Delivering items based on links to resources associated with search results

• US 20050222966A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sadri, Pasha, Tran, Thai, Walther, Eckart
• Granted Patent: US 7,359,893 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Techniques are described for delivering search results pages to the users of a search engine, where one or more search result listings on the search results pages include one or more items that are associated with links to resources that satisfy a related search and that satisfy a specified condition. The items that are delivered with the search results may be associated with a party that is different than the party that controls the resource to which the link is associated, and may be delivered such that any item that is displayed based on the item'"'"'s association with a link to a resource is displayed in a frame of display that is different than a frame of the display in which the link to which the item is associated is displayed.

Claims

1. A method for delivering search results for searches conducted over a network, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing an association between one or more links to resources, one or more conditions, and one or more items;

in response to a search for resources that is initiated at a client on said network, performing the steps of

identifying a set of links to resources that satisfy said search;

inspecting said association to determine whether any links in said set of links are associated with an item of the one or more items and satisfy a condition of the one or more conditions; and

delivering search results over said network, wherein said search results include any items that are associated, in said association, with links, in said set of links, that are both associated with a resource that satisfies said search and that satisfy a condition of the one or more conditions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein resources that correspond to said one or more links to resources are controlled by one or more first parties and said one or more items is associated with a second party that is different than said one or more first parties.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said one or more items is a link to a resource that is not in said set of links to resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein all of said one or more items are links to resources that are not in said set of links to resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more links to resources is a uniform resource locator (URL).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said uniform resource locator (URL) is a hypertext link.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the search is for web documents that reside on any one of the World Wide Web, an intranet, and an extranet network; and

the step of identifying a set of links to resources that satisfy said search is performed by identifying a set of links to web documents that satisfy said search.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of establishing an association between one or more links to resources and one or more items includes associating a link to a resource with an item that is not derived from nor contained in a resource that corresponds to said link.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of delivering search results includes delivering said search results for display such that any item that is displayed based on the item'"'"'s association with a link to a resource is displayed unassociated with said link to which the item is associated.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of delivering search results includes delivering said search results for display such that any item that is displayed based on the item'"'"'s association with a link to a resource is displayed in a frame of display that is different than a frame of said display in which said link to which the item is associated is displayed.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the step of delivering search results over said network to said client is part of a service performed by a first party;

said one or more items are associated with one or more second parties; and

the method further includes the step of said one or more second parties paying said first party to associate said one or more items with links to resources that correspond to resources that are controlled by one or more third parties.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one item of said one or more items is an advertisement that is associated with a second party of said one or more second parties.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one item of said one or more items is dynamically generated content.

14. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

15. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

16. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

17. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

18. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

19. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

20. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

21. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

22. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

23. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

24. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

25. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

26. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.

27. A system comprising:

means for establishing an association between one or more links to resources, one or more conditions, and one or more items;

means for identifying a set of links to resources that satisfy a search for resources that is initiated at a client on said network;

means for inspecting said association to determine whether any links in said set of links are associated with an item of the one or more items and satisfy a condition of the one or more conditions; and

means for delivering search results over said network, wherein said search results include any items that are associated, in said association, with links in said set of links that are associated with a resource that satisfies said search and that satisfy a condition of the one or more conditions.