Patent ID: 7499919
Filing Date: 2009-03-03
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions comprising: instructions for ranking documents on a network, said computer-executable instructions utilizing a ranking function invoked for a user query of the documents that comprises one or more query independent components, wherein at least one query-independent component includes a usage parameter that takes into account server-generated, server-stored usage data for one or more documents on the network, the usage data having been generated and stored by a network storage system managing and providing users with network access to the documents, the usage data comprising measurements of actual user interaction via the network storage system with the one or more documents on the network such that the usage data of a document reflects query-independent interactive usage of the document by a plurality of users via the network storage system, said computer executable instructions also assigning a score generated by the ranking function to rank documents on the network, said score being used to rank documents in order, the computer-executable instructions further comprising instructions for accepting a search inquiry comprising a search string inputted by a user, conducting a search of the documents on the network to generate search results comprising multiple documents, ranking the multiple documents of the search results using the ranking function to generate ranked search results such that the documents are ranked according to both their respective usage data and their relevance to the search string, and providing the ranked search results to the user.