Perturbing search results
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving, at a server in a computer system and from a first user, a query to perform a search for user-interested information comprising a plurality of member profiles of a social networking system, the plurality of member profiles excluding member profiles that have a direct connection to the first user, the query including query parameters;
obtaining, at the server and in response to the query, a plurality of search results based on the query parameters, the search results including the user-interested information;
perturbing, at the server, at least a portion of the search results based on a perturbation criterion to generate a first set of perturbed search results; and
serving, by the server, the first set of perturbed search results to the first user.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed here are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for spreading the interest of a user evenly over a predefined set of search results. A search engine retrieves search results from a database and perturbs at least a portion of the search results, that is, randomizes the order of the portion before presenting it to the user. In this way, even when a search is repeated between database update cycles, the user would see different top search results every time the search is executed. The perturbation technique can be applied to a search in a social networking system which searches for users. The perturbation can be done by randomizing the display order of the sear results based on a most recent activity time of the user. The perturbed search results will have different users every time the user performs a search. The perturbed search results are customized per user.
23 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving, at a server in a computer system and from a first user, a query to perform a search for user-interested information comprising a plurality of member profiles of a social networking system, the plurality of member profiles excluding member profiles that have a direct connection to the first user, the query including query parameters; obtaining, at the server and in response to the query, a plurality of search results based on the query parameters, the search results including the user-interested information; perturbing, at the server, at least a portion of the search results based on a perturbation criterion to generate a first set of perturbed search results; and serving, by the server, the first set of perturbed search results to the first user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method comprising:
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receiving, at a server in a computer system, a query to perform a search for user-interested information, the query including query parameters; obtaining, at the server and in response to the query, a plurality of search results from a database based on the query parameters, the plurality of search results including the user-interested information; determining, at the server, whether the query is received within a predefined duration from a time the query was executed previously; responsive to a determination that the query is received within the predefined duration from the time the query was executed previously, perturbing, at the server, at least a portion of the plurality of search results based on a perturbation criterion to generate perturbed search results; and serving, by the server, the perturbed search results. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A system comprising:
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a processor; a receiver unit working in cooperation with the processor to receive a query to perform a search for user-interested information, the query including query parameters; a search unit working in cooperation with the processor to obtain, in response to the query and from a database, a plurality of search results based on the query parameters, the plurality of search results including the user-interested information; a perturbation determination unit working in cooperation with the processor to determine whether the query is received within a predefined duration from a time the query was executed previously; a search result perturbation unit working in cooperation with the processor to perturb, responsive to a determination that the query is received within a predefined duration from the time the query was executed previously, at least a portion of the plurality of search results based on a perturbation criterion to generate perturbed search results; and a search result transmission unit working in cooperation with the processor to serve the perturbed search results to a client device. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. A method comprising:
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receiving, at a server in a computer system and from a first user and a second user, a query to perform a search for user-interested information comprising a plurality of member profiles of a social networking system excluding member profiles which have a direct connection to the first user or second user, the query including query parameters; obtaining, at the server and in response to the query, a plurality of search results based on the query parameters, the search results including the user-interested information; perturbing, at the server, at least a portion of the search results based on a perturbation criterion to generate a first set of perturbed search results for the first user and a second set of perturbed search results for the second user, the first set of perturbed search results being different from the second set of perturbed search results; and serving, by the server, the first set of perturbed search results to the first user and the second set of perturbed search results to the second user. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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Specification