Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for performing a comparative search. In one example, the comparative search is performed over a network, such as the web, or a database. In one exemplary implementation, a user transmits a plurality of queries which represent the topics that a user wants to compare, and a computing system can automatically retrieve and rank web pages or documents based on both their relevance to queries and the comparative contents they contain. In one such example, the comparative pages are displayed in a pair or other form of a grouping. In another example, comparative results having similar contents may be clustered into meaningful themes.

Abstract: Systems and methods for verifying relevance between terms and Web site contents are described. In one aspect, site contents from a bid URL are retrieved. Expanded term(s) semantically and/or contextually related to bid term(s) are calculated. Content similarity and expanded similarity measurements are calculated from respective combinations of the bid term(s), the site contents, and the expanded terms. Category similarity measurements between the expanded terms and the site contents are determined in view of a trained similarity classifier. The trained similarity classifier having been trained from mined web site content associated with directory data. A confidence value providing an objective measure of relevance between the bid term(s) and the site contents is determined from the content, expanded, and category similarity measurements evaluating the multiple similarity scores in view of a trained relevance classifier model.

Abstract: According to embodiments of the invention, an advertisement-generation system generates image-containing advertisements. The advertisement-generation system includes: at least one feature-selection guideline that specifies at least one recommended feature for image-containing advertisements based on advertiser inputs that specify at least one of advertisement-target-audience information, cost information, and advertiser-industry information; an image-clip library from which images are selected for inclusion in the image-containing advertisements; and at least one advertisement template that is based on the at least one feature-selection guideline; wherein the system automatically generates image-containing advertisements that contain one or more suggested colors that are automatically suggested based on one or more colors present on a web page that will host the image-containing advertisement.

Abstract: Seed keywords are leveraged to provide expanded keywords that are then associated with relevant advertisers. Instances can also include locating potential advertisers based on the expanded keywords. Inverse lookup techniques are employed to determine which keywords are associated with an advertiser. Filtering can then be employed to eliminate inappropriate keywords for that advertiser. The keywords are then automatically revealed to the advertiser for consideration as relevant search terms for their advertisements. In this manner, revenue for a search engine and/or for an advertiser can be substantially enhanced through the automatic expansion of relevant search terms. Advertisers also benefit by having larger and more relevant search term selections automatically available to them, saving them both time and money.

Abstract: One aspect relates to clustering a group of objects of a first object type based on a relative importance using links extending between objects of the first object type and certain objects of the second object type. In one embodiment, the first object type is a Web page object type and the second type is a user object type.

Abstract: A summary system for evaluating summaries of documents and for generating summaries of documents based on normalized probabilities of portions of the documents is provided. A summarization system generates a summary by selecting sentences for the summary based on their normalized probabilities as derived from a document model. An evaluation system evaluates the effectiveness of a summary based on a normalized probability for the summary that is derived from a document model.

Abstract: A system for augmenting click-through data with latent information present in the click-through data for use in generating search results that are better tailored to the information needs of a user submitting a query is provided. The augmentation system creates a three-dimensional matrix with the dimensions of users, queries, and documents. The augmentation system then performs a three-order singular value decomposition of the three-dimensional matrix to generate a three-dimensional core singular value matrix and a left singular matrix for each dimension. The augmentation system finally multiplies the three-dimensional core singular value matrix by the left singular matrices to generate an augmented three-dimensional matrix that explicitly contains the information that was latent in the un-augmented three-dimensional matrix.

Abstract: Identifying and selecting keywords in a second language based on an input keyword from a user in a first language. Translation candidates in the second language are determined from the input keyword. Keywords in the second language related to the translation candidates are identified and included with the translation candidates. The translation candidates are ranked and presented to the user for selection.

Abstract: A method and system for determining the relevance of a document to a query based on surrogate content is provided. The relevance system associates queries with documents. The relevance system calculates the relevance of a document to a query based at least in part on the similarity of the associated queries to the query. When multiple queries are associated with a document, the relevance system may provide a weight for each query for calculating a combined relevance score for the associated queries.

Abstract: The invention provides a method of creating contextual titles for web pages or documents. The method includes the extracting of phrases from a web page or document. The phrases are evaluated for use as contextual titles for the web page or document. The contextual title is utilized to access the web page or document by users.

Abstract: A peer-to-peer advertisement platform is provided to ubiquitously promote products or services supplied by advertisers across content-based applications executing on nodes in a peer-to-peer network. The peer-to-peer advertisement platform may include a registration component to register nodes in the peer-to-peer advertising platform, an advertisement submission component to receive advertisement data from the advertisers, and a distribution component to distribute the advertisement data to the nodes registered in the peer-to-peer advertisement platform. The peer-to-peer advertisement platform also includes a money sharing component to reward nodes based on a contribution level assigned to the node. Accordingly, the peer-to-peer advertisement platform stores the advertisement data locally at the plurality of nodes registered in the peer-to-peer advertising platform and shares a portion of the revenue generated from the advertisement data with the nodes registered in the peer-to-peer advertising platform.

Abstract: The invention provides a method of creating a personal home page containing information of interest assembled from various web sites. The method includes the partitioning of web pages into web blocks. Users may collect various web blocks from different web pages and utilize those web blocks to define the dynamic personal homepage. In addition, the web blocks may be tracked to update content in the personal home page based on corresponding changes in the original web page.

Abstract: Systems and methods for analyzing the content of online conversations using data mining technologies are provided. Methods and systems for utilizing the results of data mining technology implementation to retrieve relevant advertising content and/or other relevant information for display in association with the content of an online conversation are also provided.

Abstract: A method is provided to ubiquitously promote products or services provided by a plurality of advertisers across a plurality of content-based applications. The method may include receiving data from the plurality of advertisers describing the products or services provided by the plurality of advertisers. The received data is stored in an advertisement database where a user may subsequently query the advertisement database to locate data promoting a product or service. Additionally, terms and payment data are extracted from the received advertisement data to efficiently promote the products or services provided by the advertiser across the plurality of content-based applications.

Abstract: A method and system for adapting search results of a query to the information needs of the user submitting the query is provided. A search system analyzes click-through triplets indicating that a user submitted a query and that the user selected a document from the results of the query. To overcome the large size and sparseness of the click-through data, the search system when presented with an input triplet comprising a user, a query, and a document determines a probability that the user will find the input document important by smoothing the click-through triplets. The search system then orders documents of the result based on the probability of their importance to the input user.

Abstract: Systems and methods for analyzing the content of audio/video files using speech recognition and data mining technologies are provided. As it can generally be assumed that a user's interest is highly correlated with an audio/video clip or television program the user may be watching, methods and systems for utilizing the results of speech recognition and data mining technology implementation to retrieve relevant advertising content for display are also provided.

Abstract: A method and system for generating a projection matrix for projecting data from a high dimensional space to a low dimensional space. The system establishes an objective function based on a maximum margin criterion matrix. The system then provides data samples that are in the high dimensional space and have a class. For each data sample, the system incrementally derives leading eigenvectors of the maximum margin criterion matrix based on the derivation of the leading eigenvectors of the last data sample. The derived eigenvectors compose the projection matrix, which can be used to project data samples in a high dimensional space into a low dimensional space.

Abstract: A method and system for identifying information about people is provided. The information system identifies groups of people that have relationships based on their relationships to documents or more generally to objects. The information system initially is provided with an indication of which people have which relationships to which documents. The information system then identifies clusters of people based on having a relationship to the same objects. The information system may also identify clusters of related objects associated with a cluster of people. When a user wants to identify information about a person, the user can provide the name of that person to the information system. The information system then can retrieve and display the names of the other people who are in the same cluster as the person.

Abstract: A method and system for determining similarity between items is provided. To calculate similarity scores for pairs of items, the similarity system initializes a similarity score for each pair of objects and each pair of features. The similarity system then iteratively calculates the similarity scores for each pair of objects based on the similar scores of the pairs of features calculated during a previous iteration and calculates the similarity scores for each pair of features based on the similarity scores of the pairs of objects calculated during a previous iteration. The similarity system implements an algorithm that is based on a recursive definition of the similarities between objects and between features. The similarity system continues the iterations of recalculating the similarity scores until the similarity scores converge on a solution.

Abstract: A method and system for ranking messages of discussion threads based on relationships between messages and authors is provided. The ranking system defines an equation for attributes of a message and an author. The equations define the attribute values and are based on relationships between the attribute and the attributes associated with the same type of object, and different types of objects. The ranking system iteratively calculates the attribute values for the objects using the equations until the attribute values converge on a solution. The ranking system then ranks the messages based on attribute values.