Patents by Inventor Jianchang Mao
Jianchang Mao 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).
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Patent number: 8788492Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 2005Date of Patent: July 22, 2014Assignee: Yahoo!, Inc.Inventors: Qi Lu, Eckart Walther, David Ku, Chung-Man Tam, Kevin Lee, Zhichen Xu, Ali Diab, Kenneth Norton, Jianchang Mao
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Patent number: 8442978Abstract: The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for trust propagation. The method according to one embodiment comprises calculating a first feature vector for a first user, calculating a second feature for a second user and comparing the first feature vector with the second feature vector to calculate a similarity value. A determination is made as to whether the similarity value falls within a threshold. If the similarity value falls within the threshold, a relationship is recorded between the first user and the second user in a first user profile and a second user profile.Type: GrantFiled: August 2, 2006Date of Patent: May 14, 2013Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Pavel Berkhim, Zhichen Xu, Jianchang Mao, Daniel E. Rose, Abe Taha, Farzin Maghoul
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Publication number: 20130085845Abstract: Techniques are provided which improve deal and advertisement targeting of users, and which may include facilitating user comparison of deals. Methods and systems may detect if an email contains deal information related to one or more deals. If an email contains deal information, the deal information may be extracted. When the email is opened by the user, a link may be displayed on top of (e.g., overlaid on) the email. The link may be configured such that clicking on the link transmits a search query comprising the extracted deal information to a deal service. The deal service may retrieve one or more additional deals which may be similar or related to the one or more deals received in the email. The additional deals may be selected by the deal service based at least in part on the extracted deal information.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 4, 2011Publication date: April 4, 2013Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventor: Jianchang Mao
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Publication number: 20130085852Abstract: Techniques are provided which improve deal and advertisement targeting of users. Methods and systems may detect if an email contains deal information related to one or more deals. If an email contains deal information, the deal information may be extracted. If the user clicks on a link in the email, one or more additional deals which may be similar or related to the one or more deals received in the email may be selected based at least in part on the extracted deal information. The additional deals and/or advertisements related to the additional deals may be targeted to the user via email or via the user's browser application.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 4, 2011Publication date: April 4, 2013Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventor: Jianchang Mao
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Patent number: 8359295Abstract: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.Type: GrantFiled: October 27, 2011Date of Patent: January 22, 2013Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Patent number: 8311885Abstract: An advertisement impression distribution system includes a data processing system operable to generate an allocation plan for serving advertisement impressions. The allocation plan allocates a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy nonguaranteed demand. The data processing system includes an optimizer configured to establish a relationship between the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions. The relationship defines a range of proportions of allocation of the first portion and the second portion. The optimizer generates a solution maximizing guaranteed demand fairness, non-guaranteed demand revenue, and click value. The solution identifies a determined proportion of the first portion of advertisement impressions to serve and a determined proportion of the second portion of advertisement impressions to serve.Type: GrantFiled: October 30, 2009Date of Patent: November 13, 2012Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Oliver Kennedy, Tasos Anastasakos, Jianchang Mao, Erik Vee, Jayavel Shanmugasundaram, Sergei Vassilvitskii, Jian Yang, John Tomlin
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Publication number: 20120191541Abstract: An advertisement impression distribution system is programmed to generate an allocation plan for serving a number of advertisement impressions changeable as a result of one or more events, the allocation plan to allocate a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy non-guaranteed demand.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 24, 2011Publication date: July 26, 2012Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Jian Yang, Jianchang Mao
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Publication number: 20120084142Abstract: Techniques are provided for advertiser bid forecasting in online advertising, including display advertising. Methods are provided in which key targeting-related user segments are determined from bidding statistics. A feature set is extracted from an impression opportunity, based at least in part on the bidding statistics. A gradient boosting descent tree technique is utilized in determining an initial bid forecasting result. A linear regression-based model is used in post-tuning to arrive at a post-tuned result. For short-term forecasting, this may be the final result. For long-term forecasting, a hybrid approach may be utilized with further processing including utilization of a publisher-specific model.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 30, 2010Publication date: April 5, 2012Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Wei Li, Ying Grace Cui, Ruofei Zhang, Jianchang Mao
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Publication number: 20120041961Abstract: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 27, 2011Publication date: February 16, 2012Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Patent number: 8108374Abstract: Disclosed are apparatus and methods for facilitating the ranking of web objects. The method includes automatically adjusting a plurality of weight values for a plurality of parameters for inputting into a ranking engine that is adapted to rank a plurality of web objects based on such weight values and their corresponding parameters. The adjusted weight values are provided to the ranking engine so as to generate a ranked set of web objects based on such adjusted weight values and their corresponding parameters, as well as a particular query. A relevance metric (e.g., that quantifies or qualifies how relevant the generated ranked set of web objects are for the particular query) is determined. The method includes automatically repeating the operations of adjusting the weight values, providing the adjusted weight values to the ranking engine, and determining a relevance metric until the relevance metric reaches an optimized level, which corresponds to an optimized set of weight values.Type: GrantFiled: September 16, 2008Date of Patent: January 31, 2012Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Ruofei Zhang, Jianchang Mao
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Patent number: 8086605Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for ranking a result set. The method according to one embodiment comprises selecting an item from the result set, selecting a user profile from one or more user profiles and selecting one or more items of personalized information from the selected user profile. A rank is calculated for the item on the basis of the selected one or more items of personalized information and the selected item in the result set is ranked in accordance with the calculated rank.Type: GrantFiled: June 28, 2006Date of Patent: December 27, 2011Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Zhichen Xu, Pavel Berkhin, Daniel E. Rose, Jianchang Mao, David Ku, Qi Lu, Eckart Walther, Chung-Man Tam
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Patent number: 8055634Abstract: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.Type: GrantFiled: August 23, 2010Date of Patent: November 8, 2011Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Publication number: 20110196739Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for ranking and selecting advertisements based on relevancy, click feedback and click over expected click (COEC) data. Advertisements may be described as contextual, page-embedded advertisements appearing on publisher websites. The method and system includes storing page-advertisement relevancy features in a vector space model and historical impression and click features in a click feedback model and analyzing data in the vector space model and click feedback model. The method and system further includes storing empirical click-through data in a serving log and analyzing data therein. The method and system then generates a regression model based on the analyzed data, which is stored in a regression storage module. The method and system receives requests for advertisement content from client devices, selects a plurality of candidate advertisements based on the generated regression model and provides a plurality of advertisements to a client device.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 5, 2010Publication date: August 11, 2011Inventors: Ruofei Zhang, Wei Li, Jianchang Mao
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Publication number: 20100318513Abstract: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 23, 2010Publication date: December 16, 2010Applicant: YAHOO! INC.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Publication number: 20100250523Abstract: An improved system and method for learning a ranking model that optimizes a ranking evaluation metric for ranking search results of a search query is provided. An optimized nDCG ranking model that optimizes an approximation of an average nDCG ranking evaluation metric may be generated from training data through an iterative boosting method for learning to more accurately rank a list of search results for a query. A combination of weak ranking classifiers may be iteratively learned that optimize an approximation of an average nDCG ranking evaluation metric for the training data by training a weak ranking classifier at each iteration for each document in the training data with a computed weight and assigned class label, and then updating the optimized nDCG ranking model by adding the weak ranking classifier with a combination weight to the optimized nDCG ranking model.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 31, 2009Publication date: September 30, 2010Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Rong Jin, Jianchang Mao, Hamed Valizadegan, Ruofei Zhang
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Patent number: 7797287Abstract: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.Type: GrantFiled: May 30, 2006Date of Patent: September 14, 2010Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Patent number: 7761436Abstract: A method for sharing content with a user includes receiving from a user a first set of keywords for annotating an annotated user; receiving from the user a second set of keywords that designate whether annotated content annotated by at least one keyword included in the second set of keywords may be shared with the annotated user; storing in a data store a first association of the first set of keywords with the annotated user, and a second association of the second set of keywords with the annotated user; receiving a keyword selection for a select keyword and an identifier for the annotated user; and displaying on the client system content annotated by the select keyword if the annotated user is annotated by at least one keyword in the first set of keywords, and if the select keyword is included in the second set of keywords.Type: GrantFiled: January 3, 2006Date of Patent: July 20, 2010Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Publication number: 20100114689Abstract: An advertisement impression distribution system includes a data processing system operable to generate an allocation plan for serving advertisement impressions. The allocation plan allocates a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy non-guaranteed demand. The data processing system includes an optimizer, the optimizer to establish a relationship between the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions. The relationship defines a range of possible proportions of allocation of the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 30, 2009Publication date: May 6, 2010Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Oliver Kennedy, Tasos Anastasakos, Jianchang Mao, Erik Vee, Jayavel Shanmugasundaram, Sergei Vassilvitskii, Jian Yang, John Tomlin
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Patent number: 7685209Abstract: An annotation method for annotating content includes displaying a set of suggested keywords on an editing interface page configured to receive one or more annotations for the content. A request is received via the editing interface page to annotate the content with at least one keyword from the set of suggested keywords. Association information is generated that associates the at least one keyword with the content.Type: GrantFiled: June 8, 2005Date of Patent: March 23, 2010Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Kenneth Norton, Chung-Man Tam, Jianchang Mao, Zhichen Xu, Adrienne Bassett, Ashley Hall, Nathan Arnold
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Patent number: 7685198Abstract: A set of general criteria have been defined to improve the efficacy of a tagging system, and have been applied to present collaborative tag suggestions to a user. The collaborative tag suggestions are based on a goodness measure for tags derived from collective user authorities to combat spam. The goodness measure is iteratively adjusted by a reward-penalty algorithm during tag selection. The collaborative tag suggestions can also incorporate other sources of tags, e.g., content-based auto-generated tags.Type: GrantFiled: January 25, 2006Date of Patent: March 23, 2010Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Zhichen Xu, Yun Fu, Jianchang Mao, Difu Su