Data From Web Documents In A Spreadsheet

Abstract

A spreadsheet user interface accepts a request for at least one fact, the request comprising a user-selected identifier for the desired fact. Responsive to the entry of the request, a fact repository containing information derived from unstructured documents is accessed. The fact or facts corresponding to the request, if any, are retrieved from the repository, and the results are displayed at the location of the spreadsheet that is associated with the request.

1 . A computer-implemented method for adding information to a spreadsheet, comprising:
 on a client system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors:   obtaining a reference to an object and an attribute from a cell of a spreadsheet;   generating a query corresponding to the reference to the object and the attribute;   sending the query to a fact repository;   receiving the requested cell value from the fact repository, wherein the cell value correspond to a value of a fact, the fact being associated with an object in the fact repository, wherein a respective fact includes an attribute field indicating an attribute and a value field describing the indicated attributes, wherein objects in the fact repository are created by:
 extracting facts from web documents; 
 determining entities with which the extracted facts are associated; 
 storing the extracted facts in the fact repository; and 
 associating the stored extracted facts with objects corresponding to the determined entities; 
   inserting the received cell value into the spreadsheet.