Use of stored search results by a travel search system

• US 9,727,649 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2016
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kayak Software Corporation (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Kayak Software Corporation (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Inventors: Garman, Matthew S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US15/155,654
• Publication Number:
  US 20160260182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 449 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9532 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for a dynamic information connection search engine. User actions may be detected on at least one client system. In response, a determination may be made whether the user is searching for supported information. When the user is searching for supported information, information may be extracted electronically from, for example, third party websites, direct supplier connections, and/or intermediate databases. Potential suppliers may be automatically selected in response to the detected user search. Queries may be formulated from the user search and transferred to one or more selected suppliers over a network coupling (e.g., the Internet and/or an intranet). The queries may include one or more requests for information. One or more responses may be received from the suppliers, and the responses may be used to generate a result list for the user. The result list may include information and/or query status information. Further, an electronic link may be provided to a website of one or more of the supplies from which the information was derived.

Claims

1. A search method directed to travel reservations, comprising:

providing a search website;

receiving, at the search website, a first request directed to a search for a travel reservation, wherein the first request is made by a web browser of a first user;

performing a first search in response to the first request;

storing information related to at least one result of the first search;

predicting, based at least in part upon the stored information, at least a first prediction of a price associated with at least one travel reservation at a first time in the future;

detecting, based on interaction with a web browser of a second user, a travel reservation in which the second user has indicated an interest; and

providing to the web browser of the second user, in response to the detection of the travel reservation in which the second user has indicated an interest, the first prediction;

wherein the prediction provided to the web browser of the second user comprises price information related to the travel reservation in which the second user has indicated an interest;

receiving at the search web site, from the web browser of the second user, a request to search for the travel reservation in which the second user has indicated an interest;

performing a search for the travel reservation in response to the request from the web browser of the second user; and

providing to the web browser of the second user at least one result of the search performed in response to the request from the web browser of the second user;

providing a list of potential suppliers of the travel reservation in which the second user has indicated an interest;

pruning the list of potential suppliers to generate a pruned list consisting of a subset of the list, wherein the pruning is carried out based at least in part upon at least some stored information; and

using the pruned list to perform the search in response to the request from the web browser of the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

predicting, based at least in part upon the stored information, at least a second prediction of a price associated with at least one travel reservation at a second time in the future;

wherein the first time in the future and the second time in the future are distinct from one another; and

wherein the first prediction and the second prediction are provided to the web browser of the second user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting is based on interaction of the web browser of the second user with the search web site.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting is based on interaction the web browser of the second user with a landing page which is the destination of a pay-per-click advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, to the second user, the first prediction provided to the web browser of the second user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are carried out in the order recited.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the travel reservation is one of a lodging reservation, an airline reservation, or a ground transportation reservation.

8. A search method directed to travel reservations, comprising:

providing a search website;

receiving, at the search web site, a plurality of prior search requests directed to a plurality of searches for a plurality of travel reservations, wherein each prior search request is made by a web browser of a respective prior user;

performing a plurality of prior searches, each of the plurality of prior searches being in response to each of the prior search requests;

storing information related to at least one result of each of the prior searches;

predicting, based at least in part upon the stored information, at least a first prediction of a price associated with at least one travel reservation at a first time in the future;

detecting, based on interaction with a web browser of a current user, a travel reservation in which the current user has indicated an interest; and

providing to the web browser of the current user, in response to the detection of the travel reservation in which the current user has indicated an interest, the first prediction;

wherein the prediction provided to the web browser of the current user comprises price information related to the travel reservation in which the current user has indicated an interest;

receiving at the search website, from the web browser of the current user, a request to search for the travel reservation in which the current user has indicated an interest;

performing a search for the travel reservation in response to the request from the web browser of the current user; and

providing to the web browser of the current user at least one result of the search performed in response to the request from the web browser of the current user;

providing a list of potential suppliers of the travel reservation in which the current user has indicated an interest;

pruning the list of potential suppliers to generate a pruned list consisting of a subset of the list, wherein the pruning is carried out based at least in part upon at least some of the stored information; and

using the pruned list to perform the search in response to the request from the web browser of the current user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least two of the prior searches are requested by at least two different entities.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising examining each search result from each prior search and excluding from storage each examined search result which falls outside of a set of test boundaries.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of test boundaries comprises an upper bound and a lower bound.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the upper bound and the lower bound are predetermined values.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the upper bound and the lower bound are based on each of the other prior search results from each of the other prior searches.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the detecting is based on interaction of the web browser of the current user with the search website.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the detecting is based on interaction of the web browser of the current user with a landing page which is the destination of a pay-per-click advertisement.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying, to the current user, the prediction provided to the web browser of the current user.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein the steps are carried out in the order recited.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein the travel reservation is one of a lodging reservation, an airline reservation, or a ground transportation reservation.