Patent ID: 7567970

Claim:
A method of operating an on-line service, the method comprising: conducting a search and locating a plurality of on-line contents pertaining to a query from a user; determining reliability values for at least part of the plurality of on-line contents, wherein some of the plurality of on-line contents are posted by registered members of the on-line service, wherein the reliability value of each on-line content posted by a registered member of the on-line service is determined in consideration of at least one reliability evaluation variable of the registered member of the on-line service selected from the group consisting of age, gender, occupation and residential area of the registered member of the on-line service that has been submitted to the service by the registered member of the on-line service, each of the reliability evaluation variables being provided with a plurality of ranges, each of which is assigned a representative value, wherein determining a reliability value of a first one of the plurality of on-line contents comprises: retrieving at least one of the reliability evaluation variables for the first on-line content, determining which one of the plurality of ranges the at least one of the reliability evaluation variables falls within; retrieving the representative value of the determined range as an input value for computing the reliability value of the first on-line content, and computing the reliability value of the first on-line content using at least one input value; converting information of the located plurality of on-line content into a search result, in which the at least part of the plurality of on-line contents is arranged based on the reliability value; and providing the user with the search result.