Search engine account monitoring

• US 7,483,886 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2006
• Issued: 01/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Davis, Darren J., Snell, Scott W., Shifflett, Scott A., Hu, Eugene F., Savich, Peter, Cheung, Dominic Dough-Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Cam Y T
• Application Number:
  US11/430,411
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A system and method of generating an ordered search list via a search engine by determining various account balances to determine where a search listing will appear, if at all, in a search results list. If a web site advertiser'"'"'s account is below a threshold, the search listing associated with the advertiser will not appear in the search list. Various balances may be used. Some of the balances may be closer to real-time balances and others may be more accurate, for example by removing certain event charges that were later determined to be non-chargeable. By using and monitoring the various account balances, the search engine prevents over-delivery of advertising through search result listings and possible over-billing of the advertisers.

Claims

1. A method of generating an ordered search list via a search engine, the method comprising:

in response to a search request from a searcher, retrieving from a database of search listings matching the search request, at least some of the retrieved search listings being associated with an advertiser'"'"'s account such that the advertiser'"'"'s account is charged an amount if a chargeable event occurs in connection with a search listing of the advertiser;

determining a reconciled account balance for the advertiser'"'"'s account based on a difference between deposits and a set of current chargeable event charges;

ordering the retrieved search listings into a search result list using priced amounts associated with the retrieved search listings, including ordering the retrieved search listings associated with advertisers with reconciled balances that are below a reconciled threshold if priced amount for a given search term was zero;

ordering the retrieved search listings if the priced amount for the given search term was above zero and below all other non-zero priced amounts in the ordered search result list to reduce over-delivery of the search listings and reduce over-billing of competing advertisers;

providing the ordered search result list to the searcher; and

assessing charges to the advertiser'"'"'s account based on the searcher'"'"'s selection of a search listing from the search result list, including deducting an event charge amount from the account balance for the advertiser'"'"'s account after eliminating from result event list events which are non-chargeable events or fraudulent events.

2. A system for generating an ordered search list via a network search engine, the system comprising:

a memory;

a search engine server comprising circuitry that stores in a search database of the memory, data defining search listing records used to generate search results in response to a user query, each search listing record being associated with a network location and a respective priced amount;

an account monitoring server comprising circuitry that stores, to an account database, account information associated with search listings records;

the account monitoring server also comprises circuitry that determines an account balance for an account in the account database,

determines a reconciled balance for an account based on a difference between deposits and current chargeable event charges for the account to deduct event charge amounts from the account balance for the account upon an occurrence of a predetermined event for a search listing associated with the account, and

eliminates event charge amounts which are non-chargeable to the account;

retrieves from a database search listings matching the user query, at least some of the retrieved search listings being associated with an advertiser'"'"'s account such that the advertiser'"'"'s account is charged an amount if a chargeable event occurs in connection with a search listing of the advertiser; and

generates an ordered search result list including the retrieved search listings from the search results from database, the search results which the account balance determined by the account monitoring server is above a threshold,

wherein the search engine server orders the retrieved search listings in the ordered search result list based on respective priced amounts of the ordered search listings, the search engine server also orders the retrieved search listings which a reconciled account balance does not exceed a reconciled threshold if the respective priced amount for a given search term was zero, and orders the retrieved search listings if the respective priced amount for a given search term was above zero and below all other non-zero priced amounts in the ordered search result list to reduce over-delivery of the retrieved search listings and reduce over-billing of competing advertisers.