ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,332,948, issued on June 17, was assigned to Google LLC (Mountain View, Calif.).
"In-conversation search" was invented by Maryam Garrett (Boston) and Richard A. Miner (Boston).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A computer-implemented communications method is discussed. The method includes receiving a typed user input in a texting conversation on an electronic communication channel between two or more users of electronic communications devices; analyzing the user input to identify whether the user input contains a reserved word for triggering a search; submitting a search query received in association with the reserved word to a search engine, ...