Abstract: Applying a bias when determining a suggested search query. Examples of biases that can be applied include, but are not limited to, temporal biases and monetization biases. Temporal biasing involves increasing a weight associated with a search query, based on a temporal attribute associated with the query. Search queries may also have associated with them a parameter such as frequency, count, etc. One of these parameters may serve as a weight. In order to determine suggested search queries, the temporal attribute is used to modify or bias the parameter (e.g., frequency parameter). Thus, the weight of the search query is modified to temporally bias the query. The suggested search queries are determined based on the biased parameter.

Abstract: A set of metadata for association with the composite media item and a tool for creating a composite media item with an associated set metadata. In one embodiment, the tool comprises a component for extracting a portion of a first media item having first metadata and for extracting a portion of a second media item having second metadata, a component for combining the first portion and the second portion to form a composite media item, and a component for analyzing the first metadata and the second metadata to extract portions of the first and second metadata to form a new set of metadata for association with the composite media item. In one embodiment, the new metadata is a data container.

Abstract: A device, system, and method are directed towards combining a plurality of queries to a database into a combined execution plan. The plurality of queries is received. The queries may be Structured Query Language (SQL) statements. The database may be a relational database. The plurality of queries is transformed into a plurality of parse trees. A determination is made whether the plurality of queries operates on at least the same portion of the same table. If so, then the plurality of query trees is query-optimized. The plurality of query trees are combined into a master query tree based on similar nodes in the plurality of query trees. A split node in the master query tree represents non-similarities between the plurality of query trees. The master query tree is transformed into an execution plan. The execution plan is applied to a database to return at least one result.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and computer system for limiting a number of web service programming calls including intercepting a web request for web service programming from a client and extracting call specific data from the web request. The method and computing system further includes transmitting call specific data to a plurality of rate limiter servers and on the rate limiter servers, calculating a total number of web requests, where the web requests are identified by the call specific data. The method and computing system further includes receiving web request totals from the rate limiter servers and thereby determining accessibility of the client to the web request based on a comparison of the number of web requests for the web service programming relative to a predetermined access limit.

Abstract: A system conducts online financial transactions between individuals or between individuals and entities such as banks, merchants and other companies. Each user establishes an online account, which is used to transfer funds to and from other online accounts. Any user may initiate a send money transaction or a request payment transaction with any other entity provided that entity has an e-mail address. The online fund transfer may include a verification of a user's information including verifying a mailing address.

Abstract: Methods and system for customizing a webpage include generating a schematic representation of the webpage. The webpage includes a plurality of section elements that are customizable. The schematic representation identifies a plurality of schematic section elements corresponding to the plurality of section elements of the webpage. The schematic representation is rendered alongside the webpage and provides visual navigation through various section elements of the webpage. A schematic section element is identified and selected from the schematic representation, for customizing. The selection of the schematic section element triggers rendering of one or more navigation links associated with the selected schematic section element. The navigation links provide tools or options enabling customization. Changes to one or more attributes associated with the selected schematic section element representing customization are received and the attributes are updated at the schematic representation in real-time.

Abstract: Time differentiation based advertising. A method includes receiving bids for a content category from a first content provider and a second content provider. The method also includes determining a time difference between initiation of an action corresponding to the first content provider and corresponding to the second content provider based on the content category and the bids. Further, the method includes electronically initiating the action corresponding to the first content provider in response to an input associated with the first content provider. Furthermore, the method includes electronically initiating the action corresponding to the second content provider in response to an input associated with the second content provider after a time equivalent to the determined time difference has elapsed.

Abstract: Construct a statistical model for a plurality of multimedia objects identified in response to a search query, the statistical model comprising a plurality of probabilities, wherein each of the multimedia objects uniquely corresponding to a different one of a plurality of sets of feature values, each of the feature values of each of the sets of feature values being a characterization of the multimedia object corresponding to the set of feature values, and each of the probabilities being calculated for a different one of the multimedia objects based on the set of feature values corresponding to the multimedia object. Rank the multimedia objects based on their corresponding probabilities, such that a multimedia object having a relatively higher probability is ranked relatively higher.

Abstract: Managing electronic addresses based on communication patterns. A method includes tracking metadata of a plurality of electronic communications of a user. One or more lists of electronic addresses of recipients are generated for the user based on the metadata. Electronic addresses of potential recipients are identified from the one or more lists in response to an input indicative of selection of an electronic address of a recipient. The identified electronic addresses are recommended to the user. An input indicative of one or more electronic addresses selected by the user from the identified electronic addresses is received. Further, an electronic message is sent to the selected electronic addresses.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for identifying relevant content/advertisements to be displayed in response to receiving a search query. The relevant advertisements may be identified based on the contextual relevance compared with the root term of the search query and based on the geographic relevance as compared with a location term of the search query and/or a localness associated with the root term. The search query may be assigned a location identifier based on the location term or based on the localness, which may be used to expand the geographic range for ranking and selecting relevant content/advertisements.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for aggregating event data in order to reduce the amount of storage space necessary to store event data for later use in statistical analyses of the event data. The raw event data is analyzed and, for each event ID within a time period, a specific set of numbers and sums are calculated. This set is then stored instead of the raw event ID and used for all subsequent analyses of the events. The set of numbers and sums reduce the amount of storage required for each event ID within a time period to a set of five data elements, regardless of the number of underlying events in the raw event data. The set of number and sums include a number of events, a sum of the events, a sum of the squares of the events, a sum of the cubes of the events and a sum of the events raised to the fourth power.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating search results with higher relevancy. The present invention exploits the fact that users' choices on each given search term tend to converge to several products from several merchants, and all of the results are very relevant to the search term. In one embodiment, these results are used to decide the order of merchants for each search term. By learning the users' choices, especially from purchasing and/or clicking information, highly relevant and most popular products can be assigned a higher score or rank over text relevant only products.

Abstract: A computer-readable medium, apparatus, and interface are provided for constructing an edit decision list that specifies media content to be included in a composed media object. The edit decision list is constructed by generating at least one media portion specifier, wherein the at least one media portion specifier identifies at least a portion of at least one first media object, and generating the edit decision list, where the edit decision list includes a network address and the at least one media portion specifier, and the edit decision list is in the form of a network resource locator string, such as a URL, suitable for transmission in a network request to the network address to cause the composed media object to be generated. The edit decision list may be transmitted in a single Hypertext Transfer Protocol request to the network address.

Abstract: The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for determining the performance of a plurality of versions of a given advertisement. The method of the present invention comprises retrieving a first version of an advertisement and associated click through data, and retrieving a second version of the advertisement and associated click through data. A clickability score is calculated for the first version of the advertisement using the click through data associated with the first version, and a clickability score is calculated for the second version of the advertisement using the click through data associated with the second version. A difference in clickability scores is determined between the first and second advertisement. The clickability score associated with the first version of the advertisement is modified based upon the difference in clickability scores.

Abstract: A system is described for discovering query intent based on search queries and concept networks. The system may construct frequency vectors from log data corresponding to a submitted query and at least one related query submitted to one or more search engines. The system may also construct a query intent vector based on the frequency vectors. The query intent vector may include frequency scores that represent the intent of the query.

Abstract: A learned upload time estimate is derived from historical uploading information. This involves reviewing historical uploading information for previous uploads. To determine if there is a match or likeness between information of files presently selected for uploading and the historical uploading information for any of the previous uploads, the size of these files is combined to produce an upload size. The size and timestamp of the current upload is compared against the size and timestamp of each of the previous uploads. If a match with a previous upload is found its actual time is used as the learned estimate upload time. If a match or likeness is not found, an average transfer rate is computed from the historical uploading information for the previous uploads. From the average transfer rate and upload size a learned upload time estimate is derived and provided to a client for display to a user.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer program products for generating search results comprising web documents with associated expert information. One embodiment of a method for generating such search results includes receiving one or more search queries, selecting one of the one or more search queries, determining one or more categories of web documents responsive to the selected search query and crawling a web graph of linked web documents to identify one or more web documents tagged as within the one or more categories responsive to the selected search query. The method further includes generating a result set of the one or more web documents identified as within the one or more categories responsive to the selected search query, ranking the result set and generating a list of ranked search results responsive to the selected search.

Abstract: Methods and systems for displaying popular internet searches on a webpage are provided. Popularity data is received which includes a plurality of search terms, and each of the search terms has an associated popularity index. A determination is made as to whether any of the search terms is an approved term by referencing the search terms against a list of approved terms. If any of the search terms is an approved term, then that search term's corresponding entry in the list of approved terms is updated with that search term's associated popularity index. The search terms that are not approved terms define a set of unclassified search terms. The unclassified search terms are classified by updating the list of approved terms to include the unclassified search terms and their associated popularity indices. The most popular search terms in the list of approved search terms is determined based upon the popularity index. A webpage is generated including images associated with each of the most popular search terms.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for determining related bid terms. The method and system includes accessing a term database to determine a plurality of term pairs, the term pairs being paired terms bidded together in a term bidding operating environment. In the method and system, for each of the plurality of term pairs, the method and system includes determining similarity values for each of the term pairs. The method and system further includes generating a similarity matrix using the determined similarity values. And, the method and system includes generating an output result based on a co-bidded relationship between at least one of the terms and advertising information.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing search listings in a search database include storing one or more search listings for an advertiser. Each search listing includes an associated search term. The system receives from the advertiser identification information for a search listing and a desired rank for the identified search listing, a maximum cost per click for the search listing, or both. The system stores the desired rank and/or maximum cost per click for the search listing. The system then determines a cost per click for the identified search listing based on the desired rank and other search listings which include the search term associated with the identified search listing.