Abstract: The subject disclosure pertains to an architecture that maximizes revenue of a website. In particular, the hyperlink structure between the web pages of a website can be designed to maximize the revenue generated from traffic on the website. That is, the set of hyperlinks placed on web pages is optimized by selecting hyperlinks that are most likely to generate the optimal revenue. Hyperlinks can be placed on web pages according to various criteria or variable values in order to create an optimized web page that generates the maximum revenue for the website.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising and/or referral architecture in the Internet advertising space, e.g., for advertising on search engine web pages and/or on content web pages. A mechanism is provided for ad targeting and pricing based upon customer behavior. Accordingly, the ad(s) displayed to customers can be based upon the customer's transaction history. The transaction history can be determined based upon a distribution of points the customer receives upon completing a transaction with a merchant as well as search terms or keywords within a query or a document. The transaction history can be private and can be modified and/or purged by the customer to ensure the proper types of ads are displayed.

Abstract: The subject disclosure pertains to systems and methods that optimize advertisement campaigns. In particular, total utility that can be derived by an advertiser given particular keywords is maximized. The price of each keyword/slot pair can be determined or estimated and bids adjusted automatically to maximize advertiser utility or return on investment for a campaign.

Abstract: Systems and methods for generating models of directed scale-free object relationships are described. In one aspect, a sequence of random numbers is generated. Individual ones of these random numbers are then selected over time to generate the directed scale-free object relationships as a graph based on sequences of in-degrees and out-degrees.

Abstract: The user interfaces, methods and systems described herein facilitate user interaction with an ad space by conveying additional advertising content via a preview pane and facilitate automatically generating the content of the preview pane. By way of example, an electronic advertisement is conveyed to a user in an ad space provided by a third party, and a secondary advertisement generating component automatically generates at least part of the content of a secondary advertisement. The secondary advertisement provides content associated with the electronic advertisement and occurs upon receiving a user indication. A context acquiring component also may provide context information to the secondary advertisement generating component to automatically generate at least part of the content of the secondary advertisement. By way of another example, a user is provided with one or more ads from a plurality of different advertisers in a first ad space maintained by an ad space supplier.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system that facilitates establishing price(s) associated with items comprises a clustering component that clusters a collection of non-identical items into one or more sets of non-identical items. A pricing component receives one or more of active bids and stored bids and simulates an auction of at least one non-identical item within one of the one or more sets of non-identical items as if the non-identical items within the set were identical to determine price(s) associated with the at least one non-identical item. For example, the items can be at least portions of search terms received by a search engine.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system that facilitates sale of advertising space on a plurality of web pages by way of a posted-price market comprises an interface component that receives pricing information relating to a plurality of spaces on the plurality of search pages. A posting component communicatively coupled to the interface component posts the pricing information so that the pricing information is accessible to a prospective buyer. For example, the pricing information can be based at least in part on one or more of size of a space on a search page, location of a space on a search page, duration that a space will be utilized for advertising, and demand associated with a space on a search page. In accordance with another aspect of the subject invention, the pricing information can relate to a percentage of page views that will display advertisements relating to a purchaser on at least one of the plurality of spaces.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system that facilitates sale of advertising space on a plurality of web pages by way of a posted-price market comprises an interface component that receives pricing information relating to a plurality of spaces on the plurality of search pages. A posting component communicatively coupled to the interface component posts the pricing information so that the pricing information is accessible to a prospective buyer. For example, the pricing information can be based at least in part on one or more of size of a space on a search page, location of a space on a search page, duration that a space will be utilized for advertising, and demand associated with a space on a search page. In accordance with another aspect of the subject invention, the pricing information can relate to a percentage of page views that will display advertisements relating to a purchaser on at least one of the plurality of spaces.

Abstract: The subject invention leverages determined values of auction advertisement proposals to facilitate in determining advertisement interval allocations for the proposals. The advertisement “interval” can include, but is not limited to, physical dimensions or time. Instances of the subject invention further utilize allocation algorithms and auctioning mechanisms to provide for allocation of ads of varying intervals and to improve performance of ad auctions, including employing algorithms that automate the ad interval layout to maximize revenue. Other instances of the subject invention provide pricing for the allocated intervals as well.

Abstract: The subject invention employs an indication gateway to provide a “buffer” between user indications (e.g., “clicks”) responsive to an interactive enticement such as, for example, a clickable online advertisement, and an entity associated with the enticement such as, for example, an online business. The indication gateway allows for subsequent checks on whether an initial user indication is sincere. Instances of the subject invention can accomplish this via additional information gathering, subsequent indication requirements, fraudulent indication tests, and/or buffering of subsequent indications, links, & content and the like. Additionally, instances of the subject invention can differentiate between different types of user indications and provide pricing structures based upon the differentiated types. This facilitates in providing a charging process for user indications to entities associated with the interactive enticement.

Abstract: The subject invention relates to systems and methods that provide a truthful incentive-compatible mechanism for budget-constrained bidders in order to facilitate asymptotically maximizing revenue with multi-unit auctions in which individual bidders have private valuation per item (e.g., bids, offer prices, utility . . . ) and overall budgets. The systems and/or methods obtain bidder private bids and budget constraint, and separate this information into groups of bids and budgets. Each group is randomly reordered and utilized to determine a profit maximizing price as a function of the bids and budgets within that group. The groups of bids and budgets and the profit maximizing prices are utilized to allocate the auctioned items to respective bidders such that the allocation is based at least in part on the bids, budgets and prices. The systems and methods can be utilized to improve online auctioning.

Abstract: Methods and systems of testing software and modeling user actions are described. In some embodiments, multiple different algorithms are provided for operating on a software model. The software model describes behavior associated with software that is to be tested. Different sets of algorithms can be selected for operating on the software model to produce a sequence of test actions that are to be used to test the software. The algorithms can be mixed and matched to achieve a desired testing result. In some embodiments, the different algorithms comprise deterministic algorithms, random algorithms, and various types of algorithms therebetween. In one embodiment, the software model comprises a state graph having nodes that represent state, and links between the nodes that represent actions. The different algorithms that are available for selection can have different graph traversal characteristics such that the state graph can be traversed in different manners.

Abstract: Methods and systems of testing software and modeling user actions are described. In some embodiments, multiple different algorithms are provided for operating on a software model. The software model describes behavior associated with software that is to be tested. Different sets of algorithms can be selected for operating on the software model to produce a sequence of test actions that are to be used to test the software. The algorithms can be mixed and matched to achieve a desired testing result. In some embodiments, the different algorithms comprise deterministic algorithms, random algorithms, and various types of algorithms therebetween. In one embodiment, the software model comprises a state graph having nodes that represent state, and links between the nodes that represent actions. The different algorithms that are available for selection can have different graph traversal characteristics such that the state graph can be traversed in different manners.

Abstract: Systems and methods for generating models of directed scale-free object relationships are described. In one aspect, a sequence of random numbers is generated. Individual ones of these random numbers are then selected over time to generate the directed scale-free object relationships as a graph based on sequences of in-degrees and out-degrees.