Business rating placement heuristic

• US 20050065811A1
• Filed: 09/23/2004
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Directories Corp. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Harada, Edwin Y., Chu, Lester K., Heatherly, Douglas G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,516,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system and method for distributing information (collectively the “system”) is disclosed. The system includes category-based, geography-based, and ratings-based attributes to better “focus” the information distributed by the system. In the processing of listing-based attributes (e.g. attributes limited to a particular listing), the system can also be influenced by relationship-based attributes (e.g. attributes between the administrator of the system and the advertisers, and even potentially users).

Claims

1. An information distribution system, comprising:

a request subsystem, including a request, wherein said request subsystem receives said request, wherein said request includes at least one rating selection and at least one of a geography selection and a category selection; and

a response subsystem, including a response, a placement heuristic, a plurality of listings, and a plurality of fee types;

wherein said response subsystem generates said response based upon said request and said placement heuristic; and

further wherein said response includes two or more listings from said plurality of listings, each listing being associated with at least one said fee type in said plurality of fee types.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a fee amount and a rating.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said plurality of fee types comprise a fixed-fee and a per-hit fee, whereby said fee amount is based on either a fixed fee or a per hit fee.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the rating is assigned to a ratings tier.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a number of ratings.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a user profile that assigns an order of importance to at least two of the rating selection, the geography selection, and the category selection.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a results subsystem, said results subsystem including a result, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selection and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the response subsystem is capable of determining whether there is a number of ratings associated with each of the listings that exceeds a predetermined threshold number.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selection and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response, and further wherein a listing in the plurality of listings is included in the response only if the number of ratings associated with the listing in the plurality of listings exceeds the predetermined threshold number

10. The system of claim 1, wherein at the least one rating selection includes a plurality of rating selections associated with a plurality of rating attributes.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of rating selections includes at least one weight that is assigned to at least one of the rating attributes.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a results subsystem, said results subsystem including a result, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selections and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.

13. An information distribution system, comprising:

a request subsystem, including a request, wherein said request subsystem receives said request, wherein said request includes a geography selection, and a category selection; and

a response subsystem, including a response, a placement heuristic, a plurality of listings, and a plurality of fee types;

wherein said response subsystem generates said response based upon at least one rating associated with at least some of the plurality of listing, said request, and said placement heuristic; and

further wherein said response includes two or more listings from said plurality of listings, wherein each listing is associated with at least one said fee type in said plurality of fee types.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a fee amount and a rating.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said plurality of fee types comprise a fixed-fee and a per-hit fee, whereby said fee amount is based on either a fixed fee or a per hit fee.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a number of ratings.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a user profile that assigns an order of importance to at least two of the rating selection, the geography selection, and the category selection.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the rating is assigned to a ratings tier.

19. The system of claim 13, further comprising a results subsystem, said results subsystem including a result, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the response subsystem is capable of determining whether there is a number of ratings associated with each of the listings that exceeds a predetermined threshold number.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selection and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response, and further wherein a listing in the plurality of listings is not included in the response only if the number of ratings associated with the listings in the plurality of listings exceeds the predetermined threshold number.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein at the least one rating includes a plurality of ratings associated with a plurality of rating attributes.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the plurality of ratings includes at least one weight that is assigned to at least one of the rating attributes.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising a results subsystem, said results subsystem including a result, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the ratings and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.