Patents by Inventor Hongyuan Zha

Hongyuan Zha 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: 9047370
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for associating documents with classification values and ranking documents based on classification weights is provided. It is determined if a document is associated a classification. If the document is associated with a classification, then it is determined if a classification value, which is associated with the document, is associated with a weight. If the classification value is associated with a weight, then a rank of the document is adjusted based on the weight that is associated with the classification value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Hongyuan Zha, Sean Suchter
  • Patent number: 8589371
    Abstract: The system and method of the present invention allows for the determination of the relevance of a content item to a query through the use of a machine learned relevance function that incorporate query differentiation. A method for selecting a relevance function to determine a relevance of a query-content item pair comprises generating a training set comprising one or more content item-query pairs. Content item-query pairs in the training set are collectively used to determine the relevance function by minimizing a loss function according to a relevance score adjustment function that accounts for query differentiation. The monotocity of relevance score adjustment function allows the trained relevance function to be directly applied to new queries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Gordon Sun, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha
  • Patent number: 8509266
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for using network traffic logs for search enhancement is disclosed. According to one embodiment, network usage is tracked by generating log files. These log files among other things indicate the frequency web pages are referenced and modified. These log files or information from these log files can then be used to improve document ranking, improve web crawling, determine tiers in a multi-tiered index, determine where to insert a document in a multi-tiered index, determine link weights, and update a search engine index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Arkady Borkovsky, Douglas M. Cook, Jean-Marc Langlois, Tomi Poutanen, Hongyuan Zha
  • Publication number: 20120271842
    Abstract: The system and method of the present invention allows for the determination of the relevance of a content item to a query through the use of a machine learned relevance function that incorporate query differentiation. A method for selecting a relevance function to determine a relevance of a query-content item pair comprises generating a training set comprising one or more content item-query pairs. Content item-query pairs in the training set are collectively used to determine the relevance function by minimizing a loss function according to a relevance score adjustment function that accounts for query differentiation. The monotocity of relevance score adjustment function allows the trained relevance function to be directly applied to new queries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2012
    Publication date: October 25, 2012
    Inventors: Gordon Sun, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha
  • Publication number: 20120254144
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for using network traffic logs for search enhancement is disclosed. According to one embodiment, network usage is tracked by generating log files. These log files among other things indicate the frequency web pages are referenced and modified. These log files or information from these log files can then be used to improve document ranking, improve web crawling, determine tiers in a multi-tiered index, determine where to insert a document in a multi-tiered index, determine link weights, and update a search engine index.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Inventors: Arkady Borkovsky, Douglas M. Cook, Jean-Marc Langlois, Tomi Poutanen, Hongyuan Zha
  • Patent number: 8250061
    Abstract: The system and method of the present invention allows for the determination of the relevance of a content item to a query through the use of a machine learned relevance function that incorporate query differentiation. A method for selecting a relevance function to determine a relevance of a query-content item pair comprises generating a training set comprising one or more content item-query pairs. Content item-query pairs in the training set are collectively used to determine the relevance function by minimizing a loss function according to a relevance score adjustment function that accounts for query differentiation. The monotocity of relevance score adjustment function allows the trained relevance function to be directly applied to new queries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Gordon Sun, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha
  • Patent number: 8203952
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for using network traffic logs for search enhancement is disclosed. According to one embodiment, network usage is tracked by generating log files. These log files among other things indicate the frequency web pages are referenced and modified. These log files or information from these log files can then be used to improve document ranking, improve web crawling, determine tiers in a multi-tiered index, determine where to insert a document in a multi-tiered index, determine link weights, and update a search engine index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Arkady Borkovsky, Douglas M. Cook, Jean-Marc Langlois, Tomi Poutanen, Hongyuan Zha
  • Publication number: 20120011112
    Abstract: Example methods, apparatuses, and articles of manufacture are disclosed that may be used to provide or otherwise support one or more ranking specialization techniques for use with search engine information management systems.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2010
    Publication date: January 12, 2012
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Jiang Bian, Xin Li, Fan Li, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha
  • Patent number: 8051072
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide for methods, systems and computer program products for learning ranking functions to determine the ranking of one or more content items that are responsive to a query. The present invention includes generating one or more training sets comprising one or more content item-query pairs, determining preference data for the one or more query-content item pairs of the one or more training sets and determining labeled data for the one or more query-content item pairs of the one or more training sets. A ranking function is determined based upon the preference data and the labeled data for the one or more content-item query pairs of the one or more training sets. The ranking function is then stored for application to query-content item pairs not contained in the one or more training sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Gordon Sun
  • Patent number: 7996397
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for using network traffic logs for search enhancement is disclosed. According to one embodiment, network usage is tracked by generating log files. These log files among other things indicate the frequency web pages are referenced and modified. These log files or information from these log files can then be used to improve document ranking, improve web crawling, determine tiers in a multi-tiered index, determine where to insert a document in a multi-tiered index, determine link weights, and update a search engine index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Arkady Borkovsky, Douglas M. Cook, Jean-Marc Langlois, Tomi Poutanen, Hongyuan Zha
  • Publication number: 20110029517
    Abstract: To estimate, or predict, the relevance of items, or documents, in a set of search results, relevance information is extracted from user click data, and relational information among the documents as manifested by an aggregation of user clicks is determined from the click data. A supervised approach uses judgment information, such as human judgment information, as part of the training data used to generate a relevance predictor model, which minimizes the inherent noisiness of the click data collected from a commercial search engine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventors: Shihao Ji, Anlei Dong, Ciya Liao, Yi Chang, Zhaohui Zheng, Olivier Chapelle, Gordon Guo-Zheng Sun, Hongyuan Zha
  • Patent number: 7849076
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide for methods, systems and computer program products for learning ranking functions to determine the ranking of one or more content items that are responsive to a query. The present invention includes generating one or more training sets comprising one or more content item-query pairs and determining one or more contradicting pairs in a given training sets. An optimization function to minimize the number of contradicting pairs in the training set is formulated, and modified by incorporating a grade difference between one or more content items corresponding to the query in the training set and applied to each query in the training set. A ranking function is determined based on the application of regression trees on the queries of the training set minimized by the optimization function and stored for application to content item-query pairs not contained in the one or more training sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Gordon Sun
  • Publication number: 20100082609
    Abstract: A method and system for blending ranking for an output display includes receiving a first list of content items having a first ranking determined by first ranking parameters, the first ranking providing for a sequential ordering of the content items of the first list. A second list of content items having a second ranking determined by second ranking parameters are received, the first ranking is incompatible with the second ranking because ranking parameters are different. The first list of content items is transformed to a modified first list that maintains the order of the content items and makes the first ranking of the modified first list compatible with the second ranking of the second list. The second list and the modified first list are merged to generate a blended list for an output display utilizing the blended list.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2008
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: YAHOO! Inc.
    Inventors: Gordon Sun, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha
  • Patent number: 7685078
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for determining a content item relevance function. The method comprises collecting user preference data at a search provider for storage in a user preference data store and collecting expert-judgment data at the search provider for storage in an expert sample data store. A modeling module trains a base model through the use of the expert-judgment data and tunes the base model through the use of the user preference data to learn a set of one or more tuned models. A measure (B measure) is designed to evaluate the balanced performance of tuned model over expert judgment and user preference. The modeling module generates or selects the content item relevance function from the tuned models with B measure as the selection criterion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Keke Chen, Ya Zhang, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Gordon Sun
  • Publication number: 20100011025
    Abstract: Exemplary methods and apparatuses are provided which may be used to establish a ranking function or the like, which may be used by a search engine or other like tool to search a related-task search domain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2008
    Publication date: January 14, 2010
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Zhaohui Zheng, Gordon Guo-Zheng Sun, Hongyuan Zha
  • Publication number: 20090248668
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide for methods, systems and computer program products for learning ranking functions to determine the ranking of one or more content items that are responsive to a query. The present invention includes generating one or more training sets comprising one or more content item-query pairs and determining one or more contradicting pairs in a given training sets. An optimization function to minimize the number of contradicting pairs in the training set is formulated. and modified by incorporating a grade difference between one or more content items corresponding to the query in the training set and applied to each query in the training set. A ranking function is determined based on the application of regression trees on the queries of the training set minimized by the optimization function and stored for application to content item-query pairs not contained in the one or more training sets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Inventors: Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Gordon Sun
  • Publication number: 20090187566
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for associating documents with classification values and ranking documents based on classification weights is provided. It is determined if a document is associated a classification. If the document is associated with a classification, then it is determined if a classification value, which is associated with the document, is associated with a weight. If the classification value is associated with a weight, then a rank of the document is adjusted based on the weight that is associated with the classification value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2009
    Publication date: July 23, 2009
    Inventors: Hongyuan Zha, Sean Suchter
  • Patent number: 7533119
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for associating documents with classification values and ranking documents based on classification weights is provided. It is determined if a document is associated a classification. If the document is associated with a classification, then it is determined if a classification value, which is associated with the document, is associated with a weight. If the classification value is associated with a weight, then a rank of the document is adjusted based on the weight that is associated with the classification value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2009
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Hongyuan Zha, Sean Suchter
  • Publication number: 20080301069
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for determining a content item relevance function. The method comprises collecting user preference data at a search provider for storage in a user preference data store and collecting expert-judgment data at the search provider for storage in an expert sample data store. A modeling module trains a base model through the use of the expert-judgment data and tunes the base model through the use of the user preference data to learn a set of one or more tuned models. A measure (B measure) is designed to evaluate the balanced performance of tuned model over expert judgment and user preference. The modeling module generates or selects the content item relevance function from the tuned models with B measure as the selection criterion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2007
    Publication date: December 4, 2008
    Inventors: Keke Chen, Ya Zhang, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Gordon Sun
  • Publication number: 20080270484
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for using network traffic logs for search enhancement is disclosed. According to one embodiment, network usage is tracked by generating log files. These log files among other things indicate the frequency web pages are referenced and modified. These log files or information from these log files can then be used to improve document ranking, improve web crawling, determine tiers in a multi-tiered index, determine where to insert a document in a multi-tiered index, determine link weights, and update a search engine index.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2008
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Inventors: Arkady Borkovsky, Douglas M. Cook, Jean-Marc Langlois, Tomi Poutanen, Hongyuan Zha