How Search Engines Personalize Results Based on Your Browsing History
Google's patent for narrowing down search results by prioritizing websites that match your personal interests and past browsing habits.
Original patent title: “Systems and methods for performing point-of-view searching”
Google's patent for narrowing down search results by prioritizing websites that match your personal interests and past browsing habits. Granted to Google LLC in 2007 with 41 claims and 24 forward citations.
Key facts
Coverage
What does this patent actually cover?
This patent describes a method where a search engine uses a pre-stored set of URLs, representing a user's specific point-of-view (POV), to filter or rank search results. When you perform a search, the system doesn't just look at the query; it checks the results against your history, bookmarks, or other relevant sites to see which ones align with your established interests. For example, if you frequently visit technical engineering blogs, the system can boost the ranking of similar technical documents in your search results while pushing less relevant content further down the list.
The gap
What does this patent NOT cover?
- Does not cover search results that are ranked solely based on global popularity or PageRank without a user-specific POV filter.
- Does not cover real-time collaborative filtering where results are based on the behavior of other users rather than your own specific history.
- Does not cover the underlying mechanism of how a web crawler indexes the internet.
These exclusions are unique to PatentBrief — derived from the actual claim language, not patent-office boilerplate.
What made this novel
The system treats your personal browsing history as a set of 'reset probabilities' in a ranking algorithm, essentially telling the search engine to 'teleport' more often to sites you actually care about when calculating result relevance.
Schematic visualization of the patent's claim structure. Hand-drawn diagrams in progress for each landmark patent.
Where you've seen this
Real-world examples
Google Search personalized results based on signed-in account history
Browser-based search suggestions that prioritize your bookmarks
Search engines that boost results from sites you visit frequently
Why it matters
The bigger picture
This technology is a foundational element of modern personalized search. It moved the industry away from a one-size-fits-all search experience toward the tailored results users expect today. It allows search engines to act as a filter for the vast amount of information on the web by prioritizing what is actually useful to the individual user.
Filed
March 12, 2003
Granted
November 13, 2007
Market context
Who's building on this
Companies in this space
Google remains the primary entity utilizing these methods within its core search infrastructure. Other major search providers and advertising platforms have built upon these concepts to refine how they present content to users based on behavioral profiles.
Market impact
This patent helped solidify the shift toward personalized search, which is now a standard requirement for any competitive search engine. It enabled the creation of more effective ad-targeting and user-retention strategies by ensuring that search results remain highly relevant to individual user intent.
Claim 1 — Plain English
What this patent covers
This patent describes a method where a search engine uses a pre-stored set of URLs, representing a user's specific point-of-view (POV), to filter or rank search results. When you perform a search, the system doesn't just look at the query; it checks the results against your history, bookmarks, or other relevant sites to see which ones align with your established interests. For example, if you frequently visit technical engineering blogs, the system can boost the ranking of similar technical documents in your search results while pushing less relevant content further down the list.
The clever bit
The system treats your personal browsing history as a set of 'reset probabilities' in a ranking algorithm, essentially telling the search engine to 'teleport' more often to sites you actually care about when calculating result relevance.
What it does not cover
- Does not cover search results that are ranked solely based on global popularity or PageRank without a user-specific POV filter.
- Does not cover real-time collaborative filtering where results are based on the behavior of other users rather than your own specific history.
- Does not cover the underlying mechanism of how a web crawler indexes the internet.
Patent timeline
Application submitted to the patent office
Application published, typically 18 months after filing
Patent officially issued
PatentBrief Score
Impact Score
Strong
Citation count
28/40
Moderately cited
Claim breadth
20/20
Very broad protection
Recency
5/20
Granted 10–20 years ago
Assignee scale
20/20
Major company or institution
PatentBrief Impact Score — based on citation count, claim breadth, recency, and assignee scale. Not a legal assessment.
Heuristic Value Estimate
What this patent might be worth
$35K – $111K
Midpoint $69K · expired or expiring · industry ×1.6
Heuristic only — blends forward/backward citation counts, claim scope, time remaining, litigation history, and CPC-derived industry baseline. Real valuations need a professional appraisal.
The original legal language
Original claims
41 claims as filed with the patent office.
Concepts involved
Citations
Patent lineage
Cite this patent
Henzinger, M. H., Farach-Colton, M., & Chang, B. (2007). How Search Engines Personalize Results Based on Your Browsing History (U.S. Patent No. 7,296,016). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7296016/bing-msn-search
Auto-generated from the patent record. Double-check author order and the issue date against the official USPTO document before submitting.
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Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does How Search Engines Personalize Results Based on Your Browsing History cover?
Google's patent for narrowing down search results by prioritizing websites that match your personal interests and past browsing habits.
Who owns patent US 7296016?
Google LLC owns this patent, granted in 2007.
When does this patent expire?
This patent is expected to expire on November 13, 2027, when the invention enters the public domain.
What is patent US 7296016 cited by?
This patent has been cited by 24 later patents that build on its ideas.
What problem does this patent solve?
This technology is a foundational element of modern personalized search. It moved the industry away from a one-size-fits-all search experience toward the tailored results users expect today. It allows search engines to act as a filter for the vast amount of information on the web by prioritizing what is actually useful to the individual user.
What does this patent NOT cover?
Does not cover search results that are ranked solely based on global popularity or PageRank without a user-specific POV filter.
Same assignee
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