Patent ID: 7921107

Claim:
A method for generating query suggestions using a network of users and advertisers, the method comprising: identifying a network comprising a plurality of query items representing queries linked to a plurality of advertisement items representing advertisements via a plurality of query-advertisement link items, each query-advertisement link item comprising a weight which represents the strength of the association between each linked query item and each linked advertisement item, wherein the weight of each of the plurality of query-advertisement link items is based on a number of advertisements prominently displayed to a plurality of users after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item and at least one of a number of times the plurality of users clicked on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item, a number of times the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item was presented to the plurality of users after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item, or a number of times the plurality of users performed a desired action after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item and clicking on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item; receiving a search query item from a user wherein the search query item exists in the plurality of query items; calculating, by a processor, a relevance value for each of the plurality of query items representing a relevance of each of the plurality of query items to the received search query item, wherein the relevance value of a query item of the plurality of query items is based on one or more weights of the plurality of query-advertisement link items to which the query item is linked and one or more weights of the plurality of query-advertisement link items to which the received search query item is linked; and suggesting query items of the plurality of query items with highest relevance values to the user.