TAGGED FAVORITES FROM SOCIAL NETWORK SITE FOR USE IN SEARCH REQUEST ON A SEPARATE SITE

• US 20110196863A1
• Filed: 02/08/2010
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: MARCUCCI, Justin, RANDQUIST, Coby P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,223,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A tag is received from a member of a social network site. The tag is associated with a favorite of the member. Tag data obtained from the tag is provided to a second site that hosts a searching service. The second site determines the relevancy of the tag data relative to a new search request received by a user on the second site.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, via a first data processing system hosting a social network site, a tag from a member of the social network site, the member associating the tag with a favorite of the member on the social network site;

providing tag data obtained from the tag to a second data processing system, the second system hosting a searching service comprising an information database available for searching by at least one user of the searching service; and

determining a relevancy, via the second data processing system, of the tag data relative to at least one search request received by the second data processing system from the at least one user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising parsing the tag to obtain the tag data using natural language processing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag data is a member-defined category for the favorite.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing a member-defined hierarchy via the first data processing system, wherein the member-defined category is included in the hierarchy.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a web page for display to the member, the web page comprising a list of favorites, each favorite having an accompanying displayed tag previously submitted by the member to the first data processing system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the web page further comprises a displayed category hierarchy previously created by the member, the category hierarchy comprising a plurality of member-defined tags.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching service is a service to search at least one business directory, and the information database comprises a plurality of businesses.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising augmenting at least a portion of information associated with the plurality of businesses in the information database using the tag data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the first data processing system, a plurality of tags from at least one member of the social network site, each tag associated with a favorite of a respective member;

searching, via the first data processing system, the plurality of tags in response to a search request from a first member of the at least one member; and

providing search results to the first member from the searching of the plurality of tags.

10. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions for at least one processor, which when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving, via a first data processing system hosting a social network site, a tag from a member of the social network site, the member associating the tag with a favorite of the member on the social network site;

providing tag data obtained from the tag to a second data processing system, the second system hosting a searching service comprising an information database available for searching by at least one user of the searching service; and

determining a relevancy, via the second data processing system, of the tag data relative to at least one search request received by the second data processing system from the at least one user.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the searching service is a service to search at least one business directory, and the information database comprises a plurality of businesses.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, the method further comprising augmenting at least a portion of information associated with the plurality of businesses in the information database using the tag data.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving, via the first data processing system, a plurality of tags from at least one member of the social network site, each tag associated with a favorite of a respective member;

searching, via the first data processing system, the plurality of tags in response to a search request from a first member of the at least one member; and

providing search results to the first member from the searching of the plurality of tags.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a first data processing system, comprising a network interface configured to interface with a communications network, the first system configured to;

receive a tag from a member of a social network site hosted by the first system, the member to associate the tag with a favorite of the member on the social network site, and

obtain tag data from the tag;

a second data processing system, coupled to communicate with the first data processing system, the second system to host a searching service comprising an information database available for searching by at least one user of the searching service, the second system configured to;

receive the tag data from the first data processing system, and

determine a relevancy of the tag data relative to at least one search request to be received by the second data processing system from the at least one user; and

at least one storage device, coupled to the second data processing system, to store the information database.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the network interface is further configured to communicatively couple to receive the tag from a user device of the member.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the searching service is a service to search at least one business directory, and the information database comprises a plurality of businesses.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the second data processing system is further configured to augment at least a portion of information associated with the plurality of businesses in the information database using the tag data.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first data processing system is further configured to:

receive a plurality of tags from at least one member of the social network site, each tag associated with a favorite of a respective member;

search the plurality of tags in response to a search request from a first member of the at least one member; and

provide search results to the first member from the search of the plurality of tags.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first data processing system is further configured to parse the tag to obtain the tag data using a natural language processing module.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first data processing system is further configured to provide a web page for display to the member, the web page comprising a list of favorites, each favorite having an accompanying displayed tag previously submitted by the member to the first data processing system.