Indexing Electronic Notes

Abstract

A digital publishing platform enables users to create and organize notes associated with electronic, published documents. Sets of notes, each associated with a document, are uploaded to the publishing platform by notepad applications executing on user devices. Each set of notes has one or more notes, and each note includes a link to a location in the associated document. The publishing platform is configured to index sets of notes based on keywords of the notes, which may be identified based on content of the publication at the location with which notes are associated.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 accessing a set of electronic notes including a plurality of notes, wherein each note is associated with a location in a publication;   identifying, for the notes in the set of electronic notes, one or more keywords describing content at the locations in the publication with which the notes are associated;   receiving a user query specifying a keyword;   selecting, based on the identified keywords, notes from the set of electronic notes associated with the specified keyword; and   sending for presentation to a user, a listing of the selected notes.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more keywords are within the location with which the notes are associated. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more keywords are near the location with which the notes are associated. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the publication is associated with a glossary listing locations of a plurality of words in the publication, and wherein identifying keywords describing content of the publication at the locations with which the notes are associated comprises, for a note in the set of electronic notes:
 determining a word in the glossary located within the content of the publication at the location with which the note is associated; and   identifying the determined word as a keyword of the note.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying keywords describing content of the publication at the locations with which the notes are associated comprises, for a note in the set of electronic notes:
 determining a word occurring frequently in the publication that is located within the content of the publication at the location in the publication with which the note is associated; and   identifying the determined word as a keyword of the note.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying keywords describing content of the publication at the locations with which the notes are associated comprises, for a note in the set of electronic notes:
 determining a word occurring frequently in the note; and   identifying the determined word as a keyword of the note.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 for a note in the set of electronic notes, generating a summary of the note;   wherein the listing comprises the summaries generated for the selected notes.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the note comprises a plurality of words, and wherein generating the summary of the note comprises:
 selecting a subset of the plurality of words to include in the summary.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating a summary of the note comprises:
 identifying attributes of the note describing one or more of a time of creation of the note, a page in the publication with which the note is associated, and a user who created the note;   wherein the summary includes the identified attributes.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating a summary of the note comprises:
 identifying a portion of the note that is related to the content of the publication at the location with which the note is associated;   wherein the summary comprises the identified portion of the note.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 :
 wherein the note includes content imported from the publication; and   wherein the imported content is identified as the portion of the note that is related to the content of the publication.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 filtering the notes in the set of electronic notes based on an attribute of each note to generate a filtered set, wherein the attribute comprises information describing a creation of each note;   wherein selecting based on the identified keyword, notes from the set of electronic notes comprises selecting notes from the filtered set having the identified keyword.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the attribute specifies a time that each note was created. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the attribute specifies the location in the document with which the note is associated. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the attribute specifies licensing rights of content of each note. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the attribute specifies a user who created each note. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the publication with which each note is associated corresponds to an educational course, and wherein the attribute specifies the educational course with which each note is associated. 
     
     
         18 . A method, comprising:
 accessing a set of electronic notes including a plurality of notes, wherein each note is associated with a location in a publication, and wherein each of the plurality of notes is indexed according to one or more keywords describing content of the publication at the location with which the note is associated;   receiving a notes search query specifying a keyword;   selecting notes from the set of electronic notes associated with the specified keyword based on the one or more keywords according to which the notes are indexed; and   sending for presentation to a user, a listing of the selected notes.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the one or more keywords are within the location with which the notes are associated. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the one or more keywords are near the location with which the notes are associated. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 for a note in the set of electronic notes, generating a summary of the note;   wherein the listing comprises the summaries generated for the selected notes.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the note comprises a plurality of words, and wherein generating the summary of the note comprises:
 selecting a subset of the plurality of words to include in the summary.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein generating a summary of the note comprises:
 identifying attributes of the note describing one or more of a time of creation of the note, a page in the publication with which the note is associated, and a user who created the note;   wherein the summary includes the identified attributes.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein generating a summary of the note comprises:
 identifying a portion of the note that is related to the content of the publication at the location with which the note is associated;   wherein the summary comprises the identified portion of the note.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 :
 wherein the note includes content imported from the publication; and   wherein the imported content is identified as the portion of the note that is related to the content of the publication.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 filtering the notes in the set of electronic notes based on an attribute of each note to generate a filtered set, wherein the attribute comprises information describing a creation of each note;   wherein selecting based on the identified keyword, notes from the set of electronic notes comprises selecting notes from the filtered set having the identified keyword.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the attribute specifies a time that each note was created. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the attribute specifies the location in the document with which the note is associated. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the attribute specifies licensing rights of content of each note. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the attribute specifies a user who created each note. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the publication with which each note is associated corresponds to an educational course, and wherein the attribute specifies the educational course with which each note is associated. 
     
     
         32 . A method, comprising:
 accessing a set of electronic notes including a plurality of notes, wherein each note is associated with a location in a publication;   identifying, for the notes in the set of electronic notes, one or more keywords describing content of a publication at the locations with which the notes are associated; and   generating an index for the set of electronic notes based on the identified keywords.   
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein the one or more keywords are within the location with which the notes are associated. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein the one or more keywords are near the location with which the notes are associated. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein the publication is associated with a glossary listing locations of a plurality of words in the publication, and wherein identifying keywords describing content of the publication at the locations with which the notes are associated comprises, for a note in the set of electronic notes:
 determining a word in the glossary located within the content of the publication at the location with which the note is associated; and   identifying the determined word as a keyword of the note.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein identifying keywords describing content of the publication at the locations with which the notes are associated comprises, for a note in the set of electronic notes:
 determining a word occurring frequently in the publication that is located within the content of the publication at the location in the publication with which the note is associated; and   identifying the determined word as a keyword of the note.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein identifying keywords describing content of the publication at the locations with which the notes are associated comprises, for a note in the set of electronic notes:
 determining a word occurring frequently in the note; and   identifying the determined word as a keyword of the note.