Personalization techniques using image clouds

• US 9,715,543 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2008
• Issued: 07/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Simmons, James D., Tonse, Sudhir, Ranganathan, Arun K., Macadaan, Mike, Liu, David J., Wetherell, William G.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, THANH T
• Application Number:
  US12/018,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20080209339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,471 Days
• Field of Search: 715738, 715744, 715745, 715747, 715838
• 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

Systems and methods for personalization using image clouds to represent content. Image clouds can be used to identify initial user interest, present recommended content, present popular content, present search results, and present user profile information. Image clouds are interactive, allowing users to select images displayed in the image cloud, which can contribute to presenting more personalized content as well as updating a user'"'"'s profile.

Claims

1. In a computer system comprising a user interface configured to display content, a method for personalizing content for a particular user, the method comprising the following operations performed by one or more processors:

identifying a user profile;

using the user profile to identify a plurality of images associated with the user profile;

contemporaneously displaying the plurality of images on a user interface, the plurality of images being grouped and displayed adjacent to or in close proximity with each other in varying sizes depending on an expected level of user interest and in one predefined area to minimize content between the plurality of images so as to minimize navigation methods required to locate the plurality of images;

receiving a positive selection of one of the plurality of images from the user;

identifying feed content associated with the positively selected image;

presenting the feed content related to the positively selected image on the user interface;

detecting a change in the user profile, wherein detecting a change in the user profile comprises identifying a selection by the user of content displayed in at least one of an image cloud profile of one or more contacts of the user, an image cloud profile of one or more celebrity profiles, or an image cloud profile of one or more community profiles defined by a demographic;

selecting new images to be included in the plurality of images; and

dynamically changing the display of the plurality of images with the new images in a manner substantially real-time with the detected change in the user profile.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein

the user profile includes one or more features and a vector assigned to each of the one or more features to generate one or more feature vectors for the user profile;

each of the plurality of images includes one or more features and a vector assigned to each of the one or more features to generate one or more feature vectors for each of the plurality of images; and

the plurality of images are associated with the user profile such that at least some of the features of each of the plurality of images matches at least some of the features of the user profile.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the expected level of user interest is based on how many of the features of each of the plurality of images matches the features of the user profile.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the features of the user profile are generated based on at least one of user interest activity or a predefined public persona.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection of one of the plurality of images by a third party.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising merging the user profile with one or more other user profiles to generate a community profile.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user profile contains one or more features that are deactivated.

8. In a computer system comprising a user interface configured to display content, a method for personalizing content for a particular user using a recommendation image cloud, the method comprising the following operations performed by one or more processors:

identifying a user profile;

using the user profile to identify a plurality of images associated with feed content;

contemporaneously displaying the plurality of images on a user interface, the plurality of images being grouped and displayed adjacent to or in close proximity with each other in varying sizes depending on an expected level of user interest and in one predefined area to minimize content between the plurality of images so as to minimize navigation methods required to locate the plurality of images;

receiving a positive selection of one of the plurality of images from the user;

identifying feed content associated with the positively selected image; and

presenting the feed content related to the positively selected image on the user interface; and

modifying the user profile based at least in part on a profile associated with the feed content.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a negative selection of one of the plurality of images from the user; and

modifying the user profile based at least in part on the negative selection of the image.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

detecting when a user hovers over a particular image using a pointer device communicating with the user interface; and

displaying a user interest icon configured to allow a user to select one or more of (1) approval, (2) disapproval, or (3) noncommittance.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein displaying the plurality of images on a user interface comprises displaying the feed content associated with the plurality of images on the user interface and linking the images to the feed content such that when the user selects one of the images, the corresponding feed content is highlighted.

12. In a computer system comprising a user interface configured to display content, a method for personalizing content for a particular user using a popularity image cloud, the method comprising the following operations performed by one or more processors:

identifying one or more popular topics;

using the one or more popular topics to identify a plurality of images associated with the one or more popular topics, the plurality of images being associated with feed content;

contemporaneously displaying the plurality of images on a user interface, the plurality of images being grouped and displayed adjacent to or in close proximity with each other in varying sizes depending on a popularity of a topic associated with each image in one predefined area to minimize content between the plurality of images so as to minimize navigation methods required to locate the plurality of images;

receiving a positive selection of one of the plurality of images from the user;

identifying feed content associated with the positively selected image;

presenting the feed content related to the positively selected image on the user interface; and

modifying the user profile based at least in part on a profile associated with the feed content.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the one or more popular topics are based on a particular demographic being at least one of a user'"'"'s social network, a geographic region, race, age, interest, religion, and the like.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a negative selection of one of the plurality of images from the user; and

modifying the user profile based at least in part on the negative selection of the image.

15. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

detecting when a user hovers over a particular image using a pointer device communicating with the user interface; and

displaying a user interest icon configured to allow a user to select one or more of (1) approval, (2) disapproval, or (3) noncommittance.

16. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein displaying the plurality of images on a user interface comprises displaying the feed content associated with the plurality of images on the user interface and linking the images to the feed content such that when the user selects one of the images, the corresponding feed content is highlighted.

17. In a computer system comprising a user interface configured to display content, a method for personalizing content for a particular user using a search image cloud, the method comprising the following operations performed by one or more operations:

identifying a search request including one or more search terms;

using the one or more search terms to generate a search result having feed content;

using the feed content to identify a plurality of images; and

contemporaneously displaying the plurality of images on a user interface, the plurality of images being grouped and displayed adjacent to or in close proximity with each other in varying sizes depending on a similarity of the feed content to the one or more search terms and in one predefined area to minimize content between the plurality of images so as to minimize navigation methods required to locate the plurality of images;

receiving a positive selection of one of the plurality of images from the user;

identifying feed content associated with the positively selected image; and

presenting the feed content related to the positively selected image on the user interface; and

modifying the user profile based at least in part on a profile associated with the feed content.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a negative selection of one of the plurality of images from the user; and

modifying the user profile based at least in part on the negative selection of the image.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

detecting when a user hovers over a particular image using a pointer device communicating with the user interface; and

displaying a user interest icon configured to allow a user to select one or more of (1) approval, (2) disapproval, or (3) noncommittance.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein displaying the plurality of images on a user interface comprises displaying the feed content associated with the plurality of images on the user interface and linking the images to the feed content such that when the user selects one of the images, the corresponding feed content is highlighted.