System and method for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engine

• US 7,363,300 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2006
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Overture Services Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Jonathan C., Lee, Ka Luk, Greco, Larry, Derer, Matthew, Kwong, Thomas, Davis, Darren J., Kurt, Tod E., Skovran, Steve, Garcia, Johann, Pfarner, Preston
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CUONG H
• Application Number:
  US11/438,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 707 2- 6, 707/10, 707/E71.08, 705/26, 709/202, 709/219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and method for enabling information providers using a computer network to influence a position for a search listing within a search result list. A database stores accounts for the network information providers. Each account contains contact and billing information. In addition, each account contains at least one search listing having at least three components: a description, a search term comprising one or more keywords, and a bid amount. The network information provider may add, delete, or modify a search listing after logging into his or her account via an authentication process. The network information provider influences a position for a search listing in the provider'"'"'s account by first selecting a relevant search term and entering that search term and the description into a search listing. A continuous online competitive bidding process occurs when the network information provider enters a new bid amount for a search listing. This bid amount is compared with all other bid amounts for the same search term. A rank value is generated for all search listings having that search term. The generated rank value determines where the network information provider'"'"'s listing will appear on the search results list page that is generated in response to a query of the search term by a searcher at a client computer on the computer network. A higher bid by a network information provider will result in a higher rank value and a more advantageous placement.

Claims

1. A method of operating a search engine on a computer network to generate a search result list in response to a client submitting a search query, the method comprising:

maintaining a database searchable by the search engine, the database storing a plurality of search listings, each search listing including search listing text, an information provider and a bid amount;

receiving a search query from a client;

identifying at least some search listings matching the search query, wherein a match is based at least in part on a location for an information provider;

displaying at least some of the identified search listings to the client, where the displayed search listings are ordered using the bid amounts of the respective identified search listings;

receiving a request made by the client to retrieve a selected search listing displayed to the client;

charging to an account of the information provider for the selected search listing an amount related to the bid amount of the selected search listing; and

providing an information provider with authenticated online access to the stored search listings of the information provider to modify a bid amount of a search listing or search listing text of a search listing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieval request is generated by the client clicking on a hyperlink for the selected search listing, and the bid amount is a money amount charged for each such click-through.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed search listings which generate a charge to the information provider are identified in the display as paid listings.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at the request of an information provider provided with online access, an activity report is generated automatically for at least one search listing for a specified time period, including information on at least one of the number of retrieval requests received from clients, the number of occurrences of a client submitting a matching search query, the number of impressions, and the click through rate.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically estimating the cost of including a search listing with the stored search listings for a specified time period upon receiving a request for an estimate from an information provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each stored search listing further includes at least one search term;

a match is determined in part by a search term of a search listing generating a match with the search query; and

an information provider with online access is permitted to modify a search term of a search listing of the network information provider.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location for an information provider is one of a country, a city, a zip code, and a telephone area code.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a match is based at least in part on the language of the search listing text associated with a search listing.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the search listings are ordered by decreasing bid amount.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an information provider with online access is permitted to change the manner by which a search listing is matched with the search query.

11. A method of generating a result list in response to a user input submitted over a computer network, the method comprising:

maintaining a database including a plurality of network information provider listings, wherein each listing includes a money amount, a network information provider, and a location associated with the network information provider;

receiving an input entered by a user;

identifying at least some network information provider listings matching the input received from the user, wherein a match is based at least in part on a location of the network information provider;

displaying to the user a result list including at least some of the identified network information provider listings, the listings being ordered using their respective money amounts; and

upon receiving a retrieval request from the user to retrieve a network information provider listing selected from the result list, charging to an account of a network information provider for the selected listing the money amount for the selected listing;

wherein a network information provider is provided with online authenticated login access permitting the network information provider to modify a search listing of the network information provider.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the location is one of a country, a city, a zip code, and a telephone area code.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a match is based at least in part on the language of search listing text of a listing.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the retrieval request is generated by the user clicking on a hyperlink for the selected listing, and the money amount is charged to the network information provider for each such click-through.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the displayed listings are ordered by decreasing money amount.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein a network information provider with online access is permitted to change the manner by which a listing is matched with a user input.