Patent ID: 8326815

Claim:
A method, implemented on at least one machine having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for extracting click features useful to train a recency ranking algorithm, the method comprising the steps of: accessing: one or more query chains, wherein: each one of the query chains comprises two or more of a plurality of search queries, {q l , . . . , q n }, where n≦2; and for each one of the query chains, the search queries are recency-sensitive with respect to a particular time period, are related to a same subject matter, and are issued to a search engine sequentially by one of one or more network users during a search session such that, for each search query, q i , in the query chain, q i is issued to the search engine after q i−j and before q i+j ;and one or more network resources are identified by the search engine in response to each one of the search queries; and actual click-through information associated with each one of the query chains, wherein for each one of the query chains, the actual click-through information indicates which ones of the network resources identified for each one of the search queries have actually been clicked by the one network user; and smoothing each one of the query chains using the actual click-through information associated with the query chain, wherein smoothing one of the query chains comprises: for each one of search queries, q j , in the query chain, where 2 ≦j≦n, if one of the network resources identified for q j , has actually been clicked in connection with q j by the corresponding one network user, then presuming that the one network resource has been clicked in connection with one or more search queries, q k , in the query chain, where 1≦k<j.