Method and apparatus for responding to end-user request for information-ranking

• US 7,836,009 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2005
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Claria Corporation
• Inventors: Pingel, Adam William, Westover, Matthew E., Paczkowski, Remigiusz K., Lindsey, Benjamin, Vandevelde, Scott, Fairchild, Jason, Bennett, Dominic
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleurantin; Jean B
• Application Number:
  US11/207,592
• Publication Number:
  US 20060041553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,915 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-206, 709/217, 709/219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

The present invention relates to an advanced search engine. The advanced search engine may include a client component for monitoring an end-user'"'"'s browsing activity, a remote server (may comprise one or more computers) for storing and processing data received from the client component, and a module that process web pages and serves search results to end-users. The advanced search engine may collect web pages for keywords of proven interest, fetch web pages requested by end-users, generate snippets or abstracts of the web pages, eliminate duplicate web pages, rank the importance of the web pages, and provide relevant web pages or links to web pages in response to an end-user search request for information regarding one or more keywords, for example. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

Claims

1. A method of ranking, the method including:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises filtering outlying observations within the search engine usage information before ranking the links, the filtering comprising eliminating links selected by the particular user that were returned by the search engine less than a predetermined number of times.

2. A method of ranking, the method including:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises filtering outlying observations within the search engine usage information before ranking the links, the filtering comprising discounting a dwell time that exceeded a predetermined length of time.

3. A method of ranking, the method including:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises assigning approximately equal weighting, plus or minus 10 percent, to the user access rates, the dwell time and the documents viewed information.

4. A method of ranking, the method including:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises assigning weighting ratios of approximately 2-1-1, plus or minus 10 percent, so that one of the user access rates, the dwell time or the documents viewed information is given approximately half of a combined weighting.

5. A machine readable memory including program instructions, the program instructions executable by a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

receiving, search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword

wherein the ranking step further comprises filtering outlying observations within the search engine usage information before ranking the links, the filtering comprising eliminating links selected by the particular user that were returned by the search engine less than a predetermined number of times.

6. A system comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

a processor configured to rank the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

a database configured to store the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword

wherein the processor configured to rank the plurality of links comprises the processor configured to filter outlying observations within the search engine usage information before ranking the links, the filtering comprising eliminating links selected by the particular user that were returned by the search engine less than a predetermined number of times.

7. A machine readable memory including program instructions, the program instructions executable by a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises filtering outlying observations within the search engine usage information before ranking the links, the filtering comprising discounting a dwell time that exceeded a predetermined length of time.

8. A machine readable memory including program instructions, the program instructions executable by a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises assigning approximately equal weighting, plus or minus 10 percent, to the user access rates, the dwell time and the documents viewed information.

9. A machine readable memory including program instructions, the program instructions executable by a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

receiving search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

ranking the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

storing the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword,

wherein the ranking step further comprises assigning weighting ratios of approximately 2-1-1, plus or minus 10 percent, so that one of the user access rates, the dwell time or the documents viewed information is given approximately half of a combined weighting.

10. A system comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

a processor configured to rank the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

a database configured to store the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword

wherein the processor configured to rank the plurality of links comprises the processor configured to filter outlying observations within the search engine usage information before ranking the links, the filtering comprising discounting a dwell time that exceeded a predetermined length of time.

11. A system comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

a processor configured to rank the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

a database configured to store the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword

wherein the processor configured to rank the plurality of links comprises the processor configured to assign approximately equal weighting, plus or minus 10 percent, to the user access rates, the dwell time and the documents viewed information.

12. A system comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive search engine usage information from a behavior watching module operating on a user'"'"'s computer, the behavior watching module configured to monitor a user'"'"'s interaction with a search engine provided by a web server to generate the search engine usage information, the search engine usage information comprising

a user search word submitted by a user of the computer to the search engine,

a plurality of links selected by the user from results returned by the search engine, and

at least one of dwell time or documents viewed by the user when following the selected plurality of links;

a processor configured to rank the plurality of links based on a correspondence to a keyword, the correspondence being based on both (user access rates) and at least one of ((the dwell time) or (the documents viewed)); and

a database configured to store the plurality of ranks in machine readable memory, the ranks being available in response to a search invoked with the keyword

wherein the processor configured to rank the plurality of links comprises the processor configured to assign assigning weighting ratios of approximately 2-1-1, plus or minus 10 percent, so that one of the user access rates, the dwell time or the documents viewed information is given approximately half of a combined weighting.