Yahoo! Inc.

David A Gerster

Amr Awadallah

Ali Diab

Sajjit Thampy

Timothy Roy Cadogan

A method of determining one or more association rules includes: specifying site-sequence values for users, wherein each user is identified with one of a plurality of engagement levels, and the site-sequence values indicate a sequence from a first site to a second site for at least one user identified with a corresponding engagement level; determining cumulative site-sequence values from the site-sequence values for combinations of pairs of sites and distinct engagement levels; determining likelihood values from the cumulative site-sequence values, wherein the likelihood values characterize probabilities for sequences between sites at distinct engagement levels; determining one or more association rules for pairs of sites from one or more corresponding likelihood values at one or more engagement levels, wherein each association rule indicates a sequential association between a corresponding pair of sites; determining one or more confidence values for the one or more association rules by calculating one or more variations of the likelihood values across the engagement levels; and saving one or more values for the one or more associations rules (e.g., likelihood values or confidence values).

Forecasting association rules across user engagement levels

A system is provided for allocating combinations of search results, types of space, and/or other information from different sources (e.g., search engines) in which a type of space, search results, and/or other information from at least one source or type or from each source or type, for example, are optimized to obtain an optimum commercial value. Using the example of a search, a commercial metric and a user satisfaction metric are established for search terms and used in the optimization process. In calculating the commercial value and the user satisfaction value for a set of search results, the weight given to the commercial value and the user satisfaction value of a search result is different depending on its source. Optionally, keeping the user satisfaction value above a certain threshold is treated as a constraint while optimizing the commercial value. Alternatively, a tradeoff may be allowed between the minimum threshold for the user satisfaction and a better commercial value. For example, a commercial value may be associated with the commercial metric and quality metric so that the total commercial value may be calculated and optimized.

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San Mateo, CA, United States of America

David A Gerster