Open profile content identification

• US 8,341,169 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2010
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Nance, Megan, Datar, Mayur, Tung, Julie, Rabii, Bahman, Miller, Jason C., Hochberg, Mike, Harmsen, Jeremiah, Tunguz-Zawislak, Tomasz J., Perez-Bergquist, Andres S.
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US12/727,186
• Publication Number:
  US 20100174726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: 707/758, 707/767, 707/770, 707/791, 707/795
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Open profile data in a user profile, e.g., free-form fields in a user profile, are processed to identify interests and preferences of the user. The interests and preferences are utilized to identify categories associated with the user profile, and content items, e.g., advertisements, can be identified based on the categories.

Claims

1. A method performed by a data processing apparatus, comprising:

receiving profile data associated with a user account;

identifying phrases in free-form text data in the received profile data, the phrases comprising one or more nouns and one or more adjectives, wherein the free-form text data is free-form text that is entered by a user into one or more text fields in a user profile of the user account and is not input in response to selecting constrained or predefined profile data;

assigning weights to the phrases identified in the free-form text data in the received profile data based at least in part on the one or more nouns;

determining user interests and user non-interests from the phrases identified in the free-form text data based at least in part on the one or more adjectives;

adjusting the weights assigned to the phrases identified in the free-form text data based on the user interests and user non-interests determined at least in part from the one or more adjectives from the phrases identified in the free-form text data; and

associating one or more category labels with the profile data based on the phrases identified in the free-form text data and the adjusted weights assigned to the phrases identified in the free-form text data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising targeting an advertisement based on the one or more associated category labels.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the phrases includes identifying psychographic information in the profile data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the one or more category labels includes associating the one or more category labels based on a phrase with a highest adjusted weight.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the weights includes assigning a value to each phrase.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

identifying the phrases includes identifying a number of nouns and a number of adjectives in at least one identified phrase;

assigning weights to the phrases includes assigning a weight to the at least one identified phrase based at least in part on the number of nouns in the at least one identified phrase; and

adjusting the weights includes adjusting the weight assigned to the at least one identified phrase based at least in part on the number of adjectives in the at least one identified phrase.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the phrases includes identifying one or more keywords indicative of sentiments in each identified phrase.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

identifying the one or more keywords includes identifying interests and non-interests in relation to the one or more keywords in each identified phrase; and

associating the one or more category labels includes associating the one or more category labels based on the phrases, the adjusted weights, the interests and the non-interests.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein:

identifying the one or more keywords includes performing a polarity analysis on the one or more keywords to identify one or more positive or negative verbs and related nouns; and

assigning the value includes assigning the value based on the one or more identified positive or negative verbs and related nouns.

2. A system comprising:

a data processing apparatus; and

a memory in data communication with the data processing apparatus and storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving profile data associated with a user account;

identifying phrases in free-form text data in the received profile data, the phrases comprising one or more nouns and one or more adjectives, wherein the free-form text data is free-form text that is entered by a user into one or more text fields in a user profile of the user account;

assigning weights to the phrases identified in the free-form text data in the received profile data based at least in part on the one or more nouns;

determining user interests and user non-interests from the phrases identified in the free-form text data based at least in part on the one or more adjectives;

adjusting the weights assigned to the phrases identified in the free-form text data based on the user interests and user non-interests determined at least in part from the one or more adjectives from the phrases identified in the free-form text data; and

associating one or more category labels with the profile data based on the phrases identified in the free-form text data and the adjusted weights assigned to the phrases identified in the free-form text data.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the memory further includes instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an advertisement based on the one or more associated category labels.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the phrases include one or more noun phrases;

and

wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to identify one or more nouns and related adjectives in the one or more noun phrases.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to identify one or more positive or negative verbs and related nouns in the phrases.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the memory further includes instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

identifying the phrases includes identifying a number of nouns and a number of adjectives in at least one identified phrase;

assigning weights to the phrases includes assigning a weight to the at least one identified phrase based at least in part on the number of nouns in the at least one identified phrase; and

adjusting the weights includes adjusting the weight assigned to the at least one identified phrase based at least in part on the number of adjectives in the at least one identified phrase.

3. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations, comprising:

receiving profile data associated with a user account;

identifying phrases in free-form text data in the received profile data, the phrases comprising one or more nouns and one or more adjectives, wherein the free-form text data is free-form text that is entered by a user into one or more text fields in a user profile of the user account;

assigning weights to the phrases identified in the free-form text data in the received profile data based at least in part on the one or more nouns;

determining user interests and user non-interests from the phrases identified in the free-form text data based at least in part on the one or more adjectives;

adjusting the weights assigned to the phrases identified in the free-form text data based on the user interests and user non-interests determined at least in part from the one or more adjectives from the phrases identified in the free-form text data; and

associating one or more category labels with the profile data based on the phrases identified in the free-form text data and the adjusted weights assigned to the phrases identified in the free-form text data.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an advertisement based on the one or more associated category labels.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 3, wherein the phrases include one or more noun phrases;

and

wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to identify one or more nouns and related adjectives in the one or more noun phrases.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to identify one or more positive or negative verbs and related nouns in the phrases.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

identifying the phrases includes identifying a number of nouns and a number of adjectives in at least one identified phrase;

assigning weights to the phrases includes assigning a weight to the at least one identified phrase based at least in part on the number of nouns in the at least one identified phrase; and

adjusting the weights includes adjusting the weight assigned to the at least one identified phrase based at least in part on the number of adjectives in the at least one identified phrase.