US 2,004,220,926 · Filed 2004-06-02

The Patent That Turned Search Results Into Personalized Collections

Imagine typing a search and instead of getting a messy list of results, the system automatically groups them into smart collections based on what you're actually looking for. This patent covers the method of finding multiple things online, tagging them with useful information, and bundling them together in a way that makes sense to you personally.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a method for taking a user's search request, finding multiple matching entities (like products, articles, or profiles) from various sources, attaching descriptive metadata to each one, and then organizing all of them into a single collection with its own metadata describing the whole group. What's protected here is the specific process of aggregating diverse entities and layering metadata both at the individual item level and at the collection level.

Why it matters

This patent addresses a core problem of the early-to-mid 2000s web: search engines returned raw results, but users actually wanted organized, contextual information. By patenting the idea of intelligent entity grouping and metadata layering, Interactual Technologies staked a claim on personalization infrastructure that could power recommendation engines, shopping aggregators, and content curation platforms. The patent became relevant as e-commerce and content platforms grew more competitive.

Real-world use

When you search for 'best running shoes' on a shopping site and it automatically groups results by brand, price, and customer rating into neat categories, that's essentially what this patent describes—bundling results with smart metadata so you see patterns instead of chaos.

Original USPTO abstract

A method comprising receiving a request for content; searching for a plurality of entities in response to the received request, the plurality of entities each having entity metadata associated therewith; and creating a collection, the collection comprises the plurality of entities and collection metadata. A data structure embodied on a computer readable medium comprising a plurality of entities; entity metadata describing each of the plurality of entities; a collection containing each of the plurality of entities; and collection metadata describing the collection.

Patent details

Publication number: US 2,004,220,926
Filing date: 2004-06-02
Grant date: Application — not yet granted
Assignee: Interactual Technologies, Inc., A California Cpr[P
Inventor(s): LAMKIN ALLAN B., GEWICKEY GREGORY I., COLLART TODD R.
CPC class: H04L65/4061

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