Social search engine
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsMax Ventilla, Damon Horowitz, Robert J. Spiro, Nathan Stoll
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for a social search engine. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics; selecting candidate answerers based at least partly on each answerer's respective relationship to the asker; sending the question successively to groups of one or more candidate answerers according to the ranking until an answer is received from a particular one of the candidate answerers; and sending to the asker the received answer and information that identifies the particular answerer.
Claims22
(canceled)
A method implemented by data processing apparatus, the method comprising:
- receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics;
- selecting a plurality of candidate answerers based at least partly on each candidate answerer's respective relationship to the asker;
- determining a respective wait time for each candidate answerer in the plurality of candidate answerers, where the respective wait time is based on a respective communication channel used by the candidate answerer;
- sending the question to a first candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the first candidate answerer;
- waiting, for the respective wait time of the first candidate answerer, for a first answer from the first candidate answerer without receiving the first answer;
- after waiting, sending the question to a second candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the second candidate answerer;
- receiving a second answer to the question from the second candidate answerer;
- and
- sending the second answer to the asker and information that identifies the second answerer.
A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics;
- selecting a plurality of candidate answerers based at least partly on each candidate answerer's respective relationship to the asker;
- determining a respective wait time for each candidate answerer in the plurality of candidate answerers, where the respective wait time is based on a respective communication channel used by the candidate answerer;
- sending the question to a first candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the first candidate answerer;
- waiting, for the respective wait time of the first candidate answerer, for a first answer from the first candidate answerer without receiving the first answer;
- after waiting, sending the question to a second candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the second candidate answerer;
- receiving a second answer to the question from the second candidate answerer;
- and
- sending the second answer to the asker and information that identifies the second answerer.
A system comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- computer-readable medium coupled to the processor and having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- receiving a question from an asker in which the question is associated with one or more topics;
- selecting a plurality of candidate answerers based at least partly on each candidate answerer's respective relationship to the asker;
- determining a respective wait time for each candidate answerer in the plurality of candidate answerers, where the respective wait time is based on a respective communication channel used by the candidate answerer;
- sending the question to a first candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the first candidate answerer;
- waiting, for the respective wait time of the first candidate answerer, for a first answer from the first candidate answerer without receiving the first answer;
- after waiting, sending the question to a second candidate answerer of the plurality of candidate answerers through the respective communication channel of the second candidate answerer;
- receiving a second answer to the question from the second candidate answerer;
- and
- sending the second answer to the asker and information that identifies the second answerer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.