SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INFLUENCING A POSITION ON A SEARCH RESULT LIST GENERATED BY A COMPUTER NETWORK SEARCH ENGINE

• US 20110022623A1
• Filed: 07/23/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Jonathan C., Lee, Ka Luk, Greco, Larry, Derer, Matthew, Kwong, Thomas, Davis, Darren J., Kurt, Tod E., Skovran, Steve, Garcia, Johann, Pfarner, Preston
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,533 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and method for enabling information providers using a computer network such as the Internet to influence a position for a search listing within a search result list generated by an Internet search engine. The system and method of the present invention provides a database having accounts for the network information providers. Each account contains at least one search listing having at least three components: a description, a search term comprising one or more keywords, and a bid amount. The network information provider may add, delete, or modify a search listing after logging into his or her account via an authentication process. The network information provider influences the position for a search listing through a continuous online competitive bidding process. The bidding process occurs when the network information provider enters a new bid amount, which is preferably a money amount, for a search listing. The system then compares this bid amount with all other bid amounts for the same search term, and generates a rank value for all search listings having that search term. The rank value generated by the bidding process determines where the network information providers listing will appear on the search results list page that is generated in response to a query of the search term by a searcher located at a client computer on the computer network. A higher bid by a network information provider will result in a higher rank value and a more advantageous placement.

Claims

1. A method of operating a pay for placement web site, the method comprising:

at a server system, receiving data defining a bidded search term from a web site operator;

storing in a database the received data as a bidded search term for the web site operator;

at the server system, generating a list of additional related search terms;

providing at least some members of the list of additional related search terms from the server system to the web site operator;

at the server system, receiving additional data as an indication of additional bidded search terms from the web site operator; and

storing in the database the received additional data as additional bidded search terms for the web site operator.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the list of additional related search terms comprises providing one or more previously-bid search terms to assist the web site operator in locating search terms relevant to content of a web site of the web site operator.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the list of additional search terms comprises applying a string matching algorithm to a database of bidded search terms to identify additional related search terms.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the list of additional related search terms comprises comparing the bidded search term with a thesaurus database to identify additional search terms.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to the received additional data, providing to the web site operator an online form for provision of additional search listing data with one of the additional bidded search terms inserted in the online form as a default value; and

storing as a search listing in the database data from the online form.

6. An online search system comprising:

a database of search listings including search listings of web site operators;

an account management server in data communication with the database, the account management server configured to perform the following acts;

receive from a web site operator a bidded search term;

generate and provide to the web site operator a list of additional related search terms based on the received bidded search term so as to assist the web site operator in locating search terms relevant to a web site operated by the web site operator;

receive from the web site operator a selection of search terms from the list of additional related search terms; and

add the selected search terms to the database of search listing as additional search listings of the web site operator.

7. The online search system of claim 6 further comprising:

provide an account management menu to a web site operator, the account management menu including an option to get bidded search term suggestions; and

receive from the web site operator the bidded search term selected using the account management menu.

8. The online search system of claim 6 wherein the account management server is configured to provide one or more previously-bid search terms as the list of additional related search terms.

9. The online search system of claim 6 wherein the account management server is configured to apply a string matching algorithm to the database to identify additional related search terms to generate the list of additional search terms.

10. The online search system of claim 6 wherein the account management server is configured compare the received bidded search term with a thesaurus database to identify additional search terms to generate the list of additional related search terms.

11. The online search system of claim 6 wherein the account management server is configured to present to the web site operator an online form with entry fields suitable for receiving search listing data for adding a search listing to the database, the online form having at least one of the selected search terms inserted as a default value for the search listing.