Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8271480
Timestamp: 2018-04-25 21:41:55
Document Index: 26873857

Matched Legal Cases: ['§120', '§119', 'Application No. 04', 'Application No. 2006', 'application No. 2006', 'Application No. 10', 'application No. 2006', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 04', 'application No. 2006', 'Application No. 2006', 'Application No. 10', 'application No. 2006', 'Application No. 04758906']

US8271480B2 - Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis - Google Patents
US8271480B2
US8271480B2 US12354751 US35475109A US8271480B2 US 8271480 B2 US8271480 B2 US 8271480B2 US 12354751 US12354751 US 12354751 US 35475109 A US35475109 A US 35475109A US 8271480 B2 US8271480 B2 US 8271480B2
US12354751
US20090157642A1 (en )
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/819,082 filed Apr. 5, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,499,914 which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein, under 35 U.S.C. §120; which claims the benefit of priority under 35 USC §119 from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/460,658, entitled “Search System Using Search Subdomain and Hints to Subdomains in Search Query Statements and Sponsored Results on a Subdomain-By-Subdomain Basis”, filed on Apr. 4, 2003, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
HTML is a common format used for pages or other content that is supplied from an HTTP server. HTML-formatted content might include links to other HTML content and a collection of content that references other content might be thought of as a document web, hence the name “World Wide Web” or “WWW” given to one example of a collection of HTML-formatted content. As that is a wellknown construct, it is used in many examples herein, but it should be understood that unless otherwise specified, the concepts described by these examples are not limited to the WWW, HTML, HTTP, the Internet, etc.
Layout area 308 includes links that represent hits responsive to the search term and are preferably independent of who sponsors links. Layout area 310 is provided for insertion of the matching advertisement, or a general advertisement in some cases. Layout area 312 and 314 provide additional matching inserts, which are specific to the search terms used, but are typically not search results, sponsored matches or advertisements. In this example, layout area 312 contains links for executing alternative searches and layout area 314 contains links for subdomain specific searches that might be alternatively executed.
If a hint is recognized, it is then compared against a blacklist of terms that are not to be considered hints. For example, the search string ‘194089 Adventures” might be interpreted as the hint operator, a zip code hint of 94089 and a remainder search string of “adventures”. If “94089 Adventures” were the name of a popular movie, this search query would be constantly misinterpreted. To avoid this, the string “94089 Adventures” is placed on the blacklist, causing that string to be interpreted as a string without hints.
This appendix provides an example of a list of keywords that, when used in a search query string followed by a “!” (or other method of hint indication, or implicit hinting), will cause a subdomain specific search to be done. address book advice alerts ask yahoo astrology auctions autos banking bill pay bookmarks briefcase buzz index calendar careers chat city guides classifieds companion dictionary domains education encyclopedia enterprise solutions express fantasy auto racing fantasy baseball fantasy basketball fantasy football fantasy golf fantasy hockey fantasy sports finance full coverage games games on demand geocities get local greetings groups health hot jobs insurance job jobs loans lottery mail maps members message boards messenger mobile money manager movies music mutual fund my yahoo notepad pay direct people search personals pets photos picks picture gallery platinum points pool portal solutions real estate reference resumix shopping small business sports stock quotes store taxes thesaurus tickets travel tv wallet weather weather map web hosting white pages yahoo argentina yahoo asia yahoo australia yahoo baseball yahoo basketball yahoo brasil yahoo canada yahoo china yahoo denmark yahoo directory yahoo en espanol yahoo essentials yahoo family accounts yahoo football yahoo fiance yahoo germany yahoo golf yahoo help yahoo hockey yahoo hong kong yahoo horse racing yahoo india yahoo italy yahoo japan yahoo korea yahoo mlb yahoo nascar yahoo nba yahoo ncaa yahoo nfl yahoo nhl yahoo norge yahoo personals yahoo platinum yahoo sbc yahoo Singapore yahoo soaps yahoo soccer yahoo sweden yahoo taiwan yahoo tennis yahoo tv yahoo uk yahoo visa yahoo wallet yahooligans yellow pages
determining whether the particular keyword is a first hint keyword based, at least in part, on detecting, based on a query log, a pattern of usage that identifies the particular keyword as the first hint keyword;
wherein the particular document is from a set of results based on the previous search query;
in response to determining that the particular keyword is a first hint keyword, selecting a first set of one or more databases from a plurality of database sets that includes a second set of one or more databases that differs from the first set of one or more databases;
searching the first set of one or more databases for at least one query word of the one or more query words;
retrieving information regarding a first set of one or more documents resulting from the step of searching the first set of one or more databases; and
2. The computer-executed method of claim 1,
3. The computer-executed method of claim 1, further comprising
receiving, from a second requesting entity, a second search query comprising one or more second query words, wherein the one or more second query words include a second keyword;
determining whether the second keyword is a second hint keyword;
in response to determining that the second keyword is not a second hint keyword, searching the second set of one or more databases for at least one query word of the one or more second query words;
retrieving information regarding a second set of one or more documents resulting from the step of searching the second set of one or more databases; and
returning, to the second requesting entity, the information regarding the second set of one or more documents.
4. The computer-executed method of claim 1, further comprising:
(d) a meaning of the first hint keyword provided by the requesting entity; or
selecting the second set of one or more databases based on the second hint keyword;
searching the second set of one or more databases for the at least one query word of the one or more query words;
retrieving information regarding a second set of one or more documents resulting from the step of searching the second set of one or more databases;
returning, to the requesting entity, the information regarding the second set of one or more documents.
wherein the first set of one or more documents resulting from the step of searching includes a sponsored document; and
6. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the first set of one or more databases includes documents relating to maps, telephone directory lookups, weather, news, shopping, auctions, images and hierarchical directory searches.
7. The computer-executed method of claim 1 further comprising adding an additional term to the search query, based, at least in part, on the first hint keyword, that causes the search query to be directed to a particular domain.
8. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the particular keyword is a first hint keyword comprises analyzing a table of possible hint keywords maintained by a search server.
9. The computer-executed method of claim 1, further comprising inferring an implicit hint based on prior query activity.
receiving, at a particular search server from a requesting entity, a search query comprising one or more query words, wherein the one or more query words include a particular keyword;
in response to determining that the particular keyword is the first hint keyword, selecting a first set of one or more databases, based on the first hint keyword, from a plurality of database sets that includes a second set of one or more databases that differs from the first set of one or more databases;
passing at least one query word of the one or more query words to a subdomain search server;
wherein the particular search server does not have access to the first set of one or more databases selected based on the first hint keyword;
searching, at the subdomain search server, the first set of one or more databases for the at least one query word;
11. A computer-executed method comprising:
in response to determining that the particular keyword is the first hint keyword, selecting a first set of one or more databases from a plurality of database sets that includes a second set of one or more databases that differs from the first set of one or more databases;
retrieving information regarding a first set of one or more documents resulting from the step of searching the first set of one or more databases;
searching the second set of one or more databases for at least one query word of the one or more query words, wherein the second set of one or more databases is not selected based on the first hint keyword;
returning, to the requesting entity, the information regarding the first set of one or more documents and the information regarding the second set of one or more documents; and
12. The computer-executed method of claim 11, wherein the step of determining whether the particular keyword is a first hint keyword further comprises comparing the particular keyword against a list of words that are not hint keywords.
13. The computer-executed method of claim 11, wherein the step of determining whether the particular keyword is a first hint keyword further comprises comparing a type of the particular keyword against a list of types of keywords that are not hint keyword types.
14. The computer-executed method of claim 11, wherein the step of determining whether the particular keyword is a first hint keyword further comprises detecting a pattern in the particular keyword, wherein the pattern is identified by a business rule to be indicative of a hint keyword.
15. The computer-executed method of claim 11, wherein the step of determining whether the particular keyword is a first hint keyword further comprises:
determining whether the particular keyword is delimited by one or more hint operators; and
in response to determining that the particular keyword is delimited by the one or more hint operators, then determining that the particular keyword is the first hint keyword.
16. The computer-executed method of claim 11,
17. The computer-executed method of claim 11, further comprising:
(c) detecting a particular pattern in the search query identified by a business rule to be indicative of the particular keyword; or
18. The computer-executed method of claim 17,
wherein the step of parsing the particular keyword from the search query is based on the preference established by the requesting entity; and
(b) a particular word of a plurality of words selected by the requesting entity to be a keyword, wherein the plurality of words is provided to the requesting entity; or
19. The computer-executed method of claim 17, further comprising
US12354751 2003-04-04 2009-01-15 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis Active 2025-12-19 US8271480B2 (en)
US46065803 true 2003-04-04 2003-04-04
US10819082 US7499914B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2004-04-05 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
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US13599688 US8849796B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2012-08-30 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
US14496209 US9262530B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2014-09-25 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
US14588191 US9323848B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2014-12-31 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
US15136668 US20160239503A1 (en) 2003-04-04 2016-04-22 Search System Using Search Subdomain And Hints To Subdomains In Search Query Statements And Sponsored Results On A Subdomain-By-Subdomain Basis
US10819082 Continuation US7499914B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2004-04-05 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
US10819082 Division US7499914B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2004-04-05 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
US13599688 Continuation US8849796B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2012-08-30 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
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US8271480B2 true US8271480B2 (en) 2012-09-18
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US14588191 Active US9323848B2 (en) 2003-04-04 2014-12-31 Search system using search subdomain and hints to subdomains in search query statements and sponsored results on a subdomain-by-subdomain basis
US15136668 Pending US20160239503A1 (en) 2003-04-04 2016-04-22 Search System Using Search Subdomain And Hints To Subdomains In Search Query Statements And Sponsored Results On A Subdomain-By-Subdomain Basis
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