The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 18, 2007
Filed:
Nov. 13, 2001
Jane Childs, New South Wales, AU;
Moon Ju Kim, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
Susan Burlingame Levangia, Kingston, NY (US);
Paul Nicholas Martynenko, Hampton, GB;
Juan Leon-rodriguez, Pleasant Valley, NY (US);
Lamana Rogers, Brooklyn, NY (US);
Jane Childs, New South Wales, AU;
Moon Ju Kim, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
Susan Burlingame Levangia, Kingston, NY (US);
Paul Nicholas Martynenko, Hampton, GB;
Juan Leon-Rodriguez, Pleasant Valley, NY (US);
Lamana Rogers, Brooklyn, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method, software and apparatus are provided which enable a merchant to promote products and services in a deterministic manner. When a shopper enters a set of key words in an entry in an on-screen form for a web server to obtain a list of items (products and/or services) of interest to the shopper, the documents describing the items are prioritized based on the web sites owner's organizational strategic decisions by the merchant providing a weighting factor for the products and services. The weighting factor is combined with existing ranking mechanisms to the documents to increase the probability that certain items come to the top when the search results are presented to the shopper. These items could be used to ensure shoppers do not overlook special offers or to reduce overstocks by promoting products with a large inventory. The weighting factor is configured so as to not decrease the shoppers confidence in the ranking process.