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:
obtaining search activity data representative of a plurality of search events, wherein each of the plurality of search events comprises a submission of a search query to one of a plurality of index-type search engines, a resulting set of search results from the one of the plurality of index-type search engines, and a selection of one of a plurality of search destinations, wherein the plurality of search destinations comprises a particular search destination, and wherein each of the plurality of index-type search engines comprises a proprietary index for generating search results; identifying, from the plurality of search events, a subset of search events associated with the particular search destination, wherein each of the search events in the subset of search events further comprises a selection, from the set of search results, of a search result associated with the particular search destination; and storing, in computer storage, search activity data for the subset of search events, wherein the search activity data for each search event in the subset of search events comprises at least an indication of the search engine associated with the search event, an indication of the search query associated with the search event, and an indication of a position of the selected search result from the set of search results associated with the search event, and wherein the search activity data comprises indications of a plurality of different search queries.