Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

John M Tippett

Karen E Fries

Jeffrey Marc Richter

Darren B Remington

Robert F Day

Jan Thomas Miksovsky

David E McCauley, Iii

Scott R Ludwig

Brian T Fleming

Raman Kumar Sarin

Darren Arthur Shakib

Salim Alam

David C Whitney

A system for enhancing searching of a network has an architecture that supports a search tool component capable of soliciting a search query from a user and of invoking an instance of an Internet browser in which to display search results. A further embodiment of the invention providing at least one search option suggesting changing at least one search parameter and at least one option allowing the user to indicate that their search was successful.

System for enhancing a query interface

A system for enhancing searching of a network has an architecture that supports a network indexing component capable of indexing terms located in pages on the network and capable of receiving a search query and returning a topic for each term in the query that matches an indexed term. An embodiment of the system further provides for a search tool capable of displaying text associated with assisting a user to perform a search of the Internet and an animation component capable of displaying an animated character. Further embodiments support a search tool component capable of soliciting a search query from a user and of invoking an instance of an Internet browser in which to display search results. A further embodiment of the invention providing at least one search option suggesting changing at least one search parameter and at least one option allowing the user to indicate that their search was successful.

A method of aiding a user in searching a computer environment includes retrieving a search query from a user, accessing a user profile and selecting a search area based on the search query and the user profile. In other embodiments of the present invention, a method provides for receiving a search query, categorizing at least one term in the search query based on an indexed list of terms derived from pages on a network, and identifying at least one search area based on the category of a search term.

System for improving search area selection

A computer-readable medium has computer-executable instructions for retrieving a search query provided by a user and locating an ambiguity in the search query that affects the optimization of the search query. The instructions also provide for requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query. Additional aspects of the invention allow the user to see and select past search queries. Further aspects of the invention automatically construct a boolean search query from a non-boolean query. Other aspects of the invention modify a search query based on its scope. In one embodiment of the invention a search query is modified based on natural language parse data produced by performing a natural language parse of the search query.

System for improving search text

A system and method are described for outputting display information according to a print layout defining a set of display items on a page and relative position assignments for the display items on the page, and a separate and distinct page format describing a physical page and a set of virtual pages on the physical page. Means are provided for selecting the print layout from a set of print layouts and the page format from a set of page formats. After the print layout and page format are selected, a view processor fills the set of pages defined in the page format with print information corresponding to the set of display items described within the selected print layout. A print output generator thereafter generates device-specific display data for rendering the physical page containing the filled set of virtual pages constructed by the view processor according to the print layout and page format and a designated output device.

Method and apparatus for displaying database information according to a

An improved storage mechanism is provided. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a container is used for storing objects, links to objects, and other containers. The container of the preferred embodiment is programmable so that the methods of the container are replaceable and the functionality of the container is extendible through the use of a command unit.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

John M Tippett