System and method for improving integrity of internet search

• US 20080189263A1
• Filed: 02/01/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Nagle
• Original Assignee: John Nagle
• Inventors: Nagle, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,693,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0208 Trade or exchange of goods or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

A system and method are provided to receive a search query from a user, typically via a web browser, the Internet, and a web server. A search engine obtains a set of potential search results based on the search query. For each Internet domain or web site mentioned in the search results, a set of data sources is accessed to obtain information concerning the legitimacy of the business associated with the Internet domain or web site. The legitimacy information is used to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for the Internet domain or web site. The processed search results are returned to the user.

Claims

1. A method for improving the integrity of search results, comprising the steps of:

receiving a search query from a user via a web browser, the Internet, and a web server;

using a search engine to obtain a set of potential search results using the search query;

for each Internet domain or web site mentioned in the search results, accessing a set of data sources to obtain information concerning the legitimacy of a business associated with the Internet domain or web site;

using said legitimacy information to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for said Internet domain or web site; and

returning the processed search results to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying the search results to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the data sources used for evaluating business legitimacy comprise information selected from the group of information consisting of domain name registry, digitally signed certificates issued by certificate authorities, business information, state and national corporation records, business license records, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, enforcement actions by criminal justice agencies, and enforcement actions by industry self-regulation groups.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

providing one or more local databases containing summary information derived from said data sources;

providing a program or “

web crawler”

which examines web sites in advance of user queries; and

using said summary information as legitimacy information to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for said Internet domain or web site.

5. A method for providing a search for information available on the World Wide Web on the Internet having enhanced integrity, comprising the steps of:

generating a search query;

transmitting the search query via the Internet to a search engine using a web browser;

providing the search query to the search engine;

performing initial processing of the search query by the search engine;

performing the search and accumulating a set of search results by means of the search engine, each of which contains at least a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying an Internet domain and page on the World Wide Web selected by the search;

receiving the search results;

extracting a list of URLs and domains;

performing domain processing on the list of domains;

returning an integrity rating;

using the integrity rating to reorder and annotate the search results so as to move results with relatively lower integrity ratings downward in the results; and

returning the reordered and annotated search results to the web browser via the Internet.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

formatting the reordered and annotated search results for display; and

displaying the reordered and annotated search results.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein web sites rated as having relatively high integrity are identified with a check mark in a circle, web sites for which insufficient information is obtained are identified with a question mark in a circle, and web sites rated as having relatively low integrity are identified with an “

X”

in a circle and wherein the web sites rated with relatively high integrity are moved to the top of the search results and web sites with relatively low integrity are moved down and displayed in smaller type in the search results.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the search query is entered manually by an end user and transmitted through a personal computer running a web browser able to handle the search query.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the domain processing step comprises the steps of:

checking a domain name included as part of a URL against a local database of known domains for which integrity ratings are available to eliminate unnecessary reprocessing of domains already evaluated;

if the domain is in the database indicating an integrity rating is already available, bypassing further processing and returning an integrity rating immediately;

if the domain is not already in the database, using name and address extraction to attempt to obtain a physical name and address associated with the domain;

if a reliable name and address are obtained, collecting business information;

scoring the business information; and

using the scored information to update the integrity rating in the database of known domains so that future similar queries can be quickly processed.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein in the event that the name and address of the business cannot be located, further comprising the steps of:

sending control to a commerce site test where an attempt is made to determine whether or not the web site appears on its face to be engaged in commerce; and

if the web site appears to be engaged in commerce, but a name and address cannot be reliably associated with the site, considering the site to be a less than legitimate business and assigning a relatively low integrity rating, thereby having the effect of substantially degrading search result placement and thus encouraging Internet businesses to comply with disclosure requirements.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein in the event that the name and address of the business cannot be located, further comprising the steps of:

sending control to a commerce site test where an attempt is made to determine whether or not the web site appears on its face to be engaged in commerce; and

if the web site is not selling anything, but is simply informational, returning a neutral integrity rating.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein name and address extraction comprises the steps of:

performing one or more of the following;

accessing the domain name associated with a URL to obtain a name and address of the owner of the domain and the web site based on information provided for domain registration using the standard WHOIS protocol;

retrieving any available Secure Sockets Layer certificate also known as a “

X.509 certificate”

issued by certification authorities; and

examining the web site itself including prominent pages of the site for name and address information using a quick web site crawl; and

normalizing, comparing, and noting inconsistencies in addresses;

thereby producing cleaned-up name and address information.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of collecting business information comprises querying one or more sources of business information consisting of corporate registration information, business rating information, negative information comprising regulatory information, and, for the special case of well-recognized auction web sites and payment systems which undertake to rate, or at least reliably identify, their affiliated merchants, rating information is obtained from the auction or payment site using the cleaned-up name and address information.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the corporate registration information is obtained directly from public records, which are accessible via on-line query systems operated by states, provinces, and countries, and further comprising the steps of:

determining the appropriate jurisdiction to query; and

querying the appropriate jurisdiction for the corporate registration information.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of normalizing, comparing, and noting inconsistencies in the addresses, thereby producing cleaned-up name and address information, comprises crosschecking name and address information comprising the steps of:

processing raw names and addresses through a cleanup and standardization procedure which utilizes a database of postal information;

comparing the addresses, once standardized, with each other; and

if addresses disagree, tagging the address information with lower confidence to be reflected in the integrity rating for the web site.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the step of querying business information comprises the steps of:

providing cleaned-up name and address information to a business rating service query generator, which, via the Internet, queries credit report data sites and business rating data sites; and

parsing the results by a rating service reply parser.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the step of querying corporate registration information comprises the steps of:

providing cleaned-up name and address information to a corporate filing service query generator, which, via the Internet, queries corporate filing data sites; and

parsing the results by a filing service reply parser.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the step of querying negative information comprises the steps of:

providing cleaned-up name and address information to a negative information query generator, which, via the Internet, queries negative information sources; and

parsing the results by a parser.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein the commerce site test is performed to determine whether or not the web site appears on its face to be engaged in commerce comprises the steps of:

examining the text of web pages originated by a quick web site crawl for indications that the web site is selling something; and

returning a yes/no decision.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the quick web site crawl comprises the steps of:

limiting examination to the first few web pages of a web site beginning with a starting domain name or URL to determine if the site is selling something, which is added to a list of URLs to fetch;

for each domain name or URL, fetching the relevant web page by a web page reader via the Internet from the target web site to obtain a local copy of the web page;

examining the fetched web page for links to other web pages;

passing the fetched web page to a relevance tester, which uses a set of relevance rules to determine which links are relevant;

feeding back relevant links into the list of URLs to fetch and ignoring links which are not relevant; and

returning the web pages that are collected.

21. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of scoring the business information comprises the steps of:

scoring the business information based on the information collected about a business;

computing a web site integrity rating from the scored business information; and

determining an annotation based on the web site integrity rating.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

coloring the annotation result returned to an end user for display in red, yellow, or green; and

returning the annotation result.

23. A method for providing a background web crawler for performing domain integrity evaluation in bulk, in advance of search queries, comprising the steps of:

providing a background web crawler continuously scanning through the World Wide Web on the Internet;

performing domain processing and integrity evaluation on each Uniform Resource Locator (URL) found by said web crawler, comprising the steps of;

checking a domain name included in an Internet domain as part of a URL against a local database of known domains and URLs for which integrity ratings are available to eliminate unnecessary reprocessing of domains already evaluated;

if the domain is in the database indicating an integrity rating is already available, bypassing further processing and returning an integrity rating immediately; and

if the domain is not already in the database, using name and address extraction to attempt to obtain a physical name and address associated with the domain;

if a reliable name and address are obtained, collecting business information;

scoring the business information; and

using the scored business information to update the integrity rating in the database of known domains so that future queries can be quickly processed.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of using the integrity rating information to adjust the rating of links from a web page.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of storing the collected business information in the database to allow the search engine to recognize, and to rate accordingly, when multiple web sites are controlled by the same party.

26. A method for using an existing directory of web sites in conjunction with providing a search for information available on the World Wide Web on the Internet having enhanced integrity, comprising the steps of:

using a directory of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to generate a list of URLs to be fetched;

collecting business information about the domain associated with each such URL;

scoring the business information for each domain to produce web site integrity information; and

updating a database of known domains used to present the directory to the browser;

thereby allowing the directory to be reordered or annotated according to the web site integrity information.

27. A method for providing a search for information available on the World Wide Web on the Internet having enhanced integrity, comprising the steps of:

generating a search query;

transmitting the search query via the Internet to a search engine using a web browser;

providing the search query to the search engine;

performing initial processing of the search query by the search engine;

performing the search and accumulating a set of search results by means of the search engine, each of which contains at least a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying an Internet domain and page on the World Wide Web selected by the search;

receiving the search results;

extracting a list of URLs and domains mentioned in the search results;

using the list of domains to generate a domain query to send via the Internet to a web site integrity rating system;

receiving the domain query;

performing domain processing on the list of domains;

returning a set of web site integrity ratings via the Internet;

using the web site integrity ratings to reorder and annotate the search results so as to move results with relatively low integrity ratings downward in the results; and

returning the reordered and annotated search results to the web browser via the Internet;

whereby the search engine and the evaluation of web site integrity are performed by separate services and integrated from within the web browser.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps of:

formatting the reordered and annotated search results for display; and

displaying the reordered and annotated search results.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the browser-side processing is performed using a browser toolbar or as a web page containing code which reprocesses information from another web site, using “

Active-X Controls,”

“

Java Applets,”

or “

AJAX techniques.”

30. The method of claim 27 wherein web sites rated as having relatively high integrity are identified with a check mark in a circle, web sites for which insufficient information is obtained are identified with a question mark in a circle, and web sites rated as having relatively low integrity are identified with an “

X”

in a circle and wherein the web sites rated with relatively high integrity are moved to the top of the search results and web sites with relatively low integrity are moved down and displayed in smaller type in the search results.

31. A method for creating incentives to encourage the proprietors of web sites to improve their legitimacy by complying with appropriate laws, regulations, and business practices, comprising the steps of:

receiving search queries by a search engine provider;

producing search results annotated and ordered so as to move results from a web site with a relatively low integrity rating downward in the results and direct customers towards potential competitors with relatively high integrity ratings;

observing a decline in web traffic to a web site from the search engine provider based on the relatively low integrity rating;

taking one or more actions by the web site to remedy compliance problems;

collecting updated business information;

updating records of the search engine provider based on a now improved web site integrity rating;

subsequently obtaining search results which tend to encourage potential customers thereafter to do business with the web site based on the improved web site integrity rating;

whereby the business then sees increased sales as a result of its compliance.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the updated business information is obtained from one or more of a domain registrar, certificate issuer, department of corporations, and business rating bureau.

33. A method for validating on-line advertising sales, comprising the steps of:

receiving an on-line order for on-line advertising from a prospective advertiser submitted through a web browser via the Internet to a web site that sells advertising;

obtaining a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and domain name to be advertised;

performing domain processing on the domain;

returning a web site integrity rating via the Internet;

testing the integrity rating against a threshold of acceptability;

if the integrity rating is below the threshold of acceptability, rejecting the on-line advertising order; and

if the integrity rating meets or exceeds the threshold, accepting the on-line advertising order and replying to the prospective advertiser that the on-line advertising order is accepted;

thereby preventing advertisers of questionable legitimacy from placing advertisements on web sites, improving customer satisfaction, increasing the value of the advertising medium, and making the advertising space more valuable.

34. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to improve the integrity of search results, comprising:

first code for receiving a search query from a user of the computer via a web browser, the Internet, and the web server;

second code for using a search engine to obtain a set of potential search results using the search query;

for each Internet domain or web site mentioned in the search results, third code for accessing a set of data sources to obtain information concerning the legitimacy of a business associated with the Internet domain or web site;

fourth code using said legitimacy information to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for said Internet domain or web site; and

fifth code for returning the processed search results to the user.

35. The system of claim 34 further comprising a display device and sixth code for displaying the search results to the user.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the data sources used for evaluating business legitimacy comprise information selected from the group of information consisting of domain name registry, digitally signed certificates issued by certificate authorities, business information, state and national corporation records, business license records, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, enforcement actions by criminal justice agencies, and enforcement actions by industry self-regulation groups.

37. The system of claim 34, further comprising:

one or more local databases containing summary information derived from said data sources;

a “

web crawler”

which examines web sites in advance of user queries; and

sixth code for using said summary information as legitimacy information to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for said Internet domain or web site.

38. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to perform a search for information available on the World Wide Web on the Internet having enhanced integrity, comprising:

first code for generating a search query;

second code for transmitting the search query via the Internet to a search engine using a web browser;

third code for providing the search query to the search engine;

fourth code for performing initial processing of the search query by the search engine;

fifth code for performing the search and accumulating a set of search results by means of the search engine, each of which contains at least a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying an Internet domain and page on the World Wide Web selected by the search;

sixth code for receiving the search results;

seventh code for extracting a list of URLs and domains;

eighth code for performing domain processing on the list of domains;

ninth code for returning an integrity rating;

tenth code for using the integrity rating to reorder and annotate the search results so as to move results with relatively lower integrity ratings downward in the results; and

eleventh code for returning the reordered and annotated search results to the web browser via the Internet.

39. The system of claim 38, further comprising:

a display device;

twelfth code for formatting the reordered and annotated search results for display; and

thirteenth code for displaying the reordered and annotated search results.

40. The system of claim 39 wherein web sites rated as having relatively high integrity are identified with a check mark in a circle, web sites for which insufficient information is obtained are identified with a question mark in a circle, and web sites rated as having relatively low integrity are identified with an “

X”

in a circle and wherein the web sites rated with relatively high integrity are moved to the top of the search results and web sites with relatively low integrity are moved down and displayed in smaller type in the search results.

41. The system of claim 38 wherein the search query is entered manually by an end user and transmitted through the computer running the web browser.

42. The system of claim 38, further comprising a local database of known domains and wherein the eighth code comprises:

twelfth code for checking a domain name included as part of a URL against the local database of known domains for which integrity ratings are available to eliminate unnecessary reprocessing of domains already evaluated;

if the domain is in the database indicating an integrity rating is already available, thirteenth code for bypassing further processing and returning an integrity rating immediately;

if the domain is not already in the database, fourteenth code for using name and address extraction to attempt to obtain a physical name and address associated with the domain;

if a reliable name and address are obtained, fifteenth code for collecting business information;

sixteenth code for scoring the business information; and

seventeenth code for using the scored information to update the integrity rating in the database of known domains so that future similar queries can be quickly processed.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein in the event that the name and address of the business cannot be located, further comprising:

eighteenth code for sending control to a commerce site test where an attempt is made to determine whether or not the web site appears on its face to be engaged in commerce; and

if the web site appears to be engaged in commerce, but a name and address cannot be reliably associated with the site, nineteenth code for considering the site to be a less than legitimate business and assigning a relatively low integrity rating, whereby the effect is produced of substantially degrading search result placement and thus encouraging Internet businesses to comply with disclosure requirements.

44. The system of claim 42 wherein in the event that the name and address of the business cannot be located, further comprising:

eighteenth code for sending control to a commerce site test where an attempt is made to determine whether or not the web site appears on its face to be engaged in commerce; and

if the web site is not selling anything, but is simply informational, nineteenth code for returning a neutral integrity rating.

45. The system of claim 42 wherein the fourteenth code comprises:

eighteenth code for performing one or more of the following;

accessing the domain name associated with a URL to obtain a name and address of the owner of the domain and the web site based on information provided for domain registration using the standard WHOIS protocol;

retrieving any available Secure Sockets Layer certificate also known as a “

X.509 certificate”

issued by certification authorities; and

examining the web site itself including prominent pages of the site for name and address information using a quick web site crawl; and

nineteenth code for normalizing, comparing, and noting inconsistencies in addresses;

whereby cleaned-up name and address information is produced.

46. The system of claim 45 wherein the fifteenth code comprises code for querying one or more sources of business information consisting of corporate registration information, business rating information, negative information comprising regulatory information, and, for the special case of well-recognized auction web sites and payment systems which undertake to rate, or at least reliably identify, their affiliated merchants, obtaining rating information from the auction or payment site using the cleaned-up name and address information.

47. The system of claim 46 wherein the corporate registration information is obtained directly from public records, which are accessible via on-line query systems operated by states, provinces, and countries, and the further comprising twentieth code for:

determining the appropriate jurisdiction to query; and

querying the appropriate jurisdiction for the corporate registration information.

48. The system of claim 45, further comprising a database of postal information and wherein the nineteenth code comprises code for crosschecking name and address information comprising:

twentieth code for processing raw names and addresses through a cleanup and standardization procedure which utilizes a database of postal information;

twenty-first code for comparing the addresses, once standardized, with each other; and

if addresses disagree, twenty-second code for tagging the address information with lower confidence to be reflected in the integrity rating for the web site.

49. The system of claim 46 wherein the fifteenth code for querying business information comprises code for:

providing cleaned-up name and address information to a business rating service query generator, which, via the Internet, queries credit report data sites and business rating data sites; and

parsing the results by a rating service reply parser.

50. The system of claim 46 wherein the fifteenth code for querying corporate registration information comprises code for:

providing cleaned-up name and address information to a corporate filing service query generator, which, via the Internet, queries corporate filing data sites; and

parsing the results by a filing service reply parser.

51. The system of claim 46 wherein the fifteenth code for querying negative information comprises code for:

providing cleaned-up name and address information to a negative information query generator, which, via the Internet, queries negative information sources; and

parsing the results by a parser.

52. The system of claim 43 wherein the commerce site test comprises code for determining whether or not the web site appears on its face to be engaged in commerce comprising code for:

examining the text of web pages originated by a quick web site crawl for indications that the web site is selling something; and

returning a yes/no decision.

53. The method of claim 52 wherein the quick web site crawl comprises code for:

limiting examination to the first few web pages of a web site beginning with a starting domain name or URL to determine if the site is selling something, which is added to a list of URLs to fetch;

for each domain name or URL, fetching the relevant web page by a web page reader via the Internet from the target web site to obtain a local copy of the web page;

examining the fetched web page for links to other web pages;

passing the fetched web page to a relevance tester, which uses a set of relevance rules to determine which links are relevant;

feeding back relevant links into the list of URLs to fetch and ignoring links which are not relevant; and

returning the web pages that are collected.

54. The system of claim 42 wherein the sixteenth code comprises code for:

scoring the business information based on the information collected about a business;

computing a web site integrity rating from the scored business information; and

determining an annotation based on the web site integrity rating.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein the sixteenth code further comprises code for:

coloring the annotation result returned to an end user for display in red, yellow, or green; and

returning the annotation result.

56. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to provide a background web crawler for performing domain integrity evaluation in bulk, in advance of search queries, comprising:

first code for providing a background web crawler continuously scanning through the World Wide Web on the Internet;

second code for performing domain processing and integrity evaluation on each Uniform Resource Locator (URL) found by said web crawler, comprising code for;

checking a domain name included in an Internet domain as part of a URL against a local database of known domains and URLs for which integrity ratings are available to eliminate unnecessary reprocessing of domains already evaluated;

if the domain is in the database indicating an integrity rating is already available, bypassing further processing and returning an integrity rating immediately; and

if the domain is not already in the database, using name and address extraction to attempt to obtain a physical name and address associated with the domain;

if a reliable name and address are obtained, third code for collecting business information;

fourth code for scoring the business information; and

fifth code using the scored business information to update the integrity rating in the database of known domains so that future queries can be quickly processed.

57. The system of claim 56, further comprising sixth code for using the integrity rating information to adjust the rating of links from a web page.

58. The method of claim 56, further comprising sixth code for storing the collected business information in the database to allow the search engine to recognize, and to rate accordingly, when multiple web sites are controlled by the same party.

59. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to use an existing directory of web sites in conjunction with providing a search for information available on the World Wide Web on the Internet having enhanced integrity, comprising:

first code for using a directory of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to generate a list of URLs to be fetched;

second code for collecting business information about the domain associated with each such URL;

third code for scoring the business information for each domain to produce web site integrity information; and

fourth code for updating a database of known domains used to present the directory to the browser;

whereby the directory is reordered or annotated according to the web site integrity information.

60. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to provide a search for information available on the World Wide Web on the Internet having enhanced integrity, comprising:

first code for generating a search query;

second code for transmitting the search query via the Internet to a search engine using a web browser;

third code for providing the search query to the search engine;

fourth code for performing initial processing of the search query by the search engine;

fifth code for performing the search and accumulating a set of search results by means of the search engine, each of which contains at least a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying an Internet domain and page on the World Wide Web selected by the search;

sixth code for receiving the search results;

seventh code for extracting a list of URLs and domains mentioned in the search results;

eighth code for using the list of domains to generate a domain query to send via the Internet to a web site integrity rating system;

ninth code for receiving the domain query;

tenth code for performing domain processing on the list of domains;

eleventh code for returning a set of web site integrity ratings via the Internet;

twelfth code for using the web site integrity ratings to reorder and annotate the search results so as to move results with relatively low integrity ratings downward in the results; and

thirteenth code for returning the reordered and annotated search results to the web browser via the Internet;

whereby the search engine and the evaluation of web site integrity are performed by separate services and integrated from within the web browser.

61. The system of claim 60, further comprising and display device and:

fourteenth code for formatting the reordered and annotated search results for display; and

fifteenth code for displaying the reordered and annotated search results.

62. The system of claim 60 wherein the browser-side processing is performed by code using a browser toolbar or as a web page containing code which reprocesses information from another web site, using “

Active-X Controls,”

“

Java Applets,”

or “

AJAX techniques.”

63. The system of claim 60 wherein web sites rated as having relatively high integrity are identified with a check mark in a circle, web sites for which insufficient information is obtained are identified with a question mark in a circle, and web sites rated as having relatively low integrity are identified with an “

X”

in a circle and wherein the web sites rated with relatively high integrity are moved to the top of the search results and web sites with relatively low integrity are moved down and displayed in smaller type in the search results.

64. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to create incentives to encourage the proprietors of web sites to improve their legitimacy by complying with appropriate laws, regulations, and business practices, comprising:

first code for receiving search queries by a search engine provider;

second code for producing search results annotated and ordered so as to move results from a web site with a relatively low integrity rating downward in the results and direct customers towards potential competitors with relatively high integrity ratings;

third code for observing a decline in web traffic to a web site from the search engine provider based on the relatively low integrity rating;

fourth code for taking one or more actions by the web site to remedy compliance problems;

fifth code for collecting updated business information;

sixth code for updating records of the search engine provider based on a now improved web site integrity rating;

seventh code for subsequently obtaining search results which tend to encourage potential customers thereafter to do business with the web site based on the improved web site integrity rating;

whereby the business then sees increased sales as a result of its compliance.

65. The system of claim 64 wherein the updated business information is obtained from one or more of a domain registrar, certificate issuer, department of corporations, and business rating bureau.

66. A computer system including a web server and at least one other computer connected to the Internet for executing computer code stored in a computer readable medium to validate on-line advertising sales, comprising:

first code for receiving an on-line order for on-line advertising from a prospective advertiser submitted through a web browser via the Internet to a web site that sells advertising;

second code for obtaining a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and domain name to be advertised;

third code for performing domain processing on the domain;

fourth code for returning a web site integrity rating via the Internet;

fifth code for testing the integrity rating against a threshold of acceptability;

if the integrity rating is below the threshold of acceptability, sixth code for rejecting the on-line advertising order; and

if the integrity rating meets or exceeds the threshold, seventh code for accepting the on-line advertising order and replying to the prospective advertiser that the on-line advertising order is accepted;

whereby advertisers of questionable legitimacy are prevented from placing advertisements on web sites, customer satisfaction is improved, the value of the advertising medium is increased, and the advertising space is made more valuable.