Methods and systems for searching, selecting, and displaying content

• US 8,898,161 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2010
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mediashift Acquisition, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AD-Vantage Networks, Inc. (China Yanyuan Yuhui National Education Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grant, David, Grant, John W., Kuwadekar, Sanjeev
• Primary Examiner(s): Young, Kevin L
• Application Number:
  US12/728,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20100318507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,712 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706
• US Class Current: 707/735
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Methods and systems for identifying and presenting information are described. Search results are received from a search engine. An entity associated with a networked site is selected using a selection criterion. A determination is made as to whether the listing includes a link to the networked site or includes the link to the networked site at a list position that fails to satisfy a first criterion. After determining that the link to the site associated with the entity is not included in the search result listing, or that the link to the site associated with the entity is not at a position in the search result listing that satisfies the first criterion, the search listing is modified by causing the link to the site associated with the entity to appear in a first position in the search listing. The modified search listing is displayed on a user terminal.

Claims

1. A central system for improving rankings of network resources comprising:

a processor;

tangible, non-transitory media that stores a program that when executed by the processor is configured to perform operations comprising;

offering a plurality of end users a reward to receive instructions at their respective computing devices;

receiving consent from at least a portion of the plurality of end users to receive instructions at their respective computing devices;

storing in memory a record of the received consent;

causing a user interface to be displayed on at least some of the respective computing devices that enables the end users of the respective computing devices to provide at least one of timing preferences or computing device utilization preferences with respect to selective execution of instructions, wherein the timing preferences indicate at least one of when or how often the operations are permitted to be performed, and wherein the computing device utilization preferences indicate that the operations are permitted to be performed when the computing device is at a specified level of utilization;

receiving a request from a merchant to improve a ranking in a search engine search result of a network resource associated with the merchant;

partly in response to the received consent, transmitting instructions to a plurality of nodes in response to the received request to improve ranking, the plurality of nodes including the respective computing devices associated with the at least a portion of the end users from whom consent to receive instructions was received,

wherein the instructions cause the plurality of nodes to perform operations in a manner that appears random to the search engine, with respect to one another, by causing the plurality of nodes to perform the operations at random times and with a specified frequency when the preferences provided by the end users of the respective computing devices are met;

the operations comprising;

automatically issuing search requests associated with the network resource to the search engine, and at least one of activating links in search results provided by the search engine associated with the network resource and issuing uniform resource locator (URL) requests associated with the network resource in the background without displaying the results of the search requests, link activations and URL requests;

storing in memory an indication that the plurality of nodes has issued the search requests, activated links in search results and issued URL requests associated with the network resource;

managing provision of the reward in accordance with the received consent; and

issuing a report over a network to the merchant that provides the number of times the plurality of nodes issued search requests, activated links and issued URL requests.

2. The system as defined in claim 1, the operations further comprising:

storing an indication that a deposit or credit is to be made with respect to an account associated with users associated with the respective computing devices at least partly in response to the indication that a first of the plurality of nodes has issued the search query associated with the network resource.

3. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to:

(a) automatically issue search requests associated with the network resource, or

(b) activate links in search results associated with the network resource, or

(c) issue uniform resource locator requests associated with the network resource, or any combination of (a), (b), (c) in the background of at least a subset of the plurality of nodes.

4. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to perform operations comprising the transmitting of instructions to the plurality of nodes at least partly in response to a request from a merchant, wherein the instructions are configured to cause at least in part the plurality of nodes to:

automatically issue search queries that include a merchant identifier.

5. The system as defined in claim 4, wherein the request from the merchant comprises a payment.

6. The system as defined in claim 5, wherein the payment is adjusted based on the number of times the plurality of nodes issued search requests.

7. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to perform an indexing function.

8. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to:

automatically issue search requests associated with the network resource when the plurality of nodes are below a threshold level of utilization.

9. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to:

automatically issue search requests associated with the network resource dependent on timing instructions that describe when or how often the search requests should be performed.

10. The system as defined in claim 4, wherein the request from the merchant comprises a request to improve a ranking associated with the merchant in search results.

11. The system as defined in claim 4, wherein the request from the merchant comprises a request to place content associated with the merchant at a requested position in search results.

12. A method for improving rankings of network resources, comprising:

offering, from a central system comprising a server including a computing device, a plurality of end users a reward to receive instructions at their respective computing devices;

receiving, by the central system, consent from at least a portion of the plurality of the end users to receive instructions at their respective computing devices;

storing in memory of the central system a record of the received consent;

causing a user interface to be displayed on at least some of the respective computing devices that enables the end users of the respective computing devices to provide at least one of timing or computing device utilization preferences with respect to selective execution of instructions, wherein the timing preferences indicate at least one of when or how often the operations are permitted to be performed and the computing device utilization preferences indicate that the operations are permitted to be performed when the computing device is at a specified level of utilization;

receiving, by the central system, a request from a merchant to improve a ranking of a network resource associated with the merchant in a search engine search result;

partly in response to the received consent, transmitting, from the central system, instructions to a plurality of nodes in response to the received request to improve ranking, the plurality of nodes including the respective computing devices associated with the at least a portion of end users from whom consent to receive instructions was received,

wherein the instructions cause the plurality of nodes to perform operations in a manner that appears random to the search engine, with respect to one another, by causing the plurality of nodes to perform the operations at random times and with a specified frequency when the preferences provided by the end users of the respective computing devices are met;

the operations comprising;

automatically issuing search requests associated with the network resource to the search engine, and at least one of activating links in search results provided by the search engine associated with the network resource, and issuing uniform resource locator (URL) requests associated with the network resource in the background without displaying the results of the search requests, link activations, and URL requests;

storing in memory of the central system an indication that the plurality of nodes has issued the search requests, activated links in search results and issued URL requests associated with the network resource;

managing provision of the reward in accordance with the received consent by the central system; and

generating, for the merchant requesting the improvement in ranking of the network resource, using the central system, a report and issuing the report over a network to the merchant, the report providing the number of times the plurality of nodes issued search requests, activated links, and issued URL requests.

13. The method as defined in claim 12, the method further comprising:

storing an indication that a deposit or credit is to be made with respect to an account associated with users associated with the respective computing devices at least partly in response to the indication that a first of the plurality of nodes has issued the search query associated with the network resource.

14. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to:

(a) automatically issue search requests associated with the network resource, or

(b) activate links in search results associated with the network resource, or

(c) issue uniform resource locator requests associated with the network resource, or any combination of (a), (b), (c) in the background of at least a subset of the plurality of nodes.

15. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to perform an indexing function.

16. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the plurality of nodes to:

automatically issue search requests associated with the network resource dependent on timing instructions that describe when or how often the search requests, activated links, or uniform resource locator requests should be performed.