US Patent 8484202 Optimizing blending algorithms using interleaving

Methods and computer-readable media are provided for interleaving multiple sets of blended search results to identify a preferred set of blended search results for a search query or for a category of search queries. A search query is received and routed to multiple ranking systems, which return search results that are blended into sets of blended search results. Interleaving experiments are performed to determined, based on user preferences, which set of blended search results are preferred for that particular search query. Based on the outcome, a preferred blending algorithm is identified.