Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Chong I Ka

Thomas F Bergstraesser

Kong-Kat Wong

Andrew C Glass

Shailesh Prakash

Mackenzie Steele

Helen Jean Cuncannan

Michael P Gordon

A vertical search engine may rank items based on both the quality of data associated with each item and the popularity of each item. The vertical search engine may access data associated with items from a variety of different sources, including feed sources and crawl sources. Data quality inputs are determined for each item based on the quality of the data associated with each respective item. In addition, popularity inputs are determined for each item based on user interest in each respective item. A global rankings score is then calculated for each item based on the data quality inputs and popularity inputs for each respective item. The global ranking score may be used to order search results for search queries in such a way that items from feed data and items from crawl data may be displayed in a unified manner, rather than being segregated by data source.

Consumer-focused results ordering

Computer systems typically include many application programs which enable uses to perform a wide range of tasks. The application programs are generally stored on high-capacity memory devices, such as hard drives. Many of these high-capacity memory devices are slow relative to other components of computer system and thus noticeably reduce the overall performance, particularly during start of application programs. One way of improving performance is to organize application programs in memory devices so that often-used application programs are stored in areas that are faster to access or otherwise have less effect on computer performance. Unfortunately, there is no convenient way of keeping track of how often each application program is used. Accordingly, the inventors devised an operating system that logs, or records, certain information every time an application program is started. The log ultimately provides a convenient measure of how frequently application programs are used. Another facet of the invention includes using the log to reorganize how application programs are stored in a memory device.

Automatic logging of application program launches

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Chong I Ka