Patent ID: 7225182

Claim:
A method for recommending search terms in a computer network search apparatus for generating a result list of items representing a match with information entered by a user through an input device connected to the computer network, the search apparatus including a computer system operatively connected to the computer network and a plurality of items stored in a database, each item including information to be communicated to a user and having associated with it at least one search term, an information provider and a bid amount, the method comprising: (a) obtaining a set of potential search terms for acceptance by a new information provider who is adding items to the database, including; receiving from the new information provider a website uniform resource locator (URL); and spidering the website associated with the website URL to obtain search terms for the set of potential search terms; (b) computing correlations between the potential search terms for the new information provider and search terms of other information providers stored in the database; (c) computing an estimated rating for the each potential search term for the new information provider; (d) sorting the potential search terms according to the computed estimated ratings; (e) presenting to the new information provider on an output device the sorted potential search terms; (f) receiving from the new information provider at an input device an indication of accepted search terms; (g) repeating (b) through (e) until a completion indication is received from the new information provider; and (h) storing the accepted search terms in the database for the new information provider upon receipt of the completion indication.