Tagged favorites from social network site for use in search request on a separate site

• US 9,223,866 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2010
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Marcucci, Justin, Randquist, Coby P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Reyes, Mariela
• Assistant Examiner(s): CONYERS, DAWAUNE A
• Application Number:
  US12/702,131
• Publication Number:
  US 20110196863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,150 Days
• Field of Search: 707/728, 707/729
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A tag is received from a member of a social network site. The tag is associated with a favorite of the member. Tag data obtained from the tag is provided to a second site that hosts a searching service. The second site determines the relevancy of the tag data relative to a new search request received by a user on the second site.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, via a first data processing system hosting a social network site, a tag from a member of the social network site, the member associating the tag with a favorite of the member on the social network site;

processing tag data obtained from the tag, by a second data processing system, the second data processing system hosting a searching service comprising an information database available for searching by a user of the searching service, the information database comprising business directory information about a plurality of businesses;

augmenting, by the second data processing system, the business directory information with the tag data;

associating, by the second data processing system, one or more respective business or service categories with each member of the social network site based at least in part on respective tag data for each member of the social network site; and

determining a relevancy, via the second data processing system, of the tag data relative to a search request received by the second data processing system from the user, such that the tag data is correlated to the search request to provide a response to the search request to the user, wherein the search request corresponds to business criteria and a location, and the determining comprises;

accessing a social relationship graph that comprises information about a network of social relationships between the user and a set of members of the social network site;

searching a set of tag data corresponding to one or more tags from the set of members of the social network site;

correlating items of the set of tag data and one or more associated business or service categories to the search request, the one or more associated business or service categories previously associated with one or more members of the set of members of the social network site;

selecting a set of search results indicative of one or more businesses that correspond to the business criteria and that correspond to one or more favorites of one or more members of the set of members of the social network site related to the location; and

ranking the search results of the set of search results at least partially based on the social relationship graph and the one or more favorites of the one or more members of the set of members of the social network site; and

transmitting to the first data processing system a question directed to at least one of one or more members of the set of members of the social network site, wherein the question formed is related to at least one of the one or more businesses and at least one of the one or more associated business or service categories.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

parsing the tag to obtain the tag data using natural language processing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag data comprises a member-defined category for the favorite.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing a member-defined hierarchy via the first data processing system, wherein the member-defined category is included in the hierarchy.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a web page for display to the member, the web page comprising a list of favorites, each favorite of the list of favorites having a respective accompanying displayed tag previously submitted by the member to the first data processing system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the web page further comprises a displayed category hierarchy previously created by the member, the category hierarchy comprising a plurality of member-defined tags.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

charging, using the first data processing system, a fee for the providing tag data to an entity associated with the second data processing system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the fee is charged responsive to a sale to the user related to the tag data.

9. A non-transitory, machine-readable medium having machine-readable instructions thereon that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving, via a first data processing system hosting a social network site, a tag from a member of the social network site, the member associating the tag with a favorite of the member on the social network site;

processing tag data obtained from the tag provided to a second data processing system, the second data processing system hosting a searching service comprising an information database available for searching by a user of the searching service, the information database comprising business directory information about a plurality of businesses;

augmenting the business directory information with the tag data;

associating, by the second data processing system, one or more respective business or service categories with each member of the social network site based at least in part on respective tag data for each member of the social network site; and

determining a relevancy of the tag data relative to a search request received by the second data processing system from the user, such that the tag data is correlated to the search request to provide a response to the search request to the user, wherein the search request corresponds to business criteria and a location, and the determining comprises;

accessing a social relationship graph that comprises information about a network of social relationships between the user and a set of members of the social network site;

searching a set of tag data corresponding to one or more tags from the set of members of the social network site;

correlating items of the set of tag data and one or more associated business or service categories to the search request, the one or more associated business or service categories previously associated with one or more members of the set of members of the social network site;

selecting a set of search results indicative of one or more businesses that correspond to the business criteria and that correspond to one or more favorites of one or more members of the set of members of the social network site related to the location; and

ranking the search results of the set of search results at least partially based on the social relationship graph and the one or more favorites of the one or more members of the set of members of the social network site; and

transmitting to the first data processing system a question directed to at least one of one or more members of the set of members of the social network site, wherein the question formed is related to at least one of the one or more businesses and at least one of the one or more associated business or service categories.

10. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the tag data comprises a member-defined category for the favorite.

11. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

storing a member-defined hierarchy via the first data processing system, wherein the member-defined category is included in the hierarchy.

12. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

providing a web page for display to the member, the web page comprising a list of favorites, each favorite of the list of favorites having a respective accompanying displayed tag previously submitted by the member to the first data processing system.

13. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the web page further comprises a displayed category hierarchy previously created by the member, the category hierarchy comprising a plurality of member-defined tags.

14. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

charging a fee for the providing tag data to an entity associated with the second data processing system.

15. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the fee is charged responsive to a sale to the user related to the tag data.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a first data processing system, comprising;

a network interface configured to interface with a communications network;

a first memory storing first instructions;

a first processor coupled with the network interface and the first memory to execute the first instructions, the first instructions configured to instruct the first processor to;

receive a tag from a member of a social network site hosted by the first system, the member to associate the tag with a favorite of the member on the social network site, and obtain tag data from the tag;

a second data processing system, coupled to communicate with the first data processing system, the second data processing system to host a searching service comprising an information database available for searching by a user of the searching service, the information database comprising business directory information about a plurality of businesses, the second data processing system comprising;

a second memory storing second instructions;

a second processor coupled with the memory to execute the second instructions, the second instructions configured to instruct the second processor to;

receive the tag data from the first data processing system;

augment the business directory information with the tag data;

associate one or more respective business or service categories with each member of the social network site based at least in part on respective tag data for each member of the social network site; and

determine a relevancy of the tag data relative a search request to be received by the second data processing system from the user, such that the tag data is correlated to the search request to provide a response to the search request to the user, wherein the search request corresponds to business criteria and a location, and the determining comprises;

accessing a social relationship graph that comprises information about a network of social relationships between the user and a set of members of the social network site;

searching a set of tag data corresponding to one or more tags from the set of members of the social network site;

correlating items of the set of tag data and one or more associated business or service categories to the search request, the one or more associated business or service categories previously associated with one or more members of the set of members of the social network site;

selecting a set of search results indicative of one or more businesses that correspond to the business criteria and that correspond to one or more favorites of one or more members of the set of members of the social network site related to the location; and

ranking the search results of the set of search results at least partially based on the social relationship graph and the one or more favorites of the one or more members of the set of members of the social network site; and

transmit to the first data processing system a question directed to at least one of one or more members of the set of members of the social network site, wherein the question formed is related to at least one of the one or more businesses and at least one of the one or more associated business or service categories; and

a storage device, coupled to the second data processing system, to store the information database.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the network interface is further configured to communicatively couple to receive the tag from a user device of the member.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first instructions are further configured to instruct the first processor to parse the tag to obtain the tag data using a natural language processing module.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first instructions are further configured to instruct the first processor to provide a web page for display to the member, the web page comprising a list of favorites, each favorite of the list of favorites having a respective accompanying displayed tag previously submitted by the member to the first data processing system.