Dynamic control system for managing redirection of requests for content

• US 9,037,484 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2014
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walters, Christopher Kenfield, Brauwerman, Michael R., Finkel, Avram, Betz, Stephan G.
• Primary Examiner(s): LI, SUN M
• Application Number:
  US14/286,601
• Publication Number:
  US 20140258274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 361 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.49, 705/14.52, 705/14.53, 709/218, 709/224
• US Class Current: 705/14.49
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

Requests for content are received, for example, an HTTP request for a web page is received. Each request has a landing context, which may include information about the user sending the request, the request itself, the referrer, or another subject. This information can be found in the requests or external to the requests. The information of the landing context is compared to appropriate triggering criteria. For requests that satisfy the appropriate triggering criteria, a destination is provided based on one or more weighted treatments. The request is directed to the provided destination. The results of the requests are subsequently analyzed and used to adjust the treatments in an automated fashion.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing requests for content, comprising:

receiving a request, at a first computing device configured to intercept requests, for a web page;

determining user landing context associated with the request, the user landing context including one or more variables used to select one of a plurality of web pages;

choosing, by one or more processors, a set of web pages from the plurality of web pages based at least in part on the one or more variables of the user landing context;

determining a weight associated with a portion of the set of web pages, each respective weight specifying a percentage chance that one of the portion of the set of web pages will be chosen as the web page for the request;

selecting a web page from the portion of the set of web pages based on the respective weight associated with the portion of the set of web pages;

directing, by the one of the one or more processors, the request to the web page from the portion of the set of web pages; and

adjusting, by the one or more processors, the weight associated with a respective one of the portion of the set of web pages based on results of the request, wherein the selecting and the directing are performed before and after the adjusting the weight associated with a respective one of the portion of the set of web pages.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

said request is received at a first set of one or more computing devices from a second set of one or more computing devices; and

said choosing the set of web pages from the plurality of web pages, choosing the web page, directing and adjusting are performed by said first set of computing devices.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

said user landing context includes information that is not in said request; and

said request is a HTTP request.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

accessing an indication of a user in the request; and

using the indication of the user to access a user data structure external to the request, the user landing context including information that is in the user data structure.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

selecting the web page from the portion of the set of web pages includes randomly choosing one web page from the portion of the set of web pages according to the weight associated with a respective one of the portion of the set of web pages.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting the web page further includes:

determining the request includes an identification.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing results of the request;

redirecting a subsequent request, the subsequent request redirected including an identifier; and

storing information about the request, the information including at least one of success of requests or repels of requests.

8. A computing device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, enables the computing device to perform steps comprising;

determining user landing context associated with a request of a set of requests, the user landing context including one or more variables used to select one of a set of multiple content items;

determining a weight associated with each one of the content items in the set of multiple content items, each respective weight specifying a percentage chance that one of the multiple content items will be chosen for a request of a set of requests for content;

redirecting the set of requests for content including, for individual ones of the set of requests, choosing the set of multiple content items based on the user landing context for respective requests;

choosing one content item from said multiple content items based on weights associated with said multiple content items;

redirecting at least a subset of said set of requests based on said step of choosing; and

adjusting said weights based on results of at least some of said requests for content, wherein said choosing is performed before and after said adjusting said weights.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein said choosing one content item includes randomly selecting said one content item based on said weights.

10. The computing device of claim 8, wherein said instructions when executed by the processor, further enables the computing device to perform steps comprising:

verifying that an identification associated with said weights is included in said requests.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein said content items are web pages.

12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein:

said request for content are received at a first set of one or more computing devices from a second set of one or more computing devices; and

said automatically choosing a set of multiple content items, choosing one content item, automatically directing and automatically adjusting are performed by said first set of computing devices.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein said user landing context includes information that is not in said requests, said requests are HTTP requests.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein instructions when executed by the processor, further enables the computing device to perform steps comprising:

accessing an indication of a user in the request; and

using said indication of said user to access a user data structure external to the request, said user landing context includes information that is in said user data structure.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system, cause the computing system to:

determine user landing context associated with a respective request of a set of requests, the user landing context including one or more variables used to select one of a set of multiple content items;

determine a weight associated with each one of the content items in the set of multiple content items, each respective weight specifying a percentage chance that one of the multiple content items will be chosen for a request of a set of requests for content;

redirect the set of requests for content including, for individual ones of the set of requests, choosing the set of multiple content items based on the user landing context for respective requests;

choose one content item from said multiple content items based on weights associated with said multiple content items;

redirect at least a subset of said set of requests based on said step of choosing; and

adjust said weights based on results of at least some of said requests for content, wherein said automatically choosing is performed before and after said automatically adjusting said weights.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein said user landing context includes information that is not in said requests, said requests are HTTP requests.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:

verify that an identification associated with said weights is included in said requests.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:

automatically determine whether said requests include an identification, wherein automatically choosing a set of multiple content items based on user landing context for said respective request and subsequently choosing one content item is only performed for requests that include said identification.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:

automatically analyze results of said subset of said requests, said automatically adjusting said weights is based on said automatically analyzing; and

provide said chosen content including redirecting some of said requests, wherein redirecting includes adding identifiers to said subset of said requests, and wherein automatically analyzing comprises monitoring and storing information about said requests and determining which requests are part of successes or repels.