AFFILIATE LINKING

• US 20110106746A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Horowitz, Damon, Spiro, Robert J., Stoll, Nathan, Ventilla, Max
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for a social search engine. In one aspect, a method includes receiving an answer to a question from an answerer; identifying an entity in the answer, in which the entity refers to a product, a service, a company, or a merchant; obtaining permission from the answerer to provide an interactive link for the entity in the answer to a resource from which the entity can be obtained; receiving a user submitted query and determining that the query is related to the entity; and responsive to determining, providing the answer, including the link to the resource, as part of search results that are responsive to the query.

Claims

1. A method implemented by data processing apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving an answer to a question from an answerer;

identifying an entity in the answer, in which the entity refers to a product, a service, a company, or a merchant;

obtaining permission from the answerer to provide an interactive link for the entity in the answer to a resource from which the entity can be obtained;

receiving a user submitted query and determining that the query is related to the entity; and

responsive to determining, providing the answer, including the link to the resource, as part of search results that are responsive to the query.

2. The method of claim 1 in which identifying the entity in the answer further comprises using a trained classifier to determine if the answer refers to an entity.

3. The method of claim 1 in which obtaining permission further comprises providing one or more options to the answerer in which one of the options is to include the interactive link.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving selection of the option to include the interactive link.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the resource is a website or an application.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the interactive link is a hyperlink.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the interactive link includes an affiliate code.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the affiliate code is used by the resource to identify an account.

9. The method of claim 7 in which the account receives credit if the entity is purchased.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the provided answer includes an identity of the answerer.

11. The method of claim 1 in which a resource is a website or an application.

12. The method of claim 1 in which providing the answer further comprising including a map, an image or a video in the answer.

13. A system comprising:

a computer-readable medium including instructions; and

data processing apparatus coupled to the computer-readable medium and able to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving an answer to a question from an answerer;

identifying an entity in the answer, in which the entity refers to a product, a service, a company, or a merchant;

obtaining permission from the answerer to provide an interactive link for the entity in the answer to a resource from which the entity can be obtained;

receiving a user submitted query and determining that the query is related to the entity; and

responsive to determining, providing the answer, including the link to the resource, as part of search results that are responsive to the query.

14. The system of claim 13 in which identifying the entity in the answer further comprises using a trained classifier to determine if the answer refers to an entity.

15. The system of claim 13 in which obtaining permission further comprises providing one or more options to the answerer in which one of the options is to include the interactive link.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising receiving selection of the option to include the interactive link.

17. The system of claim 13 in which the resource is a website or an application.

18. The system of claim 13 in which the interactive link is a hyperlink.

19. The system of claim 13 in which the interactive link includes an affiliate code.

20. The system of claim 19 in which the affiliate code is used by the resource to identify an account.

21. The system of claim 19 in which the account receives credit if the entity is purchased.

22. The system of claim 13 in which the provided answer includes an identity of the answerer.

23. The system of claim 13 in which a resource is a website or an application.

24. The system of claim 13 in which providing the answer further comprising including a map, an image or a video in the answer.

25. A computer-readable medium including instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an answer to a question from an answerer;

identifying an entity in the answer, in which the entity refers to a product, a service, a company, or a merchant;

obtaining permission from the answerer to provide an interactive link for the entity in the answer to a resource from which the entity can be obtained;

receiving a user submitted query and determining that the query is related to the entity; and

responsive to determining, providing the answer, including the link to the resource, as part of search results that are responsive to the query.