Patents by Inventor Sihem Amer-Yahia
Sihem Amer-Yahia 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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Publication number: 20130085662Abstract: One embodiment accesses two or more photos taken by one or more travelers at one or more destinations and one or more points-of-interest located within the destinations; constructs one or more photo streams for each unique traveler-destination combination, wherein each one of the photo streams comprises two or more of the photos taken by the corresponding traveler at the corresponding destination; maps each one of the photos to one of the points-of-interest; constructs one or more timed paths for each unique traveler-destination combination based on the photo streams and the mapping between the photos and the points-of-interest, wherein each one of the timed paths comprises one or more of the points-of-interest located within the corresponding destination and visited by the corresponding travel; and constructs an itinerary based on a start point-of-interest, an end point-of-interest, a time constraint, and the timed paths.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 28, 2012Publication date: April 4, 2013Applicant: YAHOO! INC.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Munmun De Choudhury, Moran Feldman, Nadav Golbandi, Ronny Lempel, Cong Yu
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Patent number: 8412714Abstract: A method of adaptively evaluating a top-k query involves (1204) forming a servers having respective server queues storing candidate answers, processing (1322) the candidate answers, and (1232) providing a top-k set as a query evaluation. Processing includes (1402) adaptively choosing a winning server to whose queue a current candidate answer should be sent; (1404) sending the current candidate answer to the winning server's queue; (1334) adaptively choosing a next candidate answer to process from the winning server's queue; (1336) computing a join between the current candidate answer and next candidate answers at the winning server, so as to produce a new current candidate answer; and (1338) updating the top-k set with the new current candidate answer only if a score of the new current candidate answer exceeds a score of a top-k answer in a top-k set. A method of calculating scores for candidate answers is also provided.Type: GrantFiled: March 7, 2005Date of Patent: April 2, 2013Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Nikolaos Koudas, Amélie Marian-Guerrier, Divesh Srivastava
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Patent number: 8364685Abstract: The present invention is directed towards methods and computer readable media for annotating and ranking user reviews on social review systems with inferred analytics. A reference framework is provided by creating context according to previous activity, bias, or background information of a given reviewer. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first query identifying a given content item, generating a collection of content items based on one or more identical objective attributes associated with the given content item, identifying one or more subjective attributes associated with a given item in the collection of items, and providing a reference framework to interpret the subjective attributes associated with each item in the collection.Type: GrantFiled: December 27, 2007Date of Patent: January 29, 2013Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Andrei Z. Broder
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Patent number: 8359280Abstract: Methods and apparatus for making recommendations of content items to users of computer systems include compiling a database relating a list of items and corresponding explanations; receiving from a user, through a computer user interface, a request for a recommendation; extracting from the database a preliminary list of items related to the request; identifying distances between the extracted items based on the explanation corresponding to each item; and identifying a subset of the preliminary list to form a recommendation list having a limited number of recommendation results with a desired balance of both high relevancy and high diversity relative to each other.Type: GrantFiled: March 12, 2009Date of Patent: January 22, 2013Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Cong Yu, Sihem Amer-Yahia, Laks Lakshmanan
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Patent number: 8285483Abstract: One embodiment accesses two or more photos taken by one or more travelers at one or more destinations and one or more points-of-interest located within the destinations; constructs one or more photo streams for each unique traveler-destination combination, wherein each one of the photo streams comprises two or more of the photos taken by the corresponding traveler at the corresponding destination; maps each one of the photos to one of the points-of-interest; constructs one or more timed paths for each unique traveler-destination combination based on the photo streams and the mapping between the photos and the points-of-interest, wherein each one of the timed paths comprises one or more of the points-of-interest located within the corresponding destination and visited by the corresponding travel; and constructs an itinerary based on a start point-of-interest, an end point-of-interest, a time constraint, and the timed paths.Type: GrantFiled: February 18, 2010Date of Patent: October 9, 2012Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Munmun De Choudhury, Moran Feldman, Nadav Golbandi, Ronny Lempel, Cong Yu
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Patent number: 8204878Abstract: An improved method for information retrieval in web query and recommendation systems, where items that are likely unfamiliar to the users of the system, but potentially relevant, are recommended. In a recommendation system having ratings by a plurality of users for a plurality of items, items are assigned to one or more data regions based on item attributes or user activity. Source regions are identified for each of the data regions. For a given user, data regions with which both the user and the user's social network are unfamiliar are identified. Within a given data region, the relevance of items to the user within such regions is evaluated using ratings provided by other users who have entered ratings similar to the user in source regions for the data region. Items receiving the highest relevance score are recommended to the user.Type: GrantFiled: January 15, 2010Date of Patent: June 19, 2012Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Sergei Vassilvitskii, Cong Yu
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Publication number: 20120005204Abstract: Disclosed are methods and apparatus for automatically determining the relevance of matches between entities. A set of one or more indicators of relevance for each of a plurality of matches may be detected, where each of the plurality of matches exists between a first entity and a different one of a plurality of entities. Each set of one or more indicators of relevance indicates a degree of two-way interest for a corresponding one of the plurality of matches, the degree of two-way interest indicating both a degree of interest of the first entity in the corresponding one of the plurality of entities and a degree of interest of the corresponding one of the plurality of entities in the first entity. A probability of relevance of each of the plurality of matches may be determined based at least in part upon a corresponding set of one or more indicators of relevance. Each of the plurality of matches may be ranked based at least in part on the corresponding probability of relevance.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 1, 2010Publication date: January 5, 2012Applicant: YAHOO! INC.Inventors: Fernando Diaz, Donald Metzler, Sihem Amer-Yahia
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Patent number: 8073794Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining items or people of potential interest to recommend to users in a computer-based network. Implied social networks may be determined based at least in part on obtained social behavior information. Items or people of potential interest to users may be determined based at least in part on implied social network information. Vocabulary taxonomies may be associated with, or used in determining, implied social networks.Type: GrantFiled: December 20, 2007Date of Patent: December 6, 2011Assignee: YAHOO! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Evgeniy Gabrilovich, Bo Pang, Julia Stoyanovich, Cong Yu
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Publication number: 20110282823Abstract: The present invention is directed towards methods and computer readable media for annotating and ranking user reviews on social review systems with inferred analytics. A reference framework is provided by creating context according to previous activity, bias, or background information of a given reviewer. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first query identifying a given content item, generating a collection of content items based on one or more identical objective attributes associated with the given content item, identifying one or more subjective attributes associated with a given item in the collection of items, and providing a reference framework to interpret the subjective attributes associated with each item in the collection.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 27, 2011Publication date: November 17, 2011Applicant: YAHOO! INC.Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Andrei Z. Broder
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Patent number: 8032471Abstract: The present invention is directed towards methods and computer readable media for annotating and analyzing user reviews on social review systems with inferred analytics. A reference framework is provided by creating context according to previous activity, bias, or background information of a given reviewer. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first query identifying a given content item, generating a collection of content items based on one or more identical objective attributes associated with the given content item, identifying one or more subjective attributes associated with a given item in the collection of content items, and providing a reference framework to interpret the subjective attributes associated with each item in the collection.Type: GrantFiled: December 21, 2007Date of Patent: October 4, 2011Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Andrei Z. Broder
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Patent number: 8005817Abstract: A system, method and computer readable medium are disclosed. The method embodiment relates to a method of computing score of candidate answers to a database query. The method comprises receiving a database query, assigning a first score to a match to the query, the first score being associated with a relative importance of an individual keyword in a collection of documents based on all structural and content predicates in the query, assigning a second score to the match, the second score being associated with a relative importance of a keyword in an individual document and using the assigned first score and second score to compute an answer score for the query.Type: GrantFiled: November 30, 2005Date of Patent: August 23, 2011Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Nikolas Koudas, Amelie Marian, Divesh Srivastava, David Toman
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Publication number: 20110202267Abstract: One embodiment accesses two or more photos taken by one or more travelers at one or more destinations and one or more points-of-interest located within the destinations; constructs one or more photo streams for each unique traveler-destination combination, wherein each one of the photo streams comprises two or more of the photos taken by the corresponding traveler at the corresponding destination; maps each one of the photos to one of the points-of-interest; constructs one or more timed paths for each unique traveler-destination combination based on the photo streams and the mapping between the photos and the points-of-interest, wherein each one of the timed paths comprises one or more of the points-of-interest located within the corresponding destination and visited by the corresponding travel; and constructs an itinerary based on a start point-of-interest, an end point-of-interest, a time constraint, and the timed paths.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 18, 2010Publication date: August 18, 2011Applicant: YAHOO! INC.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Munmun De Choudhury, Moran Feldman, Nadav Golbandi, Ronny Lempel, Cong Yu
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Patent number: 8001117Abstract: The system includes a query engine and an advertisement engine. The query engine is configured to receive a query from the user. The advertisement engine generates advertisement results corresponding to the query. The advertisement results are selected from entries in an advertisement database, where the entries include predicate values corresponding to a domain. The advertisement engine generates a diverse advertisement result that is a subset of the database entries that match the query. The diversity result varies at least one predicate by selecting entries for the list that include a proportional representation of each available predicate value in the database that matches the query.Type: GrantFiled: May 18, 2007Date of Patent: August 16, 2011Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Jayavel Shanmugasundaram, Utkarsh Srivastava, Erik Vee, Prashanth Bhat
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Publication number: 20110179019Abstract: An improved method for information retrieval in web query and recommendation systems, where items that are likely unfamiliar to the users of the system, but potentially relevant, are recommended. In a recommendation system having ratings by a plurality of users for a plurality of items, items are assigned to one or more data regions based on item attributes or user activity. Source regions are identified for each of the data regions. For a given user, data regions with which both the user and the user's social network are unfamiliar are identified. Within a given data region, the relevance of items to the user within such regions is evaluated using ratings provided by other users who have entered ratings similar to the user in source regions for the data region. Items receiving the highest relevance score are recommended to the user.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 15, 2010Publication date: July 21, 2011Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer-Yahia, Sergei Vassilvitskii, Cong Yu
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Patent number: 7974976Abstract: A system and method for deriving user intent from a query. The system includes a query engine, and an advertisement engine. The query engine receives a query from the user. The query engine analyzes the query to determine a query intent that is matched to a domain. The query may be further analyzed to derive predicate values based on the query and the domain hierarchy. The domain and associated information may then be matched to a list of advertisements. The advertisement may be assigned an ad match score based on a correlation between the query information and various listing information provided in the advertisement.Type: GrantFiled: May 18, 2007Date of Patent: July 5, 2011Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Jayavel Shanmugasundaram, Utkarsh Srivastava, Erik Vee
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Publication number: 20100235317Abstract: Methods and apparatus for making recommendations of content items to users of computer systems include compiling a database relating a list of items and corresponding explanations; receiving from a user, through a computer user interface, a request for a recommendation; extracting from the database a preliminary list of items related to the request; identifying distances between the extracted items based on the explanation corresponding to each item; and identifying a subset of the preliminary list to form a recommendation list having a limited number of recommendation results with a desired balance of both high relevancy and high diversity relative to each other.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 12, 2009Publication date: September 16, 2010Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.Inventors: Cong Yu, Sihem Amer-Yahia, Laks Lakshmanan
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Publication number: 20100070322Abstract: 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.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 16, 2008Publication date: March 18, 2010Inventors: Sebastien Lahaie, David M. Pennock, Sihem Amer-Yahia, David Parkes
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Publication number: 20090171932Abstract: The present invention is directed towards methods and computer readable media for annotating and ranking user reviews on social review systems with inferred analytics. A reference framework is provided by creating context according to previous activity, bias, or background information of a given reviewer. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first query identifying a given content item, generating a collection of content items based on one or more identical objective attributes associated with the given content item, identifying one or more subjective attributes associated with a given item in the collection of items, and providing a reference framework to interpret the subjective attributes associated with each item in the collection.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 27, 2007Publication date: July 2, 2009Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Andrei Z. Broder
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Publication number: 20090164557Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention automatically detects when a user is in a state of vacillation based on user on-line behavior, records relevant parameters regarding the vacillation event, and then responds accordingly. This response may include providing relevant and/or targeted information that can be used by the user to help remove the indecision. The response may also or alternatively include providing third-party businesses, such as retailers, marketers, and advertisers, with information about vacillation events and associated behaviors for a single user or groups of users so that such businesses can identify potential markets/customers or directly engage similar users to facilitate the decision-making process.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 21, 2007Publication date: June 25, 2009Applicant: YAHOO! INC.Inventors: Cameron Marlow, Sihem Amer-Yahia, Ronald J. Brachman, Frederick K. Schmidt
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Publication number: 20090164402Abstract: The present invention is directed towards methods and computer readable media for annotating and ranking user reviews on social review systems with inferred analytics. A reference framework is provided by creating context according to previous activity, bias, or background information of a given reviewer. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first query identifying a given content item, generating a collection of content items based on one or more identical objective attributes associated with the given content item, identifying one or more subjective attributes associated with a given item in the collection of items, and providing a reference framework to interpret the subjective attributes associated with each item in the collection.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 21, 2007Publication date: June 25, 2009Inventors: Sihem Amer Yahia, Andrei Z. Broder