Analysis and reporting of collected search activity data over multiple search engines

摘要

A tracking system passively tracks and records searches conducted by actual search engine users. The recorded data for each search event preferably includes the search query submitted, the search engine used, the search result item (e.g., web page) selected, the position (e.g., page number) of this item, and the user's IP address. The collected data is aggregated and analyzed to generate data regarding the search queries used to locate and access particular destinations (e.g., web pages and sites). This data may be used for various purposes, such as (1) to generate reports showing, e.g., how users reach a particular destination from different search engines and geographic locations, (2) to select content to display on a destination page, such that the content is relevant to search queries commonly used to locate that page, and (3) to update the database of one search engine to reflect searches conducted on other search engines.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
collecting search activity data of search engine users, wherein the search activity data is descriptive of searches performed by said users on each of a plurality of index-type search engines, wherein each of the plurality of index-type search engines maintains its own proprietary index obtained by crawling web sites for building a unique database for generating search results, wherein each of the search engine users interacts with a search results page of the index-type search engine to view search results; for a particular search destination, programmatically analyzing the collected search activity data by a computer system having a processor and memory to identify a plurality of search events in which a search engine user selected the particular search destination from a search result set to access the destination; and for each of the plurality of search events, identifying from the collected search activity data, and recording in computer storage, at least the following information: (a) the search engine used, (b) the search query submitted, and (c) a position at which the destination was listed in the search result set.