Determining an effect on dissemination of information related to an event based on a dynamic confidence level associated with the event

• US 9,304,974 B1
• Filed: 12/31/2013
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tomkins, Andrew, Ravikumar, Shanmugasundaram, Agarwal, Shalini, Yang, MyLinh, Pang, Bo, Li, Mark Yinan
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Satwant
• Application Number:
  US14/145,102
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting

Abstract

Methods and apparatus related to determining an effect on dissemination of information related to an event based on a dynamic confidence level associated with the event. For example, an event and an event confidence level of the event may be determined based on a message of a user. An effect on dissemination of information related to the event may be determined based on the confidence level. A new confidence level may be determined based on additional data associated with the event and the effect on dissemination of information may be adjusted based on the new confidence level. In some implementations, the additional data may be based on a new message that is related to the message, such as a reply to the message.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

identifying a message of a user, wherein the message includes a plurality of terms and is an electronic communication sent or received by the user;

determining an event based on the message, wherein the event includes one or more event properties that are determined based on one or more of the terms;

determining an event confidence level based on the event properties;

determining an effect on dissemination of information related to the event, wherein the effect is determined based on the event confidence level, wherein the dissemination of information includes a first dissemination of information that is related to a first computer application and a second dissemination of information that is related to a second computer application and that is unique from the first dissemination of information, and wherein the determining the effect on the dissemination of information comprises;

determining, based on the event confidence level, to influence the first dissemination of information based on the event and to not influence the second dissemination of information based on the event, the influence of the first dissemination of information being reflected in output provided to the user via the first computer application;

identifying additional data associated with the user and the event;

determining a new event confidence level based on the additional data; and

adjusting the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event based on the new event confidence level, wherein the adjusting the effect on the dissemination of information comprises determining, based on the new event confidence level, to influence both the first dissemination of information and the second dissemination of information based on the event, the influence of the second dissemination of information being reflected in additional output provided to the user via the second computer application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event properties are related to one or more of attendees of the event, event location, event type, and event time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the additional data includes identifying a new message of the user that is associated with the message and that is received subsequent to the message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional data is based on one or more actions of the user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the additional data is based on a submitted search query of a user search query action of the one or more actions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second dissemination of information includes providing one or more search results to the user;

wherein the determining to not influence the second dissemination of information includes determining, based on the event confidence level, not to rank one or more of the search results based on the event; and

wherein determining to influence the second dissemination of information in the adjusting the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event includes determining, based on the new event confidence level, to rank one or more of the search results based on the event.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first dissemination of information includes providing one or more search results to the user;

wherein the determining to influence the first dissemination of information includes determining, based on the confidence level, a first extent to which one or more of the search results is ranked based on the event; and

wherein determining to influence the first dissemination of information in the adjusting the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event includes determining, based on the new event confidence level, a second extent to which one or more of the search results is ranked based on the event.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first dissemination of information includes providing one or more query suggestions to the user and wherein the determining to influence the first dissemination of information in the adjusting the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event includes adjusting, based on the new event confidence level, a degree of influence of the event in ranking the query suggestions.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the new event confidence level is determined based on the event confidence level.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second dissemination of information includes providing a notification to the user and the effect on the second dissemination of information is whether to provide the notification to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first dissemination of information includes providing a notification to the user and the effect on the first dissemination of information includes one or more characteristics of the notification to the user.

12. A system including memory and one or more processors operable to execute instructions in the memory, comprising instructions to:

identify a message of a user, wherein the message includes a plurality of terms and is an electronic communication sent or received by the user;

determine an event based on the message, wherein the event includes one or more event properties that are determined based on one or more of the terms;

determine an event confidence level based on the event properties;

determine an effect on dissemination of information related to the event, wherein the effect is determined based on the event confidence level, wherein the dissemination of information includes a first dissemination of information that is related to a first computer application and a second dissemination of information that is related to a second computer application and that is unique from the first dissemination of information, and wherein the instructions to determine the effect on the dissemination of information comprise instructions to;

determine, based on the event confidence level, to influence the first dissemination of information based on the event and to not influence the second dissemination of information based on the event, the influence of the first dissemination of information being reflected in output provided to the user via the first computer application;

identify additional data associated with the user and the event;

determine a new event confidence level based on the additional data; and

adjust the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event based on the new event confidence level, wherein the instructions to adjust the effect on the dissemination of information comprise instructions to determine, based on the new event confidence level, to influence both the first dissemination of information and the second dissemination of information based on the event, the influence of the second dissemination of information being reflected in additional output provided to the user via the second computer application.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions to identify the additional data includes instructions to identify a new message of the user that is associated with the message and that is received subsequent to the message.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the additional data is based on one or more actions of the user.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the second dissemination of information includes providing one or more search results to the user;

wherein the instructions to determine to not influence the second dissemination of information includes instructions to determine, based on the event confidence level, not to rank one or more of the search results based on the event; and

wherein the instructions to determine to influence the second dissemination of information in the instructions to adjust the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event includes instructions to determine, based on the new event confidence level, to rank one or more of the search results based on the event.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first dissemination of information includes providing one or more search results to the user;

wherein the instructions to determine to influence the first dissemination of information includes instructions to determine, based on the confidence level, a first extent to which one or more of the search results is ranked based on the event; and

wherein the instructions to determine to influence the second dissemination of information in the instructions to adjust the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event includes instructions to determine, based on the new event confidence level, a second extent to which one or more of the search results is ranked based on the event.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the first dissemination of information includes providing one or more query suggestions to the user and the instructions to determine to influence the second dissemination of information in the instructions to adjust the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event includes instructions to adjust, based on the new event confidence level, a degree of influence of the event in ranking the query suggestions.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the new event confidence level is determined based on the event confidence level.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the second dissemination of information includes providing a notification to the user and the effect on the second dissemination of information is whether to provide the notification to the user.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the first dissemination of information includes providing a notification to the user and the effect on the first dissemination of information includes one or more characteristics of the notification to the user.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing at least one program configured for execution by at least one processor of a computer system, the at least one program comprising instructions to:

identify a message of a user, wherein the message includes a plurality of terms and is an electronic communication sent or received by the user;

determine an event based on the message, wherein the event includes one or more event properties that are determined based on one or more of the terms;

determine an event confidence level based on the event properties;

determine an effect on dissemination of information related to the event, wherein the effect is determined based on the event confidence level, wherein the dissemination of information includes a first dissemination of information that is related to a first computer application and a second dissemination of information that is related to a second computer application and that is unique from the first dissemination of information, and wherein the instructions to determine the effect on the dissemination of information comprise instructions to;

determine, based on the event confidence level, to influence the first dissemination of information based on the event and to not influence the second dissemination of information based on the event, the influence of the first dissemination of information being reflected in output provided to the user via the first computer application;

identify additional data associated with the user and the event;

determine a new event confidence level based on the additional data; and

adjust the effect on the dissemination of information related to the event based on the new event confidence level, wherein the instructions to adjust the effect on the dissemination of information comprise instructions to determine, based on the new event confidence level, to influence both the first dissemination of information and the second dissemination of information based on the event, the influence of the second dissemination of information being reflected in additional output provided to the user via the second computer application.