System for generating query suggestions using a network of users and advertisers

• US 7,921,107 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chang, Chi-Chao, Tayal, Manish, Anastasakos, Tasos
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fan; Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US11/830,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20080256059A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,345 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/5, 707/E17.014, 707/722, 707/736, 707/758, 707/723, 707/706, 707/748, 707/767, 707/751, 709/218
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A system is described for generating query suggestions using a network of users and advertisers. The system may include a memory, an interface, and a processor. The memory may store a data representing a network comprising query items linked to advertisement items via link items, wherein each link item comprises a weight representing the strength of the relationship between each query item and advertisement item, a search query item, and a relevance value for each query item. The processor may be operatively connected to the memory and the interface and may identify the data representing the network and receive a search query item. The processor may calculate a relevance value for each additional query item in the network based on its relationship to the received search query item. The processor may then suggest the query items with the highest relevance values to the user via the interface.

Claims

1. A method for generating query suggestions using a network of users and advertisers, the method comprising:

identifying a network comprising a plurality of query items representing queries linked to a plurality of advertisement items representing advertisements via a plurality of query-advertisement link items, each query-advertisement link item comprising a weight which represents the strength of the association between each linked query item and each linked advertisement item, wherein the weight of each of the plurality of query-advertisement link items is based on a number of advertisements prominently displayed to a plurality of users after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item and at least one of a number of times the plurality of users clicked on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item, a number of times the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item was presented to the plurality of users after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item, or a number of times the plurality of users performed a desired action after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item and clicking on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item;

receiving a search query item from a user wherein the search query item exists in the plurality of query items;

calculating, by a processor, a relevance value for each of the plurality of query items representing a relevance of each of the plurality of query items to the received search query item, wherein the relevance value of a query item of the plurality of query items is based on one or more weights of the plurality of query-advertisement link items to which the query item is linked and one or more weights of the plurality of query-advertisement link items to which the received search query item is linked; and

suggesting query items of the plurality of query items with highest relevance values to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each query item in the plurality of query items comprises a search query performed by a user in a plurality of users.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each advertisement item in the plurality of advertisement items comprises an online advertisement of an advertiser.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising linking an advertisement item to a query item, via a query-advertisement link item, when a user clicks on the advertisement item after searching for the query item.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising calculating a weight of each query-advertisement link item based on a total number of click throughs attributable to each query-advertisement link item.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the total number of click throughs represents the number of times each user in the plurality of users clicked on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein suggesting the query items in the plurality of query items with the highest relevance values to the user further comprises:

adding the query items in the plurality of query items with the highest relevance values to a page; and

serving the page to the user via an interface.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the page comprises a search results page.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein serving the query items in the plurality of query items with the highest relevance values to the user further comprises serving the query items in the plurality of query items with the N highest relevance values to the user, further wherein N comprises any positive integer.

10. A method for generating query suggestions using a network of users and advertisers, the method comprising:

identifying a network comprising a plurality of query items representing queries wherein each query item is linked to a set of advertisement items representing advertisements;

receiving a first query item from a user wherein the first query item exists in the plurality of query items;

identifying a set of first-query advertisement items wherein the set of first-query advertisement items comprises the set of advertisement items linked to the first query item in the network, each first query-advertisement item comprising a weight which represents the strength of the association between the first query item and each linked advertisement item of the set of advertisement items, wherein the weight of each of the plurality of first query-advertisement items is based on a number of advertisements prominently displayed to a plurality of users after searching for the first query item and at least one of a number of times the plurality of users clicked on the advertisement item associated with the first query-advertisement item after searching for the first query item, a number of times the advertisement item associated with the first query-advertisement item was presented to the plurality of users after searching for the first query item, or a number of times the plurality of users performed a desired action after searching for the first query item and clicking on the advertisement item associated with the first query-advertisement item;

selecting, by a processor, a second query item in the plurality of query items wherein the second query item is linked to at least one advertisement item in the set of first-query advertisement items; and

suggesting the second query item to the user.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising linking an advertisement item to a query item when a user clicks on the advertisement item after searching for the query item.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein at least one advertisement item in the set of second-query advertisement items does not exist in the set of first-query advertisement items.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the query items in the plurality of query items are linked to the advertisement items in the set of advertisement items via a plurality of query-advertisement link items.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising calculating a weight value for each query-advertisement link item in the plurality of query-advertisement link items, wherein the weight value indicates the strength of the relationship between the query item and the advertisement item linked by each query-advertisement link item.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the calculated weight of each query-advertisement link item in the plurality of query-advertisement link items comprises a total number of click throughs attributable to each query-advertisement link item.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein selecting a second query item in the plurality of query items further comprises:

identifying a plurality of second query items in the plurality of query items wherein each second query item is linked to at least one first-query advertisement item in the set of first-query advertisement items, further wherein a plurality of second query-advertisement link items comprises the plurality of query-advertisement link items linked to the plurality of second query items and the set of first-query advertisement items; and

selecting the second query item from the plurality of second query items wherein the second query item comprises the second query item associated with the query-advertisement link item with the greatest weight value in the plurality of second query items.

23. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

selecting a third query item in the plurality of query items wherein the third query item is not linked to at least one advertisement item in the set of first-query advertisement items; and

suggesting the third query item to the user as being relevant to the first query item.

17. A system for generating query suggestions using a network of users and advertisers, the system comprising:

a memory to store a data representing a network comprising a plurality of query items representing queries linked to a plurality of advertisement items representing advertisements via a plurality of query-advertisement link items, each query-advertisement link item comprising a weight which represents the strength of the relationship between each linked query item and each linked advertisement item, wherein the weight of each of the plurality of query-advertisement link items is based on a number of advertisements prominently displayed to a plurality of users after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item and at least one of a number of times the plurality of users clicked on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item, a number of times the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item was presented to the plurality of users after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item, or a number of times the plurality of users performed a desired action after searching for the query item associated with the query-advertisement link item and clicking on the advertisement item associated with the query-advertisement link item, a search query item, and a relevance value for each query item in the plurality of query items;

an interface connected to the memory, the interface operative to communicate with a plurality of users; and

a processor operatively connected to the memory and the interface, the processor operative to identify the data representing the network, receive the search query item from the user wherein the search query item exists in the plurality of query items, calculate the relevance value for each of the plurality of query items representing a relevance of each of the plurality of query items to the received search query item, wherein the relevance value of a query item of the plurality of query items is based on one or more weights of the plurality of query-advertisement link items to which the query item is linked and one or more weights of the plurality of query-advertisement link items to which the received search query item is linked, and suggest the query items in the plurality of query items with the highest relevance values to the user via the interface.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein each query item in the plurality of query items comprises a search query performed by at least one user in the plurality of users.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein each advertisement item in the plurality of advertisement items comprises an online advertisement of an advertiser.

20. The system of claim 17 further comprising linking an advertisement item to a query item if at least one of the plurality of users clicked on the advertisement item after searching for the query item.

21. The system of claim 17 further comprising calculating a weight of each query-advertisement link item based on a total number of click throughs attributable to each query-advertisement link item.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein the query items in the plurality of query items with the N highest relevance values are suggested to the user.