Patents by Inventor Brian Whalen MacDonald

Brian Whalen MacDonald has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9619554
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for providing query-completion suggestions configured to be searched against vertical information domains in response to receiving a general web search query are provided. At least a portion of a general web search query is received. As the portion of the general web search query is received, query-completion suggestions are determined as is a likely primary intent associated with at least a portion of the determined query-completion suggestions. If the likely primary intent associated with a particular query-completion suggestion is for information associated with a particular vertical information domain other than the general web domain, the query-completion suggestion is provided such that selection thereof causes searching of the query-completion suggestion against the particular information domain for search results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xin Liu, Nitin Agrawal, James Francis Gilsinan, IV, James B. Lawson, Brian Whalen MacDonald, Mairéad Áine O'Donovan, Kimberly M. Vlcek, Nipoon Malhotra
  • Publication number: 20170046356
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for providing task-oriented query-completion suggestions are provided. A portion of a search query is received, for instance, via a query-input region or search box presented in association with a general web search domain. As the portion of the search query is received, it is determined that the received search query portion is suggestive of a task-oriented user intent. Also determined are query-completion suggestions that are associated with the task-oriented user intent of which the search query portion is suggestive. The determined query-completion suggestions are then provided to the user. As query-completion suggestions are surfaced with input of short character sequences that are associated with task-oriented user intents, users can quickly be provided the relevant, rich content for completing their intended tasks.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2016
    Publication date: February 16, 2017
    Inventors: DANIEL MARANTZ, BRIAN WHALEN MACDONALD, JEFFREY R. KELLERAN, DERRICK L. CONNELL, SAMIR SHIRAZ PRADHAN, SANAZ AHARI
  • Patent number: 9405856
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for providing task-oriented query-completion suggestions are provided. A portion of a search query is received, for instance, via a query-input region or search box presented in association with a general web search domain. As the portion of the search query is received, it is determined that the received search query portion is suggestive of a task-oriented user intent. Also determined are query-completion suggestions that are associated with the task-oriented user intent of which the search query portion is suggestive. The determined query-completion suggestions are then provided to the user. As query-completion suggestions are surfaced with input of short character sequences that are associated with task-oriented user intents, users can quickly be provided the relevant, rich content for completing their intended tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Marantz, Brian Whalen MacDonald, Jeffrey R. Kelleran, Derrick L. Connell, Samir Shiraz Pradhan, Sanaz Ahari
  • Publication number: 20130229440
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for selecting images to represent tiles within a visualization and/or for creating a visually diverse visualization. That is, images for tiles within a visualization may be selected and/or modified based upon state information associate with such tiles (e.g., current time, current location, device resolution, current weather conditions, current image comprised within a tile, etc.). In this way, a set of visually diverse tiles may be created, such that adjacent tiles may be represented by visually diverse images. For example, tiles within a weather application may represent weather conditions for days of a week. If two adjacent tiles comprise visually similar images (e.g., images depicting a single cloud), then at least one of the images may be modified (e.g., to an image of four clouds) so that the two adjacent tiles may appear visually dissimilar within the weather application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2012
    Publication date: September 5, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Whalen MacDonald, Mira Lane, Phoi Heng Lew, Anthony Kitowicz, Sudin Bhat
  • Publication number: 20130232148
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for mapping content to a carousel interface in a manner that allows a user to more intuitively navigate through and/or interact with such content. The carousel interface may be associated with a domain (e.g., a map directions domain, a news domain, etc.). One or more categories associated with the domain may be identified (e.g., a sports news category, a health news category, etc.). In one example, entities (e.g., a Professional Sports Team and/or other proper nouns) and/or topics (e.g., 2012 Olympics) may be identified for respective categories. In this way, content associated with the one or more categories, entities, and/or topics may be retrieved and/or populated within one or more carousels of the carousel interface in an intuitive manner (e.g., sports articles may be populated within a sports carousel, health articles may be populated within a health carousel, etc.).
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2012
    Publication date: September 5, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Whalen MacDonald, Mira Lane, Phoi Heng Lew, Sudin Bhat
  • Publication number: 20130173650
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for providing task-oriented query-completion suggestions are provided. A portion of a search query is received, for instance, via a query-input region or search box presented in association with a general web search domain. As the portion of the search query is received, it is determined that the received search query portion is suggestive of a task-oriented user intent. Also determined are query-completion suggestions that are associated with the task-oriented user intent of which the search query portion is suggestive. The determined query-completion suggestions are then provided to the user. As query-completion suggestions are surfaced with input of short character sequences that are associated with task-oriented user intents, users can quickly be provided the relevant, rich content for completing their intended tasks.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2011
    Publication date: July 4, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: DANIEL MARANTZ, BRIAN WHALEN MACDONALD, JEFFREY R. KELLERAN, DERRICK L. CONNELL, SAMIR SHIRAZ PRADHAN, SANAZ AHARI
  • Publication number: 20130117297
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for providing query-completion suggestions configured to be searched against vertical information domains in response to receiving a general web search query are provided. At least a portion of a general web search query is received. As the portion of the general web search query is received, query-completion suggestions are determined as is a likely primary intent associated with at least a portion of the determined query-completion suggestions. If the likely primary intent associated with a particular query-completion suggestion is for information associated with a particular vertical information domain other than the general web domain, the query-completion suggestion is provided such that selection thereof causes searching of the query-completion suggestion against the particular information domain for search results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Publication date: May 9, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: XIN LIU, NITIN AGRAWAL, JAMES FRANCIS GILSINAN, IV, JAMES B. LAWSON, BRIAN WHALEN MACDONALD, MAIRÉAD ÁINE O'DONOVAN, KIMBERLY M. VLCEK, NIPOON MALHOTRA
  • Patent number: 8335784
    Abstract: Methods, systems, graphical user interfaces, and computer-readable media for visually searching and exploring a set of objects are provided. A computer system executes a method that generates three-dimensional representations or two-dimensional representations for a set of objects in response to a user interaction with an interface that displays the three-dimensional representations or the two-dimensional representations. The interface includes filter controls, sorting controls, and classification controls, which are dynamically altered based on the content of a user query or the attributes of the objects in the three-dimensional representations or two-dimensional representations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Zachary Mark Gutt, Paul Ronald Ray, Rodney Coleman Edwards, Darwin Kengo Yamamoto, Hady Moustafa Abou El Kheir, Brian Whalen MacDonald, Jerry Daniel Bain
  • Publication number: 20110055203
    Abstract: Methods, systems, graphical user interfaces, and computer-readable media for visually searching and exploring a set of objects are provided. A computer system executes a method that generates three-dimensional representations or two-dimensional representations for a set of objects in response to a user interaction with an interface that displays the three-dimensional representations or the two-dimensional representations. The interface includes filter controls, sorting controls, and classification controls, which are dynamically altered based on the content of a user query or the attributes of the objects in the three-dimensional representations or two-dimensional representations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2009
    Publication date: March 3, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: ZACHARY MARK GUTT, PAUL RONALD RAY, RODNEY COLEMAN EDWARDS, DARWIN KENGO YAMAMOTO, HADY MOUSTAFA ABOU EL KHEIR, BRIAN WHALEN MACDONALD, JERRY DANIEL BAIN