Patent ID: 8117072

Claim:
A computerized method for enabling a response to a shopper's keyword interrogation, from a computer at a user site comprising the steps of: automatically modifying, at a client, search terms of the shopper's keyword interrogation for use by an internal browser at the user's site with keyword changes based on a preference weight factor (PWF) that reflects interests of the shopper and a controlling agent of the shopper; obtaining, from a server, an initial ranking and descriptions of more than N products or services from supplier servers on an internet based on the modified keyword interrogation; reranking the N products or services that are ranked highest by the initial ranking using a ranking algorithm for reducing supplier bias and for reflecting at least one of the shopper's and controlling agent's interests to provide a reranked list of the initial N highest ranked products or services; modifying, at the client, the ranking of at least one but not all of the N highest ranked products or services ranked by the reranking by: examining statistical characteristics of the N highest ranked products or services, including frequency and distribution of keywords from the modified keyword interrogation; and applying a weighting factor associated with at least some of the keywords that is a numerical modifier based on the PWF to the statistical characteristics, the weighting factor being independent of the ranking algorithm, wherein the modifying emphasizes products or services of the N highest ranked products or services that have keywords from the keyword changes; and providing to the shopper a presentation of products by the browser that presents the initially highest ranked products and services in order of rank determined by both the score of the production services determined by the reranking and the modification by the weighting factor of the ranking of at least one or the reranked products or services so that the reranking and modifying of the ranking changes the order of ranking but does not eliminate any item from the list of N highest ranked products or services in the initial ranking, wherein the ranking R of the at least one of the top N products or services is recalculated with the following formula: R= 1 −n (Rank Factors Score)+ n (SWF factor), where: n=a number between zero and one; SWF=is a weighting factor separate from the Rank Factors Score used to promote the selection of the at least one product; and Rank Factors Score= F ( w % Tf +% x Popularity+ y % LA+z %Up+ . . . ), where: F is the algorithmic function; and w, x, y and z are proportions applied to various ranking factors by the algorithmic function F.