Patent ID: 7801885

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of using user feedback to improve searching, comprising the steps of: providing a dictionary data structure that includes a plurality of terms and a plurality of classifications corresponding to the plurality of terms; receiving a query from a user; generating a subset of the plurality of terms by accessing the dictionary data structure using the query; generating a revised query based on one or more of the plurality of classifications corresponding to the subset of the plurality of terms; generating a first plurality of search results from a first search data structure using the revised query, wherein the first search data structure includes a first plurality of search data and a plurality of user feedback data associated with the first plurality of search data; generating a second plurality of search results from a second search data structure using the query, wherein the second search data structure includes a second plurality of search data; displaying the first plurality of search results according to the plurality of user feedback data that corresponds to the first plurality of search results; displaying the second plurality of search results; displaying a feedback request regarding a particular search result of the first plurality of search results and the second plurality of search results; receiving feedback from the user in response to the feedback request; updating the first plurality of search data and the plurality of user feedback data in the first search data structure according to the query, the particular search result, and the feedback.