System for selecting categories in accordance with advertising

Abstract

A method is disclosed for providing advertising content for display in a page over a network. The advertising content is displayed based on a category assigned to the advertising content. The category correlating to a given search may be based on the search results. The search results may be associated with one or more categories and the category associated with the highest count of search results is the category for that search.

1 . A method for matching a search query to an advertisement, the method comprising: 
 receiving a search term for the search query;    determining search results for the search term;    correlating each of the search results to at least one search category;    determining an amount of the search results that correlate to the search category;    selecting one of the search categories in accordance with the determined amount; and    providing advertiser content in accordance with the selected search category.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying an advertisement in accordance with the advertiser content.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the advertisement is displayed in accordance with the search category having the highest amount of search results that correlate to the selected search category.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein one or more of the search results may be associated with more than one of the search categories.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising having an advertiser select an ad category for an advertisement, wherein the ad category corresponds to at least one of the search categories.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein display of the advertisement further comprises displaying an advertisement that correlates to a geographic location of a user.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the search term correlates to one of the search categories before determining each of the search results to a search category.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising correlating each of the results to one of the search categories only if the search term does not correlate to one of the search categories.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying an advertisement associated with one of the search categories if the search term correlates to that search category.  
     
     
         10 . A system for matching a search query to an advertisement, comprising: 
 a user interface to receive a search term;    a search algorithm engine connected with the user interface, the search algorithm engine to determine search results for the search term; and    a category engine connected with the search algorithm engine, the category engine to correlate each of the search results to at least one search category, determine an amount of the search results that correlate to the search category, select one of the search categories in accordance with the determined amount, and provide advertiser content in accordance with the selected search category.    
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the advertisement is provided in accordance with the search category having the highest amount of search results that correlate to the search category.  
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein one or more of the search results may be associated with more than one of the search categories.  
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein an advertiser selects an ad category for an advertisement, wherein the ad category corresponds to at least one of the search categories.  
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the advertisement is provided that correlates to a geographic location of a user.  
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the category engine determines whether the search term correlates to one of the search categories before correlating each of the search results to a search category.  
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 10 ,wherein the category engine correlates each of the results to one of the search categories only if the search term does not correlate to one of the search categories.  
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the category engine provides an advertisement associated with one of the search categories if the search term correlates to the search category.  
     
     
         18 . A method for matching a query term and location of a user to an ad of an advertiser, the method comprising: 
 performing a search algorithm on the query term and location received from the user to obtain search results;    determining if the query term correlates to a determined advertiser category;    requesting advertiser content for the advertiser category if the query term correlates to the determined advertiser category and if the location correlates to a determined advertiser location;    determining each search category associated with the search results if the query term did not correlate to the determined advertiser category;    determining a count for each search category of the associations with the search results; and    requesting advertiser content for the search category based on the count.    
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising displaying an advertisement in accordance with the requested advertiser content.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the location of the user comprises an actual location of the user at the time of the search query, a location input by the user, a geographic location of the user determined form a computer profile of the user, or a geographic location of the user determined based on information from a computer of the user that performed the search query.