Auction Patents (Class 705/14.71)
  • Patent number: 11017433
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus, and methods for providing networked-based electronic messages having local relevance to consumer device location are discussed herein. Some embodiments may include an apparatus or distributed apparatuses including processing circuitry configured to provide a merchant interface to a merchant device. The merchant interface may be configured to facilitate creation of promotion data that defines a promotion based on merchant device input. The promotion data may further define one or more merchant locations capable of providing redemption of the promotion, such as shipping or in-store pickup. The processing circuitry may track the location of the consumer device, and may provide impressions of the promotion to the consumer device based on the location of the consumer device relative to the one or more merchant locations capable of providing redemption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: GROUPON, INC.
    Inventors: Gareth Douglas Sudul, Eric David Radist, Puneet Shah, Ronald Mardenly
  • Patent number: 10983973
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an update of activity associated with one or more content objects associated with a search term. The content objects associated with the search term are indexed on a list of one or more index servers or a term server. The list of the term server include identifier information of one or more content object types. The list of the index servers include identifier information of a single content object type. The method also includes determining whether the search term has a number of associated content objects exceeding a pre-determined threshold number; and modifying the list associated with the search term of a term server or one or more of the index servers based at least in part on the determination and in response to the update.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Sandhya Kunnatur, Soren Bogh Lassen, Michael Curtiss, Pilip Pronin
  • Patent number: 10977229
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an update of activity associated with one or more content objects associated with a search term. The search term is associated with a number of content objects exceeding a pre-determined threshold number. The content objects associated with the search term are indexed on a list of one or more index servers. The list includes identifier information corresponding to the content objects. The method also includes modifying the list of one or more of the index servers in response to the update.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Sandhya Kunnatur, Soren Bogh Lassen, Michael Curtiss, Pilip Pronin
  • Patent number: 10977697
    Abstract: A digital ad-buying platform uses counterfactual-based incrementality measurement by implementing randomization and/or a correction for auction win bias to avoid the need to identify counterfactual winner types in the control group. This approach can estimate impact at the individual consumer level. Confidence levels can be determined using Gibbs sampling in the context of causal analysis in the presence of non-compliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: MediaMath, Inc.
    Inventors: Prasad Chalasani, Ari Buchalter, Ezra Winston, Jaynth Thiagarajan
  • Patent number: 10956935
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for serving advertisements based on partial queries. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request for advertisements that specifies a set of query suggestions. The query suggestions are ranked based, at least in part on a probability of each query suggestion being selected by a user that input the partial query. A proper subset of the query suggestions is selected and includes a highest ranked query suggestion based on the ranking and one or more query suggestions of the set of query suggestions that is at least one of a revision of the highest ranked query suggestion or refers to a same topic as the highest ranked query suggestion. One or more advertisements are identified for each query suggestion of the proper subset. Data specifying the identified advertisements are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Emmanuel Christophe, Japinder Singh, Vivek Raghunathan, Arash Baratloo
  • Patent number: 10949893
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for optimizing an online advertising campaign both before the campaign begins, and dynamically during the campaign. Optimizations are performed comparatively between a plurality of MPs (Media Properties) based on their relative cost-per-engagement. Comparisons are performed by first stack ranking MP inventory including any of sites, feeds, and verticals, based on cost per engagement. Once ranked, scores are assigned to the targeted inventory and a mean score is determined. Then, the inventory is rated as high, normal, or low impact based on their scores compared with the mean and a standard deviation for all scores. Higher impact sites with scores at least a standard deviation above the mean are initially favored, and the MP targeting strategy is dynamically adjusted during the campaign based on periodically re-evaluating the MP rankings, frequencies of engagement, and campaign progress relative to fulfillment in an allotted run time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Adobe Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin Thakkar, John M. Trenkle, John Hughes, Adam Rose, Jason Lopatecki
  • Patent number: 10943266
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium for delivering content. A method includes: identifying an application that is installed on a user device; accepting a bid from a sponsor associated with the application for presenting customized content on the user device after installation of the application on the user device; identifying an opportunity to present content on the user device including receiving a request for content that identifies the user device; conducting an auction including evaluating the accepted bid along with other bids; determining that the accepted bid is the winning bid in the auction and providing, in response to the determining, a shell for the customized content; enabling the shell to be populated with data stored on the user device to produce the customized content; and providing the customized content for presentation on the user device in response to the identified opportunity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Xin Jiang, Tuna Toksoz
  • Patent number: 10936652
    Abstract: This disclosure concerns the provision of media, and more particularly streaming of media. In particular, one aspect herein relates to a method performed by a server system of streaming an audio content item to an electronic device. In response to receiving a request message from the electronic device, a selected audio content item is retrieved from a first storage. Descriptive metadata including an origin-ID associated with the retrieved audio content item is determined. A second storage is browsed utilizing said metadata including the origin-ID to locate non-static media content item(s) associated with the origin-ID. In response to finding a non-static media content item associated with the origin ID, the selected audio content item is sent along with the located non-static media content item to the electronic device for simultaneous presentation of the audio content item and the located non-static media content item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Spotify AB
    Inventors: Dariusz Dziuk, Tetiana Karagodova, Andrea Nicole Doroja Limjoco, Roy Menahem Marmelstein
  • Patent number: 10924778
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining an ad play list for an Over-The-Top video stream requested by an end user device based on a price and/or a category of a creative derived from auctions with multiple Supply-Side Platform servers. The ad play list can be determined for the ad pod according to business rules, which can include a yield policy based on increasing revenue for a publisher of the video stream, and/or which can include a competitive separation policy enforced based on the category for bid responses. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: Xandr Inc.
    Inventors: Radhika Shivapurkar, Eric Hoffert, Joel Korpi, Matthew Kendall, Jaiminkumar Panchal, Aadesh Patel
  • Patent number: 10915927
    Abstract: Virtual teleportation systems and methods are disclosed. A remote advertising system includes an identification, location and authentication system associated with a physical venue, including a master sensor node and a plurality of sensors. A cloud-based advertisement service is deployed in the physical venue. An application installed on a mobile device determines a first set of coordinates corresponding to the mobile device location, transmits a first search request for a service, receives and displays a list of services, including the physical venue associated with the master sensor node and the physical venue including a teleportation indicator, and receives an indication that the teleportation indicator is selected. The application determines a second set of coordinates corresponding to the physical venue location, replaces the first set of coordinates with the second set of coordinates, transmits a second search request, and receives and displays a second list based on the second set of coordinates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: CloudTraQ LLC
    Inventors: Gregory Taylor DeWitt, Eugen Munteanu
  • Patent number: 10902477
    Abstract: In general, embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer readable media for ranking promotions selected for recommendation to consumers based on predictions of promotion performance and consumer behavior. In embodiments, a set of promotions to be recommended to a consumer can be sorted and/or ranked according to respective relevance scores representing a probability that the consumer's behavior in response to the promotion will match a ranking target. In embodiments, calculating scores is based on a relevance model (a predictive function) derived from one or more contextual data sources representing attributes of promotions and consumer behavior. In embodiments, an absolute relevance score represents an absolute prediction of a ranking target variable. In embodiments, absolute relevance may be used to determine personalized local merchant discovery frontiers; featured result set thresholding for impressions; and/or promotion notification triggers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: Groupon, Inc.
    Inventor: Lawrence Lee Wai
  • Patent number: 10782384
    Abstract: A localization system uses an auction-based cooperative localization method to determine local pose estimations or local pose state corrections. The auction-based cooperative localization method is triggered by receipt of relative position measurements by a member of a cooperative and is cooperatively processed by a bid winning member of the cooperative, where the cooperative refers to a collection of autonomous vehicles and passengers with location/position determinable devices that are in communication with each other for the purposes of sharing localization data, position data and the like. The bid winning member determines local pose estimations or local pose state corrections for itself and provides local pose estimations or local pose state corrections to the other members of the cooperative.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: Great Wall Motor Company Limited
    Inventors: Kai Zhang, Vladimir Djapic
  • Patent number: 10757060
    Abstract: A message notification method includes obtaining, by a terminal, a plurality of notification messages, determining, by the terminal, a notification message with an ongoing attribute in the notification messages, sorting, by the terminal, the notification messages to obtain a notification message queue such that the notification message with an ongoing attribute is arranged in front of another notification message, and displaying, by the terminal, the notification message queue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yanyan Mao
  • Patent number: 10753762
    Abstract: In some implementations, a computing device can provide a map application providing a representation of a physical structure of venues (e.g., shopping centers, airports) identified by the application. The application can provide an inside view of the venue, which is accessible by other applications and programs on the user's device. Thus, whether intended or not, search results that are identified by the map application as having an inside view of the venue are also presented on a graphical user interface along with typical search results from the other applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ryan D. Shelby, Megan M. Frost, Jae Woo Chang, Brett L. Lareau, Ryan W. Apuy, Sean P. O'Brien, YunJae Kim
  • Patent number: 10735779
    Abstract: A system and a method for using the system for targeted broadcast advertising includes a broadcasting medium are provided. The system includes a broadcaster configured to provide a multimedia stream to a viewing device through the broadcasting medium; the multimedia stream including a close captioning string; wherein: the broadcaster is further configured to provide advertisements in the multimedia stream according to a correlation between the close captioning string and a plurality of vendor keywords.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: PAYPAL, INC.
    Inventor: Chad Anthony Geraci
  • Patent number: 10698901
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for ranking query completions based on activity session data. One of the methods includes receiving a query prefix from a user. A reference parameter for the user is obtained. One or more likely queries that are likely to co-occur with the reference parameter in user activity sessions are identified, wherein each likely query has an associated prediction score. A ranking of the one or more likely queries is provided in response to receiving the query prefix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Emanuel Taropa, Ishai Rabinovitz
  • Patent number: 10698886
    Abstract: Advertising and search is performed using temporal parameters of stories, events, topics and electronic documents. The contents of a document relating to an event/topic is analyzed to identify temporal components. These components can be compared with corresponding counterparts in other documents to identify a relative temporal order, and to help drive an advertising engine or search engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross Trust U/A/D
    Inventor: John Nicholas Gross
  • Patent number: 10678859
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a plant material recommendation apparatus including a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium communicatively coupled to the processor. The processor stores a plant material environment and a plant material pre-constructed in a currently installed plant facility, receives a coarse intended plant material environment, creates a standard plant material environment, converts the standard plant material environment into an actual plant material environment, provides at least one recommended plant material configured to be used in the actual plant material environment to a user terminal, receives a candidate material selection reason for each of at least one candidate plant material, and analyzes candidate material selection reasons for at least one candidate plant material to a final plant material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: Korea Testing Certification (KTC)
    Inventors: Joong Sik Heo, Dea Kyung Kang, Sung Jae Won, Seung Hyun Cho
  • Patent number: 10664867
    Abstract: A system serves web pages and/or software application pages with digital ads to client devices by determining viewability scores for individual ad insertion spaces on the pages. The system determines viewability scores for each field based on the time at which at least a threshold percentage or ratio of the field's pixels where viewable and not off-screen or obscured by another open window. The system then selects digital ads to serve to each field based on the field's viewability score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: Optimera, LLC
    Inventor: Keith Candiotti
  • Patent number: 10643254
    Abstract: A system serves web pages with digital ads to client devices by determining viewability scores for individual ad insertion spaces on the web pages. The system determines viewability scores for each field based on the time at which at least a threshold percentage or ratio of the field's pixels where viewable and not off-screen or obscured by another open window. The system then selects digital ads to serve to each fields based on the field's viewability score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: Optimera, LLC
    Inventor: Keith Candiotti
  • Patent number: 10628859
    Abstract: The present invention is directed towards methods and systems for matching, by a demand side service, an advertisement with an impression from a plurality of impressions available across a plurality of impression opportunity providers. A demand side service executing on one or more servers may receive a request to bid for placement of an advertisement on one or more impression opportunities available across a plurality of impression opportunity providers. The demand side service may further determine an impression opportunity from the plurality of impression opportunities to bid on. In addition, the demand side service may communicate, via a network, one or more bids via an interface to an impression opportunity provider of the plurality of impression opportunity providers. The demand side service may complete a transaction to procure the impression opportunity from the impression opportunity provider responsive to a winning bid from the one or more bids.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: MediaMath, Inc.
    Inventors: Yehuda Ari Buchalter, Roland G. Cozzolino, Joseph M. Zawadzki
  • Patent number: 10560740
    Abstract: Disclosed example audience measurement apparatus include first estimator means for determining a first audience metric based on set-top box return path tuning data obtained from a plurality of set-top boxes located in a first geographic area, second estimator means for determining a second audience metric from a portion of audience measurement data corresponding to a second geographic area different from the first geographic area, the portion of the audience measurement data associated with monitored sites in the second geographic area having second set-top box characteristics that correspond with first set-top box characteristics of the plurality of set-top boxes located in the first geographic area, and third estimator means for (i) determining a ratio of the first audience metric to the second audience metric, and (ii) processing the audience measurement data based on the ratio to determine an audience exposure metric estimating exposure to media in the first geographic area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Peter Campbell Doe
  • Patent number: 10552874
    Abstract: An online system receives an advertisement (“ad”) request identifying an application, one or more items for use within the application, ad content, and a prompt for purchasing one or more of the items. The prompt for purchasing an item comprises text or image data describing the purchasing and instructions that, when executed by a client device, request payment information from a user accessing the prompt. When the ad content is presented to a user, the prompt is also presented. When the user interacts with the prompt, payment information is requested and communicated to a third party system associated with the application. The ad content and prompt may be presented to the user within a feed of content items provided to the user by the online system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Pin Lu, Derek Chirk Yin Cheng
  • Patent number: 10529011
    Abstract: There is disclosed a method of determining an optimal value of an auction parameter for a digital object. The method comprises using: an indication of a digital object, an auction parameter associated with the digital object and an environment feature at the respective moment of time to execute an offline training of a machine learning algorithm to predict an optimal value of auction parameters for a plurality of digital objects, the plurality of digital objects being associated with the interaction history of the first portion of users. The method further comprises applying the machine learning algorithm to determine a first optimal value of an auction parameter for a plurality of digital objects associated with the second portion of users and using such determined value for determining a digital object being relevant to the request from a user from the second portion of users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: YANDEX EUROPE AG
    Inventors: Vyacheslav Vyacheslavovoich Alipov, Andrey Vladimirovich Gulin, Andrey Sergeevich Mishchenko
  • Patent number: 10518180
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed which provide an approach for selecting group-based digital content using a market system. An application receives a bid that indicates a selection for a user-configurable feature of a shared online activity and specifies an amount of currency that a corresponding participant is bidding for the selection. The application identifies a selection of the user-configurable feature having a highest total bid and initiates the shared online activity configured according to the user-configurable feature having the highest total bid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrick W. Millegan, Lily Xudan Liu, Alif Salim Khalfan
  • Patent number: 10511886
    Abstract: When an online system receives a request to present content items to a user, a content selection system included in the online system selects content items for presentation to the user. A feedback control mechanism communicates with each computing device of the content selection system to determine the latency period and the CPU utilization of each computing device. The feedback control mechanism also determines a target latency period and a target CPU utilization in which content items are selected. By comparing the latency period of each computing device to the target latency period and the CPU utilization to the target CPU utilization, an amount of information to be evaluated by each computing device is determined based on the comparisons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Vibhor Rastogi, Mircea Grecu, Puneet Sharma, Tianshi Gao
  • Patent number: 10467659
    Abstract: A digital ad-buying platform uses counterfactual-based incrementality measurement by implementing randomization and/or a correction for auction win bias to avoid the need to identify counterfactual winner types in the control group. This approach can estimate impact at the individual consumer level. Confidence levels can be determined using Gibbs sampling in the context of causal analysis in the presence of non-compliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: MediaMath, Inc.
    Inventors: Prasad Chalasani, Ari Buchalter, Ezra Winston, Jaynth Thiagarajan
  • Patent number: 10445823
    Abstract: An advanced data platform may receive an asset pricing request containing information about an asset. An optimization engine may determine a predicted price for the asset at different locations and times and compute a price matrix accordingly. The engine may identify an optimized predicted price from the price matrix, taking into account the spatial and temporal factors and various optimization conditions. A view for presentation of the optimized predicted price for the asset on a client device is generated and communicated to the client device over a network. When the asset is a vehicle, the engine may compute a linear regression model that defines a set of input variables with associated regression coefficients, the set of input variables comprising input variables representing attributes describing the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: ALG, Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Thomas Strauss, Morgan Scott Hansen
  • Patent number: 10445789
    Abstract: Various aspects described herein are directed to different techniques for enabling ad server systems to dynamically determine minimum floor prices for individual incoming impressions, in which the determination of the minimum floor value for a given incoming impression may be based upon the value(s) of specifically identified impression parameters associated with that particular impression. Additional aspects are directed to various feedback techniques for measuring the effectiveness of the various Entity-based and/or Segment-based floors, and for dynamically adjusting various floor computation parameter values based on measured floor metrics and heuristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: Pubmatic, Inc.
    Inventors: Sreekanth Vempati, Manish Tayal, Mohamed Hanoosh Mathappulan, Sandeep Repakula
  • Patent number: 10395281
    Abstract: An online system selects advertisements for presentation in various advertisement slots to maximize the total value to the online system for advertisement presentation. Candidate advertisements for presentation to a user are identified and types of advertisements are associated with various advertisement slots. For example, types of advertisements are associated with advertisement slots based on values for presenting various types of advertisements in different advertisement slots and one or more ad placement rules. Candidate advertisements having an advertisement type associated with each advertisement slot are identified, and an expected value of various placements of the candidate advertisements having a type corresponding to advertisement slots is determined. Based on the expected values, a placement of candidate advertisements in advertisement slots is selected and presented to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Yaron Greif, Zhengyu Yin
  • Patent number: 10354279
    Abstract: Virtual teleportation systems and methods are disclosed. A remote advertising system includes an identification, location and authentication system associated with a physical venue, including a master sensor node and a plurality of sensors. A cloud-based advertisement service is deployed in the physical venue. An application installed on a mobile device determines a first set of coordinates corresponding to the mobile device location, transmits a first search request for a service, receives and displays a list of services, including the physical venue associated with the master sensor node and the physical venue including a teleportation indicator, and receives an indication that the teleportation indicator is selected. The application determines a second set of coordinates corresponding to the physical venue location, replaces the first set of coordinates with the second set of coordinates, transmits a second search request, and receives and displays a second list based on the second set of coordinates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: CloudTraQ LLC
    Inventors: Gregory Taylor DeWitt, Eugen Munteanu
  • Patent number: 10332223
    Abstract: The disclosed technology facilitates objective comparisons between different geographical locales based on statistical comparisons of associated distributions of locale attributes. According to one implementation, a method disclosed herein includes defining a benchmark cluster having a first distribution of locale attributes; identifying a plurality of locale clusters that each correspond to one of a number of locales within a search zone associated with a different distribution of the locale attributes; assessing satisfaction of a similarity condition by comparing the benchmark cluster and to one or more of the identified locale clusters; and outputting one or more of the locales corresponding to the identified locale clusters satisfying the similarity condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: MMSR, LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Mauseth, Steve Roe, Jason Sweezey
  • Patent number: 10282758
    Abstract: A method for automated control of bid pricing for bidding on online placements in an automated real-time online auction system during the loading or rendering of network-based digital content. Historical bid result data regarding a particular placement is collected by a bidding system, which segments the bid result data into multiple categories and generates multiple pricing curves for the particular placement based on the segmented bid result data. The bidding system then uses the multiple pricing curves for making bidding decisions in real-time. The bidding system receives a series of bid requests, each identifying a placement in digital content being loaded or rendered. For each received bid request, the bidding system, in real-time, identifies segmenting characteristic(s) associated with the bid request, and performs a bidding analysis—including whether to submit a bid and determining a bid price—based on the identified segmenting characteristic(s) associated with the bid request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: MAXPOINT INTERACTIVE, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Els, Igor Postelnik
  • Patent number: 10275535
    Abstract: Obtaining user feedback from a social networking service can include obtaining multiple social media posts provided on at least one social networking service, the multiple social media posts being associated with an entity, applying a pronoun filter to the multiple social media posts to obtain a filtered set of social media posts, each social media post in the filtered set including at least one pronoun from a pronoun list, and analyzing the filtered set of social media posts to identify trends or sentiments related to the entity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
    Inventor: Kurt Trauth
  • Patent number: 10262339
    Abstract: Within a computer networking environment, a first bid request having data is received. Bids are determined for advertisements based on the data associated with such first bid request. It may be determined that the first bid request's data includes one or more specific types of data for a bonus variable. At least a first portion of the bids that were determined for the first bid request are increased by a bonus amount in response to the one or more specific types of data for a bonus variable being determined to be present in the first bid request's data. For the first bid request, an optimum set of one or more of the bids are selected and transmitted, along with a reference to the associated advertisement, via to a sender of the first bid request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: Amobee, Inc.
    Inventor: Joshua M. Koran
  • Patent number: 10223702
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer media for integrating requests for reserved allocations of advertisement impressions and requests for dynamic allocations of advertisement impressions are provided. A request is received from a first advertiser to purchase a reserved allocation of advertisement impressions. The request specifies a requested number of impressions that each have one or more requested attributes. One or more bids to dynamically purchase one or more impressions through a real-time bidding process are received from an external bidding agent. An internal bidding agent bids, on behalf of the first advertiser, to dynamically purchase one or more impressions through the real-time bidding process until the request from the first advertiser to purchase the reserved allocation of impressions is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSINGM LLC
    Inventors: Ron J. Karidi, Moshe Tennenholtz, Roy Varshavsky
  • Patent number: 10210548
    Abstract: In general, embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer readable media for ranking promotions selected for recommendation to consumers based on predictions of promotion performance and consumer behavior. In embodiments, a set of promotions to be recommended to a consumer can be sorted and/or ranked according to respective relevance scores representing a probability that the consumer's behavior in response to the promotion will match a ranking target. In embodiments, calculating scores is based on a relevance model (a predictive function) derived from one or more contextual data sources representing attributes of promotions and consumer behavior. In embodiments, an absolute relevance score represents an absolute prediction of a ranking target variable. In embodiments, absolute relevance may be used to determine personalized local merchant discovery frontiers; featured result set thresholding for impressions; and/or promotion notification triggers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: GROUPON, INC.
    Inventor: Lawrence Lee Wai
  • Patent number: 10198759
    Abstract: A method and a system to automatically coordinate remote inspectors are provided. Initially, a listing is identified for remote inspection in an online publication system. The listing may describe an item for sale that is, in turn, associated with a geographical location and a category. One or more remote inspectors are identified based on the geographical location and the category associated with the item for sale. The listing and respective profiles of each of the one or more remote inspectors is published to a buyer. A selection of a selected remote inspector is received from the buyer. A template inspection report is provided to the selected remote inspector. Once the remote inspector has inspected the item for sale, the buyer is provided a completed inspection report received from the selected remote inspector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Danny Chang, Balaji Thallam Parthasarathy
  • Patent number: 10075510
    Abstract: Content on a client device is updated. Analytics data describing how a user uses the client device to consume digital content are received. The analytics data are generated by the client device responsive to observations of how the user uses the client device to consume digital content. A prediction model is generated based on the analytics data and used to predict when the user will consume digital content on the client device. Prediction data describing the prediction are provided to the client device. The client device uses the prediction data to request updated digital content prior to when the user is predicted to consume digital content on the client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: James Reilly, Sami Mohammed Shalabi, Mehul Agarwal, Michael Scott Depinet
  • Patent number: 10069886
    Abstract: An improved media streaming device and methods are disclosed herein for receiving and modifying a streaming signal to adjust the rate of occurrence of advertisements based on sensor data collected from various sensors associated with a vehicle and a mobile device found within an interior of a vehicle. The improved media streaming device may receive a risk score based on the collected sensor data, and may determine an advertisement tier based on the risk score. Further, the improved media streaming device may select targeted advertisement content based on at least the sensor data, the calculated risk score, the advertisement tier, and other contextual attributes relating to the driver and/or the vehicle. The improved media streaming device may then modify the streaming signal to inject the selected advertisement at the frequency prescribed by the advertisement tier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company
    Inventor: Soren K. Lundsgaard
  • Patent number: 10068286
    Abstract: In various example embodiments, a system and method for providing dynamic bidding notifications and price guidance for buyers are presented. The system receives a selection of a present item listing and accesses historical auction data for a set of historical item listings. The system generates a dynamic bidding model for bidding on the present item and generates one or more bidding notifications based on the dynamic bidding model. The system then causes presentation of the one or more bidding notifications on a client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Harita Yenisetty, Prashanth Patlolla, Bhavani Kumar Hari, Gayathri Ravichandran Geetha
  • Patent number: 10062096
    Abstract: A computer-enabled transaction system provides a list of items for purchase in response to a user request for an item. The system filters prospective items based on eligibility which includes availability of the item for purchase. Eligible items are ranked based on generated revenue per impressions wherein impressions include previous viewings of the items. The ranked, eligible items are then displayed in a list to the user with preferential displaying of the higher ranked items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: Vegas.com, LLC
    Inventor: Paul Leslie Mello
  • Patent number: 10062088
    Abstract: An advertisement distribution device includes: an arrangement position acquisition unit configured to acquire an arrangement position on a display screen of a terminal to display advertisement information; an attention degree index extracting unit configured to extract an attention degree index of the arrangement position based on acquisition of a specific position on the display screen and an attention degree index of the specific position; an arrangement position ranking unit configured to rank a plurality of arrangement positions based on a plurality of attention degree indices extracted by the attention degree index extracting unit; a distribution information ranking unit configured to rank a plurality of pieces of advertisement information based on a predetermined ranking process; and a distribution unit configured to distribute the plurality of pieces of advertisement information based on the ranks of the plurality of pieces of advertisement information and the ranks of the plurality of arrangement posi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: YAHOO JAPAN CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hiroki Shimora
  • Patent number: 10057345
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a system that controls content distribution using a feedback loop. Content is distributed over multiple different online channels using a same initial maximum selection value for distribution over each different online channel. An observed distribution amount required for distribution of the content over the multiple different online channels is received through a feedback loop and for multiple different distributions of the content. Based on the observed distribution amount received through the feedback loop, a realized distribution amount is determined for the multiple different distributions across the multiple different online channels. The maximum selection value is adjusted based on a difference between the realized distribution amount and a reference distribution amount specified by a provider of the content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Chenyu Zhao, Di Wang, Samuel Sze Ming Ieong, Christopher K. Harris
  • Patent number: 10002368
    Abstract: A method and system for recommending advertisement placements based on scoring is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving a real-time bidding (RTB) request for placing an online advertisement campaign. For each of a plurality of advertisement placements, a performance score is determined based on an estimated feedback parameter. The estimated feedback parameter is calculated from observed performance of the online advertisement campaign and similarity measures of other online advertisement campaigns. A first advertisement placement having a higher performance score is given more weight than a second advertisement placement having a lower performance score. A set of advertisement placements having their performance scores equal to or greater than the target rating is selected from the plurality of advertisement placements and provided for advertisement placements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: MAXPOINT INTERACTIVE, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Els, Igor Postelnik
  • Patent number: 9959557
    Abstract: A content server provides a client device with audio content including an audio advertisement, which is provided in response to receiving a request for digital audio content from a client device associated with a user. The content server obtains user information about the user and retrieves advertisement text received from an advertiser, which are used to generate a personalized text advertisement. The personalized text advertisement is generated according to an advertisement template specifying an ordered combination of text components. The personalized text advertisement includes the received advertisement text, user information text selected from the obtained user information, and template text. The client device is provided with an advertisement based on the personalized text advertisement and is configured to play an audio version of the personalized text advertisement. The audio advertisement is generated using a text-to-speech algorithm at the client device or at the content server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Pandora Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Shriram Bharath, Jacek Adam Krawczyk, Christopher Irwin
  • Patent number: 9942189
    Abstract: A content distribution facilitation system is described comprising configured servers and a network interface configured to interface with a plurality of terminals in a client server relationship and optionally with a cloud-based storage system. A request from a first source for content comprising content criteria is received, the content criteria comprising content subject matter. At least a portion of the content request content criteria is transmitted to a selected content contributor. If recorded content is received from the first content contributor, the first source is provided with access to the received recorded content. The recorded content may be transmitted via one or more networks to one or more destination devices. Optionally, a voice analysis and/or facial recognition engine are utilized to determine if the recorded content is from the first content contributor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2018
    Assignee: Greenfly, Inc.
    Inventors: Shawn David Green, Daniel Brian Kirschner
  • Patent number: 9922344
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for serving advertisements based on partial queries. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request for advertisements that specifies a set of query suggestions. The query suggestions are ranked based, at least in part on a probability of each query suggestion being selected by a user that input the partial query. A proper subset of the query suggestions is selected and includes a highest ranked query suggestion based on the ranking and one or more query suggestions of the set of query suggestions that is at least one of a revision of the highest ranked query suggestion or refers to a same topic as the highest ranked query suggestion. One or more advertisements are identified for each query suggestion of the proper subset. Data specifying the identified advertisements are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Emmanuel Christophe, Japinder Singh, Vivek Raghunathan, Arash Baratloo
  • Patent number: 9912711
    Abstract: In some embodiments, the present invention provides for a computer system, including at least: a GUI client; a dedicated application server; where the dedicated application server is configured to operationally connect to the GUI client; where the dedicated application server is associated with a metadata item database, including metadata related to plurality of items; where the GUI client is configured to generate a GUI that includes: a video player area and a plurality of metadata areas that are configured to display, in real-time, streamed metadata items that are related to content of the video streamed by the video player at a particular playing time to form a metadata stream; initiate the streaming of the video; determine the plurality of streamed metadata items related to the content of the video; and causing to display at the plurality of metadata areas, via a visual pattern, the plurality of streamed metadata items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: Blingby, LLC
    Inventors: Marcia Elizabeth Christian Favale, Robert Thomas Stanicic
  • Patent number: 9892432
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a method for providing content. A linking is provided of identifiers for users or devices known to a content delivery service. Each identifier is associated with the user or device in a specific context. The linking includes first and second identifiers. A request for content is received that includes either the first or second identifier. Bidders in an exchange are identified that have expressed an interest in bidding on a content delivery opportunity associated with the user or the device. For each bidder, a relative value is determined for a respective bidder for the opportunity to present content to the user or device in association with each identifier known to the bidder. For each bidder, a real-time bid request is generated in the exchange that includes the highest value identifier for submission to a respective bidder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Gang Wang