In addition to posting here, you may know that I also am also a correspondent for Search Engine Land, where I post about search related patents and research.
In a new post over there today, Google’s OneBox Patent Application, I explore a number of the details described in Determination of a desired repository, a patent application from earlier this month that appears to describe how OneBox results may be chosen to appear above (or sometimes below) organic results in a Google web search.
Some OneBox results, like those providing transportation (plane or train) information or definitions or weather reports probably don’t rely upon user behavior information the way that others might, such as news or images or products.
But the patent seems to point towards relying upon information collected in those narrower searches, about users and queries, to decide what kind of vertical search to display above organic searches. I list some of the user behavior information being looked at to make that determination over at Search Engine Land.