Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatuses for performing a fundraising campaign are provided. A charity is determined to receive contributions from a plurality of entities. With regard to the charity, contribution constraints are received from each entity of the plurality of entities. The contribution constraints for an entity may include a contribution budget and at least one conditional contribution conditioned on a contribution amount of at least one other entity contributing to the charity. Contribution amounts are calculated for the plurality of entities based on the contribution constraints. Each entity is informed of a corresponding contribution amount of the calculated contribution amounts, so that the entities can provide their respective contribution amounts to the charity.

Abstract: A system is disclosed for a pay-per-action (PPA) advertising model. An advertiser reports actions and pays an advertising provider for each action that is reported. The payment may be based on the rate at which the actions are reported. The action rate may be updated based on each reported action, which may modify the payment for that action and may modify the payment for previous actions. A one-time premium may be charged to advertisers and a minimum action rate may be established to encourage advertisers to accurately report actions.

Abstract: Dynamically auctioned advertisements are placed in networked platforms based on and associated with a specific user of the platform. The user can then select an advertisement to be associated with them during operation of the platform. Additionally, micro-endorsements or small payments can be made to the user based on their performance within the platform and their selected advertisement. The dynamic advertisement auctions can utilize impressions, selections, and successes to determine how much to charge the advertisers. Payments of the micro-endorsements can emanate from the advertiser charges. As players become more successful, increased micro-endorsements can occur. Additional payments can also be made for user loyalty to a particular advertiser. Demographics of the user can also be employed to determine which advertisements are more likely to appeal to the user and/or are more closely matched to an advertiser's target.

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 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: Click-based algorithms are leveraged to provide protection against fraudulent user clicks of online advertisements. This enables mitigation of short term losses due to the fraudulent clicks and also mitigates long term advantages caused by the fraud. The techniques employed utilize “expected click wait” instead of CTR to determine the likelihood that a future click will occur. An expected click wait is based on the number of events that occur before a certain number of clicks are obtained. The events can also include advertisement impressions and/or sale and the like. This flexibility allows for fraud detection of other systems by transforming the other systems to clock-tick fraud based systems. Averages, including weighted averages, can also be utilized with the systems and methods herein to facilitate in providing a fraud resistant estimate of the CTR.

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: The present invention leverages demarcation of an agent into both a demander and a supplier to provide a polynomial-time method of approximating a supply and demand system's equilibrium value. This provides, in one instance of the present invention, a simplified means to iteratively extract the equilibrium value. By providing demarcated data, the present invention accounts for both demand and supply effects of an agent within a modeled supply and demand system. In one instance of the present invention, a market equilibrium price vector is approximated by employing a revenue value generated for an agent in a current market equilibrium price iteration as a budget value for the agent in the next iteration. This permits market equilibrium value modeling that encompasses an agent's contributions to a market both as a buyer and a seller within the same market for a given good and/or service.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for determining the placement of ITAPs in wireless neighborhood networks. The method disclosed provides for efficient integration of multi-hop wireless networks with the Internet by placing ITAPs at strategic locations. Initially the method provides for the formulation of the ITAP placement problem under three wireless models. For each model, methods are developed to efficiently place ITAPs in the networks. The methods aim to minimize the number of required ITAPs while guaranteeing users' bandwidth requirements. Next, a fault tolerance version of the placement method is presented that provides bandwidth guarantees in the presence of failures. Finally the methods are extended to take into account variable traffic demands by developing an approximation algorithm to simultaneously optimize ITAP placement based on demands over multiple periods.

Abstract: Systems and methods for packing Steiner trees are described. In one aspect, a set of Steiner trees and paths are generated from an undirected graph of vertices representing terminal and Steiner nodes. The Steiner trees and the paths are merged to produce linked and edge disjoint S-Steiner trees. If a subset S of the vertices is edge connected, then at minimum there are substantially ?|S|k edge-disjoint Steiner trees for S, wherein ?s is a sequence that tends to an asymptotic approximation factor of |S|/4 as S tends to infinity.

Abstract: The present invention leverages an ellipsoid method with an approximate separation oracle to analyze network data routes for data dissemination by a source, yielding an optimization analysis process which compensates for networks with limited capacity links, traditionally an NP-hard problem. In one instance of the present invention, by utilizing a novel generalization of an ellipsoidal means to work with an approximate separation oracle, a primal as well as a dual linear program is solved within the same approximation factor as the approximate separation oracle. Performance of the present invention is within a 1.6 factor.

Abstract: A system and/or method that facilitates analyzing newsgroup clusters. A data reception component receives data relating to a plurality of newsgroups and relays the data to an engine that constructs a weighted graph. The weighted graph represents a subset of the newsgroups as vertices of the graph. The vertices are connected by edges, which represent cross-postings relating to the subset of newsgroups.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are provided that employ an improved greedy algorithm for addressing NP-Hard problems and others like them. The improved greedy algorithm considers possible local savings while also remaining significantly fast.