Patents Examined by Saga Dagnew
  • Patent number: 8589228
    Abstract: A “General Click Model” (GCM) is constructed using a Bayesian network that is inherently capable of modeling “tail queries” by building the model on multiple attribute values that are shared across queries. More specifically, the GCM learns and predicts user click behavior towards URLs displayed on a query results page returned by a search engine. Unlike conventional click modeling approaches that learn models based on individual queries, the GCM learns click models from multiple attributes, with the influence of different attribute values being measured by Bayesian inference. This provides an advantage in learning that enables the GCM to achieve improved generalization and results, especially for tail queries, than conventional click models. In addition, most conventional click models consider only position and the identity of URLs when learning the model. In contrast, the GCM considers more session-specific attributes in making a final prediction for anticipated or expected user click behaviors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Weizhu Chen, Gang Wang, Zheng Chen, Zhikai Fan, Thomas Minka