Patents by Inventor Kieran Richard McDonald

Kieran Richard McDonald 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: 9335883
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, computer systems, and computing devices for facilitating presentation of search result items having varying prominence is provided. The method includes referencing a search result item to be presented within a search results page in response to a search query. Thereafter, a determination is made that a size prominence of the search result item is to be modified. Such a determination can be based on a result attribute(s) associated with the search result item and a result attribute(s) associated with other search result items within the search results page. The size of the search result item is adjusted in accordance with the determination that the size prominence of the search result item is to be modified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Alec John Berntson, Sanaz Ahari, Kieran Richard McDonald, Muhammad Arif Iqbal
  • Publication number: 20150269152
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for ranking recommendations within a set of recommendations. For example, a set of locational relevance boundaries may be generated and/or configured for ranking the set of recommendation. For example, a locational relevance boundary may adjust a rank of a recommendation using a rank influence (e.g., a linear function, a step function, a numerical value, and/or any other function used to increase, decrease, or assign a value to the rank based upon a current location of the user). The locational relevance boundary may be applied based upon the current location of the user corresponding to one or more threshold distances from a target recommendation location. For example, a logarithmic function may be applied to a rank of a theater recommendation when the user is less than 1.2 miles from the theater. Ranked recommendations may be provided to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2014
    Publication date: September 24, 2015
    Inventors: Karan Singh Rekhi, Abhishek Jha, Gautam Kedia, Kieran Richard McDonald, Andrew P. McGovern
  • Patent number: 8650173
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for placing search results on a search engine results page (SERP). A query may be received. The query may be transmitted to a plurality of search result providers. A first set of search results and a second set of search results may be received from the search result providers. Intent features may be extracted from the first set of search results. User intent of the second set of search results may be inferred based on the extracted intent features. The first set of search results and the second set of search results may be ranked based on the inferred user intent. The SERP may be rendered according to the ranked first set and second set of search results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Kieran Richard McDonald, Ran Gilad-Bachrach, Nipoon Malhotra, Nitin Agrawal, Sanaz Ahari
  • Patent number: 8572065
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, a computer system, and computer media for discovering links in scripts are provided. The computer system includes a crawler, a rules engine, and an index that are utilized to store links generated by scripts located in webpages in the index. The crawler traverses a network to locate webpages having scripts. The rules engine parses the located webpages and extracts the scripts based on rules that are satisfied by segments of the extracted scripts. The rules engine evaluates the segments of the extracted scripts to generate links. After the rules engine validates the links, the rules engine transmits the links to the index for storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Kieran Richard McDonald, Srinath Reddy Aaleti, Richard J. Qian
  • Publication number: 20130067364
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, computer systems, and computing devices for facilitating presentation of search result items having varying prominence is provided. The method includes referencing a search result item to be presented within a search results page in response to a search query. Thereafter, a determination is made that a size prominence of the search result item is to be modified. Such a determination can be based on a result attribute(s) associated with the search result item and a result attribute(s) associated with other search result items within the search results page. The size of the search result item is adjusted in accordance with the determination that the size prominence of the search result item is to be modified.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: ALEC JOHN BERNTSON, SANAZ AHARI, KIERAN RICHARD MCDONALD, MUHAMMAD ARIF IQBAL
  • Patent number: 8370337
    Abstract: Methods and computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that facilitate generating a machine-learned model for ranking search results using click-based data are provided. Data is referenced from user queries, which may include search results generated by general search engines and vertical search engines. A training set is generated from the search results and click-based judgments are associated with the search results in the training set. Based on click-based judgments, identifiable features are determined from the search results in a training set. Based on determining identifiable features in a training set, a rule set is generated for ranking subsequent search results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Tapas Kanungo, Kumaresh Pattabiraman, Nitin Agrawal, Kieran Richard McDonald, Christopher Avery Meyers, Nipoon Malhotra
  • Publication number: 20120059838
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, computer systems, and computing devices facilitate providing entity-specific content to a user in response to a search request. A search request is received from a user and determined to be related to an entity. Domains associated with the entity are also identified. The search service identifies a set of potential answers and uses the potential answers to generate a set of reformulation queries, which are used to query answer services. Answers returned by the answer services are ranked and bound to an entity card, which is subjected to a quorum checking process that facilitates optimization of the use of allocated screen real estate associated with the entity card. A representation of the entity card is presented on a search-results page.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2010
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: ALEC JOHN BERNTSON, NITIN AGRAWAL, SONG ZHOU, YATHARTH SARAF, TARUN JOSHI, KIERAN RICHARD MCDONALD, YOHANNES TSEGAY, NIPOON MALHOTRA, MUHAMMAD AATIF AWAN, SANAZ AHARI, TIMOTHY CHARLES HOAD
  • Publication number: 20110320440
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for placing search results on a search engine results page (SERP). A query may be received. The query may be transmitted to a plurality of search result providers. A first set of search results and a second set of search results may be received from the search result providers. Intent features may be extracted from the first set of search results. User intent of the second set of search results may be inferred based on the extracted intent features. The first set of search results and the second set of search results may be ranked based on the inferred user intent. The SERP may be rendered according to the ranked first set and second set of search results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2010
    Publication date: December 29, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kieran Richard McDonald, Ran Gilad-Bachrach, Nipoon Malhotra, Nitin Agrawal, Sanaz Ahari
  • Publication number: 20110258149
    Abstract: Methods and computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that facilitate generating a machine-learned model for ranking search results using click-based data are provided. Data is referenced from user queries, which may include search results generated by general search engines and vertical search engines. A training set is generated from the search results and click-based judgments are associated with the search results in the training set. Based on click-based judgments, identifiable features are determined from the search results in a training set. Based on determining identifiable features in a training set, a rule set is generated for ranking subsequent search results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Publication date: October 20, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: TAPAS KANUNGO, KUMARESH PATTABIRAMAN, NITIN AGRAWAL, KIERAN RICHARD McDONALD, CHRISTOPHER AVERY MEYERS, NIPOON MALHOTRA
  • Publication number: 20090327236
    Abstract: Systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for presenting video search results for query suggestions are provided. A search query is received from a user. One or more query suggestions related to the search query are determined. One or more video items or images relevant to the one or more query suggestions are accessed. One or more image representations for the one or video items or images relevant to the one or more query suggestions are displayed to the user who input the original search query.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2008
    Publication date: December 31, 2009
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Justin Denney, Timothy C. Hoad, Richard J. Qian, Kieran Richard McDonald, Justin Hamilton
  • Publication number: 20090125469
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, a computer system, and computer media for discovering links in scripts are provided. The computer system includes a crawler, a rules engine, and an index that are utilized to store links generated by scripts located in webpages in the index. The crawler traverses a network to locate webpages having scripts. The rules engine parses the located webpages and extracts the scripts based on rules that are satisfied by segments of the extracted scripts. The rules engine evaluates the segments of the extracted scripts to generate links. After the rules engine validates the links, the rules engine transmits the links to the index for storage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2007
    Publication date: May 14, 2009
    Applicant: MICROSOFT COPORATION
    Inventors: KIERAN RICHARD MCDONALD, SRINATH REDDY AALETI, RICHARD J. QIAN