Abstract: The present invention provides methods and systems for allowing transactions in instruments relating to term-based concepts in a networked computer system. Concepts may be defined as a set of terms, such as words or phrases, that relate to a theme. The terms are useable in computerized searches. The set of terms may be determined manually, using a computer algorithm, or both. Concepts are valued, such as by a measure of advertising value. Instruments include concept futures as well as bets. Concept-based instruments can be used, for example, as hedging tools, speculating tools, market forecasting tools, or data generating tools.

Abstract: Micro-donations are received from users for various items of content published by different content providers. The micro-donations are aggregated into the user accounts and the content provider accounts until a transaction condition is satisfied. When the transaction condition is satisfied for the user account, a process to collect the micro-donation amount contributed by a respective user to different content providers is effectuated. When the transaction condition is satisfied for a content provider account, the micro-donation amount received from different users and aggregated within the content provider account is provided to the respective content provider. Various user and content provider incentives are implemented to encourage participation by the users and the content providers.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for administering a bidding language for online advertising. In one example, the method includes providing an expressive bidding language that allows an advertiser to specify an ad campaign in a tree structure, receiving the ad campaign that is written in the expressive bidding language, translating the ad campaign into scripts, and using the scripts to access appropriate inventory from an ad inventory database.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of speculating on a future event or the value of an asset in a market. The speculating may take the form of trading, hedging or wagering. A plurality of speculations on the outcome of the future event is received. For each one of the speculations in the market, the status of the speculations at the time that the speculation was received in the market is recorded. After a time period for receiving speculations in the market has closed, the pari-mutuel payoff for each correct speculation is calculated using a computer. The pari-mutuel payoff depends at least in part on the status of speculations at the time that the speculation was received in the market.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for administering a bidding language for online advertising. In one example, the method includes providing an expressive bidding language that allows an advertiser to specify an ad campaign in a tree structure, receiving the ad campaign that is written in the expressive bidding language, translating the ad campaign into scripts, and using the scripts to access appropriate inventory from an ad inventory database.

Abstract: A system for providing a probability output and receiving an input includes a processor and a memory unit in communication with the processor. The memory has processor-executable instructions that configure the processor to provide a user interface having the probability output, wherein the probability output is in a graphical form and receives an input from the user via the user interface, wherein the user provides the input by marking portions of the graphical form of the probability output.

Abstract: A system is described for providing safe web based interactions. The system may include a memory, an interface, and a processor. The memory may store a request and a web page. The interface may be operative to communicate with a user and a third party server. The processor may be operatively connected to the memory and the interface and may receive a request from the user for a web page provided by the third party server. The processor may retrieve the web page and determine if malicious data is associated with the web page. If malicious data is determined to be associated with the web page the processor may disable the malicious data. The processor may modify the web page so that subsequent interactions with the web page are redirected to the processor, through the interface. The processor may provide the web page to the user, via the interface.

Abstract: The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for ranking and providing advertisements in a position auction. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a search query and selecting at least one keyword based upon the search query. A list containing at least one keyword based upon the search query is returned and a list comprising at least one bid corresponding to the returned list of keywords is retrieved. A priority score corresponding to each bid is computed and used to rank the list of bids. Advertisements are then provided corresponding to a plurality of the highest ranking bids.

Abstract: A new recommendation technique, referred to as “personality diagnosis”, that can be seen as a hybrid between memory-based and model-based collaborative filtering techniques is described. Using personality diagnosis, all data may be maintained throughout the process, new data can be added incrementally, and predictions have meaningful probabilistic semantics. Given an active entity's known attribute values, the probability that they have a same personality type as every other entity may be determined. Then, the probability that they will have a given value for a valueless attribute may be determined based on the entity's personality type. The probabilistic determination may be used to determine expected value of information that could be used to favorably order queries for attribute values, thereby mollifying what could otherwise be a tedious and frustrating process and/or to determine which entries of a database if removed would have a minimal effect of the accuracy of recommendations.

Abstract: An improved system and method for providing and using captchas for online advertising is provided. An advertisement may be received, embedded in a captcha and stored for use in online advertising. A question about the advertisement may also be stored along with a valid answer for use in verifying a user has received an impression of the advertisement. In response to a request received for sending a captcha with an embedded advertisement to a web browser operating on a client, a captcha with an embedded advertisement may be selected and sent to the web browser for display as part of a web page. Upon verifying the response to the question from the user is a valid answer, receipt of an impression of the advertisement may be recorded. Additionally, the awareness of an online advertisement may be measured for a target audience and reported to advertisers.

Abstract: An improved system and method for providing and using captchas for online advertising is provided. An advertisement may be received, embedded in a captcha and stored for use in online advertising. A question about the advertisement may also be stored along with a valid answer for use in verifying a user has received an impression of the advertisement. In response to a request received for sending a captcha with an embedded advertisement to a web browser operating on a client, a captcha with an embedded advertisement may be selected and sent to the web browser for display as part of a web page. Upon verifying the response to the question from the user is a valid answer, receipt of an impression of the advertisement may be recorded. Additionally, the awareness of an online advertisement may be measured for a target audience and reported to advertisers.

Abstract: A method automatically determines groups of words or phrases that are descriptive names of a small set of documents, as well as infers concepts in the small set of documents that are more general and more specific than the descriptive names, without any prior knowledge of the hierarchy or the concepts, in a language independent manner. The descriptive names and the concepts may not even be explicitly contained in the documents. The primary application of the invention is for searching of the World Wide Web, but the invention is not limited solely to use with the World Wide Web and may be applied to any set of documents. Classes of features are identified in order to promote understanding of a set of documents. Preferably, there are three classes of features. “Self” features or terms describe the cluster as a whole. “Parent” features or terms describe more general concepts. “Child” features or terms describe specializations of the cluster.

Abstract: A new recommendation technique, referred to as “personality diagnosis”, that can be seen as a hybrid between memory-based and model-based collaborative filtering techniques, is described. Using personality diagnosis, all data may be maintained throughout the processes, new data can be added incrementally, and predictions have meaningful probabilistic semantics. Each entity's (e.g., user's) reported attributes (e.g., item ratings or preferences) may be interpreted as a manifestation of their underlying personality type. Personality type may be encoded simply as a vector of the entity's (e.g., user's) “true” values (e.g., ratings) for attributes (e.g., items) in the database. It may be assumed that entities (e.g., users) report values (e.g., ratings) with a distributed (e.g., Gaussian) error. Given an active entity's (e.g., user's) known attribute values (e.g., item ratings), the probability that they have the same personality type as every other entity (e.g., user) may be determined.

Abstract: A new recommendation technique, referred to as “personality diagnosis”, can be seen as a hybrid between memory-based and model-based collaborative filtering techniques. Using personality diagnosis, all data can be maintained throughout the processes, new data can be added incrementally, and predictions have meaningful probabilistic semantics. Each entity's reported attributes can be interpreted as a manifestation of their underlying personality type. Personality type can be encoded simply as a vector of the entity's “true” values for attributes in the database. Given an active entity's known attribute values, the probability that they have the same personality type as every other entity can be determined. Then, the probability that they will have a given value for a valueless attribute can then be determined based on the entity's personality type. The probabilistic determinations can be used to determine expected value of information.

Abstract: A method automatically determines groups of words or phrases that are descriptive names of a small set of documents, as well as infers concepts in the small set of documents that are more general and more specific than the descriptive names, without any prior knowledge of the hierarchy or the concepts, in a language independent manner. The descriptive names and the concepts may not even be explicitly contained in the documents. The primary application of the invention is for searching of the World Wide Web, but the invention is not limited solely to use with the World Wide Web and may be applied to any set of documents. Classes of features are identified in order to promote understanding of a set of documents. Preferably, there are three classes of features. “Self” features or terms describe the cluster as a whole. “Parent” features or terms describe more general concepts. “Child” features or terms describe specializations of the cluster.