EXPECTED ACTIVITY OF A USER

• US 20150269631A1
• Filed: 05/01/2015
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Dong, Ponnekanti, Shankar R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,852,452 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, for serving content to a user. A method includes: receiving a request for content from a user, the content to be displayed in a slot associated with an online resource; determining an expected activity score for the user based at least in part on one or more criteria associated with a context of presenting the online resource to the user; comparing the expected activity score for the user to a threshold; selecting one or more content items to serve to the user based at least in part on the comparison; and serving the selected content items to the user responsive to the request.

Claims

1-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a request for content from a user, the content to be displayed in a slot associated with an online resource;

determining, using one or more processors, an expected activity score for the user based at least in part on one or more criteria associated with a context of presenting the online resource to the user;

comparing the expected activity score for the user to a threshold;

selecting one or more content items to serve to the user based at least in part on the comparison; and

serving the selected content items to the user responsive to the request.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the expected activity score is a prediction of an expected interaction rate of the user given the context.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein the expected activity score is determined based on a number of interactions by the user versus a number of opportunities for interaction in a time period.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the time period is a recent time period, from a present point in time back a pre-defined amount of time in the past.

33. The method of claim 29 wherein the expected activity score is weighted based on dates of activities associated with the user, with more recent activities weighted higher than less recent activities.

34. The method of claim 29 wherein the expected activity score is determined based on user interactions of the user and other users that are similar to the user.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the threshold corresponds to a recent expected activity score determined for the user, where the recent expected activity score is determined based on user interactions by the user in a recent time period and where the recent time period is shorter than the time period.

36. The method of claim 29 wherein the threshold corresponds to an average expected activity score determined for multiple users including the user.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the average expected activity score is determined based on presentations of content made in the context.

38. The method of claim 29 wherein the threshold is a predetermined expected activity level.

39. The method of claim 29 wherein action-soliciting content is served to the user responsive to the request when the expected activity score is at or above the threshold, wherein action-soliciting content includes click-to-convert content.

40. The method of claim 29 wherein informative content is served to the user responsive to the request when the expected activity score is below the threshold, wherein informative content includes content items that have an information score that is higher than a predetermined threshold, the information score being a measure of whether a content item delivers information to the user rather than soliciting a direct response from the user.

41. The method of claim 29 wherein the criteria are selected from time of day, time of week, time of month, time of year, or location of the user.

42. The method of claim 29 wherein the criteria relate to subject matter associated with the online resource.

43. The method of claim 29, wherein context includes one or more of subject matter related to the resource, the time of the request, or the location of the request.

44. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage device and comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a request for content from a user, the content to be displayed in a slot associated with an online resource;

determine, using one or more processors, an expected activity score for the user based at least in part on one or more criteria associated with a context of presenting the online resource to the user;

compare the expected activity score for the user to a threshold;

select one or more content items to serve to the user based at least in part on the comparison; and

serve the selected content items to the user responsive to the request.

45. The product of claim 44 wherein the expected activity score is a prediction of an expected interaction rate of the user given the context.

46. The product of claim 44 wherein the expected activity score is determined based on a number of interactions by the user versus a number of opportunities for interaction in a time period.

48. The system of claim 46 wherein the expected activity score is determined based on a number of interactions by the user versus a number of opportunities for interaction in a time period.

47. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receive a request for content from a user, the content to be displayed in a slot associated with an online resource;

determine, using one or more processors, an expected activity score for the user based at least in part on one or more criteria associated with a context of presenting the online resource to the user;

compare the expected activity score for the user to a threshold;

select one or more content items to serve to the user based at least in part on the comparison; and

serve the selected content items to the user responsive to the request.