Patents Assigned to Yahoo!
  • Patent number: 9076162
    Abstract: A method for the placement of advertisements on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such advertisements. The advertisements might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on an advertisement. Data regarding the past performance of the advertisements is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with the system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the advertisements on the page. The server performs a calculation regarding the likelihood that an event will occur for a given advertisement displayed to a user. The advertisements are arranged according to this calculation and returned to the user on the requested page. The likelihood can also be multiplied by a weighting factor and the advertisements arranged according to this product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 9076148
    Abstract: Dynamic pricing models which facilitate efficient distribution of digital content online. Particular implementations of the invention dynamically base pricing for digital content on relatively current, aggregated information regarding Internet user behavior and preferences, such as search query and/or page hit logs. Some implementations of the present invention are directed to pricing digital content based on the inherent properties of digital content and the mechanics of how electronic files are typically distributed on the Internet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: YAHOO! INC.
    Inventor: Duane R. Valz
  • Patent number: 9075917
    Abstract: A system and method for bucket testing includes: retrieving a user's information from a user in a bucket testing group when a request to serve a web page is received; determining from the user's information if the user has an active bucket identifier associated with the user's account in a persistent store; retrieving bucket parameters from the user's information when it is determined that the user has an active bucket identifier; determining if the bucket parameters are within a range assigned to the bucket testing group; passing the bucket parameters to the server; and loading configuration and files associated with the active bucket identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Okan Alper, Jayadev Chandrasekhar, Parag Jain
  • Patent number: 9078026
    Abstract: The present invention provides techniques relating to rich media advertising. Techniques are provided in which an advertiser-provided image-based component of an advertisement creative is matched with an advertiser-provided audio component of the advertisement creative. A rich media advertisement may be served that includes the image-based component and a synchronously presented audio component. Utilization of the rich media advertisement may be provided as an option to an advertiser to advertising utilizing a video advertisement, such as an option that may be used to target lower bandwidth users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Sudha Mahajan, Sudharsan Vasudevan, Suhas Sadanandan
  • Publication number: 20150186939
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for search results targeting. The system includes a first database including advertiser bidding information and a second database including websites statistics generated by a search engine. The system includes an input from an advertiser and a plurality of advertiser keywords obtained from the first database system based on the input from the advertiser. The system includes one or more modules configured to: rank the plurality of advertiser keywords; obtain a plurality of website identifiers for each top ranked advertiser keywords from a second database; rank the obtained website identifiers based on history statistics of the obtained website identifiers; and select the top ranked website identifiers as retargeting candidates for the advertiser.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 2, 2014
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Wentong LI, Lin Ma, Yi Mao, Weiru Zhang
  • Publication number: 20150186932
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing a unified targeting solution are disclosed. The system obtains user data for each user in a user group from a database stored in the non-transitory storage medium. The database is organized on a user by user basis and includes signals from a plurality of sources. The system receives an input from an advertiser including a marketing intention. The system includes features extracted from the user data and the input. The system obtains a score for each user based on the extracted features. The system selects users from the user group based on the obtained scores.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Jian XU, Yu Zou
  • Publication number: 20150186394
    Abstract: Briefly, embodiments of methods and/or systems for providing enhancements to search query processing are disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: YAHOO! INC.
    Inventors: Hui Wu, SHENHONG ZHU, HUMING WU
  • Publication number: 20150186545
    Abstract: Software on a client device presents a webpage through a browser. The webpage is from an online content-aggregation website and includes a plurality of panels containing a plurality of content items. The software selectively pre-loads into a cache a resource associated with a content item in a panel if the content item is relatively persistent in comparison to other content items. The cache is controlled by the browser. The software retrieves the resource from the cache upon receiving command from a user and presents the resource through the browser.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Steve Krutzler, Edward J. Campbell, III, Amit Motgi, Gamaiel Zavala, Arons Lee, Devrim Tufan
  • Patent number: 9070038
    Abstract: Methods are systems are provided that include obtaining a digital image from a digital photograph, such as may be taken by a digital camera or a camera phone. The digital image includes, for example, a URI or URL, which may be contained within a visible frame. A character recognition technique, such as an optical character recognition technique, may be used to recognize the URI or URL from the digital image. The URI or URL may be used to access a corresponding Web page. The character recognition technique may be applied on the digital camera or cell phone itself, or remotely.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Jin Suk Park
  • Publication number: 20150178790
    Abstract: A system for adjusting reserve price for impressions of non-guaranteed delivery (“NDG”) advertising auctions includes a processor configured to retrieve a reserve price set by a publisher for an impression that is fillable by eligible advertisements to be streamed to users in a display content stream; and to retrieve user engagement information for users that engage the eligible advertisements. A statistical analyzer applies a statistical function to the user engagement information of an identified advertisement of the eligible advertisements, to generate a user engagement statistic for the identified advertisement related to a user engagement level. A reserve price adjuster dynamically adjusts the reserve price for the identified advertisement responsive to a value of the user engagement statistic, where the adjusted reserve price for the identified advertisement is different than the reserve price for at least another of the eligible advertisements based on different user engagement levels for each.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Publication date: June 25, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Xing Yi, Yan, Jean-Marc Langlois, Prabhakar Krishnamurthy
  • Publication number: 20150178282
    Abstract: Methods, systems and programming for targeting users with engaging content. In one example, a metric with respect to a piece of content is measured for each of a plurality of users. A first set of users is identified from the plurality of users based on the measured metrics and a threshold. User profiles of the first set of users are obtained. A second set of users is then identified based on the user profiles of the first set of users. The piece of content is provided to the second set of users.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2013
    Publication date: June 25, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Dilan Gorur, Xing Yi, Suju Rajan
  • Patent number: 9066116
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques for an advertisement mask and a target media content being jointly encoded, transformed, and progressively rendered for presentation to a user. Specifically, a request for the target media content by a user is received. The target media content and the advertisement mask are scaled and divided into equally sized blocks and, further, jointly encoded into a compressed media file. Transformation of the content of the compressed media file is followed by progressively loading and rendering the advertisement mask and a partially obscured view of the media content. As the target media content is transmitted and fully rendered, the advertisement mask gradually decreases in opacity until it is removed for presentation of the fully-rendered target media content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Lyndon Kennedy, Tomasz Gulik
  • Patent number: 9065797
    Abstract: A URI-redirection via machine-scannable-code system and method are provided herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: YAHOO! INC.
    Inventor: Jesse Chor
  • Patent number: 9064019
    Abstract: A method, system, and apparatus are directed to providing advertising information to a mobile device over a network. A request is received from the mobile device. The request may comprise a query, geo-location information, and/or a user preference. If the request comprises the query, a search result is generated based on a search for the received query and/or the received geo-location information. At least one virtual billboard is determined, wherein the at least one virtual billboard is in proximity with a first geo-location identified by the received geo-location information and/or a second geo-location associated with the search result. The virtual billboard may also be based on a type of the virtual billboard, a time, a user preference (criterion), and/or a keyword included in the query. The virtual billboard is provided to the mobile device. An advertising usage is recorded for the provided virtual billboard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: YAHOO! INC.
    Inventor: Farzin Maghoul
  • Publication number: 20150169783
    Abstract: A system for managing tags on a web page is disclosed. Tags are managed by implementing primary and secondary tags. The secondary tags are aggregated to provide network and tag management efficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2015
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Ben Watson
  • Publication number: 20150172144
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating email messaging combines the convenience of an auto-fill of the recipient fields in a standard email message with a blank canvas for composing a new, quick reply message. By selecting the quick reply feature that can be provided with the message view screen of an email utility, the user is shown a second user interface with a blank compose screen. The email recipients are automatically filled in from the message view screen of the current message. The quick reply message can be transmitted as an email message through the email utility.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2013
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Stephane Karoubi, Ashish Sharma
  • Publication number: 20150169606
    Abstract: Methods, systems and programming for providing query suggestions based on user's previous search query. In one example, an input including a prefix of a first query is received from a user in a user session. At least a second query that was previously received from the user in the user session is then obtained. A third query is obtained based on the second query and the prefix of the first query. One or more query suggestions are provided to the user as a response to the input. The one or more query suggestions include the third query.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2013
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Shenhong Zhu, Anlei Dong, Kazuhiro Nakao, Hongbo Deng, Hui Wu
  • Publication number: 20150172369
    Abstract: Method, system, and programs for data processing. In one example, a record is received. The record is separated into multiple partitions. Each partition is submitted to an iterative pipeline, wherein the iterative pipeline comprises two or more processing stages that are run in parallel and one of the multiple partitions passes through one of the two or more processing stages in one iteration. The multiple partitions are passed through two or more processing stages. The partitions that have passed through each of the two or more processing stages are merged.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2013
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Ajitsen Surendran, Satyadeep Sridharan Musuvathy
  • Publication number: 20150170218
    Abstract: A server system may include at least one non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium and at least one processor in communication with the at least one storage medium. The at least one storage medium may include at least one set of instructions for generating a value added in-stream contents (VAC) database for ad display. The at least one processor may be configured to execute the at least one set of instructions to receive an candidate article for display in a stream on a website; determine a sentiment of the candidate article towards a first subject matter associated with the article; classify the candidate article to a first type category based on the sentiment when the sentiment has a positive effect to a commercial success of a second subject matter; and generating a VAC database based on the first type category.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2013
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Supreeth RAO, Sundeep Narravula, Shivakumar Ningappa
  • Patent number: 9058666
    Abstract: Briefly, embodiments of methods and/or apparatuses for processing, at a variety of scale levels, labeled measurements in sub-regions to form a region characterized by a set of labeled measurements is described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Bart Thomee, Adam Rae