Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090100032 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CREATION OF USER/GUIDE PROFILE IN A HUMAN-AIDED SEARCH SYSTEM - A process and system of defining a user and/or guide profile is disclosed. Information of a user or guide profile may be obtained by designating information to be processed by a search system. Profile data may be obtained from a number of activities which produce information regarding a person who participated in the activities. A process and system is provided for creating profiles which may be used to identify persons who have information related to the profile. A searcher, user or other profile may be created, modified and managed using the process and system. | 04-16-2009 |
20090100047 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF MANAGING AND USING PROFILE INFORMATION - A method and system for matching a search request to a human assistant and/or other items based on information indicated in a profile associated with the search request is described. A ranking of a guide is determined based on matching of information associated with the guide and information associated with a search request. Profile information such as demographic, geographic, personality, areas of interest, people, hobbies, etc. may be used in addition to other information such as keywords or categories which are associated with a request in order to select a guide. Items such as a search result, an advertisement, a search resource, a previous query, etc. may be selected based on profile information associated with the item. Profile information may be associated with an item based on profile information associated with a guide and/or a user who has expressed an opinion regarding the item. | 04-16-2009 |
20090119263 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PROMOTING HUMAN-ASSISTED SEARCH - A method and system of promoting service(s) of a search system are disclosed. A monitoring software or a search monitor may be operative on a user device. A user may be notified of an alternate search result(s) when such a result is identified. Condition(s) whereby a notification is presented to a user may be modified based on user action(s) and/or other information. | 05-07-2009 |
20090132500 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING UTILIZATION OF HUMAN SEARCHERS - A method and system of improving utilization of human searcher(s) in a search system provides an ambassador guide who may categorize and structure a request, interact with a user, provide a search result, and review a search result. The ambassador guide improves response time, automation, and efficiency of use of searchers and resources of the search system. A toolset may be provided to an ambassador to assist in rapidly executing relevant tasks. | 05-21-2009 |
20090157523 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HUMAN ASSISTED REFERRAL TO PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES - A method and system for referring a user to a provider of good(s), service(s) and/or information thereof which utilizes a human assistant. A human searcher or guide is selected to respond to a user request, and communication is established between a user and a guide. If the system determines that a user is requesting a product(s) and/or service(s), a provider of the product(s) and/or the service(s) is identified, and a communication session is established between a user and a provider of goods and/or services. A search system may assist in completing a transaction and may provide a referral service. Payment may be made using a payment system associated with a user using Premium SMS without requiring a user to provide payment information to a guide and/or the search system. | 06-18-2009 |
20090276419 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVEMENT OF REQUEST PROCESSING - A system and method of processing a request including improving usage and/or performance of resources is disclosed. Information relating to a user request may be provided to one or more resources which process the information and provide a result. A result and/or other information may be provided to a human assistant or guide who may process information to produce a result and/or review a result(s). Information provided by a guide may be processed and provided to a resource, which may improve the performance of a resource. A resource(s) and/or a guide(s) may be selected and/or provided with activities based on ratings and/or rankings associated with a request, which may optimize usage of system resources. Information obtained may be provided for various purposes. | 11-05-2009 |
20090299853 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF IMPROVING SELECTION OF SEARCH RESULTS - A system and method utilizing human searchers and/or guides to select a search result(s) which may and/or may not be influenced by commercial or compensation information. A guide(s) may be selected and/or provided with information which may be influenced by compensation information associated with the guide(s) and/or other information. Human judgment may be used to select an organic search result(s) and/or a sponsored result. A person searching on behalf of another may make a decision regarding what will be provided to the other person based on varying degrees of commercial influence which may be explicitly and/or indirectly applied to a selection by a person. | 12-03-2009 |
20100010912 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF FACILITATING A PURCHASE - A system and method of facilitating a purchase including using assistance of a search service and redacting data is described. A user may link an account of a search service with an account of a vendor and may use the linked accounts to purchase an item and/or service from the vendor. A human assistant may select information of an item and/or service from a vendor associated with a user and may provide information of the item to the search system in order that an offer for the item and/or service may be provided to a user and a purchase of the item and/or service may be completed by the user. | 01-14-2010 |
20100042619 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF TRIGGERING A SEARCH REQUEST - A method and system are described for creating a recurring or triggered search request. A search request is associated with a condition which initiates an information search. A search result, including a search query associated with a search request and a condition may be provided to a user via any or all communication services and/or devices associated with the user. A tool is provided to enable a user to select an existing search request and/or search result which may be used to create a triggered or ‘favorite’ search query which may be triggered as designated. Triggered search requests may be suggested to a user using automated and/or human assisted techniques. | 02-18-2010 |
20100082652 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING USER INTERACTION - A system and method are described for managing user interaction(s) and information of user(s). The system may select activities which are associated with a user system and may inform content providers of user systems which have received content from the system. User actions are detected and responses associated with the activities associated with the user system are executed. A user interface which is specific to a user system may be defined. A user may access various forms of information which may include using a human assistant to access information. The system and method include creating an index of redacted information associated with a user and selectively providing access to the information for performing a transaction or service on behalf of the user. | 04-01-2010 |
20100138402 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING UTILIZATION OF HUMAN SEARCHERS - A method and system for improving utilization of human searcher(s) in a search system including utilizing a processing such as Natural Language Processing to improve the ability of the search system to recognize an intent of a user request, provide information to an expeditor to respond to queries, and automatically route a query to a relevant and qualified searcher. Using NLP, a request is processed to allow improved use of automated responses, more effective use of the expeditor, and more effective use of search specialists. | 06-03-2010 |
20110066462 | Method, System, and Computer Readable Medium Useful in Managing a Computer-Based System for Servicing User Initiated Tasks - A method for determining whether secondary activities (activities that can be executed during system “down time”) should be executed at a time, and executing at least one of the secondary activities according to a priority or interrupt scheme. The invention monitors a threshold, which can be based on several factors, to determine when system conditions are such that secondary activities should be conducted. When system conditions are such that secondary activities should occur, the invention conducts secondary activities according to an interrupt scheme. | 03-17-2011 |
20110106617 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PROCESSING A QUERY USING HUMAN ASSISTANTS - A system and method of providing information to improve efficiency of human searchers obtaining information on behalf of users is described. A query is processed to improve its form prior to being presented to a human searcher. A type associated with a query is determined which may affect a probability that a human searcher will respond to the query. Actions of a human searcher may be used to modify automated processing and decision making for processing of a query. | 05-05-2011 |
20110208712 | AUTOMATED TOOL FOR HUMAN ASSISTED MINING AND CAPTURING OF PRECISE RESULTS - An automated tool for human assisted analysis of search results for obtaining precise results responsive to a request. A single query entry triggers a search using one or more resources and results returned from the resources are displayed in a corresponding embedded renderer. A human provider analyzes the returned results and extracts pertinent information for delivery to a requestor who submitted the query. | 08-25-2011 |
20110208727 | ELECTRONIC PREVIOUS SEARCH RESULTS LOG - A method for providing a viewable search results log to allow determination of the effectiveness of search strategies and sharing results of searches with others. The search results log reveals search strategies utilized by a human searcher with which the search results log is associated. The search results produced by at least one human searcher are stored in the search results log and presented according to a view format selected by a viewer. The search results log can be interrelated to other systems such as a blog or a search engine. | 08-25-2011 |
20110307496 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PROVIDING VERIFIED CONTENT - A system and method for creating and utilizing content is described. Content is generated which includes a query and a response to the query. A primary query may be used to generate a plurality of variant queries which may be matched to a request. A content owner or curator may review a query, a response, and/or alternate queries, and may provide access to media which may be used to generate queries and responses. | 12-15-2011 |
20120109924 | SEARCH TOOL PROVIDING OPTIONAL USE OF HUMAN SEARCH GUIDES - A method and system providing optional use of human search guides to allow a user to select between a human guide assisted search and an automated search. The user is provided with an option of submitting a query requesting assistance of one or more human guides, initiating a search without requesting assistance from human guide(s) using automated results, or a combination of both. | 05-03-2012 |
20120221564 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVEMENT OF RELEVANCE OF SEARCH RESULTS - A system and method for improving the relevance of search results is disclosed. Voters who may be human searchers or guides may review search results or other review items associated with a search request or other reference item. A review may be activated based on a usage indicator(s) which may improve utilization of guides. A vote by a voter may be weighted based on a voting history associated with the voter and one or more reference voters who may be designated by the system. A voter may be presented with a group of items for review including simultaneously. A number of comparison voting sessions or elections may be used to determine a rating or ranking of a review item associated with a reference item. | 08-30-2012 |
20120296887 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ACCESSING SEARCH SERVICES VIA MESSAGING SERVICES - A user using a chat or instant message, mobile message or email type of interface, for example, an information seeker, can connect via an instant message, mobile message, email or chat type of service provider, for example, an America On-line Instant Messenger (AIM) server. The message server connects the user to a routine that allows the user to utilize his or her service interface in combination with the services provided by the information search system. After connection has been established via the message interface, for example, an instant message is received via the chat process. A query string can then be extracted from the instant message and passed to the search system, which can respond with search results. | 11-22-2012 |
20120317101 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR QUALIFYING KEYWORDS IN QUERY STRINGS - A method and system for qualifying keyword(s) or phrase(s) to formulate a query string for submitting a search request when the query string contains one or more keywords that may have multiple meanings associated therewith. Database information containing keywords and associated meanings or forms of the keywords is maintained and a requester is prompted to identify one or more of the meanings of a keyword when building the query string. One or more advertisements pertaining to the associated meanings or forms of the keywords in the query string is presented to the requester submitting a search request. | 12-13-2012 |
20130018913 | ANONYMOUS SEARCH SYSTEM USING HUMAN SEARCHERS - A system and a method for performing a search with the assistance of a computer may assign a unique identifier to a user, to a query submitted to the system by the user, to a human searcher that may respond to the query, and to a result produced by a human searcher in response to the query. These unique identifiers may be stored in a database, and associated with one another. The system maintains a database of unique identifiers for each original query associated with the unique identifier of the posing user and responding searcher, and may establish an anonymous communication channel between the user and the searcher during the initial session when the query is posed and answered, and during follow-up sessions that may occur in the future. | 01-17-2013 |
20130024446 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING UTILIZATION OF HUMAN SEARCHERS - A method and system of improving utilization of human searcher(s) in a search system provides an ambassador guide who may categorize and structure a request, interact with a user, provide a search result, and review a search result. The ambassador guide improves response time, automation, and efficiency of use of searchers and resources of the search system. A toolset may be provided to an ambassador to assist in rapidly executing relevant tasks. | 01-24-2013 |
20130071831 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE FOR PODCASTING AND VIDEO TRAINING IN AN INFORMATION SEARCH SYSTEM - A method and system for enhancing search skills of human guides in an information search system. The method allows human guides to be trained when they are not particularly busy fielding search queries from information seekers. The method can include determining whether a guide is idle and presenting to a human guide at least one video or audio source for training the human guide. The video training can include a demonstration of the most effective method for providing search results for an information search query, thereby enabling a guide to learn effective strategies and skills for conducting information searching. The training can contribute to the likelihood of the guide being promoted to a level of a more experienced human guide, thereby allowing greater effectiveness in fielding search queries for information seekers. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073356 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF SPONSORED PUBLISHING - A method and system of sponsored publishing is described. Compensation is provided to participants based on recruitment of merchants and actions by subscribers provided by a publisher. A publisher may determine offers provided via a publication. | 03-21-2013 |
20130132362 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PROMOTING HUMAN-ASSISTED SEARCH - A method and system of promoting service(s) of a search system are disclosed. A monitoring software or a search monitor may be operative on a user device. A user may be notified of an alternate search result(s) when such a result is identified. Condition(s) whereby a notification is presented to a user may be modified based on user action(s) and/or other information. | 05-23-2013 |
20140172846 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVEMENT OF RELEVANCE OF SEARCH RESULTS - A system and method for improving the relevance of search results is disclosed. Voters who may be human searchers or guides may review search results or other review items associated with a search request or other reference item. A review may be activated based on a usage indicator(s) which may improve utilization of guides. A vote by a voter may be weighted based on a voting history associated with the voter and one or more reference voters who may be designated by the system. A voter may be presented with a group of items for review including simultaneously. A number of comparison voting sessions or elections may be used to determine a rating or ranking of a review item associated with a reference item. | 06-19-2014 |
20140201202 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVEMENT OF REQUEST PROCESSING - A system and method of processing a request including improving usage and/or performance of resources is disclosed. Information relating to a user request may be provided to one or more resources which process the information and provide a result. A result and/or other information may be provided to a human assistant or guide who may process information to produce a result and/or review a result(s). Information provided by a guide may be processed and provided to a resource, which may improve the performance of a resource. A resource(s) and/or a guide(s) may be selected and/or provided with activities based on ratings and/or rankings associated with a request, which may optimize usage of system resources. Information obtained may be provided for various purposes. | 07-17-2014 |
20140250145 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PROVIDING VERIFIED CONTENT - A system and method for creating and utilizing content is described. Content is generated which includes a query and a response to the query. A primary query may be used to generate a plurality of variant queries which may be matched to a request. A content owner or curator may review a query, a response, and/or alternate queries, and may provide access to media which may be used to generate queries and responses. | 09-04-2014 |
20150019566 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR QUALIFYING KEYWORDS IN QUERY STRINGS - A method and system for qualifying keyword(s) or phrase(s) to formulate a query string for submitting a search request when the query string contains one or more keywords that may have multiple meanings associated therewith. Database information containing keywords and associated meanings or forms of the keywords is maintained and a requester is prompted to identify one or more of the meanings of a keyword when building the query string. One or more advertisements pertaining to the associated meanings or forms of the keywords in the query string is presented to the requester submitting a search request. | 01-15-2015 |
20150026149 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF MANAGING AND USING PROFILE INFORMATION - A method and system for matching a search request to a human assistant and/or other items based on information indicated in a profile associated with the search request is described. A ranking of a guide is determined based on matching of information associated with the guide and information associated with a search request. Profile information such as demographic, geographic, personality, areas of interest, people, hobbies, etc. may be used in addition to other information such as keywords or categories which are associated with a request in order to select a guide. Items such as a search result, an advertisement, a search resource, a previous query, etc. may be selected based on profile information associated with the item. Profile information may be associated with an item based on profile information associated with a guide and/or a user who has expressed an opinion regarding the item. | 01-22-2015 |
20150074141 | MACRO PROGRAMMING FOR RESOURCES - A system and a method are disclosed for generating, storing, retrieving, and utilizing a search macro or shortcut link to a resource, such as a web site that provides access to an information database. The system may load a page into an application from the resource. The resource may have a Uniform Resource Identifier, and the page may have a search field that causes the application to generate a message when activated. The system may read the Uniform Resource Identifier insert a placeholder into the search field, and activate the search field, which causes the application to generate a message. The system may read the message and parse the message to isolate a search string containing the placeholder. The system may store the search string in a data structure, and may also store the Uniform Resource Identifier and associate it with the search string in the data structure. The system may further retrieve the search string, replace the placeholder with a search term, and generate a message as a function of the search string and the search term. | 03-12-2015 |