1. Field
The present invention is related to search engine technologies and specifically to human-assisted search engines. A method and system for enabling explicit and/or implicit attribute(s) selected by a user to be used in association with a search including to select a searcher(s) and/or search result(s) is disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general search engines are keyword driven systems. Typically, keywords are generated from a user request and matched to target documents, advertisements, etc. This practice is well established by such services as Google® or Dogpile®. In some instances a user may elect to create a personal login. The data provided by a user may include such information as name, address, etc. which may be used to improve the relevance of search results. When a search service provides other services such as email (e.g., Gmail®), or financial services (e.g., Yahoo! Finance), the content of email messages may be scanned in order to determine common associations of keywords, or the content of a user profile provided may be modified. When a query is submitted by a logged-in user, a keyword(s) of the query may be used to find documents which may contain keywords which are commonly associated with any or all of the keywords of the query based on an examination of documents associated with the user, and/or information contained in a user profile.
In a similar manner, a mobile search system may gather information about a user based upon local data of a user device, a user profile from a service provider of wireless and/or wired communication services, a transaction history, etc. Data may be gathered based upon user input, from data obtained by a service provider such as a cellular network operator, or implicit data of a user device (e.g., caller ID, IP address, GPS data, change in location, files stored and/or transmitted to and/or from the device, information of the user device such as display, and other capabilities, etc.)
Such user profiles may be limited by an amount of information which a user is willing to provide to a service provider. Because some types of profile data may be easily associated with a user (e.g., name and address), and may be stored in a database which is inaccessible to or outside the control of a user, a user may provide limited information to a search engine provider due to privacy or other issues.
In the case of a human-assisted search engine, techniques such as those used to create a user profile in a typical search engine may be employed to create the assistant's profile.
When using a search engine in which human assistance is not provided, and/or no information of a searcher(s) is associated with a search result(s) a user profile may be a source of information used to modify a search query. Efforts have been made to provide profiles which may modify a search query using a user profile but such information may not be relevant to a user request.
In light of the above and other limitations and problems in typical use of profiles, a system and method for using a profile(s) to improve the relevance of search results would be greatly appreciated.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds