Patent · US Active

Perturbing search results

US9213744B2 · kind B2 · utility

0Cited by
3References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMar 15, 2013
Grant dateDec 15, 2015
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 3, 2033

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F16/24578
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Disclosed here are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for spreading the interest of a user evenly over a predefined set of search results. A search engine retrieves search results from a database and perturbs at least a portion of the search results, that is, randomizes the order of the portion before presenting it to the user. In this way, even when a search is repeated between database update cycles, the user would see different top search results every time the search is executed. The perturbation technique can be applied to a search in a social networking system which searches for users. The perturbation can be done by randomizing the display order of the sear results based on a most recent activity time of the user. The perturbed search results will have different users every time the user performs a search. The perturbed search results are customized per user.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.