Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a customized content item. A method includes: receiving a content request; identifying one or more user device attributes and/or a context of the request; identifying a content item having distribution parameters matching the context and/or user device attributes and including one or more variables that are resolved based on the context or the one or more user device attributes; selecting, as modifying data, a subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the content item will be resolved, including: identifying the feed data, evaluating the feed data to locate the subset; and selecting the modifying data; and modifying the content item, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data; and providing the modified content item in response to the request.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a customized content item. A method includes: receiving a content request; identifying one or more user device attributes and/or a context of the request; identifying a content item having distribution parameters matching the context and/or user device attributes and including one or more variables that are resolved based on the context or the one or more user device attributes; selecting, as modifying data, a subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the content item will be resolved, including: identifying the feed data, evaluating the feed data to locate the subset; and selecting the modifying data; and modifying the content item, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data; and providing the modified content item in response to the request.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a customized content item. A method includes: receiving a content request; identifying one or more user device attributes and/or a context of the request; identifying a content item having distribution parameters matching the context and/or user device attributes and including one or more variables that are resolved based on the context or the one or more user device attributes; selecting, as modifying data, a subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the content item will be resolved, including: identifying the feed data, evaluating the feed data to locate the subset; and selecting the modifying data; and modifying the content item, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data; and providing the modified content item in response to the request.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a customized content item. A method includes: receiving a content request; identifying one or more user device attributes and/or a context of the request; identifying a content item having distribution parameters matching the context and/or user device attributes and including one or more variables that are resolved based on the context or the one or more user device attributes; selecting, as modifying data, a subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the content item will be resolved, including: identifying the feed data, evaluating the feed data to locate the subset; and selecting the modifying data; and modifying the content item, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data; and providing the modified content item in response to the request.

Abstract: A method, system, and graphical user interface for alerting a computer user to new results for a prior search are disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of links recommended by a search engine for a computer user. The plurality of links are determined by the search engine by: producing search results by rerunning a plurality of search queries that have been performed previously for the computer user; and evaluating the produced search results to select search results that meet predefined search result selection criteria. At least one of the criteria is based on Internet usage data for the user.

Abstract: A method, system, and graphical user interface for alerting a computer user to new results for a prior search are disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of links recommended by a search engine for a computer user. The plurality of links are determined by the search engine by: producing search results by rerunning a plurality of search queries that have been performed previously for the computer user; and evaluating the produced search results to select search results that meet predefined search result selection criteria. At least one of the criteria is based on Internet usage data for the user.

Abstract: A method, system, and graphical user interface for alerting a computer user to new results for a prior search are disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of links recommended by a search engine for a computer user. The plurality of links are determined by the search engine by: producing search results by rerunning a plurality of search queries that have been performed previously for the computer user, and evaluating the produced search results to select search results that meet predefined search result selection criteria. At least one of the criteria is based on Internet usage data for the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a customized content item. A method includes: receiving a content request; identifying one or more user device attributes and/or a context of the request; identifying a content item having distribution parameters matching the context and/or user device attributes and including one or more variables that are resolved based on the context or the one or more user device attributes; selecting, as modifying data, a subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the content item will be resolved, including: identifying the feed data, evaluating the feed data to locate the subset; and selecting the modifying data; and modifying the content item, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data; and providing the modified content item in response to the request.

Abstract: This specification describes technologies relating to generation of keywords. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include receiving structured data describing a content item, the structured data indicating a category for the content item. The methods may further include searching domains associated with the category using a first query, formed based on data elements in the structured data, to identify resources associated with the identified domains. The methods may further include determining one or more queries based on data reflecting past search queries, where each of the one or more determined queries resulted in one or more of the identified resources being returned as part of a search result, and determining keywords based on the one or more determined queries. The methods may further include transmitting or storing the keywords for use in impression allocation decisions.

Abstract: A method, system, and graphical user interface for alerting a computer user to new results for a prior search are disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of links recommended by a search engine for a computer user. The plurality of links are determined by the search engine by: producing search results by rerunning a plurality of search queries that have been performed previously for the computer user, and evaluating the produced search results to select search results that meet predefined search result selection criteria. At least one of the criteria is based on Internet usage data for the user.

Abstract: Systems, methods and program products for classifying text. A system classifies text into first subject matter categories. The system identifies one or more second subject matter categories in a collection of second subject matter categories, each of the second categories is a hierarchical classification of a collection of confirmed valid search results for queries, in which at least one query for each identified second category includes a term in the text. The system filters the identified categories by excluding identified categories whose ancestors are not among the first categories. The system selects categories from the filtered categories based on one or more thresholds in which a threshold specifies a degree of relatedness between a selected category and the text. The selected categories are a sufficient basis for recommending content to a user, the content being associated with one or more of the selected categories.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for creating advertisements are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes receiving an advertisement request that includes user context data. An advertisement having distribution parameters matching the user context data is identified. The identified advertisement can include one or more variables that are resolved based on the user context data. A proper subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the advertisement will be resolved can be selected based on the user context data and performance measures for portions of the feed data that have been previously used to resolve the one or more variables. The advertisement is modified, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data. The modified advertisement is provided in response to the advertisement request.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for creating advertisements are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes receiving an advertisement request that includes user context data. An advertisement having distribution parameters matching the user context data is identified. The identified advertisement can include one or more variables that are resolved based on the user context data. A proper subset of feed data to which the one or more variables for the advertisement will be resolved can be selected based on the user context data and performance measures for portions of the feed data that have been previously used to resolve the one or more variables. The advertisement is modified, at least in part, by including, in place of the one or more variables, the selected modifying data. The modified advertisement is provided in response to the advertisement request.

Abstract: This specification describes technologies relating to generation of keywords. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include receiving structured data describing a content item, the structured data indicating a category for the content item. The methods may further include searching domains associated with the category using a first query, formed based on data elements in the structured data, to identify resources associated with the identified domains. The methods may further include determining one or more queries based on data reflecting past search queries, where each of the one or more determined queries resulted in one or more of the identified resources being returned as part of a search result, and determining keywords based on the one or more determined queries. The methods may further include transmitting or storing the keywords for use in impression allocation decisions.

Abstract: A method, system, and graphical user interface for alerting a computer user to new results for a prior search are disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of links recommended by a search engine for a computer user. The plurality of links are determined by the search engine by: producing search results by rerunning a plurality of search queries that have been performed previously for the computer user; and evaluating the produced search results to select search results that meet predefined search result selection criteria. At least one of the criteria is based on Internet usage data for the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for ranking resources within clusters of resources, and for ranking the clusters. In one aspect, a method includes accessing clusters; receiving, for a resource in the cluster, a search score for the resource, the search score being indicative of a relevance of the resource to a search query that includes the name context of the cluster; receiving, for the resource in the cluster, a resource ranking score for the resource in the cluster, the resource ranking score indicative of a ranking of the resource in the cluster relative to other resources in the cluster; generating a cluster rank score for the cluster, the cluster rank score at least partly based on the search scores for the resources and the resource ranking scores for the resources; and ranking the clusters according to their cluster rank score.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for ranking resources within clusters of resources, and for ranking the clusters. In one aspect, a method includes accessing a cluster of a plurality of resources associated with a name context; generating a quality score for a resource; generating a resource ranking score for the resource, with the resource ranking score at least partly based on the quality score and the cluster relation score; and ranking the resources in the cluster at least partly based on the resource ranking score.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for ranking resources. One or more signals reporting one or more actions by the plurality of users related to a respective resource are received, where a reported action is a presentation of the respective resource, an addition of the respective resource, or a deletion of the respective resource. The reported actions include one or more short deletions of the respective resource. A respective long-addition click-through rate (LACTR) is determined for the respective resource based on a number of reported presentations of the respective resource and a difference between a number of reported additions of the respective resource and a number of short deletions of the respective resource. The plurality of resources are ranked based on the respective LACTRs for the plurality of resources. The ranking of the plurality of resources are provided.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for ranking resources. One or more signals reporting one or more actions by the plurality of users related to a respective resource are received, where a reported action is a presentation of the respective resource, an addition of the respective resource, or a deletion of the respective resource. The reported actions include one or more short deletions of the respective resource. A respective long-addition click-through rate (LACTR) is determined for the respective resource based on a number of reported presentations of the respective resource and a difference between a number of reported additions of the respective resource and a number of short deletions of the respective resource. The plurality of resources are ranked based on the respective LACTRs for the plurality of resources. The ranking of the plurality of resources are provided.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for exchanging information in accordance with a protocol. In one aspect, signals reporting user actions related to resources and ranking data ranking the resources based on the signals are exchanged in accordance with a protocol. The protocol defines types of user actions that can be reported by the signals, a format for specifying values for one or more of a set of predefined parameters for qualifying the user actions, a format for specifying one or more subscriber-specific parameters relating to the resources or the user actions, and a format for identifying resources to which the user actions are related using a namespace defined by the subscriber.