Patent ID: 7328252
Filing Date: 2008-02-05
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: storing product data on a server coupled to receive requests from client devices over a network, the product data representing one or more products offered by the server, wherein the requests from the client devices are received for purchasing at least one of the offered products; generating a set of one or more predetermined search requests for subsets of the product data have been received by the server from the client devices previously, wherein a search request is designated as a common search request if a number of the search requests received at the server from the client devices within a predetermined period of time exceeds a predetermined threshold; performing searches in one or more databases associated with the server in response to the set of common search requests to identify one or more products; storing on the server a result of the searches based on the common search requests associated with the identified one or more products; receiving at the server a subsequent search request from a client device over the network; the server determining whether the subsequent search request is equivalent to one of the previously performed common search requests whose search results are stored in the server; providing results from the stored results of the common search requests previously generated in response to the common search requests without performing a search for the subsequent search request, if the subsequent search request is equivalent to one of the common search requests; performing the search for the subsequent search request if the subsequent search request is not equivalent to one of the previously performed common search requests; and providing results of one or more additional products from the stored results of the common search requests previously generated in response to the common search requests without performing an additional search for the one or more additional products when results from the search for the subsequent search request does not identify any products that are preferred by a user of the client device, wherein the results of the one or more additional products suggest at least one of the offered products for purchasing by the user.