Patent Document ID: 8412514
Application ID: 11260412

Base Claim:
1. A method for responding to an inquiry comprising: retrieving a first web page and a second web page, the first web page associated with a first layout and the second web page associated with a second layout; comparing the first layout and the second layout; generating stored question-answer pairs based on the comparing the first layout and the second layout; receiving the inquiry via a network; based on the inquiry, analyzing the stored question-answer pairs; determining meta-level features of the stored question-answer pairs to define relationships among question-answer pairs, the meta-level features of a particular stored question-answer pair based at least in part on the meta-level features of a previous related stored question-answer pair and a first related question-answer pair; clarifying the inquiry based on follow-up procedures including asking follow-up questions; determining a plurality of responses to the inquiry based on the analysis of the meta-level features, the relationships among the stored question-answer pairs, and the follow-up procedures; providing the plurality of responses; receiving a selection of a particular response from among the plurality of responses; and storing a measure of the eligibility of the particular response to be a response to the inquiry based on the selection.

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Claim 11:
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the inquiry comprises at least one of natural language questions, keyword search patterns, hand written text, spoken utterances, and spoken phrases.