Systems and methods for adaptive scheduling of references to documents

• US 8,214,358 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2008
• Issued: 07/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Friedl, Jeffrey E. F., Hartnack, Kathleen L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tang, Jieying
• Application Number:
  US12/169,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20090013006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,455 Days
• Field of Search: 707/999.2, 707/999.104, 707/727, 707/748, 707/751, 709/224, 709/226, 705/7.29
• US Class Current: 707/727
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method for determining documents to display on a web page may be utilized for adaptive scheduling of references to documents. A popularity or selection weight of a document may be monitored. The popularity or selection weight may be used to determine when to display that document and may be updated based on further monitoring.

Claims

1. A method for adaptively selecting content to be displayed on a web page comprising:

assigning a popularity value for documents based on a number of selections of each document;

storing the popularity value in a database;

identifying a subset of the documents upon receiving a first request for the web page, wherein the subset is identified based on the popularity value of the documents;

displaying the subset of the documents on the web page in response to the first request, wherein the displaying comprises an indicia of each document including a corresponding link;

monitoring, for subsequent requests for the web page, a selection of the corresponding link for each of the documents over a time interval;

adjusting the popularity value of the documents based on a relative number of selections for each of the documents in the subset, wherein a greater number of selections of the links for a corresponding document during the time interval increases the popularity value of that document;

updating the adjusted popularity value for each document in the subset when a document is added or removed from the subset, wherein the adjusted popularity value for each document in the subset is reduced when a document is added to the subset and the adjusted popularity value for each document in the subset is increased when a document is removed from the subset; and

updating the subset of the documents upon receiving a future request for the web page, wherein the updated subset is identified based on the updated popularity value of the documents and the future request occurs after the time interval has expired.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the document comprises a web page.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the popularity value comprises a selection weight that reflects a percentage that the particular document is displayed on the web page in response to a request for the web page.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicia of each document comprises a teaser.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicia of each document comprises a header.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the header that is displayed is different depending on a feature associated with a user requesting the web page.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a first header is displayed when the user is associated with a first feature and a second header is displayed when the user is associated with a second feature.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the feature comprises geography, age, gender, occupation, interests, or combinations thereof.

9. A method for determining documents to display on a web page comprising:

receiving a first request for the web page;

displaying the web page including a subset of documents, wherein each of the subset of documents comprises a link to that document, each link being selectable from the web page;

monitoring, over a time interval, a frequency of selections of each link and its corresponding document from the web page for subsequent requests for the web page during the time interval;

recording the frequency of selections of each link and its corresponding document during the time interval;

determining a selection weight for each link based on the frequency of selections of each link, wherein the selection weight for each link corresponds with a percentage in which the particular link is displayed on the web page, wherein the links with higher selection weights are displayed on the web page more frequently;

adjusting the subset of documents after expiration of the time interval by adding documents whose selection weight is greater than the selection weight of existing documents from the subset of documents and by removing documents whose selection weight is less than the selection weight of another document that is not in the subset of documents, wherein the selection weight for each existing document in the subset is increased after the removing of documents and the selection weight for each existing document in the subset is reduced after the adding of documents; and

iteratively updating the adjusted selection weight for each link after another time intervals based on the frequency of selections of each link within the another time interval and updating the adjusted subset after expiration of the another time interval.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the link comprises a hyperlink and the documents comprise web pages.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the subset of documents comprises a subset of available documents.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the subset of available documents comprise the documents with larger selection weights.

13. A method for adaptively displaying document indicia on a web page comprising:

receiving a request for the web page;

providing a subset of documents whose document indicia is to be displayed on the web page with a link for each respective document in the subset of documents;

identifying a teaser for each of the documents in the subset of documents, wherein each of the documents is associated with at least one teaser;

displaying the selected teasers for each of the documents in the subset of documents;

monitoring, over a look back interval, a popularity for each of the teasers based on a frequency with which the link for each respective document is selected;

assigning a teaser weight based on the monitoring over the look back period, wherein the teaser weight reflects the frequency with which the link for each respective document is selected;

updating the teaser weight for each teaser from the subset of documents based on the frequency with which links from each document in the subset is selected;

adjusting the at least one teaser associated with a particular document based on the updated teaser weight for that particular document; and

removing a document from the subset when the updated teaser weight associated with that document decreases below a teaser weight from a document that is not part of the subset of documents, wherein the updated teaser weight for each document from the subset is increased after removing a document; and

adding a document to the subset when the updated teaser weight associated with that document increases above a teaser weight associated with a document that from the subset of documents, wherein the updated teaser weight for each document from the subset is reduced after adding a document.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the teaser comprises a news byline and the document comprises a web page.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein a document from the subset is associated with a plurality of teasers and each of the plurality of teasers includes a teaser weight that reflects a popularity of the document when displayed with that teaser.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the identified teaser comprises the one of the plurality of teasers with a higher teaser weight.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the adjusting the at least one teaser further comprising adjusting the identification of the teaser for each document, such that the teaser is identified based on the teaser weight associated with a document, wherein the identified teaser for each document is the teaser with a higher teaser weight.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the identifying a teaser for each of the documents comprises identifying a teaser for each document in the subset with the highest teaser weight.