the tiling scheme, the display screen including a plurality of tiles, wherein at least some of the tiles are configured to display one or more resources obtained from executing a given one of the extended queries.

According to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter there is further provided a method of generating revenue from a display screen including multiple resources displayed in tiles including obtaining a plurality of resources related to a given subject, determining a tiling scheme, and generating a display screen in accordance with the tiling scheme, the display screen including a plurality of tiles, at least some of the tiles configured to display at least some of the resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources, and wherein at least one tile is configured to display one or more sponsored advertisements related to the subject, the one or more sponsored advertisements being paid for by an advertiser.

In one embodiment each of the tiles is configured to display one or more resources obtained from executing a given one of the extended queries.

In one embodiment at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

According to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter there is further provided a system for processing a query and generating a display screen including a processor, the processor configured to obtain a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query, determine a tiling scheme, generate a display screen in accordance with the tiling scheme, the display screen including a plurality of tiles, at least some of the tiles configured to display at least some of the resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

In one embodiment the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on the subject. In one embodiment the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on a subject classification determined for the subject.

According to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter there is further provided a non-transitory storage medium including instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to obtain a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query, determine a tiling scheme, and generate a display screen in accordance with the tiling scheme, the display screen including a plurality of tiles, at least some of the tiles configured to display at least some of the resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

In one embodiment the tiling scheme includes, for at least one tile, non- simultaneous display criteria, and the at least one tile non-simultaneously displays the at least two resources according to the non-simultaneous display criteria.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to better understand the subject matter that is disclosed herein and to exemplify how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figs. 1-2 illustrate non-limiting examples of a schematic network environment including a system capable of processing queries and generating a display screen in accordance with certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Figs. 3A-3C illustrate generalized flow charts providing non-limiting examples of the method of generating a display screen in accordance with certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Figs. 4A-4C illustrate, by way of non-limiting examples, tiling schemes according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter. Fig. 5 illustrates, by way of non-limiting example, streaming according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Figs. 6A-6C illustrate, by way of non-limiting example, a display screen according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Figs. 7A-7B illustrate, by way of non-limiting examples, activateable tile controls according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Fig. 8 illustrates, by way of non-limiting example, a block diagram of a system capable of processing queries and generating a display screen according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Fig. 9 illustrates, by way of non-limiting example, a generalized functional diagram of a system for processing queries and generating a display screen according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Fig. 10 illustrates, by way of non-limiting example, a generalized flow chart describing the streaming activateable tile controls of the presently disclosed subject matter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The principles and operation of a method and system for processing queries according to the presently disclosed subject matter may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the accompanying description.

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the presently disclosed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the presently disclosed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well- known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the presently disclosed subject matter.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as "processing", "executing", "associating", "obtaining", "determining", "generating", "matching", "retrieving", "analyzing", "selecting" or the like, refer to the action(s) and/or process(es) of a computer that manipulate and/or transform data into other data, said data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities and/or said data representing the physical objects. The terms "computer" and "processor" should be expansively construed to cover any kind of electronic device with data processing capabilities including, by way of non-limiting example, the query processing system disclosed in the present application.

It is to be understood that the term "non-transitory" is used herein to exclude transitory, propagating signals, but to include, otherwise, any volatile or non-volatile computer memory technology suitable to the presently disclosed subject matter.

The operations in accordance with the teachings herein may be performed by a computer specially constructed for the desired purposes or by a general-purpose computer specially configured for the desired purpose by a computer program stored in a computer readable storage medium.

The references cited in the background teach many principles of generating a display screen that may be applicable to the presently disclosed subject matter. Therefore the full contents of these publications are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.

Embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the presently disclosed subject matter as described herein.

Bearing this in mind, attention is drawn to Fig. 1 illustrating a non-limiting example of a schematic network environment including a system capable of processing queries in accordance with certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter and referred to hereinafter as a query processing system (QPS). As illustrated in Fig. 1, a QPS 12 may be implemented as a standalone machine, such as a query processing server, which is communicatively coupled to one or more data sources 14 and one or more client devices 10. In this embodiment, QPS 12 is configured to receive a user query entered at an input terminal of client device 10. QPS 12 is further configured to process the query by obtaining relevant resources from data sources 14 and, using the methods and systems described herein, generating a display screen on an output terminal of client device 10 in accordance with the presently disclosed subject matter. One embodiment of QPS 12 is described in more detail below with reference to Figs. 8-9. Referring now to Fig. 2, an alternative non-limiting example of a schematic network environment including QPS 12 is shown. As illustrated in Fig. 2, QPS 12 may be communicatively coupled to data sources 14 and is configured, using the methods and systems described herein, to receive a user query entered at an input terminal of QPS 12, process the query by obtaining relevant resources from data sources 14, and generate a display screen on an output terminal of QPS 12 in accordance with the presently disclosed subject matter.

As used herein, unless context suggests otherwise, "resources" refers to searchable informational content stored in a repository or network of repositories including all informational content available on Internet web sites, and accessible third party databases. "Resources" include real-time and near real-time informational content such as feeds, streams, etc. including, without limitation, social media feeds such as Twitter™ feeds. As used herein, "resources" are not intended to include applications such as software running on a user's machine.

Those versed in the art will readily appreciate that the teachings of the presently disclosed subject matter are not bound by the network architecture illustrated in Figs. 1- 2, equivalent and/or modified functionality can be consolidated or divided in another manner and can be implemented in any appropriate combination of software, firmware and hardware. QPS 12 can be a standalone network entity, or integrated, fully or partly, with other network entities. As shown in Figs. 1-2, QPS 12 may be embodied in a single physical computer system or may be divided amongst several computers with different portions thereof residing on different physical hardware.

Referring now to Fig. 8, there is illustrated a generalized system diagram of the query processing system (QPS) 12 in accordance with certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter. The system 12 can be implemented as a standalone platform or integrated, fully or partly, with other network entities. The system comprises a processor 801 operatively coupled to a non-transitory storage medium 802 and an I/O interface 804. I/O interface 804 is operatively coupled to a display 809 and an input terminal 810. According to certain embodiments, processor 801 is configured to receive, at I/O interface 804, a user query entered into input terminal 810. Processor 801 is further configured to process the user query by retrieving data from storage medium 802, as will be explained in more detail below, and to generate a display screen according to one of the methods described below. Processor 801 is further configured to send the generated display screen to I/O interface 804 for outputting onto display screen 809.

Referring now to Fig. 9, there is illustrated, by way of non-limiting example, a processor configured according to certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter. Processor 801 includes a resource locater module 803, a tiling scheme generation module 805 and a tile -resource matching module 807. According to certain embodiments, resource locator module 803 causes processor 801 to obtain a list of resources from storage medium 802 which are related to a user query received at I/O interface 804. Tiling scheme generation module 805 causes processor 801 to determine a tiling scheme, for example by selecting a tiling scheme from storage medium 802 using one of the methods described below. Next, tile-resource matching module 807 causes processor 801 to receive the tiling scheme from tiling scheme generator module 805 and the list of resources from resource locator module 803. Tile-resource matching module 807 causes processor 801 to match the resources to tiles and to generate a display screen according to one of the methods described below. Tile -resource matching module 807 further causes processor 801 to send to I/O interface 804 the display screen including tiles configured to display one or more resources.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that more or fewer modules and/or processors than those shown in Figs. 8-9 may be used to implement the presently disclosed system, and that the various functionalities ascribed to the various modules and/or components in Figs. 8-9 above may be divided differently between the various components and/or modules. It will further be appreciated that the components shown in Figs. 8-9 may be part of the same or different computers, and the modules shown in Fig. 9 may reside on the same or different processors, and on the same or different computers.

Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that storage medium 802 shown in Figs. 8-9 may include several storage mediums in the same system or distributed over multiple systems, and may include any type or types of non-transitory storage mediums readable by a processor including, without limitation, hard drive and/or fixed disk storage, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD, flash memory, and the like.

Referring now to Figs. 3A-3C, there is illustrated a generalized flow chart of generating a display screen in accordance with certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter. At block 301 a user query is received from a user. The user query may be entered by the user using any one of a number of possible input means, such as keyboard, voice, gestures, etc. Block 301 may be performed, for example, by tiling scheme generation module 805 in Fig. 9.

At block 304 a subject of the user query is determined using techniques well known in the art, for example keyword extraction, natural language processing, named- entity recognition, etc. To illustrate a simple example, for the query "What is Paris?", the subject may be determined to be Paris, France. Block 304 may be performed, for example, by tiling scheme generation module 805 in Fig. 9.

At block 306, a subject classification is optionally determined which classifies the subject into one or more subject classifications or categories. In the above example, possible subject classifications may be "geographic location", "city", etc. Methods of determining a subject and/or subject classification are well known, some of which are described in the following references, all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety: Spoerri, Anseim," InfoCrystal, a visual tool for information retrieval". Diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995., pages 25-46; Buttcher, Stefan, Charles LA Clarke, and Gordon V. Cormack. "Information retrieval: Implementing and evaluating search engines". Mit Press, 2010., pages 33-83; Wen, Ji-Rong, Jian-Yun Nie, and Hong-Jiang Zhang. "Clustering user queries of a search engine." Proceedings of the 10th international conference on World Wide Web. ACM, 2001; XT AG Research Group. "A lexicalized tree adjoining grammar for English. "arXiv preprint cs/9809024 (1998). Block 306 may be performed, for example, by tiling scheme generation module 805 in Fig. 9.

At block 308 a tiling scheme for the display screen is determined. In one embodiment the tiling scheme is determined based on the subject or subject classification. Referring back to the previous example, the subject may be determined to be Paris (the city in France), and a tiling scheme is selected which corresponds to subject = Paris, France. Alternatively, a tiling scheme may be selected which corresponds to subject classification. Therefore, in the above example, a tiling scheme may be selected which corresponds to "geographical location". In one embodiment the tiling scheme is selected from a collection of pre-existing tiling schemes 310. Block 308 may be performed, for example, by tiling scheme generation module 805 in Fig. 9.

In one embodiment, the tiling scheme defines various display properties of the display screen as a whole and of the individual tiles that make up the display screen. Examples of display properties of the display screen as a whole may include the display screen's background and foreground colors, font styles, window properties, etc. while examples of display properties of individual tiles may include by way of non-limiting example, each tile's shape, size, position, color, etc. Figs. 4A-4C illustrate, by way of non-limiting example, various possible tiling schemes 2 containing individual tiles 4 that may make up the display screen generated according to the presently disclosed subject matter. It will be appreciated that although not readily apparent from Figs.4A- 4C, a tiling scheme may also include tiles of different (i.e. non uniform) shape. That is, a tiling scheme may include, e.g., three square tiles, two oval tiles, and three hexagonal tiles.

In one embodiment, the tiling scheme may also define a particular resource type which is to be associated with one or more tiles in the tiling scheme. As used herein, unless context suggests otherwise, "resource type" refers to the particular type of information which the resource represents. For example, news articles on the one hand, and blog posts on the other, are considered to be of different resource types. Likewise, resource types can include such distinct categories as social media activity, reference information (dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus, etc.), scholarly articles, advertisements/promotional content. Similarly, resources which convey information in different forms such as video, audio, image, map, etc. should also be understood to be resources of different resource types.

In one embodiment, one or more tiles, or alternatively each tile, is associated with a specific resource type, and only resources of the corresponding resource type are displayed in the associated tile. This presentation of categorized resources on a single display screen enables a user to quickly identify the resources of utmost interest to the user. In this embodiment, the tiling scheme also generally defines which specific tiles (and therefore by extension, which resource types) will be displayed on the display screen.

In another embodiment, the tiling scheme may include a list of extended queries to execute for locating additional resources. The extended queries may be based on the original query (or subject of the query) plus additional specific search criteria. For example, if the user submits a query for "Game of Thrones", there may be a tiling scheme determined corresponding to "Game of Thrones" (subject) or "book" (subject classification). In either case, there may be defined in the corresponding tiling scheme the additional search criteria "cover", "author + bio", and "author + picture", producing the additional extended queries "Game of Thrones + cover", "Game of Thrones + author + bio" and " Game of Thrones + author + picture". As a further example, a tiling scheme associated with the subject "Internet" may include extended queries "Internet + history", "Internet + searching", "Internet + prices" etc. In this embodiment, some or all of the tiles in the tiling scheme will be associated with the extended queries.

For greater understanding of the foregoing, reference is made to the tiling scheme shown in Fig. 4B. Using the Game of Thrones example described above, the large tile 4 on the right side of the display may be associated with the user entered query "Game of Thrones". The upper-left tile 4 may be associated with the system-generated extended query "Game of Thrones + cover". The middle-left tile 4 may be associated with the system-generated extended query "Game of Thrones + author + bio". The lower-left tile 4 may be associated with the system-generated extended query "Game of Thrones + author + picture". These extended queries will be automatically executed by the system before the display screen is generated.

In one embodiment, the tiling scheme may also define particular streaming or paging properties which are to be associated with one or more tiles in the tiling scheme. As used herein, unless context suggests otherwise, "streaming" refers to non- simultaneously displaying multiple resources in sequence, and "streaming properties" refers to parameters that define various aspects of the streaming function, e.g. stream start time (i.e. number of seconds to wait before streaming starts), stream advance time (i.e. once streaming has started, number of seconds to wait before advancing to the next resource in the stream), etc. Fig. 5 illustrates by way of example a tile 4 in which is streamed four unique resources, designated Resource 1, Resource 2, Resource 3, and Resource 4. Resource 1 is displayed in tile 4 at t=0, Resource 2 is displayed in tile 4 at t=l, Resource 3 is displayed in tile 4 at t=2, and Resource 4 is displayed in tile 4 at t=3. At t=4, Resource 1 is displayed in tile 4 again and the cycle repeats.

As used herein, unless context suggests otherwise, "paging" refers to non- simultaneously displaying multiple resources by having a user control which resource is displayed in the tile at any given time. This may be achieved by providing, within the tile, an activateable tile control which a user can activate in order to issue a "page next" or "page previous" command. Fig. 7B, discussed in more detail below, illustrates an example of a paging tile control to execute a sequence of paging commands.

Returning now to Fig. 3A, at block 312 a list of resources is obtained. Block 312 may be performed, for example, by resource locater module 803 in Fig. 9. In one embodiment a "crawler" may continually monitor and index resources which are available on the network, and build a database of available resources which may be retrieved later. In another embodiment, a list of resources may be obtained on the fly using search tools such as, for example, search engines. Resources may be obtained from multiple data sources 14 including accessible public, private, or semi-private (e.g. subscription-based) data sources. It is expected that in very large networks such as the Internet, the list of resources will need to be filtered. Filtering may be performed to discard resources which do not match any tile in the tiling scheme, e.g. videos may be discarded if the tiling scheme does not include a "video" resource type tile. Conversely, filtering may also be performed to accept those resources that match a tile in the tiling scheme. Filtering may also be performed on a tile-by-tile basis to whittle down the number of resources associated with any given tile. For example, one hundred blog resources may be whittled down to only ten blog resources for display in the "blogs" resource type tile. Filtering may be performed on the basis of relevance to the user query, at any stage. The relevance of a resource may be determined by maintaining, for each obtained resource, a rank or relevance score, which may be used to assess any given resource's responsiveness to the user query relative to any other given resource.

At block 314 the resources are matched to tiles in the tiling scheme. Block 314 may be performed, for example, by tile-resource matching module 807 in Fig. 9. In one embodiment the matching is performed on the basis of resource type. For example, news articles are matched to the "news" tile in the tiling scheme, social media resources are matched to the "social" tile in the tiling scheme, etc. In another embodiment, resources are matched to tiles based on the extended queries described above. That is, each tile in the tiling scheme which relates to a particular extended query will be matched to resources obtained as a result of executing the given extended query. In one embodiment matching by extended query may ignore resource type. In another type, matching by extended query may also separate resources into multiple tiles according to resource type. In another embodiment, a single tile may be associated with multiple extended queries, and resources matching each one of multiple extended queries are streamed to the tile. Of course there may also be multiple tiles, each associated with a given set of extended queries.

For greater understanding of the foregoing, reference is made to the Game of Thrones example described above and Fig. 4B. Using the above example, at block 314 resources obtained for the user entered query "Game of Thrones" are matched to the right-most tile 4. Resources obtained for the system generated extended query "Game of Thrones + cover" are matched to the upper-left tile 4. Resources obtained for the extended query "Game of Thrones + author + bio" are matched to the middle-left tile 4. Resources obtained for the extended query "Game of Thrones + author + picture" are matched to the lower-left tile 4. In all cases the resources are ranked and filtered for relevance, and displayed in order of relevance.

At block 316 streaming (or paging, as will be discussed in more detail below) is applied to tiles which are associated with multiple resources, as needed. At this stage, multiple resources associated with a given tile may be ordered into a display sequence which may be based on relevance rank or any other factor. Next, the tile's streaming properties as may be defined in the tiling scheme may be used to apply the necessary streaming criteria such as, e.g., the number of seconds to wait before streaming starts, the number of seconds to display each resource before advancing to a subsequent resource, etc. Block 316 may also be performed, for example, by tile-resource matching module 807 in Fig. 9.

For greater understanding of the foregoing, referring back to the Game of Thrones example and Fig. 4B, the right-most tile 4 may display the first associated resource for an initial period of 5 seconds, after which the second associated resource is displayed for 3 seconds, the third associated resource for 3 seconds, and so on and so forth. After displaying the last resource, the first resource is displayed again for 3 seconds, then the second resource for 3 seconds, etc. in a continuous cycle. Concurrently with the above, any other tile 4 may be streamed according to the tile's respective streaming property as may be separately defined in the tiling scheme.

At block 318 the display screen having multiple streaming tiles is generated and displayed to the user. Block 318 may also be performed, for example, by tile-resource matching module 807 in Fig. 9.

Fig. 3B presents an alternative embodiment of the presently disclosed method whereby resources are first obtained at block 312, and subsequently a tiling scheme is determined at block 308 based on the obtained resources.

Fig. 3C presents a further alternative embodiment of the presently disclosed method whereby resources are obtained at block 312 and a tiling scheme is determined at block 308, the execution of blocks 312 and 308 being independent of one another, and possibly being performed in parallel. Thereafter, at block 314, the obtained resources, possibly filtered as discussed above, and the tiles in the selected tiling scheme, are "matched" using the process discussed above.

Referring now to Figs. 6A-6C there is illustrated by way of non-limiting example a possible display screen 100 which may be generated in accordance with the presently disclosed subject matter in response to a user query "Moby Dick". In Figs. 6A-6C, for purposes of demonstrating the resultant display screen, the subject is determined to be "Moby Dick" and the subject classification is determined to be "book", prompting display screen 100 to be generated based on a "book" tiling scheme. "Book" tiling scheme includes various tiles 4a-4i which relate to items of interest to users searching for information about a book.

Fig. 6A illustrates display screen 100 at t=0. For the purposes of presenting a simple example, in Figs. 6A-6C each one of tiles 4c, 4e and 4f is associated with one resource. Each of tiles 4a, 4d, 4h and 4i is associated with two resources. Each of tiles 4b and 4g is associated with more than two resources. As is shown in Fig. 6A, in each of tiles 4a-4i is displayed a first associated resource at t=0.

Fig, 6B illustrates display screen 100 at t=l. As is shown in Fig. 6B, at t=l, in each of tiles 4a, 4b, 4d, 4g, 4h and 4i is displayed a second associated resource. As tiles 4c, 4e and 4f are each associated with a single resource, tiles 4c, 4e and 4f remain unchanged.

Fig. 6C illustrates display screen 100 at t=2. As is shown in Fig. 6C, at t=2, in each of tiles 4b and 4g is displayed a third associated resource, while in each of tiles 4a, 4d, 4h and 4i is again displayed the first associated resource. Once again, as tiles 4c, 4e and 4f are each associated with a single resource, these tiles (i.e. tiles 4c, 4e and 4f) again remain unchanged.

As Figs. 6A-6C demonstrate, each tile in the display screen may be associated with one or more resources, and any tile may be associated with more or less resources than any other tile. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the display screen may also be used to generate revenue such as by including in the generated display screen one or more tiles displaying sponsored advertisements, such as paid-for advertisements which are paid for by an advertiser or any third party, and related to the query subject.

Referring now to Figs. 7A-7B there is provided, by way of non-limiting examples, activateable tile controls which may be activated by a user to manipulate the streaming or paging of a tile. In Fig. 7A tile 4a includes a "stream start" tile control 6 and a "stream stop" tile control 7. In addition, tile 4a includes a "stream pause" tile control 8 which is activated by hovering a mouse pointer or other input device over tile 4a (in Fig. 7A the mouse pointer is shown as hand-shaped in order to indicate activation of hover tile control 8). In Fig. 7B, tile 4b includes a page-next/page -previous tile control 5, which, when activated by a user, advances the displayed resource to the next/previous resource in the sequence of resources associated with tile 4b. The transitions between the four unique resources (pictures of book covers) which are associated with tile 4b are shown in Fig. 7B using bi-directional arrows to indicate a user-paged transition.

Referring now to Fig. 10, there is illustrated by way of non-limiting example, how the streaming tile controls shown in Fig. 7 A may be implemented. Fig. 10 illustrates the general flow of a single streaming tile 4.

Execution begins at block 1002 where the next resource is displayed. Initially, the next resource is the first resource.

At block 1004 the system checks if "hover" tile control 8 is activated, and execution continues only if "hover" tile control 8 is not activated.

At block 1006 the system checks if "pause" tile control 7 is activated. If "pause" tile control 7 is not activated, execution returns to block 1002 where the next resource is displayed after the appropriate time delay as required, for example as provided for in the tiling scheme.

If, however at block 1006 it is determined that "pause" control 7 is activated, execution continues to block 1008 where the system waits for confirmation of activation of "play" tile control 6.

At block 1008 once it is determined that "play" tile control 6 is activated, execution returns to block 1002 for displaying the next resource after the appropriate time delay as required, for example as provided in the tiling scheme. Blocks 1002, 1004, 1006, and 1008 may be performed, for example, by tile- resource matching module 807 in Fig. 9.

It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that many variations of the implementation shown in Fig. 10 are possible, and Fig. 10 is not to be construed as limiting the streaming tile control to only the implementation described above.

Using the example shown in Figs. 6A-6C, the advantages of the display screen generated are readily apparent. As can be seen, a user searching for information about "Moby Dick" is presented multiple streaming resources in a neat and orderly fashion on a single display screen, enabling the user to glance at the display screen and be presented with pertinent content responsive to the user's search for information. The user may briefly scan each displayed resource, and quickly hone in on one or more resources to view in their entirety. All this can be done in a matter of seconds due to the presentation of multiple relevant resources grouped into tiles and presented on a single display screen.

It is to be understood that the presently disclosed subject matter is not limited in its application to the details set forth in the description contained herein or illustrated in the drawings. The presently disclosed subject matter is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.

It will also be understood that the presently disclosed subject matter further contemplates a non-transitory machine -readable memory tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for executing the method of the presently disclosed subject matter.

Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that various modifications and changes can be applied to the embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter as hereinbefore described without departing from its scope, defined in and by the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A computer-implemented method of processing a query and generating a display screen comprising:

obtaining a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query;

determining a tiling scheme;

generating a display screen in accordance with said tiling scheme, the display screen comprising a plurality of tiles, at least some of said tiles configured to display at least some of said resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non- simultaneously display at least two resources.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on said subject.

3. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on a subject classification determined for said subject.

4. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein each of said tiles is configured to display at least one of said resources.

5. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein each of said tiles is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

6. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein non- simultaneously displaying at least two resources comprises initially displaying a first one of the at least two resources and subsequently displaying a second one of the at least two resources.

7. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein said tiling scheme includes parameters for determining which of said resources are displayed in which of said tiles.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein at least one parameter is a resource type.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein said subsequently displaying is performed automatically after a period of time.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein said subsequently displaying is performed upon receiving a command issued by a user.

11. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein the tiling scheme includes, for at least one tile, non-simultaneous display criteria, and the at least one tile non-simultaneous displays the at least two resources according to the non- simultaneous display criteria.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the non-simultaneous display criteria includes a display duration.

13. A computer-implemented method of generating a display screen comprising multiple resources displayed in tiles comprising:

determining a tiling scheme based on a given subject, said tiling scheme including one or more extended queries relating to said subject;

executing said one or more extended queries thereby obtaining a plurality of resources related to said one or more extended queries;

generating a display screen in accordance with said tiling scheme, the display screen comprising a plurality of tiles, wherein at least some of said tiles are configured to display one or more resources obtained from executing a given one of said extended queries.

14. A method of generating revenue from a display screen comprising multiple resources displayed in tiles comprising:

obtaining a plurality of resources related to a given subject;

determining a tiling scheme;

generating a display screen in accordance with said tiling scheme, the display screen comprising a plurality of tiles, at least some of said tiles configured to display at least some of said resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non- simultaneously display at least two resources, and wherein at least one tile is configured to display one or more advertisements related to said subject, said one or more advertisements being paid advertisements.

15. The method according to claims 13 or 14 wherein each of said tiles is configured to display one or more resources obtained from executing a given one of said extended queries.

16. The method according to claims 13, 14 or 15 wherein at least one tile is configured to non-simultaneously display at least two resources.

17. A system for processing a query and generating a display screen comprising a processor, said processor configured to:

obtain a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query;

determine a tiling scheme;

generate a display screen in accordance with said tiling scheme, the display screen comprising a plurality of tiles, at least some of said tiles configured to display at least some of said resources, wherein at least one tile is configured to non- simultaneously display at least two resources.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on said subject.

19. The system according to any one of claims 17 or 18 wherein the tiling scheme is determined based at least in part on a subject classification determined for said subject.

20. The system according to any one of claims 17, 18 or 19 wherein each of said tiles is configured to display at least one of said resources.

21. The system according to any one of the claims 17, 18, 19 or 20 wherein non- simultaneously displaying at least two resources comprises initially displaying a first one of the at least two resources and subsequently displaying a second one of the at least two resources.

22. A non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

obtain a plurality of resources related to a subject of the query;

determine a tiling scheme;

23. The storage medium according to claim 22 wherein the tiling scheme includes, for at least one tile, non-simultaneous display criteria, and the at least one tile non-simultaneously displays the at least two resources according to the non- simultaneous display criteria.