CONTENT OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090113288A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo Holdings, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Awadallah, Amr, Thampy, Sajjit, Ferrante, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 9,576,001 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a statistical approach, a win share approach, used to assign a win share value to content items. User interaction with content items is tracked, and a win share value is assigned to content items in response to a “winning” action performed by a user. Win shares associated with content items are used to identify content items that are to be presented, and can further be used to identify an optimal presentation, e.g., layout, presentation frequency, etc., of content items that is to be presented.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

tracking user interaction with a user interface;

recognizing a predetermined interaction of a user with the user interface;

identifying at least one content item from the plurality of content items with which the user interacted preceding the predetermined interaction; and

assigning a share of a winning score to each identified content item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a share of a winning score to each identified content item further comprising:

distributing the winning score evenly across two or more identified content items.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a share of the winning score to each identified content item further comprising:

distributing the winning score unevenly across two or more identified content items.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein distributing the winning score unevenly across two or more identified content items comprising:

determining a weight for each of the identified content items that is based on a timing of the user'"'"' interaction with the identified content item; and

applying the identified content item'"'"'s weight to the winning score to determine a win share for the identified content item.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein distributing the win share unevenly across two or more identified content items comprising:

determining a weight for each of the identified content items that is based on a newness characteristic associated with the identified content item; and

applying the identified content item'"'"'s weight to a win share value to determine a win share for the identified content item.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying at least one of the plurality of content items to make available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a placement in the user interface of at least one of the plurality of content items based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an ordering of two or more of the plurality of content items in the user interface based on a win share associated with each of the two or more content items.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a frequency with which at least one of the plurality of content items is made available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a member of a sample of a user population, the method further comprising:

making one or more of the plurality of content items available to the user population based on win shares assigned using the user sample.

11. A method comprising:

making a user interface available over a network;

making a plurality of content items available via the user interface, at least one content item of the plurality being made available based on a win share assigned to the content item, wherein a win share is determined by;

tracking user interaction with the user interface;

recognizing a predetermined interaction of a user with the user interface;

identifying at least one content item from the plurality of content items with which the user interacted preceding the predetermined interaction; and

assigning a share of a winning score to each identified content item.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a placement in the user interface of at least one of the plurality of content items based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining an ordering of two or more of the plurality of content items in the user interface based on a win share associated with each of the two or more content items.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a frequency with which at least one of the plurality of content items is made available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

15. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program code comprising code to:

track user interaction with a user interface;

recognize a predetermined interaction of a user with the user interface;

identify at least one content item from the plurality of content items with which the user interacted preceding the predetermined interaction; and

assign a share of a winning score to each identified content item.

16. The medium of claim 15, the program code to assign a share of a winning score to each identified content item further comprising code to:

distribute the winning score evenly across two or more identified content items.

17. The medium of claim 15, the program code to assign a share of the winning score to each identified content item further comprising code to:

distribute the winning score unevenly across two or more identified content items.

18. The medium of claim 17, the program code to distribute the winning score unevenly across two or more identified content items further comprising code to:

determine a weight for each of the identified content items that is based on a timing of the user'"'"'s interaction with the identified content item; and

apply the identified content item'"'"'s weight to the winning score to determine a win share for the identified content item.

19. The medium of claim 18, the program code to distribute the win share unevenly across two or more identified content items further comprising code to:

determine a weight for each of the identified content items that is based on a newness characteristic associated with the identified content item; and

apply the identified content item'"'"'s weight to a win share value to determine a win share for the identified content item.

20. The medium of claim 15, the program code further comprising code to:

identify at least one of the plurality of content items to make available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

21. The medium of claim 15, the program code further comprising code to:

determine a placement in the user interface of at least one of the plurality of content items based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

22. The medium of claim 15, the program code further comprising code to:

determine an ordering of two or more of the plurality of content items in the user interface based on a win share associated with each of the two or more content items.

23. The medium of claim 15, the program code further comprising code to:

determine a frequency with which at least one of the plurality of content items is made available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

24. The medium of claim 15, wherein the user is a member of a sample of a user population, the program code further comprising code to:

make one or more of the plurality of content items available to the user population based on win shares assigned using the user sample.

25. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program code comprising code to:

make a user interface available over a network;

make a plurality of content items available via the user interface, at least one content item of the plurality being made available based on a win share assigned to the content item, wherein a win share is determined using the program code which further comprises code to;

track user interaction with the user interface;

recognize a predetermined interaction of a user with the user interface;

identify at least one content item from the plurality of content items with which the user interacted preceding the predetermined interaction; and

assign a share of a winning score to each identified content item.

26. The medium of claim 25, the program code further comprising code to:

determine a placement in the user interface of at least one of the plurality of content items based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

27. The medium of claim 25, the program code further comprising code to:

determine an ordering of two or more of the plurality of content items in the user interface based on a win share associated with each of the two or more content items.

28. The medium of claim 25, the program code further comprising code to:

determine a frequency with which at least one of the plurality of content items is made available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

29. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

track user interaction with a user interface;

recognize a predetermined interaction of a user with the user interface;

identify at least one content item from the plurality of content items with which the user interacted preceding the predetermined interaction; and

assign a share of a winning score to each identified content item.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, said one or more processors configured to assign a share of a winning score to each identified content item being further configured to:

distribute the winning score evenly across two or more identified content items.

31. The apparatus of claim 29, said one or more processors configured to assign a share of the winning score to each identified content item being further configured to:

distribute the winning score unevenly across two or more identified content items.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, said one or more processors configured to distribute the winning score unevenly across two or more identified content items being further configured to:

determine a weight for each of the identified content items that is based on a timing of the user'"'"'s interaction with the identified content item; and

apply the identified content item'"'"'s weight to the winning score to determine a win share for the identified content item.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, said one or more processors configured to distribute the win share unevenly across two or more identified content items being further configured to:

determine a weight for each of the identified content items that is based on a newness characteristic associated with the identified content item; and

apply the identified content item'"'"'s weight to a win share value to determine a win share for the identified content item.

34. The apparatus of claim 29, said one or more processors being further configured to:

identify at least one of the plurality of content items to make available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

35. The apparatus of claim 29, said one or more processors being further configured to:

determine a placement in the user interface of at least one of the plurality of content items based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

36. The apparatus of claim 29, said one or more processors being further configured to:

determine an ordering of two or more of the plurality of content items in the user interface based on a win share associated with each of the two or more content items.

37. The apparatus of claim 29, said one or more processors being further configured to:

determine a frequency with which at least one of the plurality of content items is made available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

38. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the user is a member of a sample of a user population, said one or more processors being further configured to:

make one or more of the plurality of content items available to the user population based on win shares assigned using the user sample.

39. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

make a user interface available over a network;

make a plurality of content items available via the user interface, at least one content item of the plurality being made available based on a win share assigned to the content item, wherein said one or more processors being further configured to determine a win share by;

tracking user interaction with the user interface;

recognizing a predetermined interaction of a user with the user interface;

identifying at least one content item from the plurality of content items with which the user interacted preceding the predetermined interaction; and

assigning i share of a winning score to each identified content item.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, said one or more processors being further configured to:

determine a placement in the user interface of at least one of the plurality of content items based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.

41. The apparatus of claim 39, said one or more processors being further configured to:

determine an ordering of two or more of the plurality of content items in the user interface based on a win share associated with each of the two or more content items.

42. The apparatus of claim 39, said one or more processors being further configured to:

determine a frequency with which at least one of the plurality of content items is made available via the user interface based on a win share associated with the at least one of the plurality of content items.