System and method for optimizing search result listings
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method performed on a first computer for displaying on a screen coupled to a second computer, an optimized placement of search result listings displayed in a search Web page, the method comprising:
- said first computer measuring an actual performance of each listing in a set of listings located in one or more Web pages containing a search term and a search result corresponding to the search term, wherein the actual performance comprises at least one of click-through rate (CTR) and context of the listing, and wherein the set of listings includes a plurality of listings;
assigning an expected performance for each listing in the set of listings based on their respective locations, wherein the expected performance comprises a user defined expected CTR and the context of the listing;
determining an average expected performance for the set of listings;
tiering the average expected performance of the set of listings based at least on the number of listings in the set of listings to produce a tiered expected performance for the set of listings, wherein the average expected performance is increased when the set of listings includes more than a predefined number of listings and the average expected performance is decreased when the set of listing includes less than a predefined number of listings;
determining an overall average performance for the set of listings based on the actual performance for each listing in the set of listings;
promoting the set of listings to a more prominent location when the overall average performance of the set of listings indicates that overall the actual performance of the listings in the set of listings is better than the tiered expected performance of the set of listings;
demoting the set of listings to a less prominent location when the overall average performance indicates that overall the actual performance of the set of listings is poorer than the tiered expected performance of the set of listings; and
displaying a listing from the set of listings at the more prominent location or at the less prominent location.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method, system, and computer-accessible medium are provided for optimizing search result listings in a search engine user interface. The system and method provide an automated way of promoting and demoting the placement of a search result listing between more or less desirable locations, based on the listing'"'"'s performance in a given placement. Promoting and demoting placements is based on a threshold performance for the listing against which the actual performance of a listing is measured. The threshold performance may be advantageously varied to accommodate different revenue and relevance goals for a particular search engine or portion of the search engine'"'"'s market.
-
Citations
41 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method performed on a first computer for displaying on a screen coupled to a second computer, an optimized placement of search result listings displayed in a search Web page, the method comprising:
-
said first computer measuring an actual performance of each listing in a set of listings located in one or more Web pages containing a search term and a search result corresponding to the search term, wherein the actual performance comprises at least one of click-through rate (CTR) and context of the listing, and wherein the set of listings includes a plurality of listings; assigning an expected performance for each listing in the set of listings based on their respective locations, wherein the expected performance comprises a user defined expected CTR and the context of the listing; determining an average expected performance for the set of listings;
tiering the average expected performance of the set of listings based at least on the number of listings in the set of listings to produce a tiered expected performance for the set of listings, wherein the average expected performance is increased when the set of listings includes more than a predefined number of listings and the average expected performance is decreased when the set of listing includes less than a predefined number of listings;determining an overall average performance for the set of listings based on the actual performance for each listing in the set of listings; promoting the set of listings to a more prominent location when the overall average performance of the set of listings indicates that overall the actual performance of the listings in the set of listings is better than the tiered expected performance of the set of listings; demoting the set of listings to a less prominent location when the overall average performance indicates that overall the actual performance of the set of listings is poorer than the tiered expected performance of the set of listings; and displaying a listing from the set of listings at the more prominent location or at the less prominent location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed perform a search results optimization system comprising:
-
a performance measurement process that measures an actual performance of a listing appearing in a search results Web page against an expected performance level, the expected performance level including settings that are tunable to accommodate different performance expectations in one or more search engine markets, wherein the actual performance comprises at least one of click-through rate (CTR) and context of the listing, wherein the context of the listing does not include performance data of another listing, wherein the expected performance level comprises a user defined expected CTR that is adjusted based on whether the listing appears in a more prominent or less prominent location; a listing placement process that determines that a listing should be promoted to a more prominent location selected from a group of at least one more prominent location when the actual performance measures higher than the expected performance level, and that determines that the listing should be demoted demotes the listing to a less prominent location selected from a group of at least one less prominent location when the actual performance measures lower than the expected performance level; and a displaying process that displays the listing at the more prominent location or at the less prominent location. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed perform a method for facilitating the optimal placement of search result listings in a search result user interface, the method comprising:
-
placing a listing for a search result in an initial location based on an expected click-through rate (CTR); capturing an actual CTR of the listing, wherein capturing the actual CTR of the listing includes capturing a location of the listing and a context of the listing when it was clicked; normalizing the actual CTR based on the location, wherein normalizing the actual CTR adjusts the actual CTR down when the location has a positive influence on the actual CTR, and adjusts the actual CTR up when the location has a negative influence on the actual CTR; normalizing the actual CTR based on the context, wherein normalizing the actual CTR adjusts the actual CTR down when the context has a positive influence on the actual CTR, and adjusts the actual CTR up when the context has a negative influence on the actual CTR; and promoting the listing to a more desirable location when the normalized CTR is better than the expected CTR, and demoting the listing to a less desirable location when the normalized CTR is worse than the expected CTR, wherein promoting and demoting the listing is independent of the promotion or demotion of any other listings. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. One or more computer-accessible media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform a method for displaying on a display device a search result Web page for a search term query, the search result Web page including at least two sections in which to display a search result listing, the at least two sections including a first section located in a more prominent area of the display device and the a second section located in a less prominent area of the display device, the method comprising:
-
assigning an expected performance of a search result listing based on a user defined expected click-through rate (CTR) that is adjusted based on a location of the section in the Web page in which it appears, wherein the expected performance of a listing is a threshold performance level that is tuned to a particular market; said computing device measuring an actual performance of the search result listing, wherein the actual performance comprises at least one of CTR and context of the listing; said computing device comparing the actual performance to the expected performance; determining that the listing should be moved to the more prominent first section when the actual performance is better than the expected performance; determining that the listing should be moved to the less prominent second section when the actual performance is poorer than the expected performance; displaying the listing in the more prominent first section or in the less prominent second section, and wherein assigning the expected performance includes increasing the expected performance when the listing is in the more prominent first section and decreasing the expected performance when the listing is in the less prominent second section, and wherein determining that the listing should be moved to the more prominent or less prominent section is independent of an actual performance of any other listings. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
-
Specification