SOCIAL SEARCH ENGINE
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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 a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics; selecting candidate answerers based at least partly on each answerer'"'"'s respective relationship to the asker; sending the question successively to groups of one or more candidate answerers according to the ranking until an answer is received from a particular one of the candidate answerers; and sending to the asker the received answer and information that identifies the particular answerer.
25 Citations
22 Claims
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1. (canceled)
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2. A method implemented by data processing apparatus, the method comprising:
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receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics; selecting a plurality of candidate answerers based at least partly on each candidate answerer'"'"'s respective relationship to the asker; determining a respective wait time for each candidate answerer in the plurality of candidate answerers, where the respective wait time is based on a respective communication channel used by the candidate answerer; sending the question to a first candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the first candidate answerer; waiting, for the respective wait time of the first candidate answerer, for a first answer from the first candidate answerer without receiving the first answer; after waiting, sending the question to a second candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the second candidate answerer; receiving a second answer to the question from the second candidate answerer; and sending the second answer to the asker and information that identifies the second answerer. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
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receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics; selecting a plurality of candidate answerers based at least partly on each candidate answerer'"'"'s respective relationship to the asker; determining a respective wait time for each candidate answerer in the plurality of candidate answerers, where the respective wait time is based on a respective communication channel used by the candidate answerer; sending the question to a first candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the first candidate answerer; waiting, for the respective wait time of the first candidate answerer, for a first answer from the first candidate answerer without receiving the first answer; after waiting, sending the question to a second candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the second candidate answerer; receiving a second answer to the question from the second candidate answerer; and sending the second answer to the asker and information that identifies the second answerer. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system comprising:
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a processor; and computer-readable medium coupled to the processor and having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising; receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics; selecting a plurality of candidate answerers based at least partly on each candidate answerer'"'"'s respective relationship to the asker; determining a respective wait time for each candidate answerer in the plurality of candidate answerers, where the respective wait time is based on a respective communication channel used by the candidate answerer; sending the question to a first candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the first candidate answerer; waiting, for the respective wait time of the first candidate answerer, for a first answer from the first candidate answerer without receiving the first answer; after waiting, sending the question to a second candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the second candidate answerer; receiving a second answer to the question from the second candidate answerer; and sending the second answer to the asker and information that identifies the second answerer. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification