Voice request broker

• US 8,392,392 B1
• Filed: 09/11/2008
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smith Micro Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Smith Micro Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Ruf, Michael P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Tiffany Thuy
• Application Number:
  US12/209,145
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/708, 707/709
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Search requests may be initiated by a wireless communication device and performed by a voice request broker (VRB). The VRB may evaluate the applicability of various criteria and may select at least one search engine to process the search request according to the applicable criteria. The VRB may transmit the search request to the at least one search engine and the at least one search engine may return a list of one or more results. The VRB may evaluate the applicability of various criteria and may re-sort the results according to applicable criteria. The VRB may transmit the re-sorted results to the wireless communication device from which the search request is initiated.

Claims

1. A method for a voice request broker server to broker a search request, the method comprising:

at the voice request broker server, receiving a search request from a device;

assessing the search request to select at least one computer search engine from among a plurality of computer search engines to process the search request;

dispatching the search request to the at least one selected computer search engine;

receiving a first list of one or more results from the at least one selected computer search engine;

accessing a database of result criteria for determining an order for each of the one or more received results;

applying the result criteria to each of the one or more received results to determine the order for the one or more received results;

at the voice request broker server, re-sorting the one or more results into a second list that complies with the order determined by applying the result criteria;

sending from the voice request broker server to the device the re-sorted second list of the one or more results;

wherein assessing the search request to select at least one computer search engine comprises evaluating the applicability of search criteria to the search request; and

wherein the search criteria comprise;

whether the search request is reserved;

a matched rating for a search engine;

a commission a search engine pays to perform a search;

a match between the search request and a specialty of a search engine;

expected monetization of the search request;

a location of the device transmitting the search request;

a menu context of the device when the search request is initiated;

a user'"'"'s search engine preference;

a user profile; and

a search engine'"'"'s ability to return rich content in the list of one or more results.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a search request further comprises:

receiving a voice search request; and

transcribing the voice search request to a text search request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the second list to the device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the results criteria comprise one or more of:

whether the search request is reserved by a search engine or other third party;

a matched rating for a search engine;

a commission a search engine pays to perform a search;

a match between the search request and a specialty of a search engine;

expected monetization of the search request;

a location of the device transmitting the search request;

a menu context of the device when the search request is initiated;

a user'"'"'s search engine preference;

a user profile; and

a search engine'"'"'s ability to return rich content in the list of one or more results.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each result criterion is weighted and the weights of the applicable result criteria determine a new order into which the one or more results are re-sorted.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each search criterion is weighted and the most heavily weighted applicable search criterion determines which of the plurality of computer search engines is selected to process the search request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each search criterion is weighted and the weights of the applicable search criteria determine which of the plurality of computer search engines is selected to process the search request.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a wireless communication device, further comprising selecting a dedicated key to initiate the search request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one selected computer search engine comprises one or more of a traditional non-human, computerized search engine maintaining its own index, database or catalogue and a non-human, computerized meta-search engine that sends its search requests to traditional search engines and combines their results.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein with the order specified by the result criteria indicates that the second list remains unchanged from the first list.

11. A method for performing a search request at a voice request broker the method comprising:

receiving a search request from a communication device, the communication device associated with a carrier and the carrier being an entity associated with the voice request broker;

parsing the search request to identify one or more of a keyword, a search term or a query format;

accessing a database of search criteria at least in order to determine whether the search request is reserved by the carrier in order to provide customized results to the search request according to criteria of the carrier;

determining whether the search request is reserved by determining if the identified one or more keyword, search term, or query format has been reserved by the carrier;

in response to determining the search request has been reserved, transmitting the search request to a particular search engine associated with the carrier to perform a search such that the particular search engine returns particular results to the search request, the particular results being customized according to the criteria of the carrier and presented in a particular order according to the criteria of the carrier;

in response to determining the search request has not been reserved,

at least partially using the search criteria to select one or more search engines to perform a search on the portion of the search request not reserved, wherein the one or more search engines may include the search engine dedicated to the entity that is associated with the voice request broker, and

transmitting the portion of the search request not reserved to the selected one or more search engines,

receiving results from the one or more selected search engines;

at the voice request broker, receiving the search request from a device prior to parsing the search request; and

after receiving the results from the one or more selected search engines, transmitting the results from the voice request broker to the device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the search request comprises a voice search request, further comprising transcribing the voice search request to a text search request.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the device comprises a wireless communication device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising re-sorting the results prior to transmitting the results to the device using results criteria.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising one or more of:

if a search request comprises a keyword, a search term or query format reserved by the entity that owns the voice request broker for a purchasing search engine, transmitting the search request to the purchasing search engine;

if two or more search engines have different matched ratings, transmitting the search request to the search engine with the highest matched rating;

if two or more search engines pay a commission per search request, transmitting the search request to the search engine paying the highest commission;

if a first search engine is better configured than a second search engine to process a particular search request, transmitting the search request to the first search engine;

if a geographically-specialized search engine is configured to produce results related to a particular geographic area, transmitting a search request originating from a device located within the particular geographic area to the geographically-limited search engine;

if a device user from which a search request originates specifies a preferred search engine, transmitting the search request to the preferred search engine;

if a search engine enables the return of rich content for the one or more results, transmitting the search request to the rich content enabled search engine;

or

if a search request produces potential revenue by being processed by either of two or more search engines, transmitting the search request to the search engine whose processing produces the most potential revenue.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the search criteria are weighted and the one or more selected search engines are selected based on respective weights of the applicable search criteria.

17. A method for performing a search, the method comprising:

at a voice request broker receiving a verbal search request from a mobile communication device, wherein the verbal search request is converted to a text search request;

selecting at least one computer search engine from among a plurality of computer search engines to perform the search request using search criteria, the voice request broker having selected the at least one computer search engine based at least upon search criteria applicable to the search request;

dispatching the text search request to the at least one selected computer search engine;

receiving a plurality of results from the at least one selected computer search engine;

accessing results criteria for determining an order for each of the plurality of results;

re-sorting the plurality of results based on the results criteria at the voice request broker prior to transmitting the re-sorted results;

transmitting the re-sorted plurality of results to the mobile communication device;

wherein assessing the search request to select at least one computer search engine comprises evaluating the applicability of search criteria to the search request; and

wherein the search criteria comprise;

whether the search request is reserved;

a matched rating for a search engine;

a commission a search engine pays to perform a search;

a match between the search request and a specialty of a search engine;

expected monetization of the search request;

a location of the device transmitting the search request;

a menu context of the device when the search request is initiated;

a user'"'"'s search engine preference;

a user profile; and

a search engine'"'"'s ability to return rich content in the list of one or more results.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein selecting a computer search engine for the verbal search request further comprises one or more of:

selecting the computer search engine based on a geographic location of the mobile communication device;

selecting the computer search engine based on a reserved word included in the verbal search request;

selecting the computer search engine based on a query format of the verbal search request;

selecting the computer search engine based on a context of the mobile communication device;

selecting the computer search engine based on a weight of each search criteria;

selecting the computer search engine based on value of the search request to a carrier associated with the mobile communication device;

selecting the computer search engine based on a user profile;

selecting the computer search engine based on an ability of the selected computer search engine to return rich content;

selecting the computer search engine based on a performance of the selected computer search engine, wherein the performance is represented in a confidence level that the results match the search request; and

selecting the computer search engine based on an arrangement with a third party.