Personalization of news articles based on news sources

• US 9,916,364 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2014
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo Holdings, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Vadrevu, Srinivas, Wu, Su-Lin, Shahshahani, Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): Bibbee, Jared M
• Application Number:
  US14/249,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20140222800A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,434 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• 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 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

News search and browse experience is personalized based on user preferences. User attributes like a geographic location are obtained and news sources preferred by other users with attributes similar to those of a requesting user are identified. News sources that are popular across different user groups are eliminated and relevant news items from the remaining news sources are retrieved and presented to the requesting user.

Claims

1. A method of providing news, comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a request for news items from a user;

identifying, by the processor, a geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying of the geographic location comprising identifying the geographic location from a Designated Market Area (DMA);

matching, by the processor, the geographic location of the requesting user with geographic locations associated with news sources;

identifying, by the processor, a geographic location of local news sources that is from the same DMA as the geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying comprising obtaining preferred news sources of other users that are located within a similar geographic location as the requested user and eliminating used sources that are popular across multiple other geographic areas;

obtaining, by the processor, relevant news items from the identified local news sources; and

transmitting, by the processor, the relevant news items for presentation to the requesting user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking, by the processor, the local news sources based on their proximity to the geographic location of the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location of the requesting user is derived from one of an IP address or GPS information of a device employed by the requesting user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the processor, a user profile associated with the requesting user.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising identifying, by the processor from the geographic location and from the user profile, a preferred news source.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identifying of the preferred news source further comprises matching a geographic location of the preferred news source with the geographic location of the requesting user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the processor, that the user is at a border of two DMAs.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising identifying, by the processor, two user groups from one DMA each as having similar attributes as the requesting user and relevant news items from local news sources associated with both the DMAs is retrieved for presentation to the user.

21. The medium of claim 1, the instructions further defining the step of determining, by the processor, that the user is at a border of two DMAs.

22. The medium of claim 21, the instructions further defining the step of identifying, by the processor, two user groups from one DMA each as having similar attributes as the requesting user and relevant news items from local news sources associated with both the DMAs is retrieved for presentation to the user.

9. A computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for executing by the processor, the program logic comprising;

receiving logic, executed by the processor, for receiving a request for news items from a user;

identifying logic, executed by the processor, for identifying a geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying of the geographic location comprising identifying the geographic location from a Designated Market Area (DMA);

matching logic, executed by the processor, for matching the geographic location of the requesting user with geographic locations associated with news sources;

identifying logic, executed by the processor, for identifying a geographic location of local news sources that is from the same DMA as the geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying comprising obtaining preferred news sources of other users that are located within a similar geographic location as the requested user and eliminating used sources that are popular across multiple other geographic areas;

obtaining logic, executed by the processor, for obtaining relevant news items from the identified local news sources; and

transmitting logic, executed by the processor, for transmitting the relevant news items for presentation to the requesting user.

10. The device of claim 9, further comprising ranking logic, executed by the processor, for ranking the local news sources based on their proximity to the geographic location of the user.

11. The device of claim 9, further comprising user profile identifying logic, executed by the processor, for identifying a user profile associated with the requesting user.

12. The device of claim 11, further comprising preferred news source identifying logic, executed by the processor, for identifying, from the geographic location and from the user profile, a preferred news source.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the preferred news source identifying logic further comprises location matching logic for matching a geographic location of the preferred news source with the geographic location of the requesting user.

14. The device of claim 9, further comprising border determining logic, executed by the processor, for determining that the user is at a border of two DMAs.

15. The device of claim 14, further comprising group identifying logic, executed by the processor, for identifying two user groups from one DMA each as having similar attributes as the requesting user and relevant news items from local news sources associated with both the DMAs is retrieved for presentation to the user.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing thereon computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining the steps of:

receiving, by a processor, a request for news items from a user;

identifying, by the processor, a geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying of the geographic location comprising identifying the geographic location from a Designated Market Area (DMA);

matching, by the processor, the geographic location of the requesting user with geographic locations associated with news sources;

identifying, by the processor, a geographic location of local news sources that is from the same DMA as the geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying comprising obtaining preferred news sources of other users that are located within a similar geographic location as the requested user and eliminating used sources that are popular across multiple other geographic areas;

obtaining, by the processor, relevant news items from the identified local news sources; and

transmitting, by the processor, the relevant news items for presentation to the requesting user.

17. The medium of claim 16, the instructions further defining the step of ranking, by the processor, the local news sources based on their proximity to the geographic location of the user.

18. The medium of claim 16, the instructions further defining the step of identifying, by the processor, a user profile associated with the requesting user.

19. The medium of claim 18, the instructions further defining the step of identifying, by the processor from the geographic location and from the user profile, a preferred news source.

20. The medium of claim 16, wherein the identifying of the preferred news source further comprises matching a geographic location of the preferred news source with the geographic location of the requesting user.

23. A method of providing news, comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a request for news items from a user;

identifying, by the processor, a geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying of the geographic location comprising identifying the geographic location from a group of location identifiers consisting of a Designated Market Area (DMA), a user preference, and GPS coordinates;

matching, by the processor, the geographic location of the requesting user with geographic locations associated with news sources;

identifying, by the processor, a geographic location of local news sources that is from the same geographic location of the requesting user, the identifying comprising obtaining preferred news sources of other users that are located within a similar geographic location as the requested user and eliminating used sources that are popular across multiple other geographic areas;

obtaining, by the processor, relevant news items from the identified local news sources; and

transmitting, by the processor, the relevant news items for presentation to the requesting user.