US 9,794,284 B2Granted

Application spam detector

AssigneeQuixey, Inc.

InventorsEric Glover, Nachum Plonka

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A search engine includes a network interface that receives a search query and a search module. The search module determines a consideration set of applications corresponding to the search query based on application data stored for a plurality of applications, determines a respective number of source objects associated with each of the applications in the consideration set, determines whether each of the applications is a spam application based on the respective number of source objects associated with each of the applications, applies respective penalties to selected ones of the applications based on the determination of whether each of the applications is a spam application, generates search results based on the respective penalties applied to the selected ones of the applications, and provides the search results to be transmitted by the network interface.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A search engine, comprising:

a network interface that receives a search query;
a non-transitory storage device that stores a plurality of application records, wherein each application record corresponds to a respective application and includes application data defining one or more features of the respective application;
and
one or more processors executing a search module that:
determines a consideration set of applications corresponding to the search query based on the search query and the plurality of application records;
for each application in the consideration set:
determines a number of source objects associated with a developer of the application, wherein the source objects associated with the developer include each edition of the application published by the developer and each application edition of other applications published by the developer,
for each source object associated with the developer of the application, determines a number of feedback units attributed to the source object, wherein the feedback units include reviews attributed to the source object and/or ratings attributed to the source object,
determines whether the application is spam based on the number of source objects associated with the developer of the application and the respective number of feedback units attributed to each of the source objects, and
applies a penalty to the application in response to determining that the application is spam;
generates search results based on the respective penalties applied to the applications, wherein, to apply the penalty to a first application, the search module at least one of:
(i) decreases a search result score associated with the first application, wherein a ranking of the first application within the search results decreases as the search result score of the first application decreases;
(ii) decreases the search result score associated with the first application, wherein the first application is excluded from the search results in response to the decreased search result score being below a threshold;
(iii) removes the first application from the search results;
and
(iv) updates stored application data for the first application to identify the application as spam;
and
provides the search results to the network interface,
wherein the network interface transmits the search results to a source of the search query.

16 more elements

A method for operating a search engine, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processing device of the search engine, a search query;
based on a plurality of application records each including application data for a respective application, determining, by the processing device, a consideration set of applications corresponding to the search query;
for each application in the consideration set:
determining, by the processing device, a number of source objects associated with a developer of the application, wherein the source objects associated with the developer include each edition of the application published by the developer and each application edition of other applications published by the developer;
for each source object associated with the developer of the application, determining, by the processing device, a number of feedback units attributed to the source object, wherein the feedback units include reviews attributed to the source object and/or ratings attributed to the source object;
determining, by the processing device, whether the application is spam based on the number of source objects associated with the developer of the application and the respective number of feedback units attributed to each of the source objects;
and
applying, by the processing device, a penalty to the application in response to determining that the application is spam;
generating, by the processing device, search results based on the respective penalties applied to the applications, wherein applying the penalty to a first application includes at least one of:
(i) decreasing a search result score associated with the first application, wherein a ranking of the first application within the search results decreases as the search result score of the first application decreases;
(ii) decreasing the search result score associated with the first application, wherein the first application is excluded from the search results in response to the decreased search result score being below a threshold;
(iii) removing the first application from the search results;
and
(iv) updating stored application data for the first application to identify the first application as spam;
and
transmitting, by the processing device, the search results to a source of the search query.

13 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/250,854Filed 29 Aug 2016 · continuation
Priority: 28 Apr 2014
Published: US 2016/0373465 A122 Dec 2016
Granted: 17 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

H04L 63/145
Countermeasures against malicious traffic: the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
G06F 16/248
Querying: presentation of query results
G06F 16/951
Retrieval from the web: indexing; Web crawling techniques
G06F 16/953
Retrieval from the web: querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines

Family

Application14/263,798Parent of this continuation · filed 28 Apr 2014
US 9,432,395 B2Parent of this continuation · filed 30 Aug 2016
US 2016/0373465 A1Pre-grant publication · published 22 Dec 2016
US 2015/0312271 A1Published application
US 9,794,284 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.