USER ENTERTAINMENT AND ENGAGEMENT ENHANCEMENTS TO SEARCH SYSTEM

• US 20130138623A1
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Published: 05/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kraft, Reiner
• Application Number:
  US13/752,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20130138623A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• 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: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of actively engaging a user of a search system can include receiving from the user a search query for a search of a corpus of information and providing the user with search results for the search. The user can also be prompted to participate in a search-related activity wherein at least one aspect of the search-related activity is dependent on a context of the search. User input for performing the search-related activity can be accepted and an activity response can be provided to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a search engine provided by a particular party, a search query from a user;

in response to receiving the search query, performing the steps of;

the search engine performing a search of a corpus of information and determining search results for the search query,

the search engine displaying the search results for the user, and

the particular party awarding a reward to the user for the user having submitted the search query to the search engine; and

displaying to the user a message indicating a nature of the reward;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying to the user a message indicating the nature of the reward is performed in response to determining that the user accepted the reward.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to receiving the search query, displaying an indication to inform the user of availability of the reward.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the nature of the reward depends on one or more keywords included in the search query.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an indication that the user has been awarded the reward as part of a display presenting the search results.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the search engine presenting the user with a link which, when activated, causes the user to navigate to a site associated with the reward.

7. The method of claim 3,

wherein the indication further comprises reward-receiving instructions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a search history is maintained for the user; and

the search history is indexed using a user identifier associated with the user.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving, at a search engine provided by a particular party, a search query from a user;

in response to receiving the search query, performing the steps of;

the search engine performing a search of a corpus of information and determining search results for the search query,

the search engine displaying the search results for the user, and

the particular party awarding a reward to the user for the user having submitted the search query to the search engine; and

displaying to the user a message indicating a nature of the reward.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions that cause displaying to the user a message indicating the nature of the reward are performed in response to determining that the user accepted the reward.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

in response to receiving the search query, displaying an indication to inform the user of availability of the reward.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the nature of the reward depends on one or more keywords included in the search query.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

displaying an indication that the user has been awarded the reward as part of a display presenting the search results.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

presenting, by the search engine, the user with a link which, when activated, causes the user to navigate to a site associated with the reward.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11,

wherein the indication further comprises reward-receiving instructions.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein:

a search history is maintained for the user; and

the search history is indexed using a user identifier associated with the user.