METHOD AND SYSTEM OF MANAGING AND USING PROFILE INFORMATION

• US 20090100047A1
• Filed: 10/15/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ChaCha Search, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ChaCha Search, Inc.
• Inventors: Cooper, Thomas E., Jones, Scott A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles

Abstract

A method and system for matching a search request to a human assistant and/or other items based on information indicated in a profile associated with the search request is described. A ranking of a guide is determined based on matching of information associated with the guide and information associated with a search request. Profile information such as demographic, geographic, personality, areas of interest, people, hobbies, etc. may be used in addition to other information such as keywords or categories which are associated with a request in order to select a guide. Items such as a search result, an advertisement, a search resource, a previous query, etc. may be selected based on profile information associated with the item. Profile information may be associated with an item based on profile information associated with a guide and/or a user who has expressed an opinion regarding the item.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a search request;

associating the search request with additional information; and

selecting an item based on the additional information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the item is a searcher.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is geographic information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is demographic information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is information provided by a searcher.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information is information provided by a person submitting the search request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating is based on an action of a person.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating is performed automatically.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising;

selecting a searcher;

the searcher performing a search;

recording a result of the search in a database in association with the additional information; and

providing the search result responsive to the search request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the item is one of a search result, an advertisement, a category or a keyword.

11. A method, comprising:

performing a selection operation based on association of a search request with an item; and

presenting information in relation to the search request in accordance with said selection.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said selection is one or more of a resource, a search result and an advertisement.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said information contains a number of items, and said items are ranked and presented in an order of ranking.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said presenting includes displaying the information to a user submitting the search request for a search to be conducted by a human searcher.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said association includes parsing content of the search request and generating a profile for the search request.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said association is executed by the human searcher.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein said association is based on preset conditions.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the search request is submitted from a mobile device.

19. A computer-readable medium having embodied therein a program for causing a computer to execute operations, comprising:

receiving a search request;

associating the search request with additional information; and

selecting an item based on the additional information.

20. A system of managing information, comprising:

a search system performing a selection operation based on association of a search request with an item; and

a user system providing information in relation to the search request in accordance with said selection.