SYSTEM AND/OR METHOD FOR PERSONALIZATION OF SEARCHES

• US 20090222431A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 9,043,313 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

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system and/or method for providing enhanced content search results based on metrics indicating user affinity for an information site such as a web site. Information on user visits to a particular web site may be accumulated, for example, in connection with a beacon or other tracker placed on the publisher web site. The enhanced content may be provided by the publisher web site or may be generated otherwise.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

offering to provide content to a computing platform associated with a user in response to a search query associated with said content based, at least in part, on a score of the user; and

enabling access to the content in response to acceptance of the offer by the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying the score if the user does not accept the offer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the score is based on visit information of the user to at least one publisher site.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising providing a beacon on the publisher web site for obtaining visit information of the at least one user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the search query is received by a search engine site via an electronic communication network, and wherein the visit information is maintained on at least one of said search engine site and a site associated with said search engine site.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising offering to the user an option to enable access to the content for the publisher site irrespective of the user'"'"'s score.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the visit information of the at least one user is stored on other than the publisher site.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the visit information of the at least one user is stored as at least a part of a user profile.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein, in response to a visit by the at least one user to the publisher site, a site other than the publisher site sends a tracking string to the user.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one user is a registered user of the search engine site, and wherein visit information to a publisher site is associated with a user registration.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the score is computed based, at least in part, on at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of:

the number of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site;

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site;

the frequency of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site; and

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site during a given period.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a server system, the server system being adapted to;

offer to provide content to the user in response to a search query associated with said content based, at least in part, on a score of the user; and

enable access to the content in response to acceptance of the offer by the user.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the server system is adapted to modify the score if the user does not accept the offer.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the score is based on visit information of the user to at least one publisher site

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein a beacon is placed on the publisher web site for identifying visit information and relating it to a user.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the search query is received by a search engine site via an electronic communication network and wherein the visit information is maintained on at least one of the search engine site and a site associated with said search engine site.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the visit information of the at least one user is stored on other than the publisher web site and wherein the user information is stored as at least a part of a user profile.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein, in response to a visit by the at least one user to the publisher site, a site other than the publisher site sends a tracking string to the user.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the score is computed based, at least in part, on at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of:

the number of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site;

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site;

the frequency of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site; and

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site during a given period.

20. An article comprising:

a storage medium comprising machine readable instructions stored thereon which, if executed by a computing platform, are adapted to cause said computing platform to;

offer to provide content to a user in response to a search query associated with said content based, at least in part, on a score of the user; and

enable access to the content in response to acceptance of the offer by the user.

21. The article of claim 20 wherein the score is based, at least in part, on visit information of the user to at least one publisher site.

22. The article of claim 20 wherein the search query is received by a search engine site via an electronic computer network and wherein the visit information is maintained on at least one of said search engine site and a site associated with said search engine site.

23. The article of claim 20 wherein the score is computed based, at least in part, on at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of:

the number of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site;

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site;

the frequency of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site; and

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site during a given period.

24. A method comprising:

receiving visit information for the user for at least one visit to a publisher web site;

calculating a user score based, at least in part, on at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of;

the number of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site,

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site,

the frequency of visits of a computer platform associated with a user to at least one page of a publisher site, and

the amount of time a computing platform associated with a user is connected to a publisher web site during a given period;

receiving a search query from the user at a search engine web site; and

providing a message inviting the user to accept enhanced content for the publisher web site based on the score.