Patent ID: 8073867

Claim:
A method for providing category-specific electronic content, the method comprising: receiving a request for electronic content submitted by a user, the request comprising a search query; determining a time at which the request for electronic content was submitted; determining a time period based on the time at which the request for electronic content was submitted; accessing information that reflects one or more categories that correspond to previously received search queries submitted to one or more search engines at a time corresponding to the determined time period, the accessed information being generated based on an analysis of a query log of the previously received search queries submitted to the one or more search engines at the time corresponding to the determined time period, wherein the query log is maintained at a search interface distinct from the one or more search engines; determining an attribute of the user; identifying a first set of queries from a plurality of queries that are previously submitted to the one or more search engines during the determined time period by users having an attribute that matches the determined attribute; selecting a category that corresponds to at least one of the queries included in the first set; identifying a second set of queries from the first set, the second set corresponding to the selected category; determining a probability that a query from the first set is included in the second set; identifying, based on the accessed information and the probability, at least one category of the one or more categories, the at least one category corresponding to a typical request representative of requests previously submitted to the one or more search engines during the determined time period by the users having the attribute that matches the determined attribute; and providing, to the user, electronic content that is representative of the at least one category, wherein the one or more categories are arranged in a graphic tree in which each child category is more specific than its associated parent category.