Vertical content searching method and apparatus

Abstract

The present invention provides for conducting a vertical search, wherein a vertical search is a content search in a defined or otherwise limited domain. The method and apparatus includes receiving a search request from a user, where the user has a user profile with user profile data associated therewith. The method and apparatus includes defining a search domain based on the search request and the user profile data. Thereby, the method and apparatus includes conducting a content search within the search domain, as the search domain is defined in part by the user-profile information and thereby provides a much more concise search result. Additionally, the method and apparatus may perform additional functions based on the aggregation of data across numerous users having related profile data.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.