WO2016082802A1

WO2016082802A1 - Method and apparatus for providing search result, and charging method and apparatus therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2016082802A1
Application number: PCT/CN2015/095949
Authority: WO
Inventors: 余卓升
Original assignee: 余卓升
Priority date: 2014-11-28
Filing date: 2015-11-30
Publication date: 2016-06-02
Also published as: CN105701677A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for providing a search result and a charging method and apparatus for an information provider. The method for providing a search result comprises: receive search content from a user device of an information searching party; obtain a keyword of the search content; and one or more information providers determine, based on the keyword of the search content, whether to send information to the user device of the information searching party as a search result. Therefore, an information provider finally determines, based on a keyword of search content, whether to send information to a user device of an information searching party, so as to improve accuracy of information providing, thereby more effectively providing information to the information searching party.

Description

Method and device for providing search result and charging method and device thereof

Technical field

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing search results and a method and apparatus for billing an information provider.

Background technique

Information providing services, such as online advertising services, are typically billed based on the recipient's actions after each presentation or presentation of the information. Two common billing methods are Cost per Impression (CPI) and Cost per Action (CPA). Billing by impression is based on the number of times information appears on the recipient's screen, while per-action billing is based on the actions of the recipient after the impression, such as clicking on an ad or purchasing an advertiser's product.

There is a need for a solution that can increase the effectiveness of information provision.

Summary of the invention

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of providing a search result, comprising: receiving search content from a user device of an information searcher; obtaining a keyword of the search content; and a keyword based on the search content by one or more information providers It is determined whether to send information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result.

In one example, determining whether to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result by the information provider based on the keyword of the search content includes: determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information of the information provider; determining the information thereof One or more information providers related to the keywords of the search content are candidate information providers, and the search notifications are transmitted to the user devices of the candidate information providers, wherein the search notifications include part or all of the search content; and if the candidate information providers When the transmission information is determined, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information search side.

In one example, determining the candidate information provider further includes determining, between the information providing location of the information provider and the user device of the information searcher, in one or more information providers whose information is related to the keyword of the search content The nearest Y information providers; sorting Y information providers; sequentially selecting M of the Y information providers as candidate information providers, where Y and M are natural numbers, and Y>M.

In one example, Y information providers are ordered based on at least one of: The information provider's service provides the distance between the location and the user device of the information searcher, the budget of the information provider, the rating of the information provider, the name of the information provider, and the preferences of the information searcher.

In one example, if the candidate information provider determines the transmission information, transmitting the information to the user device of the information searcher includes automatically determining the transmission information when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content satisfies a predetermined condition The user device of the information search side transmits the information; and when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content does not satisfy the predetermined condition, the candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information.

In one example, the candidate information provider manually determining the transmission information includes: the candidate information provider transmitting the acknowledgment transmission message; and transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user equipment of the information searcher when the acknowledgment transmission message is received.

In one example, if the acknowledgment transmission message is not received from the candidate information provider within the acknowledgment period, the information of the candidate information provider is not transmitted.

In one example, the method further includes charging the candidate information provider after transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user device of the information searcher.

In one example, the method further includes: when the user device of the information searcher for which the information of the candidate information provider has been sent enters a predetermined range of the service providing location of the candidate information provider and resides for the billable time In the segment, the candidate information provider is charged.

In one example, determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information provider information includes: comparing a degree of matching between the keyword of the search content and the keyword of the information; and when the matching degree is greater than or equal to the relevance threshold, The keywords that determine the search content are related to the information provider's information.

In one example, receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher further includes: obtaining a location of the user device of the information search party, and wherein the search content is in the form of at least one of text, still image, video, voice, code Expressed information.

In one example, prior to receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher, the method further comprises: receiving information from the user device of the information provider and obtaining location information of the information provider; transmitting the price to the user device of the information provider Information and receiving payment information therefrom; and a keyword storing the information and the information, wherein the location information of the information provider includes at least one of a location of the user device of the information provider and a service providing location of the information provider.

In one example, the information provider is an advertising provider.

In one example, all of the stored information of the information provider is disabled when all of the user devices of the information provider are disconnected.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a method for charging an information provider, comprising: transmitting information of an information provider to a user device of the information searcher; monitoring a location of the user device of the information search party; The information provider of the information sender of the information provider is charged within the predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and stays for the billable period.

In one example, transmitting information of the information provider to the user device of the information searcher includes: receiving search content from a user device of the information searcher; comparing keywords and search content of information from the user device of the information provider; The one or more information providers determine whether to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result based on the comparison result.

In one example, the Y information providers are ordered based on at least one of: a distance between a service provider location of the information provider and a user device of the information searcher, a budget of the information provider, and an information provider The rating, the name of the information provider, and the preferences of the information searcher.

In one example, the information provider is an advertising provider.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for providing search results, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive search content from a user device of an information searcher; and an extracting unit configured to obtain a key of searching for content And a sending unit configured to, when the one or more information providers determine to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher based on the keyword of the search content, transmit the information to the user device of the information searcher as the search result.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for charging an information provider, comprising: a sending unit configured to send information of an information provider to a user device of the information search side; and a monitoring unit configured to Monitoring the location of the user device of the information searcher; and the charging unit configured to enter the predetermined range of the service provider location of the information provider when the information of the information provider of the information provider is sent to the information provider When the billable time period is retained, the information provider is charged.

Thus, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the information provider itself, rather than a third party (eg, a server), ultimately determines whether to the user of the information searcher based on the keywords of the search content. The device transmits information, thereby improving the accuracy of the information provided, thereby providing information to the information searcher more effectively.

DRAWINGS

The invention will be more readily understood by the following detailed description of the drawings in which <RTIgt;

FIG. 1 is an exemplary flowchart showing a method for providing search results according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is an exemplary signal flow diagram showing one embodiment of providing search results to an information searcher in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart showing a method for charging an information provider according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing an apparatus for providing search results according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram showing an apparatus for charging an information provider according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. It is obvious that the described embodiments are a part of the embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts are within the scope of the present invention.

The technical solution of the present invention can be applied to various communication systems, such as various wired or wireless, remote or near field communication systems, for example, a communication system connected to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), GSM communication. System, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) Long Term Evolution), Bluetooth communication system, infrared communication system, radio frequency (RF) communication system, ZigBee communication system, and the like. However, it should be understood that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

The user equipment (UE, User Equipment) may be a mobile terminal (Mobile Terminal). It can also be called a mobile user, a mobile user equipment, etc., and can communicate with one or more core networks via a radio access network (for example, RAN, Radio Access Network), and the mobile terminal can be a mobile device, such as a mobile phone (or A computer known as a "cellular" telephone and a mobile terminal, for example, may be a portable, pocket, handheld, computer built-in or in-vehicle mobile device that exchanges language and/or data with a wired/wireless access network. The user device can also be a fixed terminal such as a desktop computer, a conventional telephone connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and the like.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary flow diagram showing a method 100 for providing search results in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. This method can be performed on the server.

At 101 of method 100, search content is received from a user device of the information searcher. At 102, a keyword for the search content is obtained. At 103, it is determined by one or more information providers based on the keywords of the search content whether to send information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result.

Therefore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is determined by the information provider itself, rather than a third party (for example, a server), whether to send information to the user device of the information searcher based on the keyword of the search content, thereby enabling the information to be improved. The accuracy provided, which in turn provides information to the information searcher more effectively.

In the following, the process during the 103 of the method 100 will be described in detail.

First, in 103, it can be determined whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information of the information provider.

Here, whether the two are related by comparing the degree of matching between the keyword of the search content and the keyword of the information, and when the degree of matching is greater than or equal to the relevance threshold (for example, 60%), the content of the search may be determined. Keywords are related to the information provider's information.

The relevance threshold may be manually set by the information provider, ie for different information providers, each information provider may have its own relevance threshold and the relevance threshold of each information provider may be the same or different. Alternatively, for all information providers, a third party device (eg, a server) may provide a uniform relevance threshold as an initial default value, and this default value may thereafter be modified by the corresponding information provider.

In various embodiments of the present invention, the search content may be information expressed in at least one of text, still images, video, voice, and code. In particular, the information searcher, such as an individual, can input the content to be searched in the form of text, still images, video or voice through the user device. In the case of intelligent control, the information searcher can even report faults from another device. The information is entered as the content to be searched, even if the fault information at this time may be just a piece of code that humans cannot parse. In the case where the user device is a conventional telephone, the search content may be voice. In addition, the search content may also be a bar code on the product, an episode of the CD song, and the like.

Accordingly, the input search content can be processed by text recognition (eg, optical character recognition (OCR)), image extraction, face recognition, voice recognition, color recognition, and the like, thereby extracting keywords of the search content. Of course, the keyword can also be specified by the information searcher through its user device.

Here, the term "keyword" includes, but is not limited to, a single word, a number, a letter, a string, a phrase, and/or a combination thereof in any language, and may also include a picture or the like.

The keyword of the information can be specified by the information provider or extracted by the server.

In the case where the keywords of the search content and the keywords of the information are all obtained in the form of text, when the degree of matching between the keyword of the search content and the keyword of the information is calculated, for example, a matching degree algorithm may be used to obtain the matching degree. For example, the number of equivalent keywords in two sets of keywords is divided by the number of information keywords, the distance between two sets of keywords in the data tree, and so on. However, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and any other existing or future developed suitable algorithms may be used to calculate the degree of matching. The method of extracting keywords is well known to those skilled in the art, and thus, in order to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present invention, detailed description is not provided herein.

After determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information of the information provider, one or more information providers whose information is related to the keyword of the search content may be determined as a candidate information provider in 103.

Thereafter, the search notification may be transmitted to the user device of the candidate information provider, wherein the search notification includes part or all of the search content, and if the candidate information provider determines the transmission information, the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information search party Information.

It should be understood that part or all of the search content included in the search notification may or may not be part or all of the original search content, and may include a part of text, picture, voice, etc. extracted from the original search content or All, as long as it enables the information provider to understand the search intent of the information searcher. In addition, based on the principle that the information provider can easily understand the search intent (improving readability), it is also possible to modify the search content, for example, when the content is a fault code, the code can be converted into a part name and number.

In some cases, when the candidate information provider is determined based only on the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content, the determined number of candidate information providers may be large, but obviously The information provider is not able to send so much information to the information provider, so the identified information provider can be further screened.

In one example, the previously determined one or more information providers may be further filtered based on the distance between the information provider's service providing location and the information searcher's user device.

Here, the service provider's service providing location may be fixed or mobile, and the location of the information searcher's user device may also be fixed or mobile. Therefore, the user device of the information provider and the user device of the information searcher can periodically report their location to the server, or the server can perform the user device by various positioning technologies such as RFPM (Radio Frequency Pattern Matching (RFPM) positioning method). Positioning. In addition, the information provider's service providing location may be the same as its user device location, or it may be different.

In addition, when the user device cannot directly communicate with the server, indirect positioning can also be used to obtain its location data. For example, if within the short-range broadcast range of another user device whose location is known, the device identification data of the other user device is received as a contact basis. For example, Bluetooth technology can be used to install a device for transmitting information including device identification data within a specified range (0-50 meters) at a service providing location so that the location can be determined by the received strength (RSSI) returned by the user device.

For the user device of the information searcher, the location of the user device may be acquired while receiving the search content therefrom, for example, the location of the user of the information searcher may be received in text form or voice form, or may be utilized, for example. A method of GPS positioning technology to obtain its location data by a server. In the case where the user device of the information search side is a mobile device, its location data can be updated periodically.

For the information provider, the location information thereof may include at least one of a location of the user device of the information provider and a service providing location of the information provider. The location of the information provider's user device may or may not be the same as its service provision location. As an example in which the location of the user device of the information provider is the same as the location where the service is provided, the service providing location may be a mobile vending cart in which the information provider is located, or the information provider may be a driver. As an example in which the location of the user device of the information provider is different from the location where the service is provided, the service providing location may be a fixed store, and the user device may be a mobile device that is not within the store.

Specifically, in one or more information providers whose information is related to the keyword of the search content, it may first be determined between the service provider location of the information provider and the user device of the information searcher The nearest Y information providers, Y is a natural number. First, the Y information providers are selected based on the distance between the service provider's service providing location and the user device of the information searcher in consideration of the convenience of the information searcher, because in general, the information searcher searches for the required information. After that, it is likely to go to the location where the information is provided. Of course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that Y information providers may also be selected based on other criteria, such as the size of the area at the service providing location, the reputation of the information provider, and the like.

Here, if the same information provider has a plurality of service providing locations at this time, only one of the service providing locations is selected, that is, for each search content, only one service providing location of the same information provider can be selected.

Then, the Y information providers are sorted. The Y information providers may be ordered based on at least one of: a distance between a service provider location of the information provider and a user device of the information searcher, a budget of the information provider, a rating of the information provider, information The name of the provider and the preferences of the information searcher, etc. The information provider's budget can refer to the maximum amount that the information provider can pay for the third party to provide its information to the information searcher. The rating of the information provider can be a comprehensive evaluation of the services provided by the information provider. The name of the information provider may be the Chinese name of the information provider, the Chinese phonetic alphabet of the Chinese name, and the English name thereof, and accordingly, when sorting based on the name of the information provider, the stroke order of the Chinese name or the Chinese name may be used. The alphabetical order of Chinese Pinyin or its English name is sorted. The information searcher's preferences can be specified by the information searcher while entering the search content.

However, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and those skilled in the art may obviously sort the Y information providers according to other factors. For example, if the search content of the information searcher is a restaurant, the price of the restaurant may also be Sorting Y restaurants by waiting time, restaurant area, etc.

Next, M of the Y information providers are sequentially selected as candidate information providers. Generally, M candidate information providers are selected in order of highest to lowest. M is a natural number and is usually Y>M. The value of M can be determined based on the maximum number of information that can be displayed each time on the user device of the information searcher. For example, if the user device of the information searcher displays up to 5 pieces of information each time (per page), M can be equal to 5.

In a specific embodiment, in order to sort the Y information providers, the ranking coefficient Si of each of the Y information providers can be calculated based on the weighting values of the plurality of factors:

Si=Di×Pd+Bi×Pb+Ri×Pr, i=1, 2,...,Y,

Where Di denotes the service providing location of the i-th information provider and the user device of the information searcher The distance between them, Pd represents the distance weight, Bi represents the maximum budget amount of the i-th information provider, Pb represents the budget weight, Ri represents the score of the i-th information provider, and Pr represents the scoring weight. Pd+Pb+Pr=1, and the values of Pd, Pb, and Pr can be flexibly set depending on actual application and design needs.

Of course, the method of calculating Si described herein is merely an example, and those skilled in the art can use other algorithms to calculate Si based on fewer or more factors.

Thereafter, the M information providers having the highest Si in the Y information provider are selected as the candidate information providers.

As described earlier, after the candidate information provider is determined, the search notification is transmitted to the user device of the candidate information provider to decide whether or not to provide information to the user device of the information searcher by the candidate information provider. Whether to provide information to the user device of the information searcher can be determined automatically or manually.

In one example, when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content satisfies a predetermined condition, the transmission information is automatically determined and transmitted to the user device of the information searcher. Further, when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content does not satisfy the predetermined condition, the candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information.

Here, the predetermined condition may be set in advance by the information searcher. Predetermined conditions include but are not limited to:

The above matching degree is greater than or equal to an automatic sending threshold (for example, 90%), and the automatic sending threshold may be a default value and may be modified to automatically send a threshold > correlation threshold;

The keyword in the search notification includes a specific word/word, for example, the specific word/word may be the name of the information provider, the name of the service provided by the information provider, and the like;

● The information provider has provided information to the information searcher;

● Other conditions that the information provider deems appropriate.

When any one of the predetermined conditions is satisfied, the information can be automatically transmitted to the user device of the information searcher without waiting for confirmation by the information provider.

The predetermined condition may be for each information provider, that is, each information provider may separately set a predetermined condition for itself. The predetermined conditions listed above are merely exemplary, and embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

On the other hand, when any one of the predetermined conditions is not satisfied, it is manually determined by the candidate information provider whether or not to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher. If the candidate information provider determines to send the message, it can send an acknowledgment message to the server, and then, when the server receives the message When the message is sent, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information search side.

The information transmitted may be in the form of text, pictures, voice, etc., depending on the situation of the user device of the information searcher.

If the candidate information provider determines not to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher, it may send a denial transmission message to the server, or may not perform any action.

Here, an acknowledgment period may be defined, and if the server does not receive the acknowledgment transmission message from the candidate information provider within the acknowledgment period, the information of the candidate information provider is not transmitted.

Therefore, in some cases, although M candidate information providers with the highest ranking coefficient S among the Y information providers are determined (may also be referred to as the first M candidate information providers), there may be some candidate information among them. The provider decides not to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher, such that the number N of information providers actually transmitting information to the user device of the information searcher is less than M, or the target number T of information desired by the information searcher is greater than M , N and T are natural numbers, and then M information providers with the highest ordering coefficient S may be selected from the Y information providers as candidate information providers, and the search notification is sent to the second M candidate information providers. . And so on, until the target number T is met or the information searcher terminates the search.

In the case where it is necessary to determine the second M candidate information providers (and a plurality of M candidate information providers), if there are candidate information providers that determine to transmit their information to the user device of the information searcher, they may follow their The information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information searcher in the order of the ranking coefficients from high to low. That is to say, there are cases in which, among the M candidate information providers other than the first M candidate information providers, although the candidate information provider determines to transmit to the user device of the information search side Its own information, but because its ranking coefficient S is relatively low, it does not finally send its information to the user device of the information searcher.

After transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user device of the information search side, the candidate information provider is charged. Charges can be made by the server or other device.

Therefore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to finally determine whether to transmit information to a user device of the information searcher by the information provider itself, rather than a third party (for example, a server) based on the keyword of the search content, thereby being able to improve The accuracy of the information provided to more effectively provide information to the information searcher. In addition, since the information provider that issues the information is charged after transmitting the information to the user device of the information search side, the information provider can decide whether to send the information according to its own situation, which can save the cost of the information provider, so that The delivery of information is more targeted. Moreover, effective and accurate information transmission can also save the use of transmission resources, thereby avoiding waves. Time and resources.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it may be necessary to know the location information of the information provider. Therefore, before the 101 of the method 100 shown in FIG. 1, that is, before receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher, the method 100 further includes: Receiving information from a user device of the information provider and acquiring location information of the information provider; transmitting price information to and receiving payment information from the user device of the information provider; and storing keywords of the information and information. The price information may be a fee charged for storing information of the information provider on the server and/or a fee charged for transmitting the information to the information searcher and an action of the searcher for the information receiving the information provider. The cost, and the price can vary depending on the type of information. The payment information may be an acknowledgement of the aforementioned price information and a confirmation of the payment method.

In one example, the location information of the information provider includes at least one of a location of the user device of the information provider and a service provision location of the information provider.

In one example, the information provider is an advertising provider.

When all of the user devices of the information provider are disconnected, all of the stored information of the information provider is disabled. That is, at this time, the information provider's information is not searched, but when a user device of the information provider is again connected to the server, its information is activated again for searching.

Of course, in order to save storage space, when all user devices of the information provider are disconnected, the server can also delete all data of the information provider from its database, including information that can be provided, keywords of the information, and location information.

2 is an exemplary signal flow diagram 200 showing one embodiment of providing search results to an information searcher in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

At S1, the information provider 210 issues a login request to the server 220. At this time, if the information provider 210 is a registered user, the server 220 identifies the identifier (ID) of the information provider 210. Further, the server 220 can also obtain its location information when the information provider 210 logs in. An information provider 210 can only have one ID, and all user devices belonging to the same information provider 210 can be associated. If the information provider 210 is an unregistered user, the server 220 generates an ID for the information provider 210.

At S2, the server 220 sends a login confirmation to the information provider 210. In the case where the information provider 210 is the first registration, the generated ID may also be transmitted to the information provider 210 at the same time.

The server 220 is only for the logged-in information provider 210 (ie, the registered information provider 210) It provides information and the storage of keywords and the business that sends its information to the information searcher.

The registration and registration process can be accomplished using any technique known to those skilled in the art, and a detailed description thereof is omitted herein in order to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the embodiments of the present invention.

Thereafter, at S3, the information provider 210 submits the information to the server 220. The information provider 210 can submit the keywords of the information at the same time, or the server 220 can obtain the keywords from the information by itself.

At S4, the server 220 transmits the price information to the information provider 210, and at S5, the information provider 210 returns the payment information to the server 220 for confirmation.

At S6, the server 220 stores the information of the information provider 210 and its keywords.

Thereafter, at S7, the information searcher 230 transmits a search request to the server 220 at a certain time. As previously mentioned, the search request may include searching for content, keywords of the search content, current location of the user device of the information searcher 230, and the like, and the search content may be at least of text, still images, video, voice, code A form of information.

In the case where the search request does not include the keyword of the search content, the server 220 extracts the keyword of the search content at S8.

Next, at S9, the server 220 determines the correlation between the two by, for example, searching for the degree of matching between the keyword of the content and the keyword of the information of the information provider 210, and then, at S10, the server 220 based on the location Identify candidate information providers. For example, the candidate information provider can be determined based on the aforementioned sorting coefficient S, and details are not described herein again.

At S11, the server 220 transmits a search notification to the information provider 210 as a candidate information provider, and the search notification may include searching for part or all of the content.

If the information provider 210 decides to transmit the information (automatic or manual) in S12, the server 220 transmits the information of the information provider 210 to the information searcher 230 at S13, and then charges the information provider 210 for this transmission at S14. .

Thereafter, at S15, the server 220 also transmits a status report to the information provider 210. In addition to the search notification described above, the status report may also include other information such as usage statistics, balance status, and the like of the information provider 210. The server 220 can periodically send a status report to the information provider 210.

The signal flow diagram in FIG. 2 is merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art can appropriately delete, modify, or add as needed.

Further, in addition to charging the candidate information provider after transmitting the information to the user device of the information search side, according to another embodiment of the present invention, it is also possible to search for information for which the information has been transmitted. When the subscriber's user equipment enters the predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and stays in the billable time period, the candidate information provider is charged. This will be described later with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram showing a method 300 for billing an information provider in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, at 301 of method 300, information of the information provider is sent to the user device of the information searcher. At 302, the location of the user device of the information searcher is monitored. At 303, when the user device of the information searching party that has sent the information provider information enters the predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and stays for the billable time period, the information provider fee.

Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the information provider is charged only when the information search party that has received the information enters the predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and stays for a certain period of time, thereby avoiding the information search party The situation of charging the information provider only by passing the service provider's service providing location makes the charging standard more scientific and reduces the cost of the information provider.

In addition to transmitting information to the user device of the information searcher using existing methods, transmitting the information of the information provider to the user device of the information searcher in 301 may also use the method 100 described above with reference to FIG. 1, including: searching from the information The user device of the party receives the search content; compares the keyword and the search content of the information of the user device from the information provider; and determines, by the one or more information providers, whether to send the information to the user device of the information searcher based on the comparison result search results.

Of course, embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and any other suitable method may be used to transmit information to a user device of the information search side.

Specifically, determining, by the information provider based on the keyword of the search content, whether to send the information to the user device of the information searcher as the search result includes: determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information of the information provider; determining the information and The one or more information providers related to the keywords of the search content are candidate information providers, and the search notifications are sent to the user devices of the candidate information providers, wherein the search notifications include part or all of the search content; and if the candidate information providers determine When the information is transmitted, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information search side.

In one example, among the one or more information providers whose information is related to the keyword of the search content, the Y information providing the closest distance between the service provider location of the information provider and the user device of the information searcher is determined. The Y information providers are sorted; M of the Y information providers are sequentially selected as candidate information providers, where Y and M are natural numbers, and Y>M.

The Y information providers may be ordered based on at least one of: a distance between a service provider location of the information provider and a user device of the information searcher, a budget of the information provider, a rating of the information provider, and information provision The name of the party and the preferences of the information searcher.

If the candidate information provider determines to transmit the information, when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content satisfies a predetermined condition, automatically determining the transmission information and transmitting the information to the user device of the information searcher; and when the information and the search content The candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information when the correlation between the keywords does not satisfy the predetermined condition. The predetermined conditions can be as listed above.

The candidate information provider manually determining the transmission information includes: the candidate information provider transmitting the confirmation transmission message; and when receiving the confirmation transmission message, transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user equipment of the information search side.

If the acknowledgment transmission message is not received from the information provider within the acknowledgment period, the information of the candidate information provider is not transmitted.

After transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user device of the information search side, the candidate information provider is charged.

Here, the search content may be information expressed in at least one of text, still image, video, voice, and code.

Further, when all the user devices of the information provider are disconnected, all of the stored information of the information provider is disabled.

In the method 300, in order to monitor the location of the user device of the information searcher, it may be desirable to accurately locate the user device within a certain location or geographic extent. Such location and geographic scope may be defined as data consisting of latitude and longitude and altitude obtained by built-in location services (eg, GPS), or indirect contact with other devices in the vicinity, ie, locations associated with other user devices whose location is known. .

In the case of an indirect connection, for example, if the user device to be located is within a short-range communication range with another user device whose location is known, the device identification data of the other user device is received as a contact basis. For example, Bluetooth technology can be used to install a device for transmitting information including device identification data within a specified range (0-50 meters) at a service providing location, so that the received strength (RSSI) returned by the user device of the information searcher can be Determine its location. In implementation, the user device may be considered to enter a predetermined range as long as it receives the signal. For another example, a nearby location connection can be manually authenticated by a user device associated with a known location, ie, the user device having the known location authenticates the user device to which it is to be located and reports the user to be located. Device Location data. This indirect approach is particularly directed to user devices that do not have access to the Internet, cannot update data stored on the server, and/or have no built-in location services. In this case, the merchant or the user can authenticate the two parties in the same location by scanning the code or making a call (because the two parties meet, the user must be within the predetermined range of the service providing location). At the same time, since it takes a long time (about one minute) to perform such a manual authentication method, a single execution of the authentication is regarded as a "resident up chargeable time period".

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the charging method is specifically implemented, the server generates a contact information corresponding to information of one information provider, such as a phone number, an email, etc., and the communication through the generated contact mode passes through the server, thereby the server It can monitor, process and modify related communications. For example, the server generates an email address, and the mailbox is actually located on the server. The server can know the communication content and then process the communication content to the information provider. For another example, when making a call through a mobile phone application, the phone is actually sent through the server of the mobile phone application, and the server of the mobile application can also know the communication content.

Thereafter, the server adds the generated contact information to the information content. If the information originally contains contact data, the automatically generated data can be used to replace the original data. Next, information of the information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information search side (refer to the method 300 of FIG. 3).

Thereafter, the communication by the information searcher through the contact is identified. The identification method may be text search, optical recognition (OCR), voice recognition, etc., but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto, and the specific manner may depend on the contact manner.

When the parameter of the communication identification result is greater than a threshold, the authentication is considered successful and the information provider is charged. The parameter can be calculated by matching the relevant communication recognition result based on the information on some specific keywords (such as "arrival", "complete", "paid", etc.).

4 is a schematic block diagram showing an apparatus 400 for providing search results in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the device 400 includes a receiving unit 410, an extracting unit 420, and a transmitting unit 430.

The receiving unit 410 is configured to receive search content from a user device of the information searcher. The extracting unit 420 is configured to obtain a keyword of the search content. The transmitting unit 430 is configured to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result when one or more information providers determine to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher based on the keyword of the search content.

Therefore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the information provider itself - not a third party (for example) For example, the device 400) finalizes whether to send information to the user device of the information searcher based on the keyword of the search content, thereby improving the accuracy of the information providing, thereby providing the information searcher with information more effectively.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram showing an apparatus 500 for charging an information provider in accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the device 500 includes a transmitting unit 510, a monitoring unit 520, and a billing unit 530.

The transmitting unit 510 is configured to transmit information of the information provider to the user device of the information searcher. The monitoring unit 520 is configured to monitor the location of the user device of the information searcher. The billing unit 530 is configured to, when the user device of the information searcher for which the information provider has transmitted information enters a predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and resides for the billable period, Information provider billing.

It should be noted that, for clarity and conciseness, only portions related to embodiments of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that the devices shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 or The device can include other necessary units.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps of the various examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both, for clarity of hardware and software. Interchangeability, the composition and steps of the various examples have been generally described in terms of function in the above description. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the solution. A person skilled in the art can use different methods for implementing the described functions for each particular application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of the present invention.

A person skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of the description, the specific working process of the system, the device and the unit described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described herein again.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a standalone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, this The technical solution of the invention, or all or part of the technical solution, may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including a plurality of instructions. A computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) is caused to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The foregoing storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, and the like. .

It should also be noted that in the apparatus and method of the present invention, it is apparent that the various components or steps may be decomposed and/or recombined. These decompositions and/or recombinations should be considered as equivalents to the invention. Also, the steps of performing the series of processes described above may naturally be performed in chronological order in the order illustrated, but need not necessarily be performed in chronological order. Certain steps may be performed in parallel or independently of one another.

The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention. It should be covered by the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the scope of the appended claims.

The present application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 20141071075, filed on Nov. 28, 2014, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

Claims

A method of providing search results, including:

Receiving search content from a user device of the information searcher;

Get the keywords for the search; and

Whether or not to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result is determined by one or more information providers based on the keywords of the search content.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, by the information provider based on the keyword of the search content, whether to transmit the information to the user device of the information searcher as the search result comprises:

Determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information of the information provider;

One or more information providers that determine their information related to the keywords of the search content are candidate information providers,

Sending a search notification to a user device of the candidate information provider, wherein the search notification includes a portion or all of the search content;

If the candidate information provider determines the transmission information, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information searcher.
The method of claim 2, wherein determining the candidate information provider further comprises:

Among the one or more information providers whose information is related to the keyword of the search content, the Y information providers that determine the closest distance between the service provider's service providing location and the user device of the information searcher are determined;

Sorting Y information providers;

Selecting M of the Y information providers as candidate information providers in sequence,

Where Y and M are natural numbers and Y>M.
The method of claim 3, wherein the Y information providers are ordered based on at least one of:

The information provider's service provides the distance between the location and the user device of the information searcher, the budget of the information provider, the rating of the information provider, the name of the information provider, and the preferences of the information searcher.
The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein if the candidate information provider determines to transmit the information, transmitting the information to the user device of the information searcher comprises:

Automatically determining when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content satisfies a predetermined condition Sending information and transmitting information to the user device of the information searcher;

When the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content does not satisfy the predetermined condition, the candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information.
The method of claim 5, wherein the candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information comprises:

The candidate information provider sends an acknowledgment to send the message;

When the acknowledgment transmission message is received, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user equipment of the information search side.
The method according to claim 6, wherein if the acknowledgment transmission message is not received from the candidate information provider within the acknowledgment period, the information of the candidate information provider is not transmitted.
A method according to any one of claims 2-7, further comprising:

After transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user device of the information search side, the candidate information provider is charged.
A method according to any one of claims 2-8, further comprising:

When the user device of the information searching party that has transmitted the information of the candidate information provider enters within a predetermined range of the service providing location of the candidate information provider and stays for the chargeable time period, the candidate information provider fee.
The method according to any one of claims 2-9, wherein determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information provider information comprises:

Compare the match between the keywords of the search content and the keywords of the information;

When the degree of matching is greater than or equal to the relevance threshold, the keyword determining the search content is related to the information provider's information.
The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher further comprises: obtaining a location of the user device of the information searcher, and

The search content is information expressed in at least one of text, still image, video, voice, and code.
The method of claim 11, before receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher, further comprising:

Receiving information from a user device of the information provider and obtaining location information of the information provider;

Sending price information to and receiving payment information from the user device of the information provider;

Keywords that store information and information,

The location information of the information provider includes at least one of a location of the user device of the information provider and a service providing location of the information provider.
A method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the information provider is an advertising provider.
A method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein all stored information of the information provider is disabled when all user devices of the information provider are disconnected.
A method of billing an information provider, including:

Sending information of the information provider to the user device of the information searcher;

Monitoring the location of the user device of the information searcher;

The information provider is billed when the user device of the information searcher for which the information provider has been sent enters within a predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and resides for the billable period.
The method of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the information of the information provider to the user device of the information searcher comprises:

Receiving search content from a user device of the information searcher;

Comparing keywords and search content of information from user devices of the information provider;

Whether or not to transmit information to the user device of the information searcher as a search result is determined by the one or more information providers based on the comparison result.
The method according to claim 16, wherein the determining, by the information provider based on the keyword of the search content, whether to transmit the information to the user device of the information searcher as the search result comprises:

Determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information of the information provider;

One or more information providers that determine their information related to the keywords of the search content are candidate information providers,

Sending a search notification to a user device of the candidate information provider, wherein the search notification includes a portion or all of the search content;

If the candidate information provider determines the transmission information, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user device of the information searcher.
The method of claim 17, wherein determining the candidate information provider further comprises:

Among the one or more information providers whose information is related to the keyword of the search content, the Y information providers that determine the closest distance between the service provider's service providing location and the user device of the information searcher are determined;

Sorting Y information providers;

Selecting M of the Y information providers as candidate information providers in sequence,

Where Y and M are natural numbers and Y>M.
The method of claim 18, wherein the Y information providers are ordered based on at least one of:

The information provider's service provides the distance between the location and the user device of the information searcher, the budget of the information provider, the rating of the information provider, the name of the information provider, and the preferences of the information searcher.
The method according to any one of claims 17 to 19, wherein if the candidate information provider determines to transmit the information, transmitting the information to the user device of the information searcher comprises:

Automatically determining the transmission information and transmitting the information to the user device of the information searcher when the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content satisfies the predetermined condition;

When the correlation between the information and the keyword of the search content does not satisfy the predetermined condition, the candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information.
The method of claim 20, wherein the candidate information provider manually determines the transmission information comprises:

The candidate information provider sends an acknowledgment to send the message;

When the acknowledgment transmission message is received, the information of the candidate information provider is transmitted to the user equipment of the information search side.
The method according to claim 21, wherein if the acknowledgment transmission message is not received from the candidate information provider within the acknowledgment period, the information of the candidate information provider is not transmitted.
A method according to any one of claims 17-22, further comprising:

After transmitting the information of the candidate information provider to the user device of the information search side, the candidate information provider is charged.
The method according to any one of claims 17 to 23, wherein determining whether the keyword of the search content is related to the information provider information comprises:

Compare the match between the keywords of the search content and the keywords of the information;

When the degree of matching is greater than or equal to the relevance threshold, the keyword determining the search content is related to the information provider's information.
The method of any one of claims 16 to 24, wherein receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher further comprises: obtaining a location of the user device of the information search party, and

The search content is information expressed in at least one of text, still image, video, voice, and code.
The method of claim 25, before receiving the search content from the user device of the information searcher, further comprising:

Receiving information from a user device of the information provider and obtaining location information of the information provider;

Sending price information to and receiving payment information from the user device of the information provider;

Keywords that store information and information,

The location information of the information provider includes at least one of a location of the user device of the information provider and a service providing location of the information provider.
A method according to any one of claims 16-26, wherein the information provider is an advertising provider.
A method according to any one of claims 16-27, wherein all stored information of the information provider is disabled when all user devices of the information provider are disconnected.
The method of claim 15 wherein billing the information provider comprises:

The server generates a contact information of the information corresponding to the information provider;

Identifying the communication that the information searcher made through the contact; and

When the parameter of the communication identification result is greater than a threshold, the authentication is considered successful and the information provider is charged.
A device for providing search results, including:

a receiving unit configured to receive search content from a user device of the information searcher;

An extracting unit configured to obtain a keyword of the search content;

The sending unit is configured to, when the one or more information providers determine to send the information to the user device of the information searcher based on the keyword of the search content, send the information to the user device of the information searcher as the search result.
A device for billing information providers, including:

a sending unit configured to send information of the information provider to the user device of the information searcher;

a monitoring unit configured to monitor a location of a user device of the information searcher;

a billing unit configured to: when a user device of the information searcher for which information of the information provider has been sent enters a predetermined range of the service provider's service providing location and resides for a billable period of time, Information provider billing.