METHOD FOR ENHANCING SEARCH RESULTS

• US 20080313144A1
• Filed: 06/15/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jan Huston
• Original Assignee: Jan Huston
• Inventors: Huston, Jan
• Granted Patent: US 7,941,428 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Disclosed in this specification is a software and browser application for monitoring submissions to a third-party search engine. When the third-party search engine returns a list of results, the list may be compared to a list of rated websites located in a rating database. For each website in the list of rated websites, one or more experts has entered a rating value and text evaluation. The rating value for each of the websites in the list of results is then displayed to the user upon request. Additionally, metadata may also be displayed for each of the websites. In this manner, the list of results that was provided by the third-party search engine has been enhanced so as to permit the user to more easily find reliable, relevant information.

Claims

1. A computer software application for executing a method for enhancing search results comprising the steps of:

a. receiving a list of results from a third-party internet search engine in response to a submission of a search term to the search engine,

b. comparing the list of results to a list of websites in a database, wherein the database includes a rating value for each website in the list of websites in the database,

c. determining the rating value for each result in the list of results which was found in the list of websites in the database,

d. assigning a null value to the rating value for each result in the list of results which was not found in the list of websites in the database,

e. displaying the rating value for each result,

2. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the search term is submitted to the third-party internet search engine through a web browser.

3. The software application as recited in claim 2, wherein the rating value is displayed in a toolbar integrated with the web browser.

4. The software application as recited in claim 3, wherein the toolbar is comprised of a request button, which toggles the appearance of an expanded toolbar.

5. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the rating value is displayed in a rating display box.

6. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the rating value is a numeric rating value.

7. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the rating value is depicted graphically.

8. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the search engine is hosted on a first server and the database is hosted on a second server.

9. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the rating value is determined by evaluating a plurality of human-assigned criteria rating values.

10. The software application as recited in claim 9, wherein the plurality of criteria rating values are weighed such that not all criteria rating values contribute equally to the determination of the rating value.

11. The software application as recited in claim 1, wherein the database includes metadata for at least one website in the database.

12. The software application as recited in claim 11, wherein the metadata includes a topic category for at least one website in the database.

13. The software application as recited in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises the step of comparing the search term to the metadata, thus producing a list of related websites.

14. An internet browser application for executing a method for enhancing search results comprising the steps of

a. receiving a list of results from a third-party search engine,

b. comparing the list of results to a list of websites in a database, wherein the database includes a rating value for each website in the database,

c. determining the rating value for each result in the list of results which was found in the list of websites in the database,

d. assigning a null value to the rating value for each result in the list of results which was not found in the list of websites in the database,

e. displaying the rating value for at least one result in the list of results in a rating display box of the browser such that the rating value is displayed proximal to the at least one result.

15. The browser application as recited in claim 14, wherein the rating value is determined by evaluating a plurality of human-assigned criteria rating values.

16. The browser application as recited in claim 14, wherein the rating value is determined by evaluating a plurality of criteria rating values which are not assigned by a computer algorithm.

17. The browser application as recited in claim 14, wherein the database includes metadata for at least one website in the database.

18. The browser application as recited in claim 17, wherein the method further comprises the step of comparing a search term that was submitted to the search engine to the metadata, thus producing a list of related websites.

19. The browser application as recited in claim 18, wherein the method further comprises the step of determining an order value for each website in the list of the related websites which was found in the database.

20. The browser application as recited in claim 14, wherein the database includes a topic category for at least one website in the database.

21. The browser application as recited in claim 14, wherein the list of results was received from the third-party search engine in response to the submission of a search term by a submitter, wherein the submitter cannot alter the rating value.

22. A method for enhancing search results comprising the steps of:

a. providing an opportunity to evaluate a plurality of internet websites according to predetermined criteria,

b. providing an opportunity to rate at least one of the plurality of internet websites based on the predetermined criteria, thus producing a criteria rating value for each of the predetermined criteria,

c. storing the criteria rating value in a rating database,

d. determining a compilation rating value for each website in the plurality of internet websites based upon the criteria rating values,

e. storing the compilation rating values in the rating database such that web compilation rating value is correlated to each website in the plurality of internet websites,

f. receiving a list of results from a third-party internet search engine in response to a submission of a search term to the search engine,

g. comparing the list of results to the plurality of websites in the database,

h. assigning a null value to the compilation rating value for each result in the list of results which was not found in the list of websites,

i. displaying the compilation rating value for each result.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising the step of weighing each of the predetermined criteria such that at least one of the plurality of predetermined criteria contributes more to the determination of the compilation rating value than the other plurality of predetermined criteria.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising the step of providing an opportunity for a submitter of the search term to disagree with the criteria rating value, wherein the disagreement is displayed.

25. An internet browser application for executing a method for enhancing search results comprising the steps of

a. receiving a list of results from a third-party search engine,

b. comparing the list of results to a list of websites in a database, wherein the database includes a rating value for each website in the database,

c. determining the rating value for each result in the list of results which was found in the list of websites in the database,

d. assigning a null value to the rating value for each result in the list of results which was not found in the list of websites in the database,

e. displaying the rating value for at least one result in the list of results in a toolbar of the browser.

26. The browser application as recited in claim 25, wherein the method further comprises the step of displaying the list of related websites in the toolbar of the browser, ordered by the order value.