Method and apparatus for facilitating refinement of a search

Claim 1

Apparatus for presenting search results to a user to facilitate refinement of the search, the apparatus comprising: a receiver operable to receive from a search engine results of a search in a database on the basis of a search criterion, wherein the database comprises search items each stored in association with one or more context items describing different aspects of that search item, and wherein the search results consist of a set of the search items selected in accordance with the search criterion and grouped by context item so that the search items are presented as a plurality of groups of search items with all search items in a group being associated with the same context item such that each search item that is associated with a plurality of context items is in a corresponding plurality of groups, and with each group having a group label representing the group context item; a modifier operable to produce modified search results by: i) determining, for each of the groups, whether any of the search items in that group is also associated with at least one other of the context items in addition to the group context item; ii) associating the group label of any group that includes search items determined to be associated with at least one other of the context items in addition to the group context item with data enabling the user to cause the search results to be filtered in accordance with the group context item by selecting the group label; iii) producing, in response to selection of one of the group labels by the user, a sub-set of search items consisting of those of the set of search items that are associated with the context item represented by the selected group label, wherein the search items of the sub-set of search items are grouped by context item into a sub-set of the plurality of groups which sub-set excludes the group represented by the selected group label; and iv) determining, for each of the sub-set of groups, whether any of the search items in that group is also associated with at least one other of the context items in addition to the group context item and in addition to the context item represented by the selected group label, and associating the group label of any such one of the sub-set of groups with data enabling the user to cause the modified search results to be further filtered in accordance with that context item by selecting that group label; and a supplier operable to supply the modified search results to the user.