Patent Issued for Query engine system and method (USPTO 11977595): United Services Automobile Association

2024 MAY 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Carrasco, Elena Marie (Converse, TX, US), Durairaj, Ravi (San Antonio, TX, US), Hartshorn, Joel S. (Port Orchard, WA, US), Lopez, Jeanie Graciela (San Antonio, TX, US), Serrao, Nolan (Plano, TX, US), Warnick, Mark Paxman (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on June 30, 2022, was published online on May 7, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11977595, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Search engines are employed to enable a user to locate information stored in one or more databases. For example, the search engine may periodically download information from various sources and index the information in the one or more databases. This procedure may be traditionally referred to as “crawling.” A user may utilize an electronic input component associated with an electronic user device to enter a search term (e.g., a string) to a search engine input section displayed on the electronic user device. The search engine may utilize the search term to identify related information stored in the one or more databases, determine search results, and present the search results on the electronic user device corresponding to the user.

“Traditional search engines may employ limited search criteria. For example, traditional search engines may merely employ the search string, and possibly location information corresponding to the electronic user device, to identify the related information stored in the one or more databases. Based on these limitations, traditional search engines often output search results that are inaccurate and/or incomplete. Accordingly, it is now recognized that improved search engine technology is desired.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features.

“The present disclosure relates generally to search (or query) engine systems and methods. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods that employ a search term (e.g., string) and other data points to locate relevant information in the context of a search (or query) engine. Present embodiments may modify initial searches or queries based on supplemental data from available data wells authorized for application access. For example, a user may authorize use of insurance data and/or banking data to increase searching relevance (e.g., provide results that correspond with lifestyle data monitored for insurance purposes or results that correspond with budgeting data monitored for banking purposes). Further, information may be shared between accounts. For example, search information may be pulled from a banking or insurance account and/or provide thereto. As a specific example, previous payment information for a particular good or service may be provided from a user’s bank account based on a query related to the good or serve to help the user gauge value and past experience of the user with the good or service.

“In accordance with the present disclosure, a search engine computing assembly includes a search device, a user device, and a database. The database may include information downloaded or otherwise stored thereon from various sources, such as websites accessible on the Internet, and indexed in the database for ease of searching. The search device may receive a search term (e.g., a word, a phrase, a string, Boolean logic, etc.) from the user device, which may include a personal computer, a laptop, a smartphone, a smartwatch, or the like. For example, the user may enter the search term to a search engine account corresponding to a search engine application and presented on the user device. The search device may also receive supplemental input related to user activity (e.g., number of steps taken per day, financial savings goals) for use in better narrowing search results to items of interest to the user.

“In accordance with the present disclosure, the search device receives one or more additional data points (e.g., additional inputs) utilized by the search device to contextualize a search of the search term in the database. The one or more additional data points may include, for example, data indicative of something other than (or in addition to) location information (e.g., location information derived from a Global Position System [GPS], location information derived from an Internet Protocol [IP] address). For example, the search device may receive the one or more additional data points via an additional search engine account corresponding to an additional user having a connection (or linkage) with the search engine account of the user, from an additional user device corresponding to the additional user, from a separate account (e.g., separate online account) corresponding to the user (e.g., a social media account of the user, a financial institution account of the user, a retail account of the user, a calendaring or scheduling app of the user, a health/fitness/nutrition account, etc.), from a separate account corresponding to the additional user (e.g., a social media account of the additional user, a financial institution account of the additional user, a retail account of the additional user, a calendaring or scheduling app of the additional user, etc.), or another source of information. In some embodiments, the search device may locate the additional data points (e.g., additional inputs) in response to receiving the search term from the user device corresponding to the user. That is, the search device may receive the search term from the user device corresponding to the user, and then locate, in response to receiving the search term, additional and/or related data points (e.g., additional inputs) stored in, for example, the additional user device of the additional user.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: one or more databases having first data indicative of a plurality of online websites indexed therein; and one or more processors configured to: receive, via an input section corresponding to a search engine account of a search engine application operable on a user device, second data indicative of a search string; determine an additional online account linked with the search engine account; locate, in the additional online account and based on the second data, third data correlated to the search string; search the one or more databases to locate a subset of the first data by identifying a correspondence between the subset of the first data and a combination of the second data and the third data; and format, based on the subset of the first data, search results displayable on a display of the user device.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors is configured to receive, from the user device, an additional user device, or both, authorization to link the search engine account with an online financial institution account corresponding to the additional online account.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors is configured to locate, in the online financial institution account corresponding to the additional online account, purchase history data corresponding to the third data correlated to the search string.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors is configured to receive, from the user device and from an additional user device associated with an additional search engine account corresponding to the additional online account, authorization to link the search engine account with the additional search engine account.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors is configured to receive, from the user device, an additional user device, or both, authorization to link the search engine account with an online calendaring or scheduling account corresponding to the additional online account.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors is configured to receive, from the user device, an additional user device, or both, authorization to link the search engine account with an online health, nutrition, and/or fitness account corresponding to the additional online account.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors is configured to determine the additional online account linked with the search engine account by: determining first identification information of the search engine account; determining second identification information of the additional online account; and determining a correspondence between the first identification information and the second identification information; generating, based on the correspondence, a link between the search engine account and the additional online account; and confirming the link in response to receiving, via the input section corresponding to the search engine account of the search engine application operable on the user device, the second data indicative of the search string.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors is configured to: score, via a scoring algorithm that receives the second data and the third data, a plurality of search result items from the subset of the first data; and format, based on the subset of the first data, the search results displayable on the display of the user device by generating a search results list having the plurality of search result items ordered from highest score to lowest score.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors is configured to score, based on the subset of the first data and the scoring algorithm that receives the second data and the third data, the plurality of search result items by: applying a first weight or first priority to the second data; and applying a second weight or second priority to the third data, wherein the second weight or the second priority is different than the first weight or the first priority, respectively.

“10. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, from at least one user device and via processing circuitry comprising at least one processor, authorization to connect a first online account corresponding to a search engine application with a second online account; connecting, via the processing circuitry and based on the authorization, the first online account corresponding to the search engine application with the second online account; receiving, via the processing circuitry and from the first online account corresponding to the search engine application, data indicative of a search string; querying, via the processing circuitry, the second online account for content related to the data indicative of the search string; searching, via the processing circuitry, a web database to determine search results based on the data indicative of the search string and the content related to the data indicative of the search string; and generating, via the processing circuitry, a graphical user interface comprising the search results.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising receiving, from the at least one user device and via the processing circuitry, the authorization to connect the first online account corresponding to the search engine application with an online financial institution account corresponding to the second online account.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, comprising receiving, via the processing circuitry and from the online financial account corresponding to the second online account, purchase history data corresponding to the content related to the data indicative of the search string.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising receiving, from the at least one user device and via the processing circuitry, the authorization to connect the first online account corresponding to the search engine application with a social media account corresponding to the second online account.

“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising: scoring, via a scoring algorithm executed by the processing circuitry such that the scoring algorithm receives the data indicative of the search string and the content related to the data indicative of the search string, a plurality of search result items of the search results; and generating, via the processing circuitry, a graphical user interface comprising the search results such that the plurality of search result items is ordered from highest score to lowest score in a search results list on the graphical user interface.

“15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, comprising generating, via the processing circuitry, the graphical user interface comprising the search results such that each search result item of the plurality of search result items includes additional data indicative of a relevancy score including a first relevancy score component corresponding to the data indicative of the search string and a second relevancy score component corresponding to the content related to the data indicative of the search string.

“16. One or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media storing instructions stored thereon that, when executed by processing circuitry comprising one or more processors, are configured to cause the processing circuitry to: receive, via an input section of a search engine account corresponding to a search engine application, data indicative of a search string; receive, from a device corresponding to the search engine account, authorization to connect the search engine account with an account; query the account connected with the search engine account for content related to the data indicative of the search string; search a web database to determine search results based on the data indicative of the search string and the content related to the data indicative of the search string; and generate, in a search results interface of the search engine account corresponding to the search engine application, a graphical user interface presenting the search results.

“17. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, are configured to cause the processing circuitry to query the account connected with the search engine account for the content related to the data indicative of the search string by: querying a financial institution account for financial content related to the data indicative of the search string; querying a digital calendar account for calendared content related to the data indicative of the search string; querying an entertainment account for entertainment content related to the data indicative of the search string; or querying a smart device account for: health content related to the data indicative of the search string; or nutrition content related to the data indicative of the search string.

“18. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, are configured to cause the processing circuitry to receive, from the device corresponding to the search engine account, the authorization to connect the search engine account with an additional search engine account corresponding to the account connected with the search engine account.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Carrasco, Elena Marie. Query engine system and method. U.S. Patent Number 11977595, filed June 30, 2022, and published online on May 7, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11977595)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)