Promoting strategic documents by bias ranking of search results on a web browser

• US 8,117,072 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2002
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kim, Moon Ju, Rodriguez, Juan-Leon, Doganata, Yurdaer Nezihi, Drissi, Youssef, Kozakov, Lev
• Primary Examiner(s): OBEID, FAHD A
• Application Number:
  US10/120,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20040199419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,597 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A method, software and apparatus are provided which enable a user to obtain products and services in a manner which counteracts conflicting actions modifying raw ranking data based on merchants interests. For this purpose, an information a user'"'"'s web browser is provided with modules that modify search results obtained from one or more sources including directly from merchants. When the user enters a set of key words in an entry field in an on-screen form for a web server to obtain a list of items (products and/or services) of interest to the user, the search terms are modified in the users or his agents browser to reflect the interest of the user, his management or his parents. The user or his agent receives ranking information taking the highest ranked products and obtains the product information for the most highly ranked products. The browser then reranks the products using a ranking algorithm preferred by the user that offsets information sources biases in the ranking of the product information. The algorithm adds weighting factors reflecting the modified search terms. The weighting factors are combined with the mentioned ranking mechanisms to the documents to increase the probability that certain items come to the top when the search results are presented to the shopper.

Claims

1. A computerized method for enabling a response to a shopper'"'"'s keyword interrogation, from a computer at a user site comprising the steps of:

automatically modifying, at a client, search terms of the shopper'"'"'s keyword interrogation for use by an internal browser at the user'"'"'s site with keyword changes based on a preference weight factor (PWF) that reflects interests of the shopper and a controlling agent of the shopper;

obtaining, from a server, an initial ranking and descriptions of more than N products or services from supplier servers on an internet based on the modified keyword interrogation;

reranking the N products or services that are ranked highest by the initial ranking using a ranking algorithm for reducing supplier bias and for reflecting at least one of the shopper'"'"'s and controlling agent'"'"'s interests to provide a reranked list of the initial N highest ranked products or services;

modifying, at the client, the ranking of at least one but not all of the N highest ranked products or services ranked by the reranking by;

examining statistical characteristics of the N highest ranked products or services, including frequency and distribution of keywords from the modified keyword interrogation; and

applying a weighting factor associated with at least some of the keywords that is a numerical modifier based on the PWF to the statistical characteristics, the weighting factor being independent of the ranking algorithm, wherein the modifying emphasizes products or services of the N highest ranked products or services that have keywords from the keyword changes; and

providing to the shopper a presentation of products by the browser that presents the initially highest ranked products and services in order of rank determined by both the score of the production services determined by the reranking and the modification by the weighting factor of the ranking of at least one or the reranked products or services so that the reranking and modifying of the ranking changes the order of ranking but does not eliminate any item from the list of N highest ranked products or services in the initial ranking,

wherein the ranking R of the at least one of the top N products or services is recalculated with the following formula;

R=1−

n(Rank Factors Score)+n(SWF factor), where;

n=a number between zero and one;

SWF=is a weighting factor separate from the Rank Factors Score used to promote the selection of the at least one product; and

Rank Factors Score=F(w%Tf+%xPopularity+y%LA+z%Up+ . . . ), where;

F is the algorithmic function; and

w, x, y and z are proportions applied to various ranking factors by the algorithmic function F.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reranking algorithm includes factors reflecting the shopper'"'"'s buying preferences and limitations placed on the buying preferences by the controlling agent.

3. The method of claim 1 including intermixing in the presentation products of a plurality of merchants with the products of the plurality of merchants presented to the user site in order of rank determined by an internet servers ranking algorithm.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling agent is a parent of the shopper.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling agent is the shopper'"'"'s management.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the reranking of the product or services includes a price limitation placed on the product or services by a shopper'"'"'s parents or management.

4. A computer software product stored in a tangible computer usable medium for execution by a computer device to enable a browser to tailor a response to a shopper'"'"'s on-line keyword interrogation on a computer device, said software product comprising:

computer code for automatically modifying, at a client, search terms of the keyword interrogation based on a preference weight factor (PWF) to reflect the interests of a controlling agent of the shopper;

computer code for obtaining from at least one server the rankings and descriptions of products offered on the internet by a plurality of merchants based on the modified keyword interrogation;

reranking computer code for reranking the merchants products received from the one server to eliminate merchant bias and to reflect interests of the controlling agent and obtaining from the reranking computer code a list of N highest rated products or services;

modifying computer code, at the client, that modifies the ranking of at least one but not all N products or services obtained in the reranking by;

examining statistical characteristics of the N highest ranked products or services, including frequency and distribution of keywords from the modified keyword interrogation; and

applying a weighting factor associated with at least some of the keywords that is a numerical modifier based on the PWF to the statistical characteristics, the weighting factor being independent of the ranking algorithm, wherein the modifying emphasizes products or services of the N highest ranked products or services that have keywords from the keyword changes; and

computer code for providing on the computer device a presentation of merchant'"'"'s products or services to the shopper that presents on the list all N of the plurality of merchant'"'"'s highest ranked products in order of rank as determined by both the reranking and modification,

wherein the ranking R of the at least one of the top N products or services is recalculated with the following formula;

R=1−

n(Rank Factors Score)+n(SWF factor), where;

n=a number between zero and one

SWF=is a weighting factor separate from the Rank Factors Score used to promote the selection of the at least one product; and

Rank Factors Score=F(w%Tf+%xPopularity+y%LA+z%Up+ . . . ), where;

F is the algorithmic function; and

w, x, y and z are proportions applied to various ranking factors by the algorithmic function F.

9. The computer software product of claim 4 including computer code limiting the insertion of the weighting factor only to the N highest ranked products or services of a group of products or services by the reranking of the group prior to application of the weighting factor and limiting the application of the weighting factor to one of the highest ranked of the group.

10. The computer software product of claim 4, wherein the modified keyword interrogation is used with the reranking computer code to rerank the N products or services ranked highest by the initial ranking algorithm.

11. The computer software product of claim 9, wherein the N highest ranked products or services are the N highest ranked product or servers obtained from the at least one server.

13. The computer software product of claim 11, wherein the weighting factor is a negative factor introduced to reduce the rank of the one product.

14. The computer software product of claim 11, wherein the weighting factor is a positive factor introduced to increase the rank of the one product.

5. Apparatus including code modules embodied in tangible computer readable medium for enabling a response to a shopper'"'"'s on-line keyword interrogation comprising:

a preference rating code module in a client'"'"'s internal browser automatically modifying, at a client, search terms of the keyword interrogation entered by the shopper with keyword changes based on a preference weight factor (PWF) that effect various ranking factors reflecting the interests of the shopper and a controlling agent of the shopper;

a server search engine code module for obtaining the rankings and descriptions of products or services of multiple merchants over the internet from a server based on the modified keyword interrogation and providing them to the client'"'"'s browser;

a reranking code module in the client'"'"'s internal browser for reranking the products or services in the browser using factors in the preference rating code module to eliminate bias introduced by a merchant or internet provider and introduce interests of at least one of the shoppers and the controlling agent of the shopper in a ranking of the N highest products or services;

client modification code module at the client that modifies the ranking of at least one but not all of the products or services ranked by the reranking by;

examining statistical characteristics of the N highest ranked products or services, including frequency and distribution of keywords from the modified keyword interrogation; and

applying a weighting factor associated with at least some of the keywords that is a numerical modifier based on the PWF to the statistical characteristics, the weighting factor being independent of the factors used by the reranking code module, wherein the modifying emphasizes products or services of the N highest ranked products or services that have keywords from the keyword changes; and

a presentation code module for providing a presentation to the shopper of products by the browser that presents only the N highest reranked products in order of rank determined by the reranking and the modification changes the order ranking of the items but does not eliminate any item of the N highest ranked items from the list of the N highest reranked product or services,

wherein the ranking R of the at least one of the top N products or services is recalculated with the following formula;

R=1−

n(Rank Factors Score)+n(SWF factor), where;

n=a number between zero and one

SWF=is a weighting factor separate from the Rank Factors Score used to promote the selection of the at least one product; and

Rank Factors Score=F(w%Tf+%xPopularity+y%LA+z%Up+ . . . ), where;

F is the algorithmic function; and

w, x, y and z are proportions applied to various ranking factors by the algorithmic function F.

12. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the N highest ranked products or services are the product or services ranked highest by the server search engine code.