Conversational question and answer

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for facilitating online conversation. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a search query; identifying, by a search engine, resources that are responsive to the search query, wherein the resources include information that references an online conversation in which a user has submitted questions to be viewed by trusted participants and one or more of the trusted participants has replied to the question, and wherein the trusted participants include the user, one or more advertisers and one or more social network friends of the user; and providing information that identifies the resources for display.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
 obtaining a search query;   identifying a user that initiated the search query;   identifying resources that are responsive to the search query, wherein the resources include information that references an online conversation in which the user or one or more social network friends of the user has submitted a questions to be viewed by trusted participants and one or more of the trusted participants has replied to the question, wherein the trusted participants include the user, one or more advertisers and the one or more social network friends of the user, and wherein the one or more advertisers are matched to the question based on each of the one or more advertisers having expertise in a topic associated with the question; and   providing information that identifies the resources for display.   
     
     
         2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . The computer storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that references the online conversation. 
     
     
         4 . The computer storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the information includes snippets of text that have been extracted from the resources. 
     
     
         5 . The computer storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the information includes a description for each resource. 
     
     
         6 . The computer storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the search query is entered at a search box on a search engine home page or a search engine results page. 
     
     
         7 . A method comprising:
 obtaining a search query;   identifying a user that initiated the search query;   identifying resources that are responsive to the search query, wherein the resources include information that references an online conversation in which the user or one or more social network friends of the user has submitted a question to be viewed by trusted participants and one or more of the trusted participants has replied to the question, wherein the trusted participants include the user, one or more advertisers and the one or more social network friends of the user, and wherein the one or more advertisers are matched to the question based on each of the one or more advertisers having expertise in a topic associated with the question; and   providing information that identifies the resources for display.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that references the online conversation. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the information includes snippets of text that have been extracted from the resources. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the information includes a description for each resource. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the search query is entered at a search box on a search engine home page or a search engine results page. 
     
     
         12 . A system comprising:
 a processor; and   computer-readable medium coupled to the processor and having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:   obtaining a search query;   identifying a user that initiated the search query;   identifying resources that are responsive to the search query, wherein the resources include information that references an online conversation in which the user or one or more social network friends of the user has submitted a question to be viewed by trusted participants and one or more of the trusted participants has replied to the question, wherein the trusted participants include the user, one or more advertisers and the one or more social network friends of the user, and wherein the one or more advertisers are matched to the question based on each of the one or more advertisers having expertise in a topic associated with the question; and   providing information that identifies the resources for display.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that references the online conversation. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the information includes snippets of text that have been extracted from the resources. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the information includes a description for each resource. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the search query is entered at a search box on a search engine home page or a search engine results page.