EP1320042A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Recommending search terms using collaborative filtering and web spidering
Assignee: Altaba Inc
•
Filing: 2002-11-25
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2022-11-25
Abstract
Abstract In a pay-for-placement search system, the system makes search term recommendations to advertisers managing their accounts in one or more of two ways. A first technique involves looking for good search terms directly on an advertiser's web site. A second technique involves comparing an advertiser to other, similar advertisers and recommending the search terms the other advertisers have chosen. The first technique is called spidering and the second technique is called collaborative filtering. In the preferred embodiment, the output of the spidering step is used as input to the collaborative filtering step. The final output of search terms from both steps is then interleaved in a natural way.
Inventors
- 👤 Mark Paine
- 👤 Winton Davies
- 👤 Donald F. Geddis
- 👤 Jon Dukes-Schlossberg
- 👤 Darren J. Davis
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 17:44
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q30/00; G06Q30/02; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/30; G06F16/33; G06F16/332; G06F16/3322; G06F16/36; G06F16/90; G06F16/95; G06F16/951; G06F16/953; G06F16/9532; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S707/00; Y10S707/912; Y10S707/918; Y10S707/953; Y10S707/959; Y10S707/99931; Y10S707/99933
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 65
Claim 1
Independent Claim
53 words
A method for a database search system, the method comprising: receiving a list of search terms associated with an advertiser on the
database search system; determining candidate search terms based on search terms of other
advertisers on the database search system; and recommending the additional search terms from among the candidate
search terms.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 1 wherein determining candidate search terms
comprises: assigning ratings to search terms; and computing a correlation between the advertiser and one or more of the
other advertisers using the assigned ratings of advertiser search
terms.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 2 further comprising: predicting a likelihood that a candidate search term will be relevant to the
advertiser.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 3 wherein predicting comprises: determining a quality metric for the candidate search terms; and predicting relevance of candidate search terms based on the quality metric.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
48 words
A method for a database search system, the method comprising: maintaining a database of search listings including associated search terms;
receiving a list of search terms associated with an advertiser; computing ratings for search terms; and recommending additional search terms to the advertiser based on the
computed ratings.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
14 words
The method of claim 5 wherein computing ratings comprises: assigning ratings to search terms.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
14 words
The method of claim 5 wherein computing ratings comprises: predicting ratings for search terms.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 5 wherein receiving a list of search terms
comprises: receiving a list of initial search terms from the advertiser.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 5 wherein receiving a list of search terms
comprises: identifying an existing advertiser on the database search system; and forming the list of search terms from search terms of the existing
advertiser.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method of claim 5 wherein receiving a list of search terms
comprises: receiving a website uniform resource locator (URL); and spidering the website associated with the URL to extract search terms for
the list of search terms.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 10 wherein spidering the website comprises: receiving data from pages of the website; recording candidate search terms from the data; and determining a quality metric for each candidate search term.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 11 further comprising: sorting the candidate search terms according to the quality metric; and recommending only candidate search terms having a quality metric
exceeding a threshold.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 10 wherein spidering comprises: receiving data from one or more pages of the website; and examining text from the one or more pages for candidate search terms.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 13 wherein examining text comprises: examining substantially all text from the one or more pages; and examining meta tags from the one or more pages.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 13 wherein receiving a website URL
comprises: receiving the advertiser's URL as the web site URL.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 13 wherein receiving a website URL
comprises: receiving the web site URL from the advertiser.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method of claim 5 further comprising: receiving a search query from a user; searching for matching search terms in the database of search listings;
preparing search results by formatting matching search terms according to
advertiser bid amounts associated with the search listings; and communicating the search results to the user.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
39 words
A database search system comprising: a database of search terms, each search term being associated with one or
more advertisers; and program code configured to recommend additional search terms for an
advertiser based on search terms in the database.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
35 words
The database search system of claim 18 wherein the program code
comprises: collaborative filtering code configured to recommend the additional search
terms based on search terms associated with other advertisers of the
database search system.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
16 words
The database search system of claim 19 wherein the collaborative
filtering code comprises Pearson correlation code.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
21 words
The database search system of claim 19 wherein the program code
comprises: a program loop to iterate the collaborative filtering code.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
24 words
The database search system of claim 18 further comprising: code to receive accept and reject indications from the advertiser before
repeating the program loop.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
20 words
The database search system of claim 18 wherein the program code
comprises: spidering code to recommend the additional search terms.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
35 words
The database search system of claim 18 wherein the program code
comprises: spidering code to find initially accepted search terms in a web site; and collaborative filtering code to provide the recommended additional search
terms.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
21 words
The database search system of claim 24 wherein the spidering code
is configured to spider a web site of the advertiser.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
22 words
The database search system of claim 23 wherein the spidering code
is configured to spider a web site specified by the advertiser.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
28 words
The database search system of claim 18 further comprising: filtering code to filter candidate search terms according to a quality metric to
produce the recommended additional search terms.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
27 words
The database search system of claim 15 further comprising: search engine program code configured to search the database in response to a
search query from a user.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
69 words
A data base operating method for a database search system storing
advertiser search listing, the method comprising: spidering a specified web site to obtain an initial list of advertiser search
terms for an advertiser; filtering the initial list of advertiser search terms using search terms of
other advertisers; and storing in a search listing database search listings for the advertiser, the
search listings formed with the filtered search terms.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
18 words
The data base operating method of claim 29 wherein the specified
web site comprises an advertiser specified website.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
22 words
The data base operating method of claim 29 wherein the specified
web site comprises a website specified by the database search system.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
38 words
The data base operating method of claim 29 further comprising: assigning ratings to search terms; and computing a correlation between the advertiser and one or more of the
other advertisers using the assigned ratings of advertiser search
terms.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
23 words
The data base operating method of claim 32 further comprising: predicting a likelihood that a search term will be relevant to the advertiser.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
31 words
The data base operating method of claim 33 wherein predicting
comprises: determining a quality metric for candidate search terms; and predicting relevance of candidate search terms based on the quality metric.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
40 words
The data base operating method of claim 29 wherein spidering the
specified web site comprises: receiving data from pages of the specified website; recording candidate search terms from the data; and determining a quality metric for each candidate search term.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
33 words
The data base operating method of claim 35 further comprising: sorting the candidate search terms according to the quality metric; and recommending only candidate search terms having a quality metric
exceeding a threshold.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
66 words
The data base operating method of claim 29 wherein filtering
comprises: determining a correlation between a web site of the advertiser and web sites
of other advertisers on the database search system; using the correlation, determining ratings for each advertiser search term in
the initial list of advertiser search terms; and organizing search terms of the initial list of advertiser search terms
according to the ratings.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
44 words
The data base operating method of claim 29 further comprising: presenting the organized search terms to the advertiser; receiving advertiser acceptance indications for the organized search terms; adjusting the list of advertiser search terms according to the acceptance
indications; and filtering the adjusted list.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
29 words
The data base operating method of claim 38 further comprising: iteratively presenting the organized search terms, receiving revised
advertiser acceptance indications, and adjusting the list of advertiser
search terms.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
54 words
The data base operating method of claim 38 further comprising: receiving a search query from a user; searching for matching search terms in the search listing database; preparing search results by formatting matching search terms according to
advertiser bid amounts associated with the matching search listings;
and communicating the search results to the user.
Claim 41
Independent Claim
46 words
A method for a database search system, the method comprising: receiving a search term of an advertiser; in response to the received search term, generating a list of additional
related search terms; and receiving advertiser selected search terms from the list of additional related
search terms.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 41 wherein generating the list of additional
search terms comprises: matching one or more text strings from the received search term with a
database of search terms.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of claim 38 wherein generating the list of additional
search terms comprises: matching one or more text strings from the received search term with a
thesaurus.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 41 further comprising: displaying a form for entering one or more search listings for a selected
search term.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 42 further comprising: entering the selected search term as a default value in each of the one or more
search listings
Claim 46
Independent Claim
26 words
A method for recommending search terms, the method comprising: receiving information describing an advertiser; and recommending search terms based on the advertiser's similarity to other
advertisers.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 46 further comprising: assigning ratings based on the information describing the advertiser and
information describing the other advertisers; and recommending search terms based at least in part on the ratings.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
41 words
The method of claim 46 further comprising: predicting ratings for the advertiser and the other advertisers based on the
information describing the advertiser and information describing the
other advertisers; and recommending search terms based at least in part on the ratings.
Claim 49
Dependent Claim
41 words
The method of claim 46 further comprising: computing correlations for the advertiser and the other advertisers based on
the information describing the advertiser and information describing
the other advertisers; and recommending search terms based at least in part on the correlations.
Claim 50
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 49 wherein computing correlations comprises: computing Pearson correlations.
Claim 51
Independent Claim
34 words
A method for recommending search terms, the method comprising: downloading web pages rooted at a specified uniform resource locator
(URL); and recommending search terms that appear in the body text of the web pages.
Claim 52
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 51 further comprising: identifying an advertiser having a web site; specifying the advertiser's web site as the specified URL.
Claim 53
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 51 further comprising: receiving a web site identifier from an advertiser as the specified URL.
Claim 54
Independent Claim
32 words
A method for recommending search terms, the method comprising: receiving a uniform resource locator (URL); downloading web pages rooted at the URL; and recommending search terms that appear in the web pages.
Claim 55
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 54 further comprising: identifying an advertiser having a web site; receiving the advertiser's web site as the URL.
Claim 56
Independent Claim
59 words
A method for recommending search terms, the method comprising: calculating a quality metric for candidate search terms, the quality metric
for a respective candidate search term being a function of the
respective search term's web frequency and a function of a search
term's search frequency; and recommending search terms for which the calculated quality metric
exceeds a quality threshold
Claim 57
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 56 further comprising: sorting the candidate search terms according to a second metric.
Claim 58
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 56 further comprising: automatically calibrating the quality threshold.
Claim 59
Independent Claim
36 words
A method for recommending search terms for a database search
system, the method comprising: maintaining a database of search terms associated with advertiser listings;
receiving information describing an advertiser; and recommending search terms to the advertiser.
Claim 60
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 59 further comprising: determining candidate search terms by collaborative filtering; and recommending search terms from the candidate search terms.
Claim 61
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 59 further comprising: downloading web pages rooted at a uniform resource locator; and recommending the search terms based on terms that appear in body text of
the web pages.
Claim 62
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 59 further comprising: receiving a uniform resource locator (URL); downloading web pages rooted at the URL; and recommending search terms based on terms that appear in the web pages.
Claim 63
Dependent Claim
62 words
The method of claim 59 further comprising: calculating a quality metric for candidate search terms, the quality metric
for a respective candidate search term being a function of the
respective search term's web frequency and a function of a search
term's search frequency; and recommending the search terms based on search terms for which the
calculated quality metric exceeds a quality threshold
Claim 64
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 59 further comprising: receiving feedback from the advertiser on the recommended search terms;
and changing the recommended search terms based on the feedback.
Claim 65
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 59 further comprising: receiving feedback from the advertiser on the recommended search terms;
and changing the recommended search terms based on the feedback.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
US6269361B1
Cited
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