METHOD AND SYSTEM OF IMPROVING SELECTION OF SEARCH RESULTS

• US 20090299853A1
• Filed: 05/27/2009
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ChaCha Search, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ChaCha Search, Inc.
• Inventors: Cooper, Thomas E., Jones, Scott A., Lenzo, Chris
• Application Number:
  US12/472,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20090299853A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.46
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

A system and method utilizing human searchers and/or guides to select a search result(s) which may and/or may not be influenced by commercial or compensation information. A guide(s) may be selected and/or provided with information which may be influenced by compensation information associated with the guide(s) and/or other information. Human judgment may be used to select an organic search result(s) and/or a sponsored result. A person searching on behalf of another may make a decision regarding what will be provided to the other person based on varying degrees of commercial influence which may be explicitly and/or indirectly applied to a selection by a person.

Claims

1. A method of selecting a search result, comprising:

associating a commercial value with a search result;

presenting the search result to a first person;

obtaining an opinion of the first person which is influenced by the commercial value; and

providing the search result to a second person based on the opinion and the commercial value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first person is different from the second person further comprising:

associating a keyword with the search result; and

selecting the first person based at least in part on the keyword.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting information of the commercial value to the first person.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search result is an advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting is based at least in part on the commercial value.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the commercial value with a resource;

providing the resource to the first person based on the commercial value; and

obtaining by the first person the search result using the resource.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the first person is compensated based on use of the search result by the second person.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a query from the second person;

identifying a category associated with the query;

selecting the first user based on the category;

obtaining the search result from a resource associated with the category;

presenting a compensation associated with the search result to the first person; and

providing a second result to the second person wherein the second result is not based on a commercial value associated with the second result.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

receiving a query from the second person;

determining a keyword, a category, a location and a profile associated with the query;

selecting the first user based on the keyword, the category, the location, the profile and an advertiser associated with the search result; and

providing a compensation value to the first user based on the advertiser.

10. A system, comprising:

a search system receiving a request, and a search result, and providing information of the search result and the request;

a resource providing the search result;

a guide device receiving information of the search result;

a database including information of the request, the guide, the resource, the search results.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a user device submitting the request and receiving the search result; and

an advertiser device providing a search result which is associated with a commercial value.

12. A computer readable medium storing therein a program for causing a computer to execute an operation including selection of search results, comprising:

selecting a first guide;

providing unbiased information to the first guide;

selecting a second guide;

providing biased information to the second guide; and

ranking an item based on an opinion of the first guide and an opinion of the second guide.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the first guide identifies a search result using the unbiased information.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the second guide identifies a search result using the biased information.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein at least one of the unbiased and biased information is an indicator of a resource and a search result is obtained from the resource.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein at least one of the unbiased and biased information is an advertisement and the bias is a value associated with acceptance of the advertisement.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein at least a portion of the bias information is explicitly revealed to the second guide.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein at least one of the unbiased and biased information is a search result and the operation further comprises:

receiving a query from a user;

associating a category with the query;

ranking the search results based on the category and the opinion; and

providing the search results to the user in an order determined by the ranking.

19. A computer implemented method, comprising:

dynamically determining a keyword of a request received from a first user; and

associating the keyword with an item selected by a second user processing the request and displaying the item to the first user as a result to the request.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 19, wherein said item is selected from among multiple items and the item is an information or a service specific to a provider.