Systems and methods for detecting network resource interaction and improved search result reporting

• US 8,626,757 B1
• Filed: 08/23/2012
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tynt Multimedia, Inc. (33Across, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tynt Multimedia, Inc. (33Across, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ball, Derek, Foster, Dayton, MacKenzie, Allan
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Johnson, Johnese
• Application Number:
  US13/593,396
• Time in Patent Office: 502 Days
• Field of Search: 707/727
• US Class Current: 707/727
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for intercepting user interactions without network provided content. The intercepted information can be used for prioritizing search results by statistical and other analysis of user interactions with a network resource and/or network content. A server connected to a network can receive captured information from an agent that is installed in a device connected to the network. The captured information can be related to an interaction of a user with a network resource. An aggregator may be provided to aggregate the captured information with other captured information related to a plurality of network resources and maintains a repository of aggregated captured information. A prioritizer can determine the relevance of network content based on characteristics of the aggregated captured information. The prioritizer determines relevance for a plurality of search results based on frequency of prior user interactions with the content of the search results.

Claims

1. A system including one or more computing devices connected to a network and configured for prioritizing network content using information captured from interactions of one or more users with a network resource, the system comprising:

a network-connected server that receives captured information from an agent that is provided in at least one computing device of the one or more computing devices connected to the network, wherein the captured information relates to an interaction of a user with the network resource;

an aggregator of the one or more computing devices and associated with the network-connected server that aggregates the captured information with other information related to interactions with a plurality of network resources and that maintains a repository of aggregated captured information;

a prioritizer of the one or more computing devices and associated with the network-connected server that determines relevance of network content based on characteristics of the aggregated captured information; and

wherein the interactions with the plurality of network resources include at least one of a copy and a mouse-over event and the network-connected server are configured to reorder the aggregated captured information, based at least in part, using a statistical analysis correlating the relevance of the network content determined by the prioritizer with a determination of a frequency of access to the network content provided by the plurality of network resources, and wherein the statistical analysis includes at least one of

     1) an analysis of the copy event,

     2) an identification of a most frequently copied element of the network content provided by the plurality of network resources,

     3) a geographic location of the user,

     4) a tag cloud identifying the most frequently copied element within a predetermined time period and

     5) a frequency of generation of a link associated with the network content.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactions with the plurality of network resources include interactions of the one or more users.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactions with the plurality of network resources include the copy and the mouse-over event, and wherein the agent is configured to detect the copy and the mouse-over event by intercepting input from input devices controlled by the computing device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactions with the plurality of network resources include the copy event that includes copying of a portion of content provided by one of the network resources, wherein the portion of content provides no link to other content.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregated captured information for each user interaction identifies a type of the each user interaction and the network resource involved in the each user interaction.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the aggregated captured information for the each user interaction identifies a portion of content that is the subject of the each user interaction.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the type of interaction includes a selection of the identified portion of content and wherein the aggregated captured information for the each user interaction includes a copy of the identified portion of content.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the identified portion of content includes a link to other content provided by the plurality of network resources.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the aggregated captured information for the each user interaction includes one or more of a copyright notice, an author attribution, and an internet address of the user and a time of the each user interaction.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the prioritizer is configured to determine relevance for a plurality of search results based on frequency of prior user interactions with the content of the search results.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the relevance of a search result is determined based on a frequency of occurrence of prior interactions by the one or more users with a link and prior interactions of the one or more users, involving copying of content that does not include the link.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the link is generated by appending information to copied portions of the network content.

2. A method of processing search results, wherein the method is implemented in a computer system comprising one or more processors configured to execute one or more computer program modules, the method comprising:

executing, on the one or more processors of the computer system, one or more computer program modules configured to maintain a history of events representative of interactions by a plurality of users with content provided by one or more network resources;

executing, on the one or more processors of the computer system, one or more computer program modules configured to determine relevance of results of a search using the history of event information, wherein the relevance is determined based on frequencies of interactions with individual results of the search; and

executing, on the one or more processors of the computer system, one or more computer program modules configured to reorder the search results based on relevance, wherein the interactions represented in the history of event information include copying and selection of portions of content and wherein the search results are reordered based on relevance by executing, on the one or more processors of the computer system, one or more computer program modules configured to perform a statistical analysis correlating relevance of the portions of the content with frequency of access to the portions of the content provided by the network resources, and wherein the statistical analysis includes at least one of

     1) an analysis of the copy event,

     2) an identification of a most frequently copied element of the network content provided by the plurality of network resources,

     3) a geographic location of the user,

     4) a tag cloud identifying the most frequently copied element within a predetermined time period and

     5) a frequency of generation of a link associated with the content provided by the network.

14. A method of processing search results according to claim 2, further comprising:

providing an agent to one or more user devices for use by the plurality of users, wherein the agent includes one or more computer program modules configured to capture event information resulting from a user interaction with the content at the one or more user device.

15. A method of processing search results according to claim 14, wherein the user interactions include one or more of a content copy interaction, a mouse-over interaction and a link selection interaction.

16. A method of processing search results according to claim 15, wherein event information includes information that identifies at least one of a user, a selected element, copied content and the one or more user devices.

17. A method of processing search results according to claim 14, wherein the agent is provided within a web page.

18. The system of claim 2, wherein the link is generated by appending information to copied portions of the network content.