Presenting search results annotated with domain endorsements

• US 9,009,129 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Lawrence H., Oh, Seungphil, Musukula, Satish Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US13/341,518
• Publication Number:
  US 20130097142A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,201 Days
• Field of Search: 707999003-999005, 707/706, 707/736, 707/722, 707/726, 707/728, 707/732
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for presenting results of search queries with indications that at least a portion of such results has been endorsed by the user and/or social network connections of the user, are provided. Upon receipt of a search query, Web search results satisfying the query are determined. Satisfying search results that have been endorsed by the requesting user and/or one or more social network connections of the requesting user are identified. Upon presentation of the search results on the SERF, those results that were identified as having been endorsed by the requesting user and/or one or more social network connections of the requesting user are annotated as such. In this way, the requesting user may be able to more readily identify personally relevant results as the annotated results have been indicated to be preferences of the user and/or his or her social network connections.

Claims

1. A system for presenting, in association with search engine results pages, results of search queries with indications that domains associated with at least a portion of such results have been endorsed by a user and/or social network connections of the user, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive a search query from the user;

identify a plurality of documents that satisfies the received search query;

determine that the user is authenticated with at least one social networking application associated with the social network connections of the user;

identify at least one document of the plurality of documents having a document uniform resource locator (URL) that is associated with a head domain, wherein the document URL is different from the head domain, and wherein the document URL has not been endorsed by the user and/or one or more of the social network connections of the user;

determine the head domain associated with the document URL has been endorsed by the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user; and

present the document URL of the at least one document on a search engine results page with an indication that the head domain associated with the document URL has been endorsed by the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further caused to present an identifier of the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user that endorsed the head domain associated with the at least one document.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of documents that satisfies the received search query comprises identifying a plurality of algorithmically-derived Web documents that satisfies the received search query.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein determining that the user is authenticated with the at least one social networking application associated with the social network connections of the user comprises determining that data associated with the social network connections of the user is available.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein determining that the data associated with the social network connections of the user is available comprises determining that the user is engaged in an active session with the at least one social networking application.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the data associated with the social network connections of the user is retrieved from a data store associated with the at least one social networking application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving the search query from the user comprises receiving the search query via a user interface associated with a search application, and wherein the data associated with the social network connections of the user is retrieved from a data store associated with the search application.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the social network connections of the user comprises first degree social network connections.

9. A method being performed by one or more computing devices including at least one processor, for presenting, in association with search engine results pages, results of search queries with personalized endorsement indications, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user;

identifying a plurality of documents that satisfies the received search query;

determining that data associated with social network connections of the user is available;

identifying at least one document of the plurality of documents having a head domain that has been endorsed by the user and/or one or more of the social network connections of the user, wherein the at least one document has not been endorsed by the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user; and

presenting an identifier of the at least one document on a search engine results page with a personalized endorsement indication indicating that the head domain associated with the at least one document has been endorsed by the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising presenting an identifier of the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user that endorsed the head domain associated with the at least one document.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein identifying the plurality of documents that satisfies the received search query comprises identifying a plurality of algorithmically-derived Web documents that satisfies the received search query.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein determining that the data associated with the social network connections of the user is available comprises determining that the user is engaged in an active session with a social networking application associated with the data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the data associated with the social network connections of the user is retrieved from a data store associated with the social networking application.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving the search query from the user comprises receiving the search query via a user interface associated with a search application, and wherein the data associated with the social network connections of the user is retrieved from a data store associated with the search application.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein at least a portion of the social network connections of the user comprises first degree social network connections.

16. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method for presenting, in association with search engine results pages, results of search queries with indications that head domains associated with at least a portion of such results are associated with webpages that have been endorsed by a user and/or social network connections of the user, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from the user;

identifying a plurality of documents that satisfies the received search query;

determining that the user is authenticated with at least one social networking application associated with the social network connections of the user;

identifying at least one document of the plurality of documents that has a head domain that is associated with a social networking application webpage, wherein the social networking application webpage has been endorsed by the user and/or one or more of the social network connections of the user, and wherein the at least one document has not been endorsed by the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user; and

presenting an identifier of the at least one document on a search engine results page with an indication that the head domain has been endorsed by the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user.

17. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises presenting an identifier of the user and/or the one or more of the social network connections of the user that endorsed the head domain associated with the at least one document.

18. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16, wherein determining that the user is authenticated with the at least one social networking application associated with the social network connections of the user comprises determining that data associated with the social network connections of the user is available.

19. The one or more computer storage media of claim 18, wherein the data associated with the social network connections of the user is retrieved from a data store associated with the at least one social networking application.

20. The one or more computer storage media of claim 18, wherein receiving the search query from the user comprises receiving the search query via a user interface associated with a search application, and wherein the data associated with the social network connections of the user is retrieved from a data store associated with the search application.