Selection and delivery of invitational content based on prediction of user interest

• US 8,510,309 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Priyadarshan, Eswar, Sun, Kenley, Grigorovici, Dan Marius, Vadrevu, Jayasurya, Abdala, Omar
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US12/873,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20120054187A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,078 Days
• Field of Search: 707/740, 707/801, 707/802, 707/608, 707/736, 705/14, 705/2, 705/35, 709/223, 704/275
• US Class Current: 707/740
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1805 Append-only file systems, e.g. using logs or journals to store data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for selecting invitational content for users based on their short-term and their long-term features. In operation, responsive to a request from a user terminal for a content package a journal of events associated with a user. Thereafter, short-term and long-term features in the journal are identified and tagged with pre-defined tags indicating a type of content associated with the patterns. The tags are then used to select invitational content by selecting content based on tags for the identified short-term features associated with a threshold level of activity or tags for the identified long-term features.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

obtaining a journal of events associated with a user, the events in the journal comprising at least one of events at a plurality of user terminals associated with the user, events during a plurality of sessions associated with the user, or events associated with a plurality of content packages delivered to the user at one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

identifying via a processor one or more short-term features and one or more long-term features in the journal based on the events in the journal to yield identified features, each of the short-term features and the long term features identifying a sequence of events in the journal leading to at least one conversion but for which the at least one conversion failed to occur;

applying pre-defined tags to the identified features to yield applied tags, each of the pre-defined tags indicating a type of content and a type of conduct for an associated one of the identified features, the type of conduct indicating one of a short-term conduct type and a long-term conduct type; and

selecting invitational content to deliver to a user terminal associated with the user based on the applied tags,

wherein the invitational content is selected from invitational content related to one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type if associated with an activity level in the journal meeting at least one threshold criteria, else the invitational content is selected from invitational content related to at least one of the applied tags corresponding to the long-term conduct type.

2. The method of claim 1, where the activity level is based on the events in the journal associated with a selected time window.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the threshold criteria to comprise at least one of a frequency and a duration of the one of the short-term features.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the threshold criteria to comprise a pre-defined temporal relationship between the one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type and the other applied tags.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the threshold criteria to comprise a minimum temporal distance between the one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type and an end of the journal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting further comprises choosing the invitational content from a queue of invitational content, and wherein responsive to the queue failing to include invitational content associated with the applied tags, the invitational content for the user is selected according to default rules for selecting invitational content from the queue.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying further comprises comparing the events in the journal to pre-defined short-term features and pre-defined long-term features.

8. A content delivery system, comprising:

a communications interface for receiving requests for content packages from one or more user terminals associated with at least one user;

a storage element for storing a journal of events associated with the user, the events in the journal comprising at least one of events at a plurality of user terminals associated with the user, events during a plurality of sessions associated with the user, or events associated with a plurality of content packages delivered to the user at one or more of the plurality of user terminals; and

a processing element communicatively coupled to the communications interface and the storage element, wherein the processing element is configured for processing the received requests, wherein the processing comprises identifying one or more short-term features and one or more long-term features in the journal based on the events in the journal to yield identified features, applying pre-defined tags to the identified features indicating a type of content and a type of conduct for an associated one of the identified features to yield applied tags, and selecting invitational content to deliver to a user terminal associated with the user based on the applied tags,

wherein the type of conduct in the applied tags indicates one of short-term conduct type and a long-term conduct type, wherein each of the short-term conduct type and the long term conduct type identify a sequence of events in the journal leading to at least one conversion but for which the at least one conversion failed to occur, and wherein the invitational content is selected from invitational content related to one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type if associated with an activity level in the journal meeting at least one threshold criteria, else the invitational content is selected from invitational content related to at least one of the applied tags corresponding to the long-term conduct type.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured for determining the activity level based on the events in the journal associated with a selected time window.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured for selecting the threshold criteria to comprise at least one of a frequency and a duration of the one of the short-term features.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured for selecting the threshold criteria to comprise a pre-defined temporal relationship between the one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type and other applied tags.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured for selecting the threshold criteria to comprise a minimum temporal distance between the one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type and an end of the journal.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured for selecting the invitational content by choosing from a queue of invitational content, and wherein responsive to the queue failing to include invitational content associated with the applied tags, the processing element is configured for selecting the invitational content for the user according to default rules for selecting invitational content from the queue.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having code for causing a computer to perform a method stored thereon, the method comprising:

obtaining a corpus of user data identifying one or more user events, the user events in the corpus comprising at least one of events at a plurality of user terminals associated with the user, events during a plurality of sessions associated with the user, or events associated with a plurality of content packages delivered to the user at one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

generating a plurality of tags based on the corpus of data, each of the plurality of tags indicating at least one type of content and a type of conduct, the type of conduct indicating one of short-term conduct type and a long-term conduct type, each of the short-term conduct type and the long term conduct type identifying a sequence of events in the corpus leading to at least one conversion but for which the at least one conversion failed to occur;

defining activity criteria for the plurality of tags corresponding to the short term conduct type;

applying tags from the plurality of tags to a journal of user events associated with a user requesting a content package at a user terminal; and

selecting invitational content for the content package based on the applied tags;

wherein the invitational content is selected from invitational content related to one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type if associated with an activity level in the journal meeting the activity criteria, else the invitational content is selected from invitational content related to at least one of the applied tags corresponding to the long-term conduct type.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the activity level is based on the events in the journal associated with a selected time window.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the step of generating further comprises:

identifying features in the corpus of data;

categorizing the identified features based at least on content and duration; and

defining the plurality of tags based on the categorizing.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of generating further comprises defining feature characteristics for each of the plurality of tags, and wherein the step of applying further comprises:

identifying occurrences of one or more of the conductal patterns associated with the plurality of tags based on the feature characteristics; and

associating a one of the plurality of tags to the journal based on the identified occurrences.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising selecting the threshold criteria to comprise at least one of a frequency and a duration of the one of the short-term features.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising selecting the threshold criteria to comprise a pre-defined temporal relationship between the one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type and one other of the applied tags.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising selecting the threshold criteria to comprise a minimum temporal distance between the one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type and an end of the journal.

21. A content delivery system, comprising:

at least one processing element;

a first module for causing the processing element to obtain a corpus of user data identifying one or more user events, the user events in the corpus comprising at least one of events at a plurality of user terminals associated with the user, events during a plurality of sessions associated with the user, or events associated with a plurality of content packages delivered to the user at one or more of the plurality of user terminals;

a second module for causing the processing element to generate a plurality of tags based on the corpus of data and to define activity criteria for the portion of the plurality of tags associated with a short-term conduct type, each of the plurality of tags indicating at least one type of content and a type of conduct, the type of conduct indicating one of the short-term conduct type and a long-term conduct type, each of the short-term conduct type and the long term conduct type identifying a sequence of events in the corpus leading to at least one conversion but for which the at least one conversion failed to occur;

a third module for causing the processing element to apply tags from the plurality of tags to a journal of user events associated with a user requesting a content package at a user terminal and select invitational content for the content package based on the applied tags, wherein the selected invitational content is invitational content related to one of the applied tags corresponding to the short-term conduct type if associated with an activity level in the journal meeting the activity criteria, else the selected invitational content related to at least one of the applied tags corresponding to the long-term conduct type.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the third module is further configured for causing the processing element to determine the activity level based on the events in the journal associated with a selected time window.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the second module is further configured for causing the processing element to identify features in the corpus of data, categorize the identified features based at least on content and duration, and define the plurality of tags based on the categorizing.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the second module is further configured for causing the processing element to define feature characteristics for each of the plurality of tags, and wherein the third module is further configured for identifying occurrences of one or more of the conductal patterns associated with the plurality of tags based on the feature characteristics, and associating a one of the plurality of tags to the journal based on the identified occurrences.