Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure search results

• US 9,760,648 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Ravindran, Balaji
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Angelica
• Application Number:
  US14/686,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20150220546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 882 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure search results are disclosed. A disclosed example method to measure search results includes: aggregating preview events for a first search result obtained from a monitored device and included in a first web page, the preview events corresponding to representations of web pages generated by a browser executing instructions included in the first web page containing the first search result, the instructions to cause the browser to transmit requests for the representations for display in the first web page without navigating away from the first web page; and determining a first preview metric based on a number of the preview events for the first search result and a number of search result impressions in the first search result.

Claims

1. A method to measure search results, the method comprising:

aggregating, by executing an instruction with a processor, preview events for a first search result obtained from a monitored device and included in a first web page, the preview events corresponding to representations of web pages generated by a browser executing instructions included in the first web page containing the first search result when a user interacts with an icon associated with a web page of the web pages, the instructions to cause the browser to transmit requests for the representations for display in the first web page without navigating away from the first web page; and

determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, a first preview ratio based on a number of the preview events for the first search result and a number of search result impressions in the first search result.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further including providing the first preview ratio to a search engine associated with the first search result.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further including aggregating a number of search result selections for the first search result occurring at the monitored device.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, further including determining a second preview ratio based on the number of the preview events for the first search result and the number of search result selections for the first search result.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further including receiving the number of the preview events, an identification of the first search result, and the number of the search result impressions for the first search result from the monitored device.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further including determining the number of the search result impressions for the first search result by incrementing a count of the search result impressions for the first search result when the first search result is included in a listing of search results.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a user interaction with an icon associated with the web page of the web pages includes at least one of hovering over the icon or selecting the icon.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further including determining the number of the preview events for the first search result by incrementing a count of the preview events for the first search result when a preview event is displayed in the first web page.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a tangible computer readable medium including computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to at least;

aggregate preview events for a first search result obtained from a monitored device and included in a first web page, the preview events corresponding to representations of web pages generated by a browser executing instructions included in the first web page containing the first search result when a user interacts with a corresponding web page of the web pages, the instructions to cause the browser to transmit requests for the representations for display in the first web page without navigating away from the first web page; and

determine a first preview ratio based on a number of the preview events for the first search result and a number of search result impressions in the first search result.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to calculate a second preview ratio based on the number of the preview events for the first search result and a number of selections for the first search result.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein a user interaction with an icon associated with the web page of the web pages includes at least one of hovering over the icon or selecting the icon.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to determine the number of the preview events for the first search result by incrementing a count of the preview events for the first search result when a preview event is displayed in the first web page.

13. A tangible computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to at least:

aggregate preview events for a first search result obtained from a monitored device and included in a first web page, the preview events corresponding to representations of web pages generated by a browser executing instructions included in the first web page containing the first search result when a user interacts with a corresponding web page of the web pages, the instructions to cause the browser to transmit requests for the representations for display in the first web page without navigating away from the first web page; and

calculate a first preview ratio based on a number of preview events for the first search result and based on a number of search result impressions in the first search result.

14. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to provide the first preview ratio to a search engine associated with the first search result.

15. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to aggregate a number of search result selections for the first search result occurring at the monitored device.

16. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to calculate a second preview ratio based on the number of the preview events for the first search result and the number of search result selections for the first search result.

17. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to collect the number of the preview events, an identification of the first search result, and the number of the search result impressions for the first search result from the monitored device.

18. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to calculate the number of the search result impressions for the first search result by incrementing a count of the search result impressions for the first search result when the first search result is included in a listing of search results.

19. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, wherein a user interaction with an icon associated with the web page of the web pages includes at least one of hovering over the icon or selecting the icon.

20. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to determine the number of the preview events for the first search result by incrementing a count of the preview events for the first search result when a preview event is displayed in the first web page.