Apple Inc.

Vivek Sehgal

Lun Cui

Vipul Ved Prakash

Alexandre F Carlhian

John M Hornkvist

Thomas Deniau

Sumit Wattal

Nicolas Zeitlin

Gennaro Frazzingaro

Karolina Buchner

Pulah J Shah

Hon Yuk Chan

Raffael Hannemann

Luca Lupo

Nilesh Karia

Harsh Fatepuria

João Pedro De Almeida Forjaz De Lacerda

Raphaeal Mor

Ian M Priestley

A device implementing a system for determining an answer to a question includes a processor configured to receive a question from a client device, and send the question to a first information domain comprising plural search subdomains, each of the plural search subdomains being configured to provide a respective candidate answer to the question in a format that differs from those provided by the other search subdomains of the plural search subdomains. The processor is further configured to receive, in response to sending the question, the candidate answer from each of the plural search subdomains, and provide at least one of the candidate answers to the client device, for providing an answer to the question based on the at least one of the candidate answers.

Accessing multiple domains across multiple devices for candidate responses

A device implementing a system for anonymizing user data provided for server-side operations includes a processor configured to receive user input including a search term, wherein first and second data structures are stored on the device, the first data structure including user interest data items that correspond to prior user activity, the second data structure including topic data items mapped to the user interest data items, the topic data items being broader than the user interest data items. The processor accesses the second data structure to obtain one or more topic data items. The processor transmits, to a server, the search term and one or more topic data items for obtaining a query suggestion or search result. The processor receives, from the server, the query suggestion or search result, the query suggestion or search result having been obtained based on the search term and one or more topic data items.

Anonymizing user data provided for server-side operations

A method and apparatus of a device that re-rank a plurality of search results received from a search server on the device is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device receives, with a browser of the device, a search query from a user. The device further sends the search query to a search server. In addition, the device receives the plurality of search results from the search server, wherein the plurality of search results is ranked according to a first ranking. The device also retrieves browser history of the user, wherein the browser history is collected on the device without revealing the browser history to the search server. The device further re-ranks the plurality of search results according to a second ranking based on at least the browser history. In addition, the device presents the plurality of search results using the second ranking.

Client-side search result re-ranking

A device implementing a system for providing query completion suggestions includes at least one processor configured to receive a partial query, and derive one or more query completion suggestions for the partial query from content items that are locally stored on the device, each respective query completion suggestion being associated with metadata extracted from one of the content items from which the respective query completion suggestion was derived. The at least one processor is further configured to rank the one or more query completion suggestions based at least in part on the metadata associated with each of the one or more query completion suggestions. The at least one processor is further configured to provide, for display, at least one of the one or more ranked query completion suggestions.

Query completion suggestions

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Vivek Sehgal