Enhanced search with user suggested search information

A method and system are disclosed for allowing a user to suggest information about content that can be utilized in processing subsequent searches. The suggested information may be different from a fixed set of information about an item, such as keywords, attributes, or characteristics of an item, generally provided by a manufacturer or seller of the item. Users can submit to a service the information that they feel is relevant to the item, such as a brief explanation of relevance and a detailed explanation that would help other users to make a decision about the item. The submitted information may be associated with the item information and stored in a data store and utilized as additional attributes of the item for a search. In addition, when a user requests detail information about an item, the user-submitted information may be displayed to the user.

BACKGROUND

In a typical network-based environment, users can search for available items by submitting search criteria such as keywords. In some situations, the submitted search terms may not be considered relevant to find the item because the submitted search terms are not associated with a set of stored attribute/characteristics corresponding to the item. Accordingly, the user may have to spend a great deal of time in obtaining search results that can lead the user to the item. Indeed, many items which would be relevant to the user's search may never be found because a fixed set of information about an item, such as keywords, attributes, or characteristics of an item, are generally provided by a manufacturer or seller of the item but not by users of the item.

Currently, most search engine indices do not incorporate information about aspects of an item, such as end user's knowledge or experience, in its relevancy calculations. Most search engines may not provide a way to incorporate end-users' knowledge or suggestions into item information that can be utilized to improve the relevance of search results.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally described, embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system for allowing a user to suggest information about content that can be utilized in processing subsequent searches. The suggested information may be different from a fixed set of information about an item, such as keywords, attributes, or characteristics of an item, generally provided by a manufacturer or seller of the item. More specifically, a group of users can submit to a service the information that they feel is relevant to the item. The submitted information may include a brief explanation why the submitted information is relevant to the item and a detailed explanation that would be helpful for other users to make a decision about the item. The submitted information may be associated with the item information and stored in data entries in a data store. The submitted information may be utilized as additional attributes of the item for a search. In addition, when a user requests detail information about an item, the submitted information relevant to the item may be retrieved and displayed to the user.

With reference now toFIG. 1, an illustrative operating environment100can include a service server (service)104, including a search engine122for searching item information from one or more data stores, such as a catalog data store126, a search index data store128, a user suggestions data store130including data entries, etc. The service104can also include a user interface124for providing information to a user device108-112which is configured to facilitate user interaction. Within the service104, the search engine122in conjunction with the one or more data stores126-130can provide search results including data entries from such data stores to a user interface124in response to a search query request which is in turn provided to the user device108-112for display to a user. For example, if a user wishes to find items corresponding to Digital Video Discs (DVDs), the user may input a few search keywords describing aspects of the subject matter of interest to the user.

In an illustrative embodiment, information, related to available movie DVDs, is stored as data entries in a catalog data store. As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, each item stored as a data entry in the catalog data store may correspond to a structured set of attribute fields and corresponding values in the search index data store128. With reference now toFIG. 10, a block diagram1000depicts an item corresponding to a set of structured attribute fields1002-1008in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. The set of structured attribute fields will be used to store information particular to a corresponding item. For example, if an item is related to the DVD “Sound of Music,” several attribute fields are defined to have attribute values related to the item (as specified by an item identifier: unique serial number, Universal Product Code (UPC), Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number, manufacturer part number, etc.), such as product name, category, style, size, price, manufacturer, seller, main actor, rating, promotion, etc.

In one embodiment, a search suggestion attribute field (hereinafter “suggestion field”) may be defined to store keywords or hints identified from user submitted search suggestions related to a particular item. As will be described in greater detail, a search suggestion may be divided into two or more parts. One is a relevance explanation, i.e., a short description about why the search suggestion is relevant to the item, and the other is a detailed explanation, i.e., user's narrative providing detailed information about the item relevant to customers who searched for the suggested keywords. A user who submits a search suggestion (hereinafter “submitter user”) may be encouraged or required to input a relevance explanation that deems to be relevant to the particular item.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the information in the search index data store126can be stored and organized in any suitable way that allows items to be searched based on particular attributes. A user device108-112may be any type of user devices having functionality and components to facilitate user interactions for an item search and for a suggestion submission in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

In an illustrative embodiment, a search engine122can obtain search results including data entries from one or more data stores such as the search index data store128based on a search query transmitted from the user device. A user interface124can obtain the search results from the search engine122and present a display of the search results to the user device. In an illustrative embodiment, the user interface124may provide a front end of a stand-alone application, such as a Web browser displayed on the user device. Alternatively, the user interface124can be integrated with one or more software applications within a user device.

One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the data and/or components may be stored on a computer-readable medium and loaded into the memory of the user device108-112using a drive mechanism associated with the computer-readable medium, such as a floppy, hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM drive, or network interface. Further, the components can be included on a single device or distributed in any manner. For example, all the components such as the search engine122and user interface124could be located on the user device108-112. Furthermore, the components can be integrated in any manner. For example, the search index data store128and the user suggestions data store130could be integrated into a single data store. Furthermore, the components shown inFIG. 1represent an illustrative embodiment. In other embodiments, components can be removed or their functionality can be provided by another component.

With reference now toFIG. 2, the interaction by various components of the operating environment100where a user device transmits a search suggestion to the service that in return evaluates and stores the search suggestion submission will be described. A submitter user (not shown) may interact with the user device108(“user1”) to submit a search suggestion about a particular item that is currently displayed on the user device108. As will be described in detail below, the search suggestion can be based on the user's personal experience with the particular item, the user's knowledge about attributes of the item, etc. For example, a search suggestion submission can be started by clicking a hyperlink representing a form to submit a search suggestion within a web page displaying an item. For another example, a search suggestion submission can be started by choosing a suggestion submission menu choice provided within a web page. Alternatively, any user may be solicited through email or a pop-up window for submitting search suggestions for items that the user has previously purchased or showed an interest in. In an alternative embodiment, a service may maintain an online community, such as a message board about items, where various members can exchange information about search suggestions.

Referring now toFIG. 9, an exemplary screen display900illustrates a form to submit a search suggestion in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. Assume that a submitter user was reviewing information about a book, for example, “Secrets of the Riviera; a Photo Essay.” The submitter user may find that although the photo essay is about French Riviera scenery, many photos include a model whose name is not well known to many people.

The submitter user may think that other people who like the model would want to review the book. As shown, the submitter user may input a keyword (suggestion attribute value) for the search suggestion. For example, the submitter user identified “Alessandra Beautiful”902for the keyword. The submitter user may also input a relevance explanation904for the book, such as “This book includes pictures of Alessandra Beautiful” and the user's narrative (detailed explanation)906such as “This Photo Essay by Patrick McMullan contains pictures of the French Rivera. I found out that many pictures include Alessandra Beautiful in her swimming suit. This Photo Essay can be called Alessandra Beautiful's photo essay. She is just gorgeous. For anyone who loves Alessandra Beautiful, I recommend this Photo Essay.” The submitter user may select a button908for submission.

Referring back toFIG. 2, after the submitter user inputs a search suggestion and selects a button908for submission, the user device108may transmit the inputted search suggestion to the service104. The search suggestion can be transmitted via a communications network106, such as the Internet.

In one alternative embodiment, the search suggestion may be forwarded to a queue to wait for a manual screening, e.g., an initial screening by human administrators. While the search suggestion is in the queue for the initial screening, the submitter user can review and edit the search suggestion or cancel the submission of the search suggestion. In one embodiment, human administrators periodically screen the submitted search suggestions under a set of rules in order to weed out offensive content, political content, or something that may be against internal policies for the service104.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, in one embodiment, the human administrators' screening process can be automated at the client or server side. In another alternative embodiment, a rule-based agent application with feedback from human administrators may mimic behaviors or reasoning of the human administrator in order to filter some of the search suggestions. In yet another embodiment, the screening process can be integrated with services for performing the screening task. For example, a service may be invoked to bid or outsource each screening task or a set of screening tasks. As mentioned above, the search suggestions can be evaluated by a group of users who are selected by the service, who share a similar interest in the subject of the search suggestions, or who are in a same community. For example, a foreign movie online discussion community may review the submitted search suggestions for foreign movies and provide recommendations as to whether the submitted search suggestion is relevant to a particular item.

A service104obtains the search suggestion approved from the initial screening. The service104may conduct another filtering/screening process to detect any redundancy between the search suggestion and other stored information related to the item or the previously submitted search suggestions related to the item. For example, if the user has submitted a search suggestion about a DVD but the relevancy explanation of the search suggestion is in fact the title of the DVD, the search suggestion may not be accepted by the service104. Optionally, the service104may conduct more filtering to detect search suggestions which the initial screening failed to filter out for their offensive content, political content, or something that may be against internal policies. When the submitted search suggestion is rejected, the service104may issue a notification to a user explaining the reason of the rejection.

In an illustrative embodiment, after the service determines to accept the search suggestion, the service104may identify a suggestion keyword from the search suggestion. Referring back toFIG. 9, the submitter user may submit a suggestion keyword902for a user suggestion. In an alternative embodiment, the service may parse a part of the search suggestion, for example, a relevance explanation (a short description about why the search suggestion is relevant to the item) of the search suggestion into several suggestion keywords.

The suggestion keyword(s) may be used by the search engine to take the search suggestion into account for determining relevancy with a search query. Subsequently, the service104stores the search suggestion as a data entry on the user suggestion data store130and updates the search index data store128with the suggestion keyword(s). As mentioned above, on the search index data store128, the suggestion keywords may be stored in a suggestion field as an additional attribute (hereinafter “suggestion attributes value”) of the item.

FIGS. 3A and 3Bare block diagrams of the operating environment ofFIG. 1illustrating interactions among various components in the operating environment where a user device submits a search query to the service, which returns search results in conjunction with search suggestions of the search results in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.

As illustrated inFIG. 3A, a user (not shown) may make a selection for a search request about an item. For example, a user may input a search query including several keywords describing the item. Subsequently, the user device110(“user2”) may issue a request for the initial search. The search request can be transmitted via a communications network106, such as the Internet. A service104obtains the request and then the service104(the search engine122) would process the search query by issuing a query request to the search index data store128. As withFIG. 2, assume that additional attribute or a keyword recognized from a search suggestion is stored in the search index data store and the search suggestion is also stored in the user suggestions data store130. Each search suggestion is associated with an item that a user indicates to be relevant to the search suggestion.

Based on the initial search, one or more entries of the user suggestions data store130can be identified. In one embodiment, the search engine122issues the search query on the search index data store128to determine if one or more items were considered relevant to the search criteria based, in part, on relevancy to the suggestion attribute values. As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, one item may be associated with several search suggestions. With the matching suggestion attribute values, the search engine can identify the data entries of the user suggestions data store130which corresponds to the matching suggestion attribute values. The search engine122may request from the user suggestions data store130the relevance explanations of the identified entries. Subsequently, the search engine122may receive the requested relevance explanations. The search engine may provide the user interface124with the search results with corresponding relevance explanations.

Once the user interface124receives the search results and corresponding relevance explanation from the search engine122, the user interface124may construct a display page including the search results and the corresponding relevance explanation for a user device110. The user interface124may transmit the display page information to the user device110. The display page information can be transmitted via a communications network106. Subsequently, a user may be presented with the display page including the search results and corresponding relevance explanation on the user device110. As will be discussed in greater detail below, the relevance explanation may be presented to users as part of the general description of items. A user can make a selection from the displayed search results to view detailed information about a particular item.

Referring now toFIG. 5, an exemplary display screen500reflecting the results of a search performed with the service104for a particular item based on the search query501, “BREEKS, WHITE” is depicted. The screen display500includes five matching items, result item502-510, found as a result of searching. As shown, two result items502,506have relevance explanations512,514respectively. The result item506is a “Men's Riding Breeches” item. In this example, another user (submitter user) has submitted a search suggestion including relevance explanation such as “breeks is Scottish for breeches” to help other users to search the “Men's Riding Breeches” item with a keyword “breeks.” After the submitter user submitted the search suggestion for the “Men's Riding Breeches” item, the service104has stored a suggestion keyword “breeks” in a suggestion field of the index entry of the “Men's Riding Breeches” item. Thus, in one illustrative embodiment, when there is a search query including “breeks,” the search results based on search query may include items having attribute values matching “breeks,” for example, “Men's Riding Breeches” item. In another illustrative embodiment, the relevance explanation is provided in response to a query when the query exactly matches the search suggestion. The service104has stored the submitted search suggestion, “breeks is Scottish for breeches,” in the user suggestions data store130. The stored search suggestion is associated with the “Men's Riding Breeches” item and may be displayed for detailed information of the associated item.

In one embodiment, each search suggestion in the user suggestions data store130can be searched or queried by an item identifier of the associated item. In one embodiment, the keyword identified from the search suggestion may be stored in one of the attribute fields of an index entry. In that embodiment, the service104may not be able to differentiate the keywords initially provided by a manufacture or seller from the keywords identified from the search suggestions submitted by users.

Referring now toFIG. 3B, a user selects an item to view detail information about a particular item from the display on the user device110. Continuing with the example above, inFIG. 5, a user can select result item506“Men's Casual Britches” to view the detailed information about the relevance explanation. The user may want to know whether “britches” means something else that the user should know before the purchase.

Referring back toFIG. 3B, once the user selects the item, the selection may be transmitted from the user device110to the user interface124of the service104. The user interface124obtains item detail information from the catalog data store126and a detailed explanation about the search suggestion from the user suggestions data store130. With obtained information, the user interface124generates a detail page for the selected item. Continuing with the example above inFIG. 5, the user selects result item506corresponding to the “Men's Casual Britches” item after the user noticed that “britches” also refers “breeks” from the relevance explanation514. Subsequently, the user interface124may obtain item detail information of the “Men's Casual Britches” item from the catalog data store and the detailed explanation about the search suggestion. The user interface124may generate and present the detailed page to the user.

With reference toFIG. 4, a flow diagram depicts an illustrative search result display routine400for conducting a search on data stores, which includes search suggestions submitted by users in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. For the purpose of discussion, assume that a group of selected users have successfully submitted search suggestion information about an item. The information specified in the submitted search suggestions may be different from the attributes (or detailed information) of the item, which are stored in the search index128and catalog data stores126. Assume further that each submitted search suggestion is associated with the corresponding item so that other users can view the search suggestion along with the item information. As mentioned above, the user suggestions data store130stores a relevance explanation and detail explanation for each search suggestion. Further, there can be more than one search suggestion associated with one item. Some suggestions may be updated, removed or evaluated by a submitter user, an authorized user, or the service104.

Beginning with block402, a request for search may be received from a user. As explained above, a user can input a search query or select a search query by clicking a hyperlink on a Web page. For example, referring toFIG. 5, a user can input “breeks” in a search query box501in the web page500. At block404, the service104may conduct a search on the data stores and obtain search results. Subsequently, the service104identifies one or more search suggestions which include a keyword or a hint relevant to the search query. For example, the user device can transmit a request for search with the search query inputted by the user to a service104. The service104conducts a search with the search query on the search index data store and obtains search results. The service104may go through suggestion attribute values of each index entry in the search results to identify the suggestion attribute value matching at least part of the search query. Alternatively, the service104may identify suggestion attribute values of each index entry that has some relevance to the search query. As mentioned above, at the time of submission, a search suggestion is associated with a particular item through a suggestion keyword. Typically, the suggestion keyword is provided by a submitter user or recognized (identified) from the relevance explanation of the search suggestion. In an alternative embodiment, the suggestion keyword can be identified from the detailed explanation by a natural language process. One or more keywords can be identified or obtained for one user suggestion. The suggestion keywords (suggestion attribute values) may be stored in a suggestion field associated with the particular item.

At block406, the service104may identify suggestion attribute values that have been utilized for obtaining the search results. As mentioned above, the service104may identify the suggestion attribute values matching at least part of the search query. At block408, the service104obtains from the user suggestion data store130a relevant explanation of a search suggestion corresponding to the identified search suggestion attribute value. At block410, the search results are displayed with the identified search suggestion attribute and the relevant explanation. A user can select one from the displayed search results to view more detailed information.

Referring now toFIG. 5, the service may obtain item information by conducting a search with the search query on the catalog data store in conjunction with the search index data store. The service also identifies relevance explanations which have been suggested by some users as relevant to “breeks.” As shown, the service104can recognize that relevance explanations for result items502,506include keywords or hints relevant to the search query “breeks.”

For example, result item502is men's riding breeches item that includes a relevance explanation, such as “Breeks is Scottish for ‘breeches.’” In this example, some user previously recognized that item502could be relevant to “breeks” because the term “breeks” is Scottish for “breeches” and items manufactured in the United States may be labeled “breeches” instead of “breeks.” A user may submit a suggestion keyword for item502, such as “breeks,” a relevance explanation for the suggestion keyword, such as “Breeks is Scottish for “breeches,” and a detailed explanation. After the submission, a suggestion keyword “breeks” may be stored in a search suggestion field of the “Men's riding breeches” item. Likewise, result item506is a “Men's Casual Britches” item that is associated with a relevance explanation such as “Britches is an informal word for ‘breeches’ and breeks is Scottish for ‘breeches.’” In this example, the “Men's Casual Britches” item may have two suggestion keywords such as “breeks” and “breeches” stored in the search index data store128. When presenting the web page as depicted inFIG. 5, the service displays the relevance explanation512,514in order to help users to understand why the search results502,506are relevant to the search query.

With reference toFIG. 6, a flow diagram depicts an illustrative detail page display routine600for presenting a detail page of an item in response to a user selection for the item where the detail page also includes detailed explanation of a search suggestion is shown in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.

At block602, a service104receives a selection (selected item) from the displayed search results. At block604, a service obtains item detail information related to the selected item from the catalog data store124. At block606a service obtains detailed explanation of the search suggestion associated with the selected item. As mentioned above, the detailed explanation is a user narrative explaining why the suggestion is relevant to the item or why the item should be returned for search results if the suggestion is a part of the search query. At block608, a server constructs an item detail page with the obtained information. At block610, the constructed item detail page may be presented to a user. The routine600completes at block612.

Referring now toFIG. 7A, an exemplary screen display700illustrating the detail page ofFIG. 6where the item detail information is displayed in conjunction with the detailed explanation of a search suggestion associated with the selected item in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. As withFIG. 5, assume that a user is presented with search results such as a list of items and relevance explanations submitted by other users for one or more items in the search result. Assume further that the user selected result item502to view a detailed page of the result item502. A service104obtains item detail information704about the selected item from the catalog data store126and detailed explanation708of the search suggestion associated with the selected item from the user suggestions data store130.

As shown, the service104obtains item detail information704, such as “Traditionally styled full seat breech, 92% cotton and 8% spandex for excellent shape retention and complete freedom of movement. Front zipper with snap closure front pockets and Velcro ankle closures” and detailed explanation708of the search suggestion, such as “Have you traveled to Scotland where you can find quality riding breeches? Don't ask for riding breeches. Ask for horse riding “breeks” instead!” Subsequently, the service104constructs an item detail page700with the relevance explanation702and the obtained information704,708as depicted inFIG. 7A. In addition, a user can submit a new search suggestion for the displayed item through the item detail page700. As shown inFIG. 7A, if a user selects “Make a Search Suggestion” link706, a search suggestion submission form as depicted inFIG. 7Bmay be presented to assist the user to enter a search suggestion about the displayed item701, such as “Men's Riding Breeches.”

Referring toFIG. 7B, an illustrative screen display720depicts a search suggestion form where a submitter user can submit a search suggestion for an item in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. As shown, the submitter user may identify a user suggestion which the submitter user thinks is helpful to other users. For example, the submitter user identifies “Plus Fours” which is relevant to “Breeches.” The submitter user may input “Plus Fours” in the keyword box724. The submitter user may also input a relevance explanation726of the keyword, such as “Plus Four often refers to “breeks” that is Scottish for ‘breeches.’” and the user's narrative (detailed explanation)728such as “Plus fours, sometimes refer to breeks in Scotland, are loosely tailored slacks cut 4 inches below the knee. They have been traditionally associated with sporting attire particularly golf. They are often seen on golf courses, and frequently worn with argyle socks, silk ties, and dress shirts/sweaters.” The submitter user may select a button730for submission of the user suggestion. The keyword “Plus Fours” is stored as another suggestion attribute value in a suggestion field of the displayed item, “Men's Riding Breeches.” The relevance explanation and the detailed explanation may be associated with the suggestion attribute value “Plus Fours” and stored in a suggestion data store130. As described above, the submitted user suggestion may be manually or automatically filtered before the server stores the submitted user suggestion in the data stores128,130.

In some instances, the service may display more than one search suggestion associated with an item. In that case, a server may order or prioritize the search suggestions based on the confidence score of each search suggestion. The confidence score can be determined by various factors, including, but not limited to user voting, the number of hits on the detailed explanation, etc. For example, the service104may allow users to vote for the best search suggestion among the several search suggestions associated with a particular item. If a search suggestion gets high votes, the confidence score of the search suggestion may be increased. For another example, the service104may allow users to rate a search suggestion based on the usefulness of the search suggestion. If a search suggestion gets high votes, the confidence score of the search suggestion may be increased. Also, the service104may evaluate the volume of sales made through each search suggestion. If the volume of sales is high, the confidence score of the suggestion may be also increased. The service may display the search suggestions in order of the confidence score.

In one embodiment, the service104may periodically re-evaluate the confidence scores of the stored search suggestions in order to maintain a manageable number of search suggestions per item. The service may discard search suggestions with a poor confidence score. Further, the search suggestions may be utilized to determine relevancy scores in the search result.

Scoring may not be limited to the suggestions provided by users. In one illustrative embodiment, the submitter user providing the suggestions may also be rated using techniques similar to those used for rating suggestions. For example, other submitter users may be allowed to vote on various suggestions provided by a particular submitter user. If the particular submitter user consistently gets high ratings for his suggestions, the submitter user is assigned a high score. The submitter user's score may be calculated by averaging the scores of all the suggestions he has provided. Other techniques may also be used to assign a score to a submitter user, such as tracking the number of suggestions provided by the particular submitter user that are associated with search hits and sales.

FIG. 8is a flow diagram for storing a search suggestion and attribute information extracted from a submitted search suggestion in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.

At block802, a service104receives a request for submitting a search suggestion about a particular item. In one embodiment, the request for submitting a search suggestion may be initiated by clicking a hyperlink which points to a user interface that enables a user to submit a search suggestion. At block804, the service104presents a user interface, such as a search suggestion form, with which the user can input a search suggestion for the particular item. At block806the service104receives from a user a search suggestion including a keyword, a short description (relevance explanation), and narrative (detailed explanation). At block808, the received search suggestion is placed into a queue for evaluation. The human administrator may filter some search suggestions which are offensive to the general public, which are politically motivated, which include curse words, which are against internal policies of the service, etc. In an alternative embodiment, this filtering process can be automated by a filtering application. At block810, a service104may receive an approval on the submitted search suggestion from the human administrator or the automated filtering application. At block812, a service104may determine whether the submitted search suggestion can be accepted and therefore is suitable for being incorporated into a part of the data stores. The service104may further screen the submitted search suggestion if the search suggestion is redundant to another search suggestion stored, preciously stored attributes of the item, etc. At decision block814, it is determined as to whether the submitted search suggestion can be redundant information which is previously stored for the item. If it is determined at decision block814that no redundancy is found, the search suggestion may be stored in the user suggestions data store130. Also, suggestion keywords may be identified from the search suggestion and associated with the current item. For example, the identified suggestion keywords are stored in a suggestion field of an index entry for the particular item. If it is determined at decision block814that redundancy is found, the service104recommends a submission of a new search suggestion.

In one embodiment, the service104may maintain user reputation information, including, but not limited to, a “trust level,” “ranking,” etc., for users. The “trust level” of a user may be determined based on previous actions that human administrators (or the service) have applied to the user. For example, if the search suggestion submitted by a user is disapproved by a human administrator, the trust level of the user may be downgraded. The age of an account may be considered as a factor to determine the trust level of a user. The “ranking” of a user may be determined based on other users' reactions to a search suggestion submitted by the user. Other information, such as the number of submitted suggestions versus rejected suggestions, a period of inactivity of the account, total number of search suggestions determined to be redundant, etc., may be included in the user reputation information.

In some instances, the reputation information (e.g., trust level, ranking, etc.) of a user may be used when a search suggestion submitted by the user is screened or filtered. For example, if the reputation information indicates that the user can be trusted, the service may issue a qualification certificate to the user so that the search suggestions submitted by a user with the qualification certificate may bypass a manual screening or filtering.

With reference toFIG. 11, an illustrative screen display1100depicts a search suggestion page where several search suggestions submitted by one user are listed and managed in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. In one embodiment, the service may maintain user profile information which includes a list of the search suggestions submitted by a user. As shown, a user with user identifier “BLUE1212” has submitted several search suggestions for items. In one embodiment, a list of the search suggestions submitted by one user can be viewed by other users. A user may be allowed to submit to the service a request to influence search suggestions submitted by other users. For example, a user can submit a feedback on the search suggestions submitted by other users, rank the search suggestions, report to the service that a particular search suggestion can offend some people, etc.

Further, a user may be able to maintain his/her search suggestions by requesting the service to remove, or update a search suggestion. For example, the user with user identifier “BLUE1212” can request to remove a search suggestion1102-1108from the user suggestions data store130. Upon receipt of the request, the service may determine whether the search suggestion can be removed or change. In one embodiment, the list of search suggestions made by a group of users (e.g., suggestion community) can be managed by the group. In some instance, linkage may be established with other community features such as review board, personalized blogs, etc. In this manner, more users can participate in the process of search suggestions, which may improve user retention and leverage the user community to exercise self-regulation/policing.

The ranking of search suggestions is not limited to the ranking of search suggestions submitted by a particular user, such as BLUE1212. Ranking of search suggestions may be performed based on suggestions displayed with a particular item.FIG. 12is an illustrative Web page showing a number of search suggestions related to a particular item, in this example, “Breeches.” Search suggestions1202,1204, and1206may have been submitted by the same submitter user or by different submitter users. In one illustrative embodiment, each of the search suggestions1202,1204, and1206is associated with a corresponding rank/feedback button1208. Selecting the rank/feedback button1208causes another page, such as a dialog box or a pop-up window, to appear for ranking the corresponding search suggestion. The item-based suggestion review page1200may be used by submitter users or by end-users of the search service104. In one illustrative embodiment, the item-based suggestion review page1200is accessible only to submitter users recognized by the service104, for example, by having been registered as submitter users previously. In another illustrative embodiment, the item-based suggestion review page1200is accessible to all users of the service104. The users of service104can rank the suggestions to influence and improve the quality of search suggestions that appear with search results. The user may select a link1210or other GUI control, such as a button, to make a new search suggestion, or add comments to an existing suggestion, associated with the particular item currently displayed in the item-based suggestion review page1200. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that access control policies, such as read/write/modify/delete permissions, may be used to control access to existing or new search suggestions.

Once the user chooses to rank a suggestion by selecting the rank/feedback button1208, a new page is presented for data entry by the user.FIG. 13is an illustrative ranking page1300used for ranking search suggestions. The suggestion ranking page1300may include a listing of the search suggestion1302being ranked, a ranking scale1304, a comment field1308, and other administrative data entry fields, such as a maintenance request text field1310. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the suggestion ranking page1300may be configured in many other ways without departing from the spirit of the present disclosures. For example, the ranking scale1308may include multiple components such as “clarity” scale, “relevance” scale, “completeness” scale, etc. Such multiple components may be used separately or combined according to a predetermined scheme to generate a single composite ranking for the given search suggestion1302. The rank of a suggestion may be used by the service104to improve the quality of search suggestions displayed with related search results.

One skilled in the art will recognize that the aforementioned embodiments are described for illustrative purpose only, and thus, are not to be construed as limiting. Moreover, although specific screen displays and exemplary flow diagrams are illustrated in conjunction with specific data store components, it should be understood that the examples provided are not exhaustive and do not limit the present application. It should also be understood that search suggestions submitted by users can be utilized in various other applications which are either related or unrelated to searches.