Search engine account monitoring
View Patent ↗A system and method of generating an ordered search list via a search engine by determining various account balances to determine where a search listing will appear, if at all, in a search results list. If a web site advertiser's account is below a threshold, the search listing associated with the advertiser will not appear in the search list. Various balances may be used. Some of the balances may be closer to real-time balances and others may be more accurate, for example by removing certain event charges that were later determined to be non-chargeable. By using and monitoring the various account balances, the search engine prevents over-delivery of advertising through search result listings and possible over-billing of the advertisers.
1. A method of generating an ordered search list via a search engine, the method comprising:
receiving from a searcher over a network a search request, the search request having at least one search term;
retrieving from a search results database a set of search listings associated with the search term, wherein at least some of the retrieved search listings in the set are associated with an advertiser's account such that the advertiser's account is charged a priced amount if a chargeable event occurs in connection with a selected search listing of the advertiser;
determining an account balance for the advertiser's account based on a difference between charges and deposits from respective advertisers, including determining a reconciled balance for the advertiser's account, where the reconciled balance comprises a difference between deposits and a set of current chargeable event charges;
ordering the search listings into a search result list according to a predetermined ordering methodology, including ordering the search listings associated with advertisers with reconciled balances that are below a reconciled threshold as if their priced amount was zero, and including ordering the search listings after disregarding charges for non-chargeable events to reduce over-delivery of the search listings and reduce over-billing of competing advertisers;
providing the ordered search list to the searcher via the network; and
assessing charges to the advertiser's account as a function of the searcher selection of the search listing, including
generating a result event list,
eliminating from the result event list events which are non-chargeable events or fraudulent events, and
deducting an event charge amount from the account balance for the advertiser's account.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining an account balance comprises determining a definitive balance for an advertiser's account, where the definitive balance is the reconciled balance adjusted for charges and deposits after those included in the reconciled balance.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the definitive balance is the reconciled balance less any new definitive chargeable event charges plus any new credit card charges and plus any new adjustments.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining an account balance comprises determining an estimated definitive balance for an advertiser's account, where the estimated definitive balance is the definitive balance less an estimated amount of new definitive chargeable event charges.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein determining an account balance comprises determining a monitoring balance for an advertiser's account, where the monitoring balance is smaller of the estimated definitive balance plus a credit limit and a remaining capital amount.
6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the definitive chargeable event charges are chargeable event charges that have passed a fraud filter.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the chargeable event is a click and the fraud filter detects double clicks as non-chargeable clicks.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the fraud filter detects multiple clicks on a search listing in a search list from a searcher as non-chargeable clicks.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the fraud filter detects multiple clicks on a search listing from a searcher during a session as non-chargeable clicks.
10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the non-definitive chargeable event charges are charges that have passed a real-time fraud filter and the definitive chargeable event charges are charges that have passed a second fraud filter that uses data generated after a charge is charged to determine if that charge is fraudulent.
11. The method of claim 2 wherein determining an account balance comprises determining a working balance for an advertiser's account, where the working balance is the definitive balance adjusted for any new non-definitive chargeable event charges.
12. The method of claim 2 , wherein the threshold is zero dollars.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined ordering methodology comprises:
ordering the search listings in accordance with a relative relevance methodology.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the relative relevance methodology comprises:
ordering search listings so that search listings associated with advertisers' account balances that are below a threshold are ordered as if their priced amount was zero.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein the relative relevance methodology comprises:
ordering the search listings by relative amounts respective advertisers have agreed to pay.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the relative relevance methodology comprises:
ordering the search listings by bid amounts of the respective advertisers.
17. The method of claim 13 wherein the relative relevance methodology comprises ordering the search listings by respective popularity of the search listings.
18. The method of claim 14 wherein the relative relevance methodology comprises ordering the search listings alphabetically.
19. A computer-readable storage medium storing a network search engine for generating an order search list comprising:
a search results database having a plurality of search listings, wherein each search listing is associated with a network location and a respective priced amount;
an account database that maintains account information associated with search listings;
an account monitoring system that monitors accounts in the account database and determines an account balance for each account, including determining a reconciled balance for an advertiser's account, the reconciled balance including a difference between deposits and a set of current chargeable event charges, the account monitoring system configured to deduct event charge amounts from the account balance for an account upon the occurrence of a predetermined event for a search listing associated with the account, the account monitoring system further configured to eliminate event charge amounts which are non-chargeable to the account; and
a search engine which receives from a searcher over a network a search request, the search request having at least one search term, the search engine retrieving from the search results database at least one of the search listings associated with the search term, the search engine generating an ordered search result list including the at least one of the search listings from the search results database for which the account balance determined by the account monitoring system is above a threshold, the search engine ordering search listings in the ordered search result list based on respective priced amounts of the ordered search listings, the search engine ordering search listings for which a reconciled account balance does not exceed a reconciled threshold as if the respective priced amount for a given search term was zero, or ordering the search listings as if the respective priced amount for a given search term was above zero and below all other non-zero priced amounts in the ordered search result list to reduce over-delivery of the search listings and reduce over-billing of competing advertisers.
20. A computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the account monitoring system includes a real-time chargeable event agent that determines chargeable event charges for searchers' access to network sites associated with the search listing in substantially real-time.
21. A computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the account monitoring system includes an auto-charging agent that automatically charges a credit card account when the account balance is below a second threshold.
22. A computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the account monitoring system includes an auto-charging agent that automatically charges a credit card account on a periodic basis.
23. A computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the account monitoring system includes a fraud protection agent that accesses a fraud detection system to determine if any chargeable event charges are non-chargeable because the events associated with the charges were fraudulent.
24. A computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the account monitoring system includes a search listing agent that updates the search results database when an account crosses a threshold and that search listing is treated as having a priced amount of zero.
25. A computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the account monitoring system includes a bulk adjustment agent that automatically adjusts account balances with a minimum charge when the chargeable event charges are below a threshold.