METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CORRELATING PRODUCTS BASED UPON LOGICAL RELATIONS BY PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES AND OPTIONALLY WITH CUSTOMER DATA PURCHASES
US 9047610 Bl
Jun. 2, 2015
A method for generating a list of recommendations to be supplied by a vendor to a prospective customer by the use of a computer comprising the steps ofinputting into a searchable data set a plurality of products and attributes of each product. A product is. The attributes of the selected product are ascertained. All products are ascertained that match at least one of the attributes of the selected product to provide looked-up products. From the looked-up products then are selected all products that are the closest match to the selected product to provide best matches. An output list of best matches of correlated products from the looked-up products is generated.
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REPRESENTING USER BEHAVIOR INFORMATION
US 8775471 Bl
Jul. 8, 2014
A facility for analyzing user behavior information is described. The facility receives a stream, of user behavior information. The facility augments a representation of user behavior in accordance with the received stream of user behavior information. The representation augmented by the facility is a sparse matrix of user behavior facts. The facility analyzes the sparse matrix to obtain an analysis result for the received stream of user behavior.
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EVALUATING ADVERTISING STRATEGIES BY SIMULATING THEIR APPLICATION
US 8645198 Bl
Feb.4,2014
A facility for evaluating an advertising strategy with respect to a subject website is described. The facility receives a specification of the advertising strategy. The specification indicates how to apply the advertising strategy to select one of a plurality of advertising campaigns in response to each page request against the subject website. The facility applies the advertising strategy in accordance with the received advertising strategy specification to a sequence of page requests earlier received against the subject website. The facility then assesses the results of applying the advertising strategy in accordance with the received advertising strategy specification to the earlier-received page requests.
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USER TRACKING WITHOUT UNIQUE USER IDENTIFIERS
US 8549141 Bl
*Oct. 1, 2013
A computer memory attached to a user computer system that is used by a user is described. The memory contains an advertising characterization data structure that can be used to select advertising for the user. The data structure contains a identifier passed to the user computer system by a remote computer system. The identifier is mapped by a dictionary that is resident on the remote computer system to a set of actions performed by the user.
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QUERY EXPANSION
US 8548999 Bl
Oct. 1, 2013
An expanded queries data structure is described. The data structure is produced on the basis of a set of seed queries, and consists of entries each specifying an expanded query submitted by a user that has been determined to have a high degree of relatedness to at least a plurality of the seed queries of the set. The expanded queries specified by the entries of the expanded queries data structure can be used to define a segment of users expected to have interests characterized by the seed queries.
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NATURAL LANGUAGE SEARCH FOR AUDIENCE
US 8380745 Bl
Feb.19,2013
A facility for defining a group of people is described. The facility provides a visual user interface containing a control for receiving a query string. The facility receives a query string via the control, and uses an index on a body of documents to identify documents of the body that satisfy the received query string. The facility accesses a record indicating which documents of the body were accessed by each of a population of people during a foregoing time period to identify people among the population that accessed at least a threshold number of the identified documents during the foregoing time period. The facility displays within the visual user interface, in conjunction with the control, information characterizing the people identified.
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DEFINING ONE OR MORE USED SEGMENTS BASED UPON EXTENT OF COMPLETION OF A PROCESS
US 8330759 Bl
Dec. 11, 2012
A facility for delivering a user segment displays an ordered set of steps making up a process, and receives user input selecting one of the displayed steps of the process. In response to receiving the user input, the facility creates a new user segment definition. The created user segment definition establishes a segment to include those users that complete the displayed process through the selected step.
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USER TRACKING WITHOUT UNIQUE USER IDENTIFIERS
US 8131837 Bl
Mar.6,2012
A computer memory attached to a user computer system that is used by a user is described. The memory contains an advertising characterization data structure that can be used to select advertising for the user. The data structure contains a identifier passed to the user computer system by a remote computer system. The identifier is mapped by a dictionary that is resident on the remote computer system to a set of actions performed by the user.
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USER SEGMENT POPULATION TECHNIQUES
US 8117202 Bl
*Feb.14,2012
A facility for identifying users that have an interest in a selected subject is described. For each of a number of actual users, the facility establishes a user behavior record describing the behavior of the actual user. The facility also establishes a user behavior record describing behavior of a virtual user. The behavior described by the user behavior record for the virtual user is made up of actions each tending to indicate an interest in the selected subject. The facility identifies a proper subset of the actual users whose user behavior records are most similar to the user behavior record of the virtual user as interested in the selected subject.
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USER SEGMENTATION USER INTERFACE
US 8112458 Bl
Feb.7,2012
A facility for defining a distinguished segment of individuals within a population of individuals is described. The facility displays a prompt for user input specifying a natural-language characterization of a segment membership criterion for identifying individuals who are members of the distinguished segment. The facility then receives, in response to the displayed prompt, user input specifying a natural-language characterization of a segment membership criterion for identifying individuals who are members of the distinguished segment.
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SELECTING AN ADVERTISING MESSAGE FOR PRESENTATION ON A PAGE OF A PUBLISHER WEB SITE BASED UPON BOTH USER HISTORY AND PAGE CONTEXT
US 8082298 Bl
*Dec. 20, 2011
A facility for selecting an advertising message to present to a user via a selected device in connection with a selected instance of electronic content presented via the device is described. For the selected instance of electronic content, as well as any other instances of electronic content that were previously presented via the selected device during an immediately preceding period of time of preselected length, the facility distinguishes any subjects identified as corresponding to the instance of electronic content. Among a number of advertising messages, the facility distinguishes advertising messages identified as corresponding to any of the distinguished subjects. The facility weights each of the distinguished advertising messages based upon its expected level of performance, and randomly selects one of the distinguished advertising messages in accordance with their weights for presentation in connection with the selected instance of electronic content via the selected device.
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QUERY EXPANSION
US 8024341 Bl
Sep.20,2011
An expanded queries data structure is described. The data structure is produced on the basis of a set of seed queries, and consists of entries each specifying an expanded query submitted by a user that has been determined to have a high degree of relatedness to at least a plurality of the seed queries of the set. The expanded queries specified by the entries of the expanded queries data structure can be used to define a segment of users expected to have interests characterized by the seed queries.
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NATURAL LANGUAGE SEARCH FOR AUDIENCE
US 8024323 Bl
Sep.20,2011
A facility for defining a group of people is described. The facility provides a visual user interface containing a control for receiving a query string. The facility receives a query string via the control, and uses an index on a body of documents to identify documents of the body that satisfy the received query string. The facility accesses a record indicating which documents of the body were accessed by each of a population of people during a foregoing time period to identify people among the population that accessed at least a threshold number of the identified documents during the foregoing time period. The facility displays within the visual user interface, in conjunction with the control, information characterizing the people identified.
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USER SEGMENT POPULATION TECHNIQUES
US 7966333 Bl
Jun. 21, 2011
A facility for populating a segment from a population of individuals is described. The facility accesses two or more fact tables, each containing data about attributes of a number of users who are members of a number of arbitrary user groups. The facility generates a number of column chunks from each fact table. Each column chunk contains data about a single attribute of users that are members of a single arbitrary user group. The facility applies a segment membership test that tests particular user attributes to each arbitrary user groups in turn. In doing so, the facility collects the generated column chunks that contain data about attributes of users that are members of the current arbitrary user group tested by the segment membership test. The facility applies the segment membership test to the collected column chunks to identify individuals within the arbitrary user group that satisfy the segment membership test.
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SELECTING AN ADVERTISING MESSAGE FOR PRESENTATION ON A PAGE OF A PUBLISHER WEB SITE BASED UPON BOTH USER HISTORY AND PAGE CONTEXT
US 7882175 Bl
Feb. 1, 2011
A facility for selecting an advertising message to present to a user via a selected device in connection with a selected instance of electronic content presented via the device is described. For the selected instance of electronic content, as well as any other instances of electronic content that were previously presented via the selected device during an immediately preceding period of time of preselected length, the facility distinguishes any subjects identified as corresponding to the instance of electronic content. Among a number of advertising messages, the facility distinguishes advertising messages identified as corresponding to any of the distinguished subjects. The facility weights each of the distinguished advertising messages based upon its expected level of performance, and randomly selects one of the distinguished advertising messages in accordance with their weights for presentation in connection with the selected instance of electronic content via the selected device.
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REPRESENTING USER BEHAVIOR INFORMATION
US 7809752 Bl
Oct. 5, 2010
A facility for analyzing user behavior information is described. The facility receives a stream of user behavior information. The facility augments a representation of user behavior in accordance with the received stream of user behavior information. The representation augmented by the facility is a sparse matrix of user behavior facts. The facility analyzes the sparse matrix to obtain
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SELECTING AN ADVERTISING MESSAGE FOR PRESENTATION ON A PAGE OF A PUBLISHER WEB SITE BASED UPON BOTH USER HISTORY AND PAGE CONTEXT
US 7747676 Bl
Jun.29,2010
A facility for selecting an advertising message to present to a user via a selected device in connection with a selected instance of electronic content presented via the device is described. For the selected instance of electronic content, as well as any other instances of electronic content that were previously presented via the selected device during an immediately preceding period of time of preselected length, the facility distinguishes any subjects identified as corresponding to the instance of electronic content. Among a number of advertising messages, the facility distinguishes advertising messages identified as corresponding to any of the distinguished subjects. The facility weights each of the distinguished advertising messages based upon its expected level of performance, and randomly selects one of the distinguished advertising messages in accordance with their weights for presentation in connection with the selected instance of electronic content via the selected device.
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ACCEPTING BIDS TO ADVERTISE TO USERS PERFORMING A SPECIFIC ACTIVITY
US 7698165 Bl
Apr.13, 2010
A facility for Performing on-line advertising at a subject web site relative to a selected user activity is described. The facility receives a plurality of bids. Each bid is submitted on behalf of an advertiser, and specifies an advertising rate that the advertiser will pay to display an advertising messages to users performing the selected activity with respect to the subject web site. When a request for any web page of the subject web site containing advertising space is received from a user that has previously performed the selected activity, irrespective of the identity of the requested web page, the facility both (1) identifies the received bid specifying the largest advertising rate, and (2) causes an advertising message to be displayed in the advertising space of the requested web page for the advertiser on whose behalf the identified bid was submitted.
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USER SEGMENT POPULATION TECHNIQUES
US 7676467 Bl
Mar.9,2010
A facility for identifying users that have an interest in a selected subject is described. For each of a number of actual users, the facility establishes a user behavior record describing the behavior of the actual user. The facility also establishes a user behavior record describing behavior of a virtual user. The behavior described by the user behavior record for the virtual user is made up of actions each tending to indicate an interest in the selected subject. The facility identifies a proper subset of the actual users whose user behavior records are most similar to the user behavior record of the virtual user as interested in the selected subject.
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PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION TO IDENTIFY OCCURRENCES OF EVENTS OF INTEREST
US 7464122 Bl
*Dec. 9, 2008
A method, system and computer-readable medium for analyzing interaction or usage data, such as for customers, is described. The interaction or usage data may be stored in log files and supplemented with data from other sources. Various data parsing information may be defined and used as part of the analysis, such as by using customer-specific information to identify various occurrences ofinterest. For example, when analyzing a customer’s web site interaction data, the parser component can use data defining customer-specific types of web site events of interest. Such high-level types of occurrences can be specified in a variety of ways, such as by using a combination of a logical web site, one or more URis corresponding to web pages, and/or one or more query strings. The data parsing information may also specify a mapping of actual web sites to one or more logical sites.
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ACCEPTING BIDS TO ADVERTISE TO USERS PERFORMING A SPECIFIC ACTIVITY
US 7299195 Bl
Nov. 20, 2007
A facility for Performing on-line advertising at a subject web site relative to a selected user activity is described. The facility receives a plurality of bids. Each bid is submitted on behalf of an advertiser, and specifies an advertising rate that the advertiser will pay to display an advertising messages to users performing the selected activity with respect to the subject web site. When a request for any web page of the subject web site containing advertising space is received from a user that has previously performed the selected activity, irrespective of the identity of the requested web page, the facility both (1) identifies the received bid specifying the largest advertising rate, and (2) causes an advertising message to be displayed in the advertising space of the requested web page for the advertiser on whose behalf the identified bid was submitted.
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OPTIMIZED A PRIORI TECHNIQUES
US 7194477 Bl
Mar.20,2007
A facility for identifying groups of items that co-occur in more than a threshold number of instances is described. Each such group of items has a size reflecting the number of items in the group. The facility uses a data structure comprising, for each of a plurality of group sizes, a single map identifying groups of that group size that co-occur in more than a threshold number of instances.
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PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION TO IDENTIFY OCCURRENCES OF EVENTS OF INTEREST
US 7117193 Bl
*Oct. 3, 2006
A method, system and computer-readable medium for analyzing interaction or usage data, such as for customers, is described. The interaction or usage data may be stored in log files and supplemented with data from other sources. Various data parsing information may be defined and used as part of the analysis, such as by using customer-specific information to identify various occurrences of interest. For example, when analyzing a customer’s web site interaction data, the parser component can use data defining customer-specific types of web site events of interest. Such high-level types of occurrences can be specified in a variety of ways, such as by using a combination of a logical web site, one or more URis corresponding to web pages, and/or one or more query strings. The data parsing information may also specify a mapping of actual web sites to one or more logical sites.
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PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION TO IDENTIFY INTERACTIONS BASED ON THE TIMES OF THEIR OCCURRENCES
US 7107338 Bl
*Sep.12,2006
A method, system and computer-readable medium for analyzing interaction or usage data, such as for customers, is described. Various data parsing information may be defined and used as part of the analysis, such as by using customerspecific information to identify various occurrences of interest. For example, the parser component can use data defining customer-specific categories of content set items and customer-specific types of events of interest. Such high-level types of occurrences can be specified in a variety of ways, such as by using a combination of a logical web site, one or more URis corresponding to web pages, and/or one or more query strings. In addition, in order to associate the appropriate data parsing information with data to be processed, the data parsing information can also include version information that specifies when it is applicable. The data parsing information may also map actual web sites to logical sites.
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IDENTIFYING AND REPORTING ON FREQUENT SEQUENCES OF EVENTS IN USAGE DATA
US 7051029 Bl
May 23, 2006
A method, system, and computer-readable medium for identifying sequences of interaction events of interest that frequently occur is described. In particular, techniques are described for receiving multiple groups each having related interaction events in serial or sequential order, and for determining sequences of interaction events that frequently occur in the multiple groups. Reports can also be generated and provided that include information about the determined frequent sequences. The techniques can at times be used to provide a service to customers in which logs containing data about interaction events related to that customer ( e.g., usage events for a provided service or of a provided Website) are received or obtained, in which frequent sequences in the log data are identified, and in which reports are provided to representatives of the customer about the frequent sequences (e.g., remotely over the Web based on interactive specifications).
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PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION TO IDENTIFY INTERACTIONS BASED ON THE TIMES OF THEIR OCCURRENCES
US 7035925 Bl
*Apr. 25, 2006
A method, system and computer-readable medium for analyzing interaction or usage data, such as for customers, is described. Various data parsing information may be defined and used as part of the analysis, such as by using customerspecific information to identify various occurrences of interest. For example, the parser component can use data defining customer-specific categories of content set items and customer-specific types of events of interest. Such high-level types of occurrences can be specified in a variety of ways, such as by using a combination of a logical web site, one or more URis corresponding to web pages, and/or one or more query strings. In addition, in order to associate the appropriate data parsing information with data to be processed, the data parsing information can also include version information that specifies when it is applicable. The data parsing information may also map actual web sites to logical sites.
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IMPORTING DATA USING METADATA
US 6993529 Bl
Jan.31,2006
A method and system for importing data into a data store in accordance with metadata. The import system provides metadata that specifies how the import data for various types of import sources is to be imported into the data store. The import sources may be categorized according to the type of data provided by the import sources. When the import system receives the import data from the import source, it identifies the type of import source and retrieves the metadata defined for that type of import source. The import system then imports the received import data into the data store in accordance with the retrieved metadata.
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PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION TO IDENTIFY OCCURRENCES CORRESPONDING TO DEFINED CATEGORIES
US 6917972 Bl
Jul. 12, 2005
A method, system and computer-readable medium for analyzing interaction or usage data, such as for customers, is described. The interaction or usage data may be stored in log files and supplemented with data from other sources. Various data parsing information may be defined and used as part of the analysis, such as by using customer-specific information to identify various occurrences of interest. For example, when analyzing a customer’s web site interaction data, the parser component can use data defining customer-specific categories of web pages. Such high-level types of occurrences can be specified in a variety of ways, such as by using a combination of a logical web site, one or more URis corresponding to web pages, and/or one or more query strings. The data parsing information may also specify a mapping of actual web sites to one or more logical sites.
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METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION
US 6873981 B2
Mar.29,2005
A method and system for providing customers with access to and analysis of event data is provided. The event data may be stored in log files and supplemented with data from other sources, such as product databases and customer invoices. A data warehouse system collects customer data from the customer web sites and stores the data at a data warehouse server. The data warehouse server interacts with the customer servers to collect to the customer data on a periodic basis. The data warehouse server may provide instructions to the customer servers identifying the customer data that is to be uploaded to the data warehouse server. When the data warehouse server receives customer data, it converts the customer data into a format that is more conducive to processing by decision support system applications by which customers can analyze their data.
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VISUALIZING AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED SEGMENTS
US 6871196 Bl
Mar.22,2005
A software facility for analyzing each of a plurality of groups of items is described. The facility retrieves information identifying, for each of a plurality of groups, items that are members of the group. For each group, the facility analyzes attributes of the items of the group to identify attributes that distinguish items that are members of the group from items that are not members of the group.
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METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PARSING NAVIGATION INFORMATION
US 6785666 Bl
Aug. 31, 2004
A method and system for providing customers with access to and analysis of event data is provided. The event data may be stored in log files and supplemented with data from other sources, such as product databases and customer invoices. A data warehouse system collects customer data from the customer web sites and stores the data at a data warehouse server. The data warehouse server interacts with the customer servers to collect to the customer data on a periodic basis. The data warehouse server may provide instructions to the customer servers identifying the customer data that is to be uploaded to the data warehouse server. When the data warehouse server receives customer data, it converts the customer data into a format that is more conducive to processing by decision support system applications by which customers can analyze their data.
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USER LEVEL BID REQUEST PREFERENCES
January 22, 2019
A facility for a real-time bidding (“RTB”) bidder service to cause an RTB auction service to manage bid requests relating to a specified user is described. The facility receives a bid request from an auction service seeking a bid for presenting an advertisement to a user, including user data identifying the user; evaluates the user data; and based on the evaluating, transmits to the auction service an embargo request specifying a period of time for the auction service to prevent bid requests seeking bids for presenting advertising messages to the user from being sent from the auction service to the bidder service.