Systems and methods for identifying electronic content

• US 9,760,643 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2010
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Palleti, Pallavi, Uppuluri, Rohini, Holsman, Ian
• Primary Examiner(s): Khong, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US12/757,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20110252050A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,713 Days
• Field of Search: 707769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for identifying electronic content based on browsing history and positional or geographic information. In one implementation, popular web pages are identified that have been recently accessed by users within a geographic region associated with a client device. According to a method, a geo-spatial identifier of a geographic region associated with a client device is obtained, and data records associated with the geo-spatial identifier are retrieved from a database. Popular web sites or pages are identified from the data records, based on a number of requests for the web pages, and a number of users that requested the web pages in the geographic region.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying popular electronic content, the method comprising the following operations, performed by one or more processors:

obtaining geographic data for a first geographic region associated with a client device, the geographic data comprising;

a geo-spatial identifier associated with the first geographic region; and

information identifying one or more second geographic regions and relationships between the first geographic region and corresponding ones of the second geographic region, wherein the one or more second geographic regions comprise a child geographic region associated with a parent of the first geographic region;

retrieving, from a database, first data records associated with the geo-spatial identifier, wherein;

the first data records comprise one or more of (i) a number of requests for electronic content and (ii) a number of users that requested the electronic content within the first geographic region;

selecting, when the first data records fail to include a threshold number of data records, at least one of the second geographic regions from the geographic data based on the information identifying the relationships, wherein the method further comprises;

identifying the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the first geographic region and the information identifying the relationships;

obtaining a geo-spatial identifier associated with the parent geographic region; and

identifying the child geographic region within geographic data associated with the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the parent geographic region and information identifying a corresponding relationship;

generating an expanded geographic region comprising the first geographic region and the at least one second geographic region, the expanded geographic region being associated with second data records, the second data records comprising the first data records and additional data records associated with the at least one second geographic region, wherein the method further comprises;

obtaining geo-spatial identifiers associated with the expanded geographic region; and

retrieving, from the database, the second data records associated with the geo-spatial identifiers of the expanded geographic region;

determining whether the second data records include the threshold number of data records; and

processing the second data records to identify popular electronic content within the expanded geographic region, when the second data records include the threshold number of data records, the popular electronic content being identified based on at least one of the number of requests or the number of users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified popular electronic content comprises one or more web pages, and wherein the method further comprises delivering, to a server, URLs for the identified popular web pages so that the URLs may be communicated to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second geographic regions comprise a neighboring geographic region.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the neighboring geographic region is proximate to the first geographic region and shares at least a portion of a boundary with the first geographic region.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the selecting step comprises:

identifying the neighboring geographic region within the geographic data based on the geo-spatial identifier of the first geographic data and the information identifying the relationships.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

receiving, from a server, a device identifier of the client device and a URL of a requested electronic resource;

generating a preliminary data record based on a least the received device identifier and URL; and

updating the database based on the preliminary data record.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving step comprises:

identifying, from the database, the first data records that have been generated or updated within a predetermined period of time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the each of the first data records includes information specifying a time when the data record was generated or last updated.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the threshold number of data records based on an application of a statistical model to at least one of the first data records or the second data records.

28. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining the predetermined period of time based on at least one of a content category associated with the first data records, a volume of the first data records, or information associated with the obtained geographic region.

9. A computer-implemented method for identifying popular electronic content, the method comprising the following operations performed by one or more processors:

transmitting, to a server, an identifier of a client device associated with a first geographic region;

receiving, from the server, the identification of popular electronic content associated with an expanded geographic region, the popular electronic content being identified based on first data records comprising at least one of (i) a number of requests for the popular electronic content or (ii) a number of users that requested the popular electronic content within the first geographic region, and the expanded geographic region including the first geographic region associated with the client device and at least one second geographic region;

providing an identification of the popular electronic content to the client device so that the popular electronic content can be communicated to a user, wherein;

the server obtains geographic data for the first geographic region, the geographic data comprising a geo-spatial identifier associated with the first geographic region and information identifying the second geographic region and relationships between the first geographic region and corresponding ones of the second geographic region, wherein the second geographic region comprises a child geographic region associated with a parent of the first geographic region;

the server generates the expanded geographic region when the first geographic region of the client device fails to be associated with a threshold amount of popular electronic content, the expanded geographic region being associated with second data records, the second data records comprising the first data records and additional data records associated with the at least one second geographic region, and further wherein the server;

obtains geo-spatial identifiers associated with the expanded geographic region; and

retrieves, from a database, the second data records associated with the geo-spatial identifiers of the expanded geographic region;

the server selects the at least one second geographic region in the expanded geographic region based on the information identifying the relationships within the geographic data, and further wherein the server;

identifies the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the first geographic region and the information identifying the relationships;

obtains a geo-spatial identifier associated with the parent geographic region; and

identifies the child geographic region within geographic data associated with the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the parent geographic region and information identifying a corresponding relationship; and

when an amount of popular electronic content associated with the expanded geographic region exceeds the threshold amount, the popular content associated with the expanded geographic region comprises the popular electronic content associated with the first geographic region of the client device and popular electronic content associated with the at least one second geographic region.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, from the client device, a request for additional electronic content.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

obtaining the additional electronic content, wherein the transmitting comprises;

transmitting the additional electronic content and the identified popular electronic content to the client device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the request comprises the identifier of the client device.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a storage device; and

a processor coupled to the storage device, wherein the storage device stores a program for controlling the processor, and wherein the processor, being operative with the program, is configured to;

obtain geographic data for a first geographic region associated with a client device, the geographic data comprising a geo-spatial identifier associated with the first geographic region and information identifying one or more second geographic regions and relationships between the first geographic region and corresponding ones of the second geographic region, wherein the one or more second geographic regions comprise a neighboring geographic region and a child geographic region associated with a parent of the first geographic region;

retrieve, from a database, first data records associated with the geo-spatial identifier, wherein the first data records comprise popularity data for electronic content requested by other client devices within the first geographic region

select, when the first data records fail to include a threshold number of the data records, at least one of the second geographic regions from the geographic data based on the information identifying the relationships, wherein the processor is further operative to;

identify the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the first geographic region and the information identifying the relationships;

obtain a geo-spatial identifier associated with the parent geographic region; and

identify the child geographic region within geographic data associated with the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the parent geographic region and information identifying a corresponding relationship;

generate an expanded geographic region comprising the first geographic region and the at least one second geographic region, the expanded geographic region being associated with second data records, the second data records comprising the first data records and additional data records associated with the at least one second geographic region;

determine whether the second data records include the threshold number of data records; and

process the second data records to identify popular electronic content comprising one or more web pages within the expanded geographic region, when the second data records include the threshold number of data records, the popular electronic content being generated based on the popularity data of the data records.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

obtain geo-spatial identifiers associated with the expanded geographic region; and

retrieve, from the database, the second data records associated with the geo-spatial identifiers of the expanded geographic region.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the neighboring geographic region is proximate to the first geographic region and shares at least a portion of a boundary with the first geographic region.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor configured to select is further configured to:

identify the neighboring geographic region within the geographic data based on the geo-spatial identifier of the first geographic region and the relationship information.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive, from a server, a device identifier of the client device and URL of a requested electronic resource;

generate a preliminary data record based on a least the received device identifier and URL; and

update the database based on the preliminary data record.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:

identify, from the database, the first data records that have been generated or updated within a predetermined period of time.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein each of the first data records includes information specifying a time when the data record was generated or last updated.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method for identifying popular electronic content in a geographic region, the method comprising:

obtaining geographic data for a first geographic region associated with a client device, the geographic data comprising;

a geo-spatial identifier associated with the first geographic region; and

information identifying one or more second geographic regions and relationships between the first geographic region and corresponding ones of the second geographic region, wherein the one or more second geographic regions comprise a child geographic region associated with a parent of the first geographic region;

retrieving, from a database, first data records associated with the geo-spatial identifier, wherein;

the first data records comprise one or more of (i) a number of requests for electronic content and (ii) a number of users that requested the electronic content within the first geographic region;

selecting, when the first data records fail to include a threshold number of the data records, at least one of the second geographic regions from the geographic data based on the information identifying the relationships, wherein the method further comprises;

identifying the parent geographic region based on at least the geospatial identifier of the first geographic region and the information identifying the relationships;

obtaining a geo-spatial identifier associated with the parent geographic region; and

identifying the child geographic region within geographic data associated with the parent geographic region based on at least the geo-spatial identifier of the parent geographic region and information identifying a corresponding relationship;

generating an expanded geographic region comprising the first geographic region and the at least one second geographic region, the expanded geographic region being associated with second data records, the second data records comprising the first data records and additional data records associated with the at least one second geographic region, wherein the method further comprises;

obtaining geo-spatial identifiers associated with the expanded geographic region; and

retrieving, from the database, the second data records associated with the geo-spatial identifiers of the expanded geographic region;

determining whether the second data records include the threshold number of data records; and

processing the second data records to identify popular electronic content comprising web pages within the expanded geographic region, when the second data records include the threshold number of data records, the popular web pages being identified based on at least one of the number of requests or the number of users;

delivering, to a server, URLs of the identified popular web pages so that the URLs can be communicated to the client device.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the second geographic regions comprise a neighboring geographic region.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the neighboring geographic region is proximate to the first geographic region and shares at least a portion of a boundary with the first geographic region.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the selecting step comprises:

identifying the neighboring geographic region within the geographic data based on the geo-spatial identifier of the first geographic region and the information identifying the relationships.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from a server, a device identifier of the client device and a URL of a requested electronic resource;

generating a preliminary data record based on a least the received device identifier and URL; and

updating the database based on the preliminary data record.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying, from the database, the first data records that have been generated or updated within a predetermined period of time.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein each of the first data records includes information specifying a time when the data record was generated or last updated.