Systems and methods for modifying search results based on a user's history

• US 20060224587A1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fikes, Andrew, Zamir, Oren E., Korn, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,256,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24534 Query rewriting; Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A user'"'"'s prior searching and browsing activities are recorded for subsequent use. A user may examine the user'"'"'s prior searching and browsing activities in a number of different ways, including indications of the user'"'"'s prior activities related to advertisements. A set of search results may be modified in accordance with the user'"'"'s historical activities. The user'"'"'s activities may be examined to identify a set of preferred locations. The user'"'"'s set of activities may be shared with one or more other users. The set of preferred locations presented to the user may be enhanced to include the preferred locations of one or more other users. A user'"'"'s browsing activities may be monitored from one or more different client devices or client application. A user'"'"'s browsing volume may be graphically displayed.

Claims

1. A method for using a set of historical activities to modify a response to a search request, comprising:

receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;

obtaining search results relevant to the submitted search query from a document repository, each search result having an associated search result ranking value;

identifying at least one of the search results as having been returned to a previous search requester in response to a previous search query;

modifying the associated search result ranking value of the identified search result; and

ordering the obtained search results in accordance with the modified search result ranking value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the search requester and the previous search requester are the same user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search requester and the previous search requester belong to a community of users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying includes increasing the associated search result ranking value if the previous search requester had previously selected the identified search result.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the associated search result ranking value is increased in proportion to the number of times the previous search requester has visited a page associated the identified search result.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying includes decreasing the associated search result ranking value if the previous search requester did not previously select the identified search result.

7. A method for using a set of historical activities to modify a response to a search request, comprising:

receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;

obtaining search results relevant to the submitted search query from a document repository;

identifying a respective history score for a plurality of the search results; and

modifying a display of the search results in accordance with the history scores.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the modifying the display of the search results includes identifying at least a portion of the search results having a respective history score greater than a threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the modifying the display of the search results further includes modifying a display characteristic of the identified portion of the search results in accordance with the history scores.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the modifying the display of the search results includes:

identifying a number of the search results having a highest respective history score;

displaying the identified search results in a first display area; and

displaying a plurality of the search results in a second display area.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifying the respective history score for a one of the plurality of search results includes identifying pages that a previous search requester has visited that are similar to a page associated with the one of the plurality of search results.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the search requester and the previous search requester are the same user.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the respective history score for one of the plurality of search results includes identifying a number of times that a previous search requester has visited a page associated with the one of the plurality of search results.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the respective history score for one of the plurality of search results includes identifying a time that a previous search requester has visited a page associated with the one of the plurality of search results.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the respective history score for one of the plurality of search results includes identifying a similarity score between a profile of a previous search requester and a page associated with the one of the plurality of search results.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifying the respective history score for a one of the plurality of search results includes identifying a number of past search queries whose search result included the one of the plurality.

17. A method for using a user'"'"'s historical activities to enhance a set of search results, comprising:

receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;

obtaining current search results relevant to the submitted search query from a document repository;

identifying a previously submitted query submitted by a previous search requester, the previously submitted query being similar to the submitted search query and having previous search results;

identifying a previous result in the previous search results not included in the current search results; and

returning the current search results and the previous result to the search requester.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the returning includes:

associating the current search results with a first display area; and

associating the previous result with a second display area.

19. A method for modifying a set of search results, comprising:

receiving a search request from a search requester;

identifying a set of relevant search results;

receiving a filter request from the search requester;

filtering the search results in accordance with the filter request and the user'"'"'s previous computing activities; and

returning the filtered search results to the search requester.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the filter request is for viewing results not previously visited, and the filtering includes removing from the set of relevant search results, those results which have been previously visited by the search requester.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the filter request is for changed results, and the filtering includes removing from the set of relevant search results, those results which have not changed since a previous time that the search request was submitted by the search requester.

22. A method for enhancing search results, comprising:

receiving a submitted search request from a search requester;

identifying a set of search results from a document repository;

identifying from a set of history events relevant to the submitted search request; and

returning the set of search results and at least one of the identified history events to the search requester.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the set of history events are generated by a community of users.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the returned history event is an advertisement.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the returned history event is a product review.

26. The method of claim 22, further including returning at least one other identified history event, where the returned history events are advertisements.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the returned history events comprise one or more of advertisements, product reviews, search results, visited web pages and queries.

28. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising:

instructions for receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;

instructions for obtaining search results relevant to the submitted search query from a document repository, each search result having an associated search result ranking value;

instructions for identifying at least one of the search results as having been returned to a previous search requester in response to a previous search query;

instructions for modifying the associated search result ranking value of the identified search result; and

instructions for ordering the obtained search results in accordance with the modified search result ranking value.

29. A computer, comprising:

a main memory;

a processor; and

a program, stored in the main memory and executed by the processor, the program including instructions for;

receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;

obtaining search results relevant to the submitted search query from a document repository, each search result having an associated search result ranking value;

identifying at least one of the search results as having been returned to a previous search requester in response to a previous search query;

modifying the associated search result ranking value of the identified search result; and

ordering the obtained search results in accordance with the modified search result ranking value.

30. A system for using a set of historical activities to enhance a search request, comprising:

means for receiving a submitted search query from a search requester;

means for obtaining search results relevant to the submitted search query from a document repository, each search result having an associated search result ranking value;

means for identifying at least one of the search results as having been returned to a previous search requester in response to a previous search query;

means for modifying the associated search result ranking value of the identified search result; and

means for ordering the search results in accordance with the modified search result ranking value.