Social search engine

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for a social search engine. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics; selecting candidate answerers based at least partly on each answerer's respective relationship to the asker; sending the question successively to groups of one or more candidate answerers according to the ranking until an answer is received from a particular one of the candidate answerers; and sending to the asker the received answer and information that identifies the particular answerer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Patent Application No. 61 / 256,324, entitled “REAL TIME, INTERACTIVE ANSWERS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK ENVIRONMENT,” filed Oct. 30, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.[0002]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Patent Application No. 61 / 256,325, entitled “METHOD FOR GENERATING AFFILIATE REVENUE IN AN ONLINE MESSAGING SERVICE,” filed Oct. 30, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0003]This specification describes technologies relating to question and answer services.[0004]Traditionally, the basic paradigm in information retrieval has been the library. While this paradigm has worked well in several contexts, it ignores an age-old model for knowledge acquisition, which we shall call “the village paradigm”. In a village, knowledge dissemination is achieved socially—information is passed f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]Particular embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented so as to realize one or more of the following advantages. In various aspects, users can ask a question, either by instant message, email, web input, text message, or voice, for example. The system then routes the question to a person in the user's social affinity group most likely to be able to answer that question. Potential answerers may choose not to answer a question in order to protect their privacy, or they may choose to answer but opt to provide only minimal or no information that identifies them to others.

[0010]As compared to a traditional web search engine, where the challenge lies in finding the right document to satisfy a user's information need, the challenge in a social search engine is to find the right person to satisfy a user's information need. Further, while trust in a traditional search engine can be based on authority, in a social search engine trust is based on intimacy. Other advantages include the ability to ask questions in natural language, the ability to receive a useful answer even if the question does not include identifiable or relevant topics, and the ability to receive more information than a specific answer to a question.

Problems solved by technology

A user may also be informed of the accompanying limitations on the functionality of a service that may result from limiting access to such personal information.

In addition, some users may not want to be associated with a certain topic for which they provide answers.

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