CONTENT ITEM SELECTION

• US 20100010958A1
• Filed: 07/14/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Macgill, James Robert, Perrow, Mike, Zhang, Dana, Symonds, David, Verne, Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 8,201,089 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

A content item, e.g., an icon or advertisement content, is selected for placement in a display environment (e.g., on a map or adjacent to a map) in response to a request for the display environment based on a probability that the content item is relevant to a user that is requesting the display environment. The selection is facilitated by content targeting data (e.g., feature selection and query submission) that can be received from user devices while the map space is presented.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request for a map space, wherein the map space is a portion of a map for presentation in a display region on a user device;

identifying content targeting data associated with the map space, the content targeting data based on input data that have been received from display interfaces in the display region in response to presentations of the map space prior to the request for the map space;

identifying a content item for display with the map space based on the content targeting data; and

providing the content item for display in the display region on the user device in response to the request for the map space.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying content targeting data comprises:

identifying a map location associated with the map request; and

identifying content targeting data that is associated with the map location.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating the content targeting data based on the input data;

associating the content targeting data with a map location corresponding to the map space.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising ranking the associated content targeting data based on a measure of relatedness to the map space.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the measure of relatedness is a probability that the content targeting data is relevant to a user that requests the map space.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the content targeting data that is based on the input data comprises:

generating content targeting data based on the input data and semantic rules; and

identifying the content targeting data that satisfies a threshold measure of relatedness between the content targeting data and the map space.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating content targeting data based on the input data and semantic rules comprises generating expansion topics that are semantically related to the data input.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising ranking the content targeting data based on the measure of relatedness between the content targeting data and the map space.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying content targeting data that correspond to the map space comprises selecting a maximum number of content targeting data based on the measure of relatedness between the content targeting data and the map space.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the maximum number of content targeting data to a content item selector; and

receiving the content item for display in the display region on the user device in response to the request for the map space.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the content item is selected based on a feature density of the map space.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the input data are search queries.

13. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving input data from user devices, the input data having been input in display interfaces displayed on user devices;

associating the input data with map spaces, each data input being associated with a map space that was displayed in a display region on a user device when the data input was input in the display interface at the user device;

for each map space, generating content targeting data based on the associated input data;

providing access to the content targeting data for each map space to facilitate identification of content items for display with the map spaces.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving input data comprises receiving search queries that are received in response to presentation of the map space.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request for one of the map spaces from a requesting device;

identifying the content targeting data associated with the requested map space;

identifying a content item based on the content targeting data; and

providing the identified content item to the requesting device for presentation.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying the content targeting data comprises identifying the content targeting data that satisfies a threshold measure of relatedness to the requested map space.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the content item is provided for presentation adjacent to the map space.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying a content item comprises identifying the content item that corresponds to a highest ranked content targeting datum.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving input data comprises receiving data in response to mouse clicks on the map space.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

ranking the content targeting data based on a measure of relatedness between the content targeting data and the map space.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein providing access to the content targeting data for each map space comprises providing access to a maximum number of content targeting data based on the ranking.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein receiving input data comprises receiving data that corresponds to selection of a map feature.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the map feature comprises a place of interest display for the map space.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein identifying content items comprises:

identifying a frequency of selection for the map feature for the map space;

ranking the map features based on the frequency of selection; and

identifying a content item based on the map feature ranking.

25. The method of claim 13, wherein associating the input data with map spaces comprises generating clusters of topic data that correspond to common map spaces.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein generating the clusters of topic data comprises generating topics that correspond to the input data.

27. The method of claim 13, wherein the content item is an online advertisement.

28. Software stored in computer readable media and comprising instructions executable by a processing device and upon such execution cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request for a map space, wherein the map space is a portion of a map for presentation in a display region on a user device;

identifying content targeting data associated with the map space, the content targeting data based on input data that have been received from display interfaces in response to presentations of the map space in display regions prior to the request for the map space;

identifying a content item for display with the map space based on the content targeting data; and

providing the content item for display in the display region on the user device in response to the request for the map space.

29. A system, comprising:

a content targeting data store storing content targeting data associated with a map space, the content targeting data based on input data that have been received from display interfaces in response to presentations of the map space in display regions; and

a content item selection module configured to receive a request for a map space and in response provide the associated content targeting data to a content selector for selection of content items related to the content targeting data to be displayed with the map space on a user device.