Content recommendation using third party profiles

• US 9,135,641 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2014
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Macadaan, Mike, Wetherell, William G., Liu, David
• Primary Examiner(s): TITCOMB, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US14/264,546
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324579A1
• Time in Patent Office: 504 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/747
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A method for personalizing content for a particular user in a computing system comprising a user interface configured to display content. The method comprises identifying one or more features of a short term profile of a user that are not included in a long term profile of the user, using the one or more features to identify one or more third party profiles having features that substantially match the one or more features of the user'"'"'s short term profile, accessing the identified one or more third party profiles, and providing one or more content items included in the third party profile to the user, the one or more content items having associated features that match the one or more features of the short term profile. An alternative method comprises accessing one or more third party profiles that are not a profile of the user, and using the accessed third party profile to identify a plurality of content items for recommendation to the user based on a feature set of the third party profile.

Claims

1. A system for providing personalized content, comprising:

a non-transitory memory device storing a plurality of instructions; and

at least one processor that executes the plurality of instructions to perform the following operations;

identifying a feature set of a short term profile of a user comprising a set of short term user interests identified during a network session;

determining whether the feature set of the short term profile is different than a feature set of a long term profile of the user comprising a set of long term user interests;

accessing, when the feature set of [he user'"'"'s short term profile is different than a feature set of the user'"'"'s long term profile, one or more third party long term profiles comprising sets of interests of one or more third parties that match the feature set of the short term profile of the user;

identifying a plurality of recommended content items for the user based on the one or more third party tong term profiles; and

providing at least one of the plurality of recommended content items for display on a user interface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the short term profile is based on a history of user inputs during the networking session.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the long term profile of the use is based on a history of user inputs during a plurality of networking sessions.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further executes the instructions to perform the following operations:

enabling the user to interact with the plurality of recommended content items on the user interface; and

updating the short term profile based on the user'"'"'s interaction with the plurality of recommended content items.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s short term profile and the user'"'"'s long term profile are associated with a different network than the one or more third party long term profiles.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the network session comprises access to a social network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further executes the instructions to perform the following operations:

identifying an owner for at least one of the one or more third party profiles; and

enabling the user to communicate with the owner.

8. A method for providing personalized content, the method comprising the following operations performed by at least one processor:

identifying a feature set of a short term profile of a user comprising a set of short term user interests identified during a network session;

determining whether the feature set of the short term profile is different than a feature set of a long term profile of the user comprising a set of long term user interests;

accessing, when the feature set of the user'"'"'s short term profile is different than a feature set of the user'"'"'s long term profile, one or more third party long term profiles comprising sets of interests of one or more third parties that match the feature set of the short term profile of the user;

identifying a plurality of recommended content items for the user based on the one or more third party long term profiles; and

providing at least one of the plurality of recommended content items for display on a user interface.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the short term profile is based on a history of user inputs during the networking session.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the long term profile of the use is based on a history of user inputs during a plurality of networking sessions.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the following operations performed by the at least one processor:

enabling the user to interact with the plurality of recommended content items on the user interface; and

updating the short term profile based on the user'"'"'s interaction with the plurality of recommended content items.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the user'"'"'s short term profile and the user'"'"'s long term profile are associated with a different network than the one or more third party long term profiles.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the network session comprises access to a social network.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising the following operations performed by the at least one processor:

identifying an owner for at least one of the one or more third party profiles; and

enabling the user to communicate with the owner.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations for providing personalized content, comprising:

identifying a feature set of a short, term profile of a user comprising a set of short term user interests identified during a network session;

determining whether the feature set of the short term profile is different than a feature set of a long term profile of the user comprising a set of long term user interests;

accessing, when the feature set of the user'"'"'s short term profile is different than a feature set of the user'"'"'s long term profile, one or more third party long term profiles comprising sets of interests of one or more third parties that match the feature set of the short term profile of the user;

identifying a plurality of recommended content items for the user based on the one or more third party long term profiles; and

providing at least one of the plurality of recommended content items for display on a user interface.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the short term profile is based on a history of user inputs during the networking session.

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the long term profile of the use is based on a history of user inputs during a plurality of networking sessions.

18. The medium of claim 15, wherein the stored instructions farther cause the one or more processors to perform the following operations:

enabling the user to interact with the plurality of recommended content items on the user interface; and

updating the short term profile based on the user'"'"'s interaction with the plurality of recommended content items.

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the user'"'"'s short term profile and the user'"'"'s long term profile are associated with a different network than the one or more third party long term profiles.

20. The medium of claim 15, wherein the network session comprises access to a social network.