ASSIGNING SCORES TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS WITH EXTENSIONS

• US 20150379569A1
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lahaie, Sebastien, Li, Sai-Ming, Kantak, Darshan
• Granted Patent: US 9,858,594 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Various technologies pertaining to conducting auctions for display of electronic communications in display positions are described herein. An electronic communication has a predefined format, and further has an optional extension to the predefined format. The electronic communication participates in an auction, where an auction system takes the extension into consideration when computing a rank score for the electronic communication. Further, the auction system takes historic servings of the electronic communication, with the extension, to client computing devices into account when computing the rank score.

Claims

1. A method executed by a processor of a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving an indication that a client computing device has requested content;

responsive to receiving the indication, computing a score for an electronic communication, the score computed based upon;

the electronic communication comprising an extension to a predefined format; and

an externality score that is indicative of a number of times that the electronic communication has historically been presented on client computing devices;

selecting the electronic communication from several potential electronic communications based upon the score; and

responsive to selecting the electronic communication, transmitting the electronic communication for display with the content on the client computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, the electronic communication is an electronic advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication that the client computing device has requested content comprises receiving a query transmitted to a search engine by the client computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication that the client computing device has requested content comprises receiving an indication that the client computing device has requested a page from a content server.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing the externality score for the electronic communication based upon a number of times that the electronic communication has historically been presented on client computing devices.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the electronic communication is an electronic advertisement, the method further comprising:

computing a cost per click for the advertisement, the price computed based upon the externality score.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the externality score is additionally computed based upon:

numbers of times that the electronic communication, having extensions of respective types, have historically been presented on client computing devices; and

weights corresponding to the respective types of the extensions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the externality score is additionally computed based upon:

numbers of times that the electronic communication, when displayed at respective positions on pages, have historically been presented on the client computing devices, wherein the weights additionally correspond to the respective positions.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the externality score is additionally computed based upon:

numbers of times that the electronic communication, when having extensions with different respective layouts, have been historically presented on the client computing devices, wherein the weights additionally correspond to the respective layouts.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication is an advertisement, the method further comprising:

receiving a bid for presenting the advertisement; and

computing the score based upon the bid.

12. The method of claim 1, the extension being at least one of a link extension, a map extension, a media extension, or a telephone extension, the link extension comprises a plurality of links to respective sub-pages of a domain corresponding to the electronic communication, the map extension comprises data indicative of a geographic location corresponding to the electronic communication, the media extension comprises at least one of an image or a video, and the telephone extension comprises a telephone number corresponding to the electronic communication.

10. The method of 1, wherein the score is additionally based upon a tunable parameter, the tunable parameter defines an influence of the externality score on the score.

13. A computing system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that comprises an auction system that is executed by the processor, the auction system configured to;

compute a score for an electronic communication responsive to receiving an indication that content has been requested by a client computing device, the auction system configured to compute the score based upon the electronic communication having an extension to a predefined format and a historic number of impressions of the electronic communication; and

cause the electronic communication to be transmitted to the client computing device based upon the score.

14. The computing system of claim 13, the memory further comprises a search system that is configured to receive a query and output a ranked list of search results based upon the query, the indication that the content has been requested by the client computing device is the query being received by the search system.

15. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the electronic communication is a display advertisement.

16. The computing system of claim 13, the extension being at least one of a link extension, a map extension, a media extension, or a telephone extension, the link extension comprises a plurality of links to respective sub-pages of a domain corresponding to the electronic communication, the map extension comprises data indicative of a geographic location corresponding to the electronic communication, the media extension comprises at least one of an image or a video, and the telephone extension comprises a telephone number corresponding to the electronic communication.

17. The computing system of claim 13, the auction system comprises an externality component that is configured to compute an externality score for the electronic communication based upon:

the historic number of impressions of the electronic communication, regardless of type of the extension;

historic numbers of impressions of the electronic communication for combinations of extension types for the electronic communication, display positions of the electronic communication, and extension layouts; and

weights assigned to extension type, display position, and extension layout combinations.

18. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the auction system is configured to compute the score for the electronic communication based upon a tunable parameter, the tunable parameter defines an influence of the externality score on the score.

19. The computing system of claim 13, the auction system comprises a rank component that is configured to generate a ranked list of electronic communications based upon scores computed for electronic communications in the ranked list, the electronic communication included in the electronic communications, the electronic communication positioned in the ranked list based upon the score assigned to the electronic communication.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:

receiving a query from a client computing device;

generating a ranked list of search results based upon the query;

responsive to receiving the query, conducting an auction for an advertisement position on a search engine results page, the search engine results page to include the ranked list of search results, wherein conducting the auction comprises;

receiving a bid for an advertisement, the advertisement comprises content that conforms to a predefined format, the advertisement additionally comprises an extension to the predefined format;

responsive to receiving the bid for the advertisement, computing a score for the advertisement based upon the advertisement comprising the extension and a number of historic impressions of the advertisement; and

determining that the advertisement won the auction based upon the score; and

causing the search results page to include the advertisement based upon the auction.