Business rating placement heuristic

• US 7,516,086 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2004
• Issued: 04/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: Idearc Media (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Harada, Edwin Y., Chu, Lester K., Heatherly, Douglas G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dunham; Jason B.
• Application Number:
  US10/948,425
• Publication Number:
  US 20050065811A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,657 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/14, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/14.71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system and method for distributing information (collectively the “system”) is disclosed. The system includes category-based, geography-based, and ratings-based attributes to better “focus” the information distributed by the system. In the processing of listing-based attributes (e.g. attributes limited to a particular listing), the system can also be influenced by relationship-based attributes (e.g. attributes between the administrator of the system and the advertisers, and even potentially users).

Claims

1. An information distribution system, comprising:

a request subsystem, including a request, wherein said request subsystem receives said request, wherein said request includes at least one rating selection and at least one of a geography selection and a category selection; and

a response subsystem, including a response, a placement heuristic that determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a fee amount and a rating, a plurality of listings, and a plurality of fee types;

wherein said response subsystem generates said response based upon said request and said placement heuristic;

the response subsystem including at least one priority metric that is influenced by a relevance metric that takes into consideration an estimated relevance of a particular listing to the request;

wherein said placement heuristic receives said priority metric as an input and the order of listings further based at least in part on a user profile that ranks a relative importance of the rating selection and at least one of the geography selection and the category selection;

wherein said response includes two or more listings from said plurality of listings, each listing being associated with at least one fee type in said plurality of fee types; and

further wherein the rating is assigned to a ratings tier according to a source of the rating.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of fee types comprise a fixed-fee and a per-hit fee, whereby said fee amount is based on either a fixed fee or a per hit fee.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said placement heuristic determines an order of listings and is based at least in part on a number of ratings.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a results subsystem, said results subsystem including a result, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selection and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selection and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response, and further wherein a listing in the plurality of listings is included in the response only if the number of ratings associated with the listing in the plurality of listings exceeds the predetermined threshold number.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the response subsystem is capable of determining whether there is a number of ratings associated with each of the listings that exceeds a predetermined threshold number.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at the least one rating selection includes a plurality of rating selections associated with a plurality of rating attributes.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of rating selections includes at least one weight that is assigned to at least one of the rating attributes.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a results subsystem, said results subsystem including a result, wherein said response subsystem generates said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selections and one or more of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving a request, wherein said request includes at least one rating selection and at least one of a geography selection and a category selection;

generating at least one priority metric that is influenced by a relevance metric that takes into consideration an estimated relevance of a particular listing to the request, said relevance being determined at least in part by a user profile that ranks a relative importance of the rating selection and at least one of the geography selection and the category selection;

generating a response based upon said request and a placement heuristic;

wherein said response includes two or more listings from a plurality of listings, each listing being associated with at least one fee type in a plurality of fee types;

assigning a rating to a ratings tier according to a source of the rating; and

determining an order of listings using the placement heuristic based at least in part on a fee amount and a rating associated with each of the listings, said placement heuristic receiving said priority metric as an input and determining the order of listings based at least in part on the priority metric.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said plurality of fee types comprise a fixed-fee and a per-hit fee, whereby said fee amount is based on either a fixed fee or a per hit fee.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising using said placement heuristic to determine an order of listings, the order of listing being based at least in part on a number of ratings.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

generating a result; and

generating said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selection and at least one of the following;

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining whether there is a number of ratings associated with each of the listings that exceeds a predetermined threshold number.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein further comprising generating said response from a result based at least in part on the rating selection and at least one of the following:

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount;

wherein said result includes more said listings than said response; and

further wherein a listing in the plurality of listings is included in the response only if the number of ratings associated with the listing in the plurality of listings exceeds the predetermined threshold number.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein at the least one rating selection includes a plurality of rating selections associated with a plurality of rating attributes.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of rating selections includes at least one weight that is assigned to at least one of the rating attributes.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

generating a result; and

generating said response from said result based at least in part on the rating selections and one or more of the following;

a category attribute, a geography attribute, and a fee amount, wherein said result includes more said listings than said response.