Patent ID: 8903810

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: presenting, by a search system, to a user who has a personal profile in the search system and belongs in the search system to one or more communities, a range of levels of personalization of search results, including a personalized level, a global level that is not personalized, and a community level between the personalized level and the global level; receiving from the user, by the search system, an indication of a desired preference that a mixture of two or more of the levels be used for ranking search results; regardless of whether the mixture includes the community level of personalization, maintaining in the search system that the user belongs to the one or more communities; receiving from the user, by the search system, a search query comprising one or more query terms; responsively to the search query, generating, by the search system, a search result listing; ranking, by the search system, at least a portion of the search result listing at least in part responsively to the indication, including, if the mixture includes the community level of personalization, ranking the at least a portion of the search result listing in part based on characteristics of the one or more communities to which the user belongs; and presenting, by the search system, at least a portion of the ranked search result listing to the user.