Personals advertisement affinities in a networked computer system

• US 7,783,617 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2003
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Match Group, LLC (Match Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Urrabazo, Roger, Lu, Guotao, Scott, Andy, Chand, Jagdish, Call, Bryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai; Hanh B
• Application Number:
  US10/607,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20040210565A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,617 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707 1- 7, 705/14
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A computer implemented method of searching personals ads comprising: performing a criteria search to identify one or more personals ads; and performing an affinity search to identify personals ads having an affinity to at least one of the personals ads identified by the criteria search.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of obtaining personal ads, the method comprising:

performing a first search, using at least one computing device, of personal ads to identify a first personals ad;

performing an affinity search, using the at least one computing device, based on the first personals ad identified in the first search to identify one or more second personals ads having an affinity to the first personals ad, wherein the affinity search comprises calculating an affinity score between the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads, wherein the affinity score of each of the second personals ads relates to the number of occurrences of an action taken by a plurality of users with respect to the first personals ad and the respective second personals ad, and wherein the affinity search does not identify personals ads having an affinity score with the first personal ad below a predefined threshold; and

prioritizing, using the at least one computing device, the identified second personals ads based upon its respective affinity score with the first personals ad.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads have dissimilar criteria fields relative to each other.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more second personal ads were not identified by the first search.

3. The method of 1, wherein the indicated interest in the first personal ad is performed through a website.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising automatically providing the identified second personals ads to the website.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising obtaining the first personals ad by performing a criteria field search at the website.

6. The method of 1, wherein performing the first search and the affinity search are in response to input from a first user, and the affinity between the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads is based on input of at least one second user.

8. A system for obtaining personals ads, the system comprising at least one computing device that:

performs a first search, using the at least one computing device, of personal ads to identify a first personals ad; and

performs an affinity search, using the at least one computing device, based on the first personals ad identified in the first search to identify one or more second personals ads having an affinity to the first personals ad, wherein the affinity search comprises calculating an affinity score between the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads, wherein the affinity score of each of the second personal ads relates to the number of occurrences of an action taken by a plurality of users with respect to the first personals ad and the respective second personals ad, and wherein the affinity search does not identify personals ads having an affinity score with the first personal ad below a predefined threshold; and

prioritizes the identified second personals ads based upon its respective affinity score with the first personals.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads have dissimilar criteria fields relative to each other.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the indicated interest in the first personal ad is performed through a website.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one computing device further provides the identified second personals ads to the website.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one computing device further obtains the first personals ad by performing a criteria field search at the website.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the first search and the affinity search are in response to a input from a first user, and the affinity between the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads is based on input of at least one second user.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more second personal ads were not identified by the first search.

15. A computer program product comprising program code associated with obtaining personals ads, the computer program product comprising code for a method comprising the steps of:

performing a first search, using at least one computing device, of personal ads to identify a first personals ad;

perform an affinity search, using the at least one computing device, based on the first personals ad identified in the first search to identify one or more second personals ads having an affinity to the first personals ad, wherein the affinity search comprises calculating an affinity score between the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads, wherein the affinity score of each of the second personals ads relates to the number of occurrences of an action taken by a plurality of users with respect to the first personals ad and the respective second personals ad, and wherein the affinity search does not identify personals ads having an affinity score with the first personal ad below a predefined threshold; and

prioritizing, using the computing device, the identified second personals ads based upon its respective affinity score with the first personals ad.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the indicated interest in the first personal ad is performed through a website.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising logic operable to provide the identified second personals ads to the website.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, the step of obtaining the first personals ad by performing a criteria field search at the website.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the first search and the affinity search are in response to input form a first user, and the affinity between the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads is based on input of at least one second user.

21. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the one or more second personal ads were not identified by the first search.

16. The computer program product of 15, wherein the first personals ad and each of the second personals ads have dissimilar criteria fields relative to each other.