Granted Patent B2

US 8,255,413 · App. 11/207,590 · Granted Aug 28, 2012

Abstract

Claims (78)

1. A method of resolving ambiguity in a keyword search term submitted to a search engine, the method comprising:

(A) receiving, from a client-side behavior watching module operating on a computer system, recent navigation information regarding recent navigation behavior on the computer system, said navigation information including behavioral data and at least one keyword;

(B) checking the at least one keyword against a list of commercial terms;

(C) based at least in part on said checking in (B), determining whether the at least one keyword is a commercial keyword;

(D) if the at least one keyword is determined in (C) to be a commercial keyword:

(d1) assigning the at least one keyword a keyword ID;

(d2) generating a first data structure that includes the keyword ID, the behavioral data, and a domain ID that corresponds to a domain of a search location; and

(d3) loading the first data structure into a first section of a data warehouse that is associated with commercial keywords;

(E) if the at least one keyword is not determined in (C) to be a commercial keyword:

(e1) assigning the at least one keyword an other ID;

(e2) generating a second data structure that includes the other ID, the behavioral data, and a domain ID that corresponds to a domain of a search location; and

(e3) loading the second data structure into a second section of a data warehouse that is associated with non-commercial keywords;

(F) ranking links associated with the at least one keyword with results from client-side behavior watching modules on other computer systems; and

(G) preferentially providing higher ranked commercial links in response to relevant search criteria.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recent navigation information is categorized by interest categories and by recency of behavior.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recent navigation information includes data regarding accessing documents that are not all associated with a particular server-side behavior data collection network.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the documents are web pages and the server-side behavior data collection network is an advertising network.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the keyword is derived from context of a selection action.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning the keyword another keyword ID if the keyword is determined to be noncommercial.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a conversion associated with an online purchase or registration made in response to an advertisement; and

using the conversion as a factor in ranking the links.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the keyword search term is submitted from a heavy searcher using the collected information; and

weighting the results from the client-side behavior watching module more heavily when ranking links because the keyword search term is submitted from a heavy searcher.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the keyword search term is submitted among a high degree of involvement in a particular category using the collected information; and

weighting the results from the client-side behavior watching module more heavily when ranking links associated with the particular category because the keyword search term is submitted among a high degree of involvement in the particular category.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the client-side behavior watching module is browser independent.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the client-side behavior watching module is separate from a web browser.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the client-side behavior watching module runs independently of browser programs on the computer system.

13. A method of supplementing a search request with information that reflects recent navigation behavior among documents accessible via a network, the method comprising:

(A) operating a client-side behavior watching module on a computer system to collect recent navigation behavior information regarding recent navigation behavior, wherein the recent navigation behavior information collected includes:

(i) identification of documents electronically accessed;

(ii) categorization of the documents electronically accessed into various categories;

(iii) an indication of when documents in the various categories were electronically accessed; and

(iv) data sufficient to identify a conversion from an online purchase or registration in response to an advertisement;

(B) submitting at least a summary of the recent navigation behavior information along with a query including a keyword to one or more servers with a search engine, the summary including identification of the conversion in the data sufficient to identify a conversion; and

(C) in response to said submitting in (B), receiving from the search engine a list of results biased to an interest category corresponding to the submitted recent navigation behavior information and ranked using results from multiple client-side behavior watching modules on other computer systems, wherein the list of results comprises higher ranked commercial links in response to relevant search criteria of the query if the keyword is associated with the conversion.

14. The method of claim 13 , further including the behavior watching module filtering the documents accessed and categorizing the indication of when the categories were accessed.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the keyword is derived from context of a selection action.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the list of results is generated based, at least in part, on whether or not the keyword corresponds to a commercial keyword.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

determining whether or not the keyword corresponds to a commercial keyword.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the client-side behavior watching module is browser independent.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the client-side behavior watching module is separate from a web browser.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the client-side behavior watching module runs independently of browser programs on the computer system.

21. A method of resolving ambiguity in a keyword search term submitted to a search engine, the method comprising:

receiving, from a client-side behavior watching module operating on a computer system, recent navigation information, including a keyword and behavioral data, regarding recent navigation behavior on the computer system;

checking the keyword against a list of commercial terms;

determining whether the keyword is commercial;

if the keyword is determined to be commercial:

assigning the keyword a keyword ID;

generating a first data structure that includes the keyword ID, the behavioral data, and a domain ID that corresponds to a domain of a search location; and

loading the first data structure into a first section of a data warehouse that is associated with commercial keywords;

if the keyword is determined to be non-commercial:

assigning the keyword an other ID;

generating a second data structure that includes the other ID, the behavioral data, and a domain ID that corresponds to a domain of a search location; and

loading the second data structure into a second section of a data warehouse that is associated with non-commercial keywords;

ranking links associated with the keyword with results from client-side behavior watching modules on other computer systems; and

preferentially providing higher ranked commercial links in response to relevant search criteria.

22. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that configure a computing device on execution to:

receive, from a client-side behavior watching module operating on a computer system, recent navigation information regarding recent navigation behavior on the computer system, said navigation information including behavioral data and a keyword;

check the keyword against a list of commercial terms;

based at least in part on the check, determine whether the keyword is a commercial keyword;

if the keyword is determined to be a commercial keyword:

assign the keyword a keyword ID; and

generate a first data structure that includes the keyword ID, the behavioral data, and a domain ID that corresponds to a domain of a search location;

rank links associated with the keyword with results of other navigation behavior; and

preferentially provide higher ranked commercial links in response to relevant search criteria.

23. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that configure a computing device on execution to:

collect recent navigation behavior information regarding recent navigation behavior, wherein the recent navigation behavior information collected includes:

identification of documents electronically accessed;

categorization of the documents electronically accessed into various categories;

an indication of when documents in the various categories were electronically accessed; and

data sufficient to identify a conversion from an online purchase or registration in response to an advertisement;

submit at least a summary of the recent navigation behavior information along with a query including a keyword to one or more servers with a search engine, the summary including identification of the conversion in the data sufficient to identify a conversion; and

in response to said submitting, receive from the search engine a list of results biased to an interest category corresponding to the submitted recent navigation behavior information and ranked using results from multiple client-side behavior watching modules on other computer systems, wherein the list of results comprises higher ranked commercial links in response to relevant search criteria of the query if the keyword is associated with the conversion.

Assignments (8)