Website flavored search

• US 20070239680A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jeh, Glen, Haveliwala, Taher, Klein, Adam, Oztekin, Bilgehan, Kamvar, Sepandar
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

In a method of profiling a website, an information server receives multiple search queries from a website submitted by different users. Different search results responsive to the search queries are provided to the requesting users. The information server monitors activities of the users on the search results and generates a profile for the website using the search queries and the user activities. When the information server receives a same search query from two different websites, it identifies a plurality of information items associated with the search query. The information server uses profiles of the two websites to customize the information items into two different orders and serves the information items to the two websites in the two different orders.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of profiling a website, comprising:

receiving from a website multiple search queries submitted by users;

providing to the requesting users search results responsive to the search queries;

monitoring activities of the users on the search results; and

generating a profile for the website using the search queries and the user activities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user activities include user selections of the search results and mouse hovering time on the search results.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a subset of the search queries is used for generating the website profile by sub-sampling the search queries during a predefined time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a subset of the search queries is used for generating the website profile by choosing search queries having a predefined range of occurrence frequency.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein temporally recent search queries and their associated user activities are given more weights than temporally remote search queries and their associated user activities during the generation of the website profile.

6. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving from the website a new search query submitted by a user;

identifying a plurality of information items associated with the new search query;

ranking the information items in accordance with the website profile; and

providing the ranked information items to the requesting user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ranking of an information item further includes:

assigning a generic ranking score to the information item;

generating a website-dependent ranking score by multiplying the generic ranking score by a weighting factor that is determined, at least in part, by the website profile; and

re-ranking the information item in accordance with the website-dependent ranking score.

8. The method of claim 6, further including:

monitoring the user'"'"'s activities on the ranked information items; and

updating the website profile using the user'"'"'s activities and the new search query.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein an incremental website profile is generated using new search queries and new user activities accumulated during a predefined time period and the incremental website profile is merged into the website profile to generate a new website profile.

10. The method of claim 1, further including:

dividing the search queries into multiple groups, each group associated with at least one webpage of the website and having an associated set of users;

providing search results responsive to one of the groups of search queries to its associated set of users;

monitoring activities of the associated set of users on the search results; and

generating a webpage profile using the group of search queries and the associated user activities.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the website profile includes multiple webpage profiles, each webpage profile associated with a search box on at least one webpage of the website.

12. The method of claim 10, further including:

receiving from the website a new search query submitted by a user;

identifying a plurality of information items associated with the new search query;

ranking the information items in accordance with the webpage profile; and

providing the ranked information items to the requesting user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the ranking of an information item further includes:

assigning a generic ranking score to the information item;

generating a webpage-dependent ranking score by multiplying the generic ranking score by a weighting factor that is determined, at least in part, by the webpage profile; and

re-ranking the information item in accordance with the webpage-dependent ranking score.

14. The method of claim 12, further including:

monitoring the user'"'"'s activities on the ranked information items; and

updating the webpage profile using the user'"'"'s activities and the new search query.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein an incremental webpage profile is generated using new search queries and new user activities accumulated during a predefined time period and the incremental webpage profile is merged into the webpage profile to generate a new webpage profile.

16. A computer-implemented method of providing search results, comprising:

receiving from first and second websites a same search query;

identifying a plurality of information items associated with the search query; and

providing to the first website a first subset of the information items in a first order and to the second website a second subset of the information items in a second order distinct from the first order,

wherein the first order is determined, at least in part, by a first profile associated with the first website and the second order is determined, at least in part, by a second profile associated with the second website,

wherein the first profile is related to a search history of the first website and the second profile is related to a search history of the second website.

17. The method of claim 16, including generating the first and second profiles for the first and second websites in accordance with their respective search histories.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the search history of the first website includes search queries submitted by a plurality of users at the first website, search results responsive to the search queries and user activities on the search results.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the information items include at least one advertisement.

20. A computer-implemented method of providing search results, comprising:

receiving from first and second webpages of a website multiple a same search query;

identifying a plurality of information items associated with the search query; and

providing to the first webpage a first subset of the information items in a first order and to the second webpage a second subset of the information items in a second order distinct from the first order;

wherein the first order is determined, at least in part, by a first profile associated with the first webpage and the second order is determined, at least in part, by a second profile associated with the second webpage;

wherein the first profile is related to a search history of the first webpage and the second profile is related to a search history of the second webpage.

21. The method of claim 20, including generating the first and second profiles for the first and second webpages in accordance with their respective search histories.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the search history of the first webpage includes search queries submitted by a plurality of users at the first webpage, search results responsive to the search queries and user activities on the search results.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the information items include at least one advertisement.

24. A computer-implemented method of profiling a website, comprising:

receiving from a website multiple search queries submitted by users of the website;

identifying search results responsive to the search queries;

identifying statistical information about activities of users of venues other than the website on the search results; and

generating a profile for the website using the search queries and the statistic information.

25. The method of claim 24, further including:

ranking the search results in accordance with the website profile;

providing the ranked search results to the users of the website; and

monitoring activities of the users of the website on the ranked search results.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the statistic information includes the activities of the users of the website on the ranked search results.

27. A computer system, comprising:

a main memory;

a processor; and

at least one program, stored in the main memory and executed by the processor, the at least one program further including;

instructions for receiving from a website multiple search queries submitted by users;

instructions for providing to the requesting users search results responsive to the search queries;

instructions for monitoring activities of the users on the search results; and

instructions for generating a profile for the website using the search queries and the user activities.

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 from a website multiple search queries submitted by users;

instructions for providing to the requesting users search results responsive to the search queries;

instructions for monitoring activities of the users on the search results; and

instructions for generating a profile for the website using the search queries and the user activities.

29. A computer system for profiling a website comprising:

means for receiving from a website multiple search queries submitted by users;

means for providing to the requesting users search results responsive to the search queries;

means for monitoring activities of the users on the search results; and

means for generating a profile for the website using the search queries and the user activities.