System and method for integrating on-line user ratings of businesses with search engines

A self-correcting computer program product for use with a search engine to rank search results based upon a ranking of businesses that are selected from an unrestricted pool of merchants, comprising:

• an on-line ranking system for receiving any of users' on-line surveys or feedback about businesses;
• the on-line ranking system generating rating data from the any of the users' on-line surveys or feedback;
• wherein the rating data correlates higher quality search matches to higher business satisfaction ratings;
• wherein the on-line ranking system indexes the rating data;
• an on-line ranking repository for storing the rating data indexed by the on-line ranking system;
• a result sorter for sorting query results generated by the search engine, based on the rating data from the on-line ranking repository, and for generating ranked matches;
• a profile manager for creating a user profile history from a user's address;
• wherein the user profile history enables the user to update a rating that was previously provided by the user, and disables the user from revising ratings provided by other users;
• and
• wherein updated cumulative business satisfaction ratings from the users' on-line surveys or feedback automatically cause the on-line ranking system to re-index the rating data, and further cause the result sorter to generate ranked matches based on the re-indexed rating data.

A method for use with a search engine to self-correctively rank search results based upon a ranking of businesses that are selected from an unrestricted pool of merchants, comprising:

• receiving any of users' on-line surveys or feedback about businesses;
• generating rating data from the any of the users' on-line surveys or feedback;
• wherein the rating data correlates higher quality search matches to higher business satisfaction ratings;
• indexing the rating data by means of an on-line ranking system;
• storing the rating data indexed by the on-line ranking system, in an on-line ranking repository;
• sorting query results generated by the search engine, based on the rating data from the on-line ranking repository, and for generating ranked matches;
• creating a user profile history from a user's address;
• wherein the user profile history enables the user to update a rating that was previously provided by the user, and disables the user from revising ratings provided by other users;
• and
• wherein updated cumulative business satisfaction ratings from the users' on-line surveys or feedback automatically cause the on-line ranking system to re-index the rating data, and further cause the result sorter to generate ranked matches based on the re-indexed rating data.

A search result service for use with a search engine to self-correctively rank search results based upon a ranking of businesses that are selected from an unrestricted pool of merchants, comprising:

• receiving any of users' on-line surveys or feedback about businesses;
• generating rating data from the any of the users' on-line surveys or feedback;
• wherein the rating data correlates higher quality search matches to higher business satisfaction ratings;
• indexing the rating data by means of an on-line ranking system;
• storing the rating data indexed by the on-line ranking system, in an on-line ranking repository;
• sorting query results generated by the search engine, based on the rating data from the on-line ranking repository, and for generating ranked matches;
• creating a user profile history from a user's address;
• wherein the user profile history enables the user to update a rating that was previously provided by the user, and disables the user from revising ratings provided by other users;
• and
• wherein updated cumulative business satisfaction ratings from the users' on-line surveys or feedback automatically cause the on-line ranking system to re-index the rating data, and further cause the result sorter to generate ranked matches based on the re-indexed rating data.