Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Vcvc III LLC

Adrian C Klein

Samuel D Hobson

David Earl Heckerman

Eric I Horvitz

John S Breese

David O Hovel

Gregory L Shaw

Jacobus A Rommelse

Ramez Naam

Krzysztof Koperski

Jisheng Liang

Ziyi Wang

Jeffrey Carey Reynar

Theodore Ludovicus Michel

Satish Bhatti

Erich S Finkelstein

Marcelo Aizenstein Furman Calbucci

Benjamin Waldman

Fajen M Kyne

Jerald Lee Hittle

Methods, systems, and techniques for cluster-based content recommendation are described. Some embodiments provide a content recommendation system ('CRS') configured to recommend news stories about events or occurrences. In some embodiments, a news story about an event includes multiple related content items that each include an account of the event and that each reference one or more entities or categories that are represented by the CRS. In one embodiment, the CRS identifies news stories by generating clusters of related content items. Then, in response to a received query that indicates a keyterm, entity, or category, the CRS determines and provides indications of one or more news stories that are relevant to the received query. In some embodiments, at least some of these techniques are employed to implement a news story recommendation facility in an online news service.

Cluster-based identification of news stories

A system and methods to incorporate, distribute, and execute associated links in online content is provided. The invention contemplates client side processing of online content received from one or more cooperating content servers to incorporate associated links by a client side computing application for display to participating users. The associated links when interacted offer one or more actions including but not limited to offering additional relevant content, executing cooperating applications, and performing searches. The processing of the online content is accomplished by parsing the content and comparing the content with a predefined list of associated links. If a match occurs, the associated link is incorporated for use. The invention further contemplates the automated update of the predefined list of associated links.

Smart links

Large stores of information are often organized in a hierarchical taxonomy to aid a search and retrieval of the information. The hierarchical taxonomy generally consists of related categories of information, called &ldquo;nodes,&rdquo; that each may contain information relevant to the search. Each node is addressable according to its path in the hierarchical taxonomy. In information stores where the number of nodes having relevant information is extremely large, such as the Internet, providing a cohesive, intelligent, and organized display of the search results becomes extremely important to the success of a user traversing the store to find relevant information. The invention provides such search results by ranking each node of the taxonomy to determine which nodes are most likely to be relevant to the search request. The invention then creates a conceptually-related &ldquo;cluster&rdquo; of nodes by selecting a relevant &ldquo;seed&rdquo; node and relevant nodes related to the &ldquo;seed&rdquo; node.

Retrieval of relevant information categories

An intelligent user assistance system is disclosed. The system is constructed using a reasoning model to determine the probability of a user's intentions, goals, or informational needs in the context of a software program. This is accomplished through analysis of information about the user's actions, the program state, and spoken words. The system monitors user interaction with the software program and applies probabilistic reasoning to sense that the user may need assistance in using a particular feature or to accomplish a specific task. The inference system accesses a thorough and updateable user profile system to continually check for competencies and changes assistance that is given based on the competencies.

Intelligent user assistance facility

A general event composing and monitoring system that allows high-level events to be created from combinations of low-level events. An event specification tool allows for rapid development of a general event processor that creates high-level events from combinations of user actions. The event system, in combination with a reasoning system, is able to monitor and perform inference about several classes of events for a variety of purposes. The various classes of events include the current context, the state of key data structures in a program, general sequences of user inputs, including actions with a mouse-controlled cursor while interacting with a graphical user interface, words typed in free-text queries for assistance, visual information about users, such as gaze and gesture information, and speech information. Additionally, a method is provided for building an intelligent user interface system by constructing a reasoning model to compute the probability of alternative user's intentions, goals, or informational needs through analysis of information about a user's actions, program state, and words. The intelligent user interface system monitors user interaction with a software application and applies probabilistic reasoning to sense that the user may need assistance in using a particular feature or to accomplish a specific task. The intelligent user interface also accepts a free-text query from the user asking for help and combines the inference analysis of user actions and program state with an inference analysis of the free-text query. The inference system accesses a rich, updatable user profile system to continually check for competencies and changes assistance that is given based on user competence.

Intelligent user assistance facility for a software program

A method for managing simultaneous display of multiple windows in a graphical user interface (GUI). A computer system with a display and user interface input device displays a primary or container window on the display, comprising a predetermined region for displaying information and/or receiving user commands associated with a first computer process. The system displays a target window comprising a predetermined region for displaying information and/or receiving user commands associated with a different computer process. The target window is typically displayed in a higher z-order relative to the primary window to maintain it on top. In response to a predetermined triggering condition, the target window is manipulated by movement, temporary disappearance, and/or size reduction, while maintaining the relative z-order of the target window relative to the primary window and away from a predetermined avoidance region associated with the first computer process. The target window can be moved away a minimal distance, biased in a predetermined direction, or positioned at anchor points relative to the container window to avoid obscuring the avoidance region.

Method for managing simultaneous display of multiple windows in a

An event composing and monitoring system that allows high-level events to be created from combinations of low-level events. An event specification tool, contained in the system, allows for rapidly developing a general event processor that creates high-level events from combinations of user actions. An event system, in combination with an inference system, monitors and infers, for various purposes, about several classes of events including: current program context; state of key data structures; user input sequences, including actions with a mouse-controlled cursor while interacting with a graphical user interface; words typed in free-text help queries; visual user information, such as gaze and gesture information; and user speech information. Additionally, an intelligent user interface is provided by constructing a reasoning model that computes probability of alternative user intentions, goals or information needs through analyzing information regarding program state, and that user's actions and free-text query words. Specifically, the interface monitors user interaction with a program and probabilistically reasons to sense that a user may need assistance in using a particular feature or to accomplish a specific task. This interface accepts a free-text help query from the user and combines the inference analysis of user actions and the program state with an inference analysis of the query. The inference system, using an updateable user profile, continually checks for user competencies and, based on such competencies, changes assistance that is offered.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Adrian C Klein