System and method for returning search results

• US 20070094242A1
• Filed: 10/26/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Albert Stevens, John Dove
• Original Assignee: Albert Stevens, John Dove
• Inventors: Dove, John, Stevens, Albert
• Application Number:
  US11/258,837
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094242A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for re-ordering the results from an information search, such as an Internet search in order to maximize the likelihood that the user will see a result they want in the first page or two of large or very large results lists. The results of the information search are examined for a wide variety of factors that could be considered to create diversity among the results a user is most likely to see. A subset of results are selected, with some results from each categorized group, for presentation to the user. The user is presented with a diverse set of search results so that the desired information may be located and/or the search narrowed more efficiently. This is easily extended to include any process which can benefit from receiving results from an information search where the receiving process benefits from having a high degree of variation occur among the first subset of results returned.

Claims

1. A method for presenting results of a search of stored electronic information comprising the steps of:

categorizing at least a portion of the results;

selecting a subset of the results, wherein the subset includes a diverse group of categorized results; and

presenting the subset of results to the user.

2. The method for presenting results of a search of stored electronic information according to claim 1, wherein the categorizing step includes the step of locating a set of diverse results.

3. The method for presenting results of a search of stored electronic information according to claim 1, wherein the search includes a search of the World Wide Web.

4. The method for presenting results of a search of stored electronic information according to claim 1, wherein the search includes the search of a database.

5. A system for searching stored electronic information and returning results to a user comprising:

a search subsystem for conducing a search of the stored electronic information according to a criteria identified by the user and returning a set of results;

a results processing subsystem for organizing the results for presentation such that a diverse set of results are first returned to the user.

6. The system for searching stored electronic information and returning results to a user according to claim 5, wherein the results processing subsystem includes:

a categorizer for categorizing at least a portion of the results;

a selector for selecting a subset of the results, wherein the subset of the results includes a diverse group of the categorized results; and

a display for displaying the subset of results.