Patents by Inventor Andrew Tomkins

Andrew Tomkins has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9552560
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to identifying an event task of a user, identifying one or more other attendees of the event, determining user arrival information for the user, and determining a notification to provide to at least one of the other attendees based on the user arrival information. The event task includes a starting time for an event and an event location, and the user arrival information is based on location information of the user and information associated with the event task. In some implementations, the user and/or the at least one of the other attendees may provide authorization for a notification to determined and/or sent. The notification may include information regarding the likelihood of the user arriving at the event before and/or after the starting time of the event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9548951
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to providing additional information related to a vague term in a message. For example, in some implementations, one or more messages sent by a sender and received by one or more recipients may be identified, a vague term in the message may be identified, a user-restricted database may be identified that is associated with the sender or a recipient, and additional information related to the vague term may be determined from the user-restricted database. A vague term is a term which may have multiple meanings and that can be clarified with additional information. In some implementations, user-restricted databases may include additional information that is associated with the user that may be utilized to replace the vague term with a clarified term. In some implementations, a user-restricted database may be utilized to identify additional information in another database that may be utilized to clarify the vague term.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9507836
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating an event attribute with a user based on a group of electronic messages associated with the user. An event may be associated with the group of electronic messages. One or more event attributes of the event may be determined, including an event location identifier that identifies a physical event location. One or more of the event attributes may be determined based on the group of electronic messages. Location data of the user may be identified and a likelihood that the user interacted with the physical event location may be determined based on comparing the location data of the user to the event location identifier. The likelihood that the user interacted with the physical event location and at least one of the event attributes determined based on the group of electronic messages may be associated with the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9495452
    Abstract: Techniques are described for generating an authority value of a first one of a plurality of documents. A first component of the authority value is generated with reference to outbound links associated with the first document. The outbound links enable access to a first subset of the plurality of documents. A second component of the authority value is generated with reference to a second subset of the plurality of documents. Each of the second subset of documents represents a potential starting point for a user session. A third component of the authority value is generated representing a likelihood that a user session initiated by any of a population of users will end with the first document. The first, second, and third components of the authority value are combined to generate the authority value. At least one of the first, second, and third components of the authority value is computed with reference to user data relating to at least some of the outbound links and the second subset of documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Pavel Berkhin, Usama M. Fayyad, Prabhakar Raghavan, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 9483565
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating a task with a user based on the user selecting a task suggestion that is provided to the user in response to a user query. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on similarities between the words and/or phrases of the user query and a task suggestion that is associated with a task. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on user data associated with the user. In some implementations, the task may be associated with additional information related to completing the task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Tristan Harris, Can Sar, Angelo DiNardi
  • Patent number: 9471572
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described herein for recommending candidates for consumption. A first set of one or more candidates for first time consumption by a user and associated utility scores may be identified. A second set of one or more candidates for reconsumption by the user may be determined. Utility scores of the second set of one or more candidates for reconsumption may be determined based on consumption history of the user and aggregate consumption history of a population of users of which the user is associated. A candidate to be recommended to the user for consumption may be selected from the first or second set. The candidate may be selected based at least in part on the utility scores of the first and second sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Sergei Vassilvitskii, Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Ashton Anderson
  • Patent number: 9424247
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining an association between a message trail and a task entry of a user and associating an n-gram with the task entry, wherein the n-gram is based on one or more messages of the message trail. A similarity score between the n-gram and one or more aspects of the associated task entry may be determined. The similarity score may be utilized, for example, to determine when to associate the n-gram with the task entry and/or how to utilize the associated n-gram with the task entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9378196
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to identifying a category for a task that is associated with a user and populating annotation fields related to the task based on the category of the task. The task and populated annotation fields may be provided for use by one or more application to provide a task completion step to the user. In some implementations, the category may be identified based on input from the user, documents of the user, and/or data that are associated with the user. In some implementations, a completion step for the task may be suggested to the user by an application that accesses the task and populated annotated information. In some implementations, multiple applications may suggest different completion steps to the user for the same task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Tristan Harris, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Bo Pang, Sujith Ravi, Can Sar, Angelo DiNardi
  • Publication number: 20160162827
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to providing one or more completion step suggestions for a task that is associated with a user. In some implementations, the completion step suggestions may be provided to the user based on the satisfaction of a trigger condition. In some implementations, a trigger condition may be based on a user geographic location. In some implementations, a trigger condition may be based on an action of the user. In some implementations, a trigger condition may be based on a time when the associated task may be completed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2016
    Publication date: June 9, 2016
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Tristan Harris, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Bo Pang, Sujith Ravi, Can Sar, Angelo DiNardi
  • Patent number: 9342597
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating an event attribute with a user based on a group of electronic messages associated with the user. An event may be associated with the group of electronic messages. One or more event attributes of the event may be determined, including an event location identifier that identifies a physical event location. One or more of the event attributes may be determined based on the group of electronic messages. Location data of the user may be identified and a likelihood that the user interacted with the physical event location may be determined based on comparing the location data of the user to the event location identifier. The likelihood that the user interacted with the physical event location and at least one of the event attributes determined based on the group of electronic messages may be associated with the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9304974
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining an effect on dissemination of information related to an event based on a dynamic confidence level associated with the event. For example, an event and an event confidence level of the event may be determined based on a message of a user. An effect on dissemination of information related to the event may be determined based on the confidence level. A new confidence level may be determined based on additional data associated with the event and the effect on dissemination of information may be adjusted based on the new confidence level. In some implementations, the additional data may be based on a new message that is related to the message, such as a reply to the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9282425
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to providing one or more completion step suggestions for a task that is associated with a user. In some implementations, the completion step suggestions may be provided to the user based on the satisfaction of a trigger condition. In some implementations, a trigger condition may be based on a user geographic location. In some implementations, a trigger condition may be based on an action of the user. In some implementations, a trigger condition may be based on a time when the associated task may be completed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: GOOGLE INC.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Tristan Harris, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Bo Pang, Sujith Ravi, Can Sar, Angelo DiNardi
  • Patent number: 9251168
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining a characteristic of a location based on visit data associated with the location. Visit data indicative of travel of users to a first location from one or more other locations and/or of travel of users from the first location to one or more other locations may be utilized to determine information about the location. In some implementations visit data may be utilized to determine a connectedness measure and associate the second location with the first location based on the connectedness measure. A characteristic of the first location may optionally be determined based on a characteristic of the second location and/or an attribute associated with the visit data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Sergei Vassilvitskii, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Mohammad Mahdian, Bo Pang, Prabhakar Raghavan
  • Publication number: 20150370884
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for list accumulation and reminder triggering. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at a data processing apparatus, a first input comprising a plurality of terms; determining, by the data processing apparatus, that one or more of the terms in the first input specify an item that belongs to a reminder category, the reminder category being associated with a collection of items that belong to the category and for which reminders may be generated; and in response to the determination, storing data that associates a reminder type with the item specified by the one or more terms.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2014
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Inventors: Fergus Gerard Hurley, Robin Dua, Sangsoo Sung, Andrew Tomkins
  • Publication number: 20150371271
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, for detour based content selection. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at a data processing apparatus, location data for a plurality of users, the location data describing, for each user, locations of a user device of the user; determining, from the location data, route data for the plurality of users, the route data describing, for each user, a route traveled by the user; determining, by the data processing apparatus, for at least one or more of the users, a detour from the route traveled by the user to a retail location of the offeror; determining, by the data processing apparatus, for each of the at least one or more of the users, whether the user is eligible for an offer of the offeror based on the detour; and for each user eligible for an offer, enabling the offeror to provide an offer to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2014
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Inventors: Fergus Gerard Hurley, Michael Schwarz, Robin Dua, Sangsoo Sung, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 9195734
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating a task completion step with a task template based on one or more task completion steps of tasks that conform to the task template. A task template may include one or more terms, entities, and/or category of entities. A Task conforms to the task template when the task includes the one or more terms, entities, and/or an identifier of an entity that is a member of the entity category. In some implementations, a task that is associated with a task completion step is identified as conforming to the task template and the task completion step of the conforming task is associated with the task template. In some implementations, the task template may be utilized to associate a task completion step with a task that conforms to the task template.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: GOOGLE INC.
    Inventors: Erwin Can Sar, Timothy Youngjin Sohn, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 9183039
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating a task completion step with one or more tasks. A task group is determined based on similarity between the tasks of the task group, a task completion step of one of the tasks of the task group is identified, and one or more of the other tasks of the task group are associated with the task completion step. In some implementations, the task group is determined based on similarity between entities that are associated with the tasks of the task group. In some implementations, the task group is determined based on textual representations that are associated with the tasks of the task group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: GOOGLE INC.
    Inventors: Erwin Can Sar, Timothy Youngjin Sohn, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 9165305
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a model based on the user's interests and activities by receiving with a logging unit user activities from heterogeneous data sources, generating a log of user activities for a content item by joining the user activities for the content item, expanding attributes of the log by at least one of content and by the user to form an expanded log and generating a user model based on the expanded log. A feature extractor extracts features from content items and assigns weights to the features. A scoring engine receives the model and the content items with their associated weighted features and scores the content items based on the user model. The scoring engine generates a stream of content based on the scored content items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Tushar Chandra, Tal Shaked, Tomas Lloret Llinares, Jim McFadden, Andrew Tomkins, Saurabh Mathur, Danny Wyatt
  • Patent number: 9158775
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a real-time stream of content from heterogeneous data sources and a real-time index. The heterogeneous data sources include search, entertainment, social activity and activity on third-party sites. A fetching unit retrieves recent content that is indexed in the real-time index according to keywords. A model generation engine generates a model based on user activities. The mixer compares candidate content items from the heterogeneous data sources and the real-time index to the model to generate scores for each item and generates a stream of content based on the scores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Dandapani Sivakumar, Sangsoo Sung, Justin Kosslyn, Todd Jackson, Andre Rohe, Ya Luo, Andrew Bunner, Sasha Sobol, Luca de Alfaro
  • Publication number: 20150188851
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to identifying one or more messages sent by a user, identifying two or more contacts that are associated with one or more of the messages, determining a strength of relationship score between identified contacts, and utilizing the strength of relationship scores to provide additional information related to the contacts. A strength of relationship score between a contact and one or more other contacts may be determined based on one or more properties of one or more of the messages. In some implementations, contacts groups may be determined based on the strength of relationship scores. In some implementations, contacts groups may be utilized to disambiguate references to contacts in messages. In some implementations, contacts group may be utilized to provide suggestions to the user of additional contacts of a contacts group that includes the indicated recipient contact of a message.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicant: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li