Expert Search

• US 20110055207A1
• Filed: 03/17/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LivePerson Incorporated
• Original Assignee: LivePerson Incorporated
• Inventors: Schorzman, Julius, Goldstein, Uri, Ninio, Nir Holtzman
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,844 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, comprising the steps of, or structure for, storing a plurality of expert profiles in a database, each of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information associated with a person having knowledge in a particular category, subject or topic;

receiving search criteria over a network from a query source; selecting at least one of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information that satisfy the search criteria; and
transmitting expert profile data for each of the selected expert profiles to the remote search engine, the expert profile data comprising data that defines a displayable representation of a corresponding expert profile, the expert profile data further comprising data that facilitates a client-initiated, real-time communication session over the network with a person associated with the corresponding expert profile.

Claims

1. A computerized method comprising at a server:

storing a plurality of expert profiles in a database, each of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information associated with a person having knowledge in a particular category, subject or topic;

receiving search criteria over a network from a query source;

selecting at least one of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information that satisfy the search criteria; and

transmitting expert profile data for each of the selected expert profiles to the remote search engine, the expert profile data comprising data that defines a displayable representation of a corresponding expert profile, the expert profile data further comprising data that facilitates a client-initiated, real-time communication session over the network with a person associated with the corresponding expert profile.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the query source is a remote search engine.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the client-initiated, real-time communication session comprises an online chat session.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the expert profile data further comprises data that facilitates a client-initiated, non-real-time communication session over the network with the person associated with the corresponding expert profile.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the client-initiated, non-real-time communication session comprises an offline email session.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

for each of the plurality of expert profiles, tracking revenue opportunities corresponding to displays of the expert profile within prior listings of search results and tracking revenues realized from client-initiated, real-time communication sessions associated with one or more of the revenue opportunities;

for each of the plurality of expert profiles, determining a ranking for the expert profile based on a ratio of the revenues realized relative to the revenue opportunities;

sorting the selected expert profiles for transmission within an ordered listing of search results to the query source according to the ranking determined for each of the selected expert profiles.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising for each of the plurality of expert profiles:

for each of the plurality of expert profiles, tracking revenue opportunities corresponding to displays of the expert profile within prior listings of search results, tracking online revenues realized from client-initiated, real-time communication sessions associated with one or more of the revenue opportunities, and tracking offline revenues realized from client-initiated, non-real-time communication sessions associated with one or more of the revenue opportunities;

for each of the plurality of expert profiles, determining an online ranking for the expert profile associated with an online status of the expert and an offline ranking for the expert profile associated with an offline status of the expert, wherein the online ranking is based on a ratio of the online revenues realized relative to the revenue opportunities and the offline ranking is based on a ratio of the offline revenues realized relative to the revenue opportunities;

sorting the selected expert profiles for transmission within an ordered listing of search results according to one of the online ranking and offline ranking determined for each of the selected expert profiles; and

transmitting the data associated with the selected expert profiles to the query source for display within the ordered listing of search results.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising for each of the plurality of expert profiles:

tracking positions of the expert profile within the prior listings of search results;

applying weights to the revenue opportunities associated with the expert profile according to the tracked positions, resulting in weighted revenue opportunities that compensate for position bias; and

determining the ranking for expert profile based on a ratio of the revenue realized relative to weighted revenue opportunities.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising for each of the plurality of expert profiles:

tracking positions of the expert profile within the prior listings of search results;

applying weights to the revenue opportunities associated with the expert profile according to the tracked positions, resulting in weighted revenue opportunities that compensate for position bias; and

determining the online ranking and the offline ranking for the expert profile based on a ratio of the revenue realized relative to weighted revenue opportunities, wherein the online ranking is based on a ratio of the online revenues realized relative to the weighted revenue opportunities and the offline ranking is based on a ratio of the offline revenues realized relative to the weighted revenue opportunities.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to transmission of the expert profile data, shuffling the ordered listing of search results such that at least one of the selected expert profiles is moved from a lower position within the ordered listing of search results to a higher position.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the search criteria are based on a search query from the remote search engine.

12. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a computer readable storage medium, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

store a plurality of expert profiles in a database, each of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information associated with a person having knowledge in a particular category, subject or topic;

receive search criteria over a network from a query source;

select at least one of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information that satisfy the search criteria; and

transmit expert profile data for each of the selected expert profiles to the query source, the expert profile data comprising data that defines a displayable representation of a corresponding expert profile, the expert profile data further comprising data that facilitates a client-initiated real-time communication session over the network with a person associated with the corresponding expert profile.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the query source is a remote search engine.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the client-initiated, real-time communication session comprises an online chat session.

15. A expert search server system comprising:

a database; and

an expert search server in communication with the database configured to;

store a plurality of expert profiles in the database, each of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information associated with a person having knowledge in a particular category, subject or topic;

receive search criteria over a network from a query source;

select at least one of the plurality of expert profiles comprising information that satisfy the search criteria; and

transmit expert profile data for each of the selected expert profiles to the query source, the expert profile data comprising data that defines a displayable representation of a corresponding expert profile, the expert profile data further comprising data that facilitates a client-initiated real-time communication session over the network with a person associated with the corresponding expert profile.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the query source is a remote search engine.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the client-initiated, real-time communication session comprises an online chat session.