Embedded review and rating information

• US 8,438,469 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Scott, James Kevin, Reynar, Jeff C., Hylton, Jeremy A., Dave, Kushal B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): TSUI, WILSON W
• Application Number:
  US11/241,692
• Time in Patent Office: 2,776 Days
• Field of Search: 715230-232, 715/243, 715/251, 715/253
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A method of embedding evaluations in a document is described. An identifier tag is embedded in the document in response to a first user action. The document may include a web page. The identifier tag includes a review and an identifier associated with an entity that is a subject of the review. A rating tag is embedded in the document in response to a second user action. The rating tag includes a rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review. The rating value may be selected from a set of pre-determined rating values.

Claims

1. A method of embedding evaluations in a document, comprising:

at a client device having one or more processors and memory storing programs executed by the one or more processors;

receiving a document including an authoring tool from a remote server system and displaying the document and the authoring tool to a user, wherein the document is written in a markup language;

in response to user actions, modifying the document using the authoring tool by performing at least the following two operations;

embedding an identifier tag in the document in response to a first user action, wherein the identifier tag includes a review from the user and an identifier associated with an entity, distinct from the document, that is a subject of the review; and

embedding a rating tag in the document in response to a second user action, wherein the rating tag includes a rating value from the user, the rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review; and

transmitting the document including the embedded identifier tag and the embedded rating tag from the client device to the remote server system;

submitting a search query to the remote server system; and

receiving from the remote server system an ordered list of search results including a search result corresponding to the document, wherein the search result'"'"'s position in the ordered list is determined at least in part by a ranking value of the document that is determined in accordance with the review in the identifier tag and the rating value in the rating tag.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the document comprises a web page.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising posting the document such that it is accessible using a network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the rating value is selected from a set of pre-determined rating values.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the review, the identifier and the rating value from the client device to an aggregator that collects a plurality of evaluations from one or more sources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity is selected from the group consisting of a product, a business, a service provider, a restaurant, a presentation including video, a written document, a publication and a song.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the identifier tag and the rating tag is not displayed when the document is rendered by a browser.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the identifier tag and the rating tag is compatible with hypertext markup language (HTML).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the identifier tag and the rating tag is compatible with extensible markup language (XML).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier tag and the rating tag are compatible with a search engine crawler such that the search engine crawler imports the review, the identifier and the rating value when accessing the document.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the identifier tag and the rating tag includes metadata.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata is selected from the group consisting of a user identifier, a category identifier, a timestamp for a purchase, a timestamp for a visit to the entity, a timestamp for the review and the rating, relative rating information, a favorite item at the entity, an expiration time for the review and the rating, one or more characteristics of one or more items at the entity, one or more characteristics of the subject of the review and the rating, and location information for the entity.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the client device, an authoring tool for inserting the identifier tag and the rating tag into the document from the remote server system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the authoring tool is a program embedded in a web page and executable by a client computer.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the providing receiving includes transmitting an authoring web page to the client device computer using a network, the authoring web tool being embedded in the authoring web page, and wherein the authoring tool is for composing the document.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the authoring tool includes instructions for modifying the authoring web page to include a replica of the document.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising encrypting at least one of the review and the rating value before providing the document to the remote server system so as to prevent viewing of the encrypted review or rating value when the document is subsequently rendered at a respective client device.

17. A method of processing documents, comprising:

at a server system having one or more processors and memory storing programs executed by the one or more processors;

receiving a document in a search engine crawler, the document having an identifier tag and a rating tag embedded in the document, wherein the document is written in a markup language and the document was modified by a user of a client device remotely located from the server system using an authoring tool in the document by embedding the identifier tag and the rating tag into the document, respectively, and the identifier tag includes a review transmitted from the user and an identifier associated with an entity, distinct from the document, that is a subject of the review, and the rating tag includes a rating value from the user, the rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review;

importing the review, the identifier and the rating value from the document;

aggregating the review and the rating value with information in a repository that includes a plurality of reviews, identifiers and rating values from one or more sources to produce aggregated reviews and rating values; and

in response to a search query from the client device, returning to the client device an ordered list of search results including a search result corresponding to the document, wherein the search result'"'"'s position in the ordered list is determined at least in part by a ranking value of the document that is determined in accordance with the review in the identifier tag and the rating value in the rating tag.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising adjusting a weight associated with at least one of the identifier tag and the rating tag.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising computing one or more document ranking values for one or more document locations, wherein the computing is performed in accordance with the weight associated with at least one of the identifier tag and the rating tag.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the review and the rating value is encrypted in the document received by the search engine crawler so as to prevent viewing of the encrypted review or rating value when the document is subsequently rendered at a respective client device.

20. A computer-program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein for execution by one or more processors in a client device, the computer program mechanism comprising;

instructions for receiving a document including an authoring tool from a remote server system and displaying the document and the authoring tool to a user, wherein the document is written in a markup language;

instructions for, in response to user actions, modifying the document using the authoring tool by performing at least the following two operations;

embedding an identifier tag in the document in response to a first user action, wherein the identifier tag includes a review from a user of the client device and an identifier associated with an entity, distinct from the document, that is a subject of the review; and

embedding a rating tag in the document in response to a second user action, wherein the rating tag includes a rating value from the user, the rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review;

instructions for transmitting the document including the embedded identifier tag and the embedded rating tag from the client device to a remote server system from which the document was received;

instructions for submitting a search query to the remote server system; and

instructions for receiving from the remote server system an ordered list of search results including a search result corresponding to the document, wherein the search result'"'"'s position in the ordered list is determined at least in part by a ranking value of the document that is determined in accordance with the review in the identifier tag and the rating value in the rating tag.

21. A client device, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory storing one or more programs executed by the one or more processors, the one of more programs including;

instructions for receiving a document including an authoring tool from a remote server system and displaying the document and the authoring tool to a user, wherein the document is written in a markup language;

instructions for, in response to user actions, modifying the document using the authoring tool by performing at least the following two operations;

embedding an identifier tag in the document in response to a first user action, wherein the identifier tag includes a review from a user of the client device and an identifier associated with an entity, distinct from the document, that is a subject of the review; and

embedding a rating tag in the document in response to a second user action, wherein the rating tag includes a rating value from the user, the rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review;

instructions for transmitting the document including the embedded identifier tag and the embedded rating tag from the client device to a remote server system from which the document was received;

instructions for submitting a search query to the remote server system; and

instructions for receiving from the remote server system an ordered list of search results including a search result corresponding to the document, wherein the search result'"'"'s position in the ordered list is determined at least in part by a ranking value of the document that is determined in accordance with the review in the identifier tag and the rating value in the rating tag.

22. A client device, comprising:

a memory means;

a processor means; and

a program means, stored in the memory means and executed by the processor means, the program means including;

instructions for receiving a document including an authoring tool from a remote server system and displaying the document and the authoring tool to a user, wherein the document is written in a markup language;

instructions for, in response to user actions, modifying the document using the authoring tool by performing at least the following two operations;

embedding an identifier tag in the document in response to a first user action, wherein the identifier tag includes a review from a user of the client device and an identifier associated with an entity, distinct from the document, that is a subject of the review; and

instructions for embedding a rating tag in the document in response to a second user action, wherein the rating tag includes a rating value from the user, the rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review;

instructions for transmitting the document including at least one of the embedded identifier tag and the embedded rating tag from the client device to a remote server system from which the document was received;

instructions for submitting a search query to the remote server system; and

instructions for receiving from the remote server system an ordered list of search results including a search result corresponding to the document, wherein the search result'"'"'s position in the ordered list is determined at least in part by a ranking value of the document that is determined in accordance with the review in the identifier tag and the rating value in the rating tag.

23. A computer-program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein for execution by one or more processors in a client device, the computer program mechanism comprising;

instructions for receiving a document including an authoring tool from a remote server system and displaying the document and the authoring tool to a user, wherein the document is written in a markup language;

instructions for, in response to user actions, modifying the document using the authoring tool by performing at least the following two operations;

generating an identifier tag in the document in response to a first user action, wherein the identifier tag includes a review from a user of the client device and an identifier associated with an entity, distinct from the document, that is a subject of the review; and

generating a rating tag in the document, wherein the rating tag includes a rating value from the user, the rating value corresponding to a user-selected rating of the entity that is the subject of the review;

instructions for transmitting the document including at least one of the embedded identifier tag and the embedded rating tag from the client device to a remote server system from which the document was received;

instructions for submitting a search query to the remote server system; and

instructions for receiving from the remote server system an ordered list of search results including a search result corresponding to the document, wherein the search result'"'"'s position in the ordered list is determined at least in part by a ranking value of the document that is determined in accordance with the review in the identifier tag and the rating value in the rating tag.