SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS DECLUMPING METHOD

摘要

The present disclosure includes both systems and methods for introducing variety into search results of non-stock consumer goods. This variety is introduced by recording the common characteristics of non-stock consumer goods in a database and tracking the number of goods with a common characteristic that would be displayed on a webpage. If too many of one type of good would be displayed on a webpage, alternative goods are displayed in place of the additional goods with common characteristics, even if these goods are more relevant to the search performed by a user. In this way, consumers can efficiently be presented with both relevant and alternative non-stock consumer goods, saving consumers' time and using less computing power.

主权项

1. A computerized method for providing search results to a user on a user interface, comprising:
generating a ranked order of results based on at least one search criteria; re-ordering the ranked order of results to populate one or more results pages, wherein each results page of the results pages includes two or more rows and two or more columns, wherein each row and each column includes two or more slots for displaying a result, wherein, each row, column, page, and each combination of rows and columns define a visual cluster, wherein the re-ordering is accomplished by performing the sub-steps of:
initializing a counter at zero for one or more of the visual clusters, wherein the counter has an associated property type, wherein the counter is a record of the number of results matching the associated property type previously populated in the visual cluster, wherein each counter has a corresponding counter limit,for each slot, iterating through the ranked order of results to find an unpopulated matching result that has no properties matching a property type corresponding to any counter that is at its counter limit, populating the matching result in the slot, and incrementing every counter whose corresponding property type matches the matching result; and displaying the one or more results pages on the user interface.