Patent Application
20150254252
1. Field
This invention relates to web-based social content management, and more specifically to methods and systems for ranking of web-based social content aggregation.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet provides a seemingly limitless amount of content, and users of the Internet are constantly combing through this content in an effort to understand various topics, such as current events, medical issues, academic and professional research, evaluation of available products, searching for a service, reviewing a business activity, education, and the like. The Internet provides a great resource for access to this content. However, the user, after educating themselves on a topic through their Internet searching, is often left with no means for passing that knowledge experience to another individual. Therefore a need exists for improved methods and systems to allow the user to organize their research, study or activity on the web in a way that can be shared easily and understandably with another individual. Further, a need exists for improved methods and systems for searching and ranking a users collective work.
The present disclosure describes an innovative method and set of algorithms to rank and grade content on the Internet through the leveraging of an aggregation of Internet URL links tied into common subjects and content that improves the ability of users to identify, collect, and organize content from the Internet related to similar subjects, content, and topics. The ranking and grading provides a more substantive and rich presentation of topics and aggregation of Internet content related to a search.
In embodiments, a method and system may comprise providing a content aggregation ranking facility adapted to rank a plurality of web-based content aggregations based on a search term, each web-based content aggregation comprised of a plurality of visual web-linked content comprising an image that is linked to a uniform resource locator (URL), wherein the ranking is determined based, at least in part, via determining a correlation between the search term and a characteristic of the plurality of web-based content aggregations, and ranking the plurality of web-based content aggregations based the strength of the that correlation. In embodiments, the characteristic may be a threshold number of URL links in a web-based content aggregation that are determined to be related to the search term, a popularity rating of a web-based content aggregation that has a topic that relates to the search term, and the like. The characteristic may be determined by a machine-learning model, such as where the machine-learning model is trained with a plurality of training web-based content aggregations, the machine-learning model is updated with feedback from a user that created the web-based content aggregation, and the like. The search term may be entered into a search engine for a user-initiated network search, such as where the search engine searches for both web-based content aggregations and single URL web locations.
In embodiments, a method and system may comprise providing a content aggregation ranking facility adapted to rank a plurality of web-based content aggregations based on a characteristic of web-based content aggregations, each web-based content aggregation comprised of a plurality of visual web-linked content comprising an image that is linked to a uniform resource locator (URL). In embodiments, the characteristic may be the number of links a web-based content aggregation has in common with at least one other web-based content aggregation, the number of times a web-based content aggregation that have been viewed, and the like. The characteristic may be determined by a machine-learning model, such as where the machine-learning model is trained with a plurality of training web-based content aggregations the machine-learning model is updated with feedback from a user that created the web-based content aggregation, and the like.
The invention and the following detailed description of certain embodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the following figures:
While the invention has been described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art and are encompassed herein. In the descriptions that follow, it is understood that all references to an “embodiment” or “embodiments” refer to an exemplary and non-limiting embodiment or embodiments, respectively.
In accordance with an exemplary and non-limiting embodiment, a content aggregation and discovery facility may be provided as a social content discovery platform that enables users to collaborate, aggregate, and curate large amounts of information in the form of a content strand-story with collective meaning and context. The content aggregation facility will also be referred to herein as ‘the system’, and the user product of the system a ‘Wake’, such as in the content aggregation and discovery facility enabling a user to document the Wake of their aggregated linked path through their on-line discovery of content and information. Where appropriate, the descriptor “content aggregation” may be used interchangeably with “Wake”, such as where a content aggregation, or Wake, may be comprised of a plurality of visual web-linked content. For example, a visual web-linked content may be an image that is linked through a universal resource locator (URL) to content related to the image, and a Wake is a plurality of these visual web-linked contents, such as where the plurality of visual web-linked contents collectively relate to a topical subject. In the midst of the on-going convergence of media and the hybridization of devices, the content aggregation and discovery facility offers users features to structure relevant web links, research specific content, and to access links and discover related content within a frame of an expert-level system/network. As used herein, all such links may be referred to as “ web-linked content elements”. In addition to web-linked content elements, Wakes may additionally comprise one or more user owned content elements including, but not limited to, documents, images, power point presentations and the like. The system extends beyond making friends, and its reach is far greater than that of a user's social circle. Embodiments of the system disclose curating content, referred to as Wakes, where Wake is a ‘contextual collection of links’. Stories, research, and portfolios are some examples for manifestation of this context. Users may create, follow, discover, discuss, personalize, and share these Wakes. The system allows one to analyze these Wakes and their relationships to derive correlations between different Wakes, which in turn propels discovery of new content for a user. Wakes may be limited to use by the user, to a group, or shared with other people, such as publicly with no restrictions, or with a selected group (i.e. limited to friends, a listing, a region, a country, and the like). For instance, some Wakes may be interesting for like-minded people to like-minded people within the public space.
The system allows users to express information by linking content together and by creating relationships. The user's activity on Wakes establishes fundamental relationships. These relations render a context, which reflects the user's intent. Based, at least in part, on the unique relationships within and among Wakes, the system may provide a streamlined content discovery system through a ‘Wake feed’ and related pages, which allows the user to discover relevant content in relation to what the user is interested in, where a Wake-feed is a tool that the system may provide so that the users can actively discover content. The Wake-feed may also notify the user about the activity/actions around this content (e.g. added links, relevant links through discovery, ‘likes’, other user comments, and the like.)
In accordance with exemplary and non-limiting embodiments, a Wake contains a collection of human submitted and orchestrated links that may be aimed at a single interest, intention or topic, such as for example, to highlight a political issue or something of interest. This set of links is the informational structure of what the Wake creator is intending to convey to their viewer/follower. Wakes that share common links may have a related informational structure and hence may share the same ideas and sentiment. As a result, any links that are different between these Wakes may also be relevant to the creator of the other Wake. Creating Wakes extends beyond collecting links, information, content, and the like. Creating Wakes may be viewed as akin to telling stories, and being able to pass those stories on. Stories provide identification, a frame of reference and the opportunity to relate to a narrative. Being able to tell compelling visual-linked stories in a meaningful way is an impactful component of the content aggregation and discovery facility.
In accordance with exemplary and non-limiting embodiments, the system may allow for users to create Wakes as a unique expression of their individual style, such as involving the careful, thoughtful, structural, emotional and visual orchestration of content to form the Wake-story thereby delivering a message in a way that is meaningful to the user and/or other people. The aggregation of this content and the relationship between its handpicked and carefully organized links and informational structure creates the context of a Wake. For example, a freelance journalist may create a Wake for organizing content and links from his blog to publish his views on the evolution and future of leading world events; a partner at a private equity firm may create a Wake where she uses the system to keep her clients and team updated with the latest content on potential investment opportunities; a sports fan and sports teacher may create a Wake to organize a specific message on a successful football player with the intention to share this Wake with his students to help motivate and inspire them; a researcher may create a Wake by using the system to gather content for her assignments and research, where she initially keeps her Wakes private so that they are only visible to her and on completion makes some of her private Wakes public so other people can share her findings; a freelance photographer may create a Wake for collecting and sharing her content about her cameras, including product commercials, specifications, comparisons, reviews, guides, pricing, paging, and the like from her blog containing photographs taken using her cameras, and the like. In embodiments, a private Wake may be shared with others, where sharing may be through secure methods and systems known to one skilled in the art. For instance, a lawyer may create a private Wake and share it with another lawyer within the law firm, where the Wake is encrypted to protect against theft or inadvertent sharing of the Wake with an unauthorized person. In embodiments, a group of individuals working collectively on a Wake may be provided a secure Wake collaboration environment.
The system has functions that allow users to create and maintain the contents, such as Wakes and individual links. Users can also continue to interact with the content. The interaction can be various forms such as consuming content, following content, collaborating on content, and the like. The system is comprised of distinct processing units that act upon the content and the user action on the content. These processing units help to unearth relevant content that would be of interest to individual users. All the content, users actions, and users interest are captured and persisted. The profile also consists of digested information that demonstrates the user's interest. The system also contains various interfaces through which users can access their own content and other relevant content.
The system provides content curation 102 to users enabling them to create, add, remove, and copy Wakes in a sophisticated and contextual way. A user may create a Wake, by providing a name and description. While creating a Wake, the user may specify the visibility level of the Wakes. Wakes may be private, public, or accessible to a selected audience. A Wake at the time of creation should consist of at least one link, and the Wake belongs to the user. A user alone may be able to add links to the Wake. If a Wake is private, the owner may alone get to modify the Wake and see the Wake. In case of a public Wake, the owner alone may be able to make modifications, while anyone may be able to see the Wake and its contents. If the Wake has a selected view, then the users selected by the owner alone may have permission to see the Wake. Further, the owner may specify if the selected owners can modify the Wake or not. The user may be allowed to add links to existing Wakes at any time. While adding a link to the Wake, the user may specify the category of the link that is being added. Users may have multiple ways to bring a link to the Wake. They can add a URL to the Wake. They can also add an existing page in the system to the Wake. The user can also remove a link from the Wake. If the last remaining link of the Wake is removed, the Wake ceases to exist in the system. A user may copy a Wake of another user. A copy allows users to create his own Wake and brings in all the links of source Wake to his Wake. After copying, the user is free to modify (add or remove) links from this Wake.
The system accepts content actions 104, such as a user specifying they like a Wake, commenting on Wake, following a Wake, collaborating in a Wake, and the like. A user may ‘Like’ a content existing within the system. A content in context of ‘Like’ is either a ‘Wake’ or ‘Link’ (a.k.a. ‘Shared Link’). Once an action of ‘Like’ is executed, the user interface (UI) may not allow the action to be repeated. As a result of ‘Like’ action a total count of ‘Likes’ of the content may be incremented by one, cumulative ‘Likes’ count of the (content) owner may be incremented by one, and the like, where a content owner is a user who curated specified content. A user can ‘Comment’ a content existing within the system. The content in a context of ‘Comment’ is either a ‘Wake’ or ‘Link’. Each User can ‘Comment’ content available. Every time an action of ‘Comment’ is executed, the UI may display the most recent comment. As a result of ‘Comment’ action a total count of ‘Comments’ of the content may be incremented by one (e.g. for each comment), a cumulative ‘Comments’ count of the content owner may be incremented by one, and the like. A user can ‘Follow’ a content existing within the system. The content in a context of ‘Follow’ is ‘Wake’. Each User may ‘Follow’ content available. Every time an action of ‘Follow’ is executed, the UI may restrict User from following content again—instead the user may be permitted to execute a reverse action, such as ‘Unfollow’. As a result of a ‘Follow’ action a total count of ‘Followers’ of the content may be incremented by one (e.g. for each follower), a cumulative ‘Followers’ count of the content owner may be incremented by one, and the like.
Within context of the system, users may ‘Collaborate’ on content curation. Collaboration is executed within context of a group, which constitutes one or more users. A User who creates a group may ‘invite’ other connected users to the Group and participate in ‘Collaboration’—they become ‘group members’. All content curated within a group is visible to the ‘group members’ and can be modified by them. Reverse action may also be possible, such as through ‘Remove User from a Group’ which will revoke ‘Group membership’ from a specified user. Within the context of a group of users they can have a discussion on the group that may work in a same way as ‘Commenting’, where the difference is that ‘Discussion’ is on a group rather than on a Wake or Link. Within a group of users they may still be allowed to execute ‘Like’, ‘Comment’ and ‘Follow’ in a same way, provided they are not restricted.
The processing system 108 has a number of processing components, including a Wake grader 124, a Wake finder 128, a link analyzer 130, a privacy filter 132, a Wake feed engine 132, and the like. As described more fully below, processing components are logical units of processing that may be implemented in software or hardware to achieve the results described. The Wake grader 124 has a number of attributes associated with it, including Wake constituents, Wake activity factor, Wake relation factor, Wake interest factor, and the like. Wake constituents indicate the individual links that the Wake is composed of It consists of two aspects, namely, a current state and a chronological record of changes. Current state of a Wake indicates the active links that the Wake is composed of at the given point of time. If the Wake has undergone changes such as removal and addition, the chronological change of the Wake is also maintained. Wake grader is responsible of recording the changes in the Wake. Wake grader is also used to calculate the Wake activity factor. The Wake activity factor is a quantified value derived from the changes that have happened on the Wake and the time of the changes. Wakes are related to each other based on certain conditions, such as described herein as associated with the Wake finder 128. Wake grader 124 may assign a relation factor based on the depth and time of the relation. Based on the user's action and the interest on a Wake and its constituents, a quantified value may be assigned to the Wake that demonstrates the particular Wakes interest.
The Wake finder 128 analyzes Wakes and their constituents. It analyzes each constituent on its own merit. The outcome of the analysis is a profile of the link. The profile contains information such as what the links is, which site the link is from, when the link was created, and the like. Using this profile it tries to find other Wakes that are related to the Wake it started analyzing. The basic profile of a link is its URL. So if the link itself is present in another Wake, it will be classified as a related Wake.
The privacy filter 132 relates to the level of privacy that the user may specify for a Wake. Wakes may be defined with access levels. The access levels may be either public, meaning visible to any user in the system. Private, meaning visible only to content generator. Selected, meaning the content generator can designate a select list of his related persons on the Wakelet system. In a selected case it will be visible to all selected members. A Wake's visibility and access may be determined solely by the privacy level of the Wake alone. The privacy levels of individual links may be determined by the associated Wake's privacy level. If a link is present in multiple Wakes, where each Wake has different privacy levels, then the link's privacy level may be determined based on an order, such as public taking the first precedence, followed by selected, and then the private.
The link analyzer 130 profiles the links in the Wake for various purposes. The result of the link analyzer 130 will be different based on the profile run. For instance, the system may offer various profiles, such as a Wake categorization, a Wake relation strength, and the like. In a Wake categorization profile, the link analyzer 130 may check the categories of individual links in the Wake, and automatically categorize the Wake. If the links belong to multiple categories, the link analyzer assigns the Wake to all categories. Also it may use a weighted factor to decide which categories are important. The Wakes category may also be more deterministically narrowed based on the plurality of the categories found among its links, which may be further enhanced by analyzing the relevant links found in other Wakes. In a Wake relation strength profile, when two Wakes in direct relation are found, the link analyzer 130 profiles the number of common links to determine the strength of the Wakes. The number of common links between the links may be a factor used to determine the strength. The ratio of common links to non-common links may be another factor used to determine the strength.
The Wake feed engine 134 reacts to actions happening on content. It transforms actions to interest events and subsequently finds people who are eligible to receive these interest events. The Wake feed engine 134 promotes discovery of new content and relationships between Wakes. It may also inform the user of new Wake actions on Wakes that belong to them. When a user adds a link to an existing Wake that they have created, the Wake feed engine 134 discovers all the other users that follow that particular Wake and notifies them of the new link. If anyone follows a Wake, the owner of the Wake gets notified of the user who is following. A user can copy an existing Wake. In this case the owner of the original Wake will be notified that another user has copied their Wake. If a there is a like or comment on a constituent of the Wake (i.e. a link inside the Wake), all the related users (including the owners and followers) get notified of the relevant action. The action notification may be delivered with an applicable payload (such as the specific comment). When the Wake feed engine 134 needs to notify users of events that have occurred it will calculate who needs to be notified and update the Wake feed of the respective users. If the user is not active, i.e. not logged in, the notification may appear in the user's Wake feed when they subsequently login. However if the user is currently logged into the system they may be notified instantly. If a user has been invited to collaborate on a Wake, then the Wake feed engine 134 may deliver a collaboration notice. The payload of the collaboration notice may carry the inviting user and the relevant Wake.
The content vault 110 is a profile created in the system to reference all the contents the user has interest in. The content vault 110 may consist of all the Wakes and links. The relation to the content will also be retained. The relation could be either owner, follower, or interested in (by liking or commenting on Wakes or its constituents). The user may also be provided a user interface to visualize this content 118. The feed vault 112, is an active archive consisting of all the feeds generated by the Wake feed engine for the specific user.
When a user performs actions on the system (all actions including content curation and content action), the system may assume that there is a hidden interest by the user. Over a period of time the system may build a quantified user interest profile 114 of the user. This quantified user interest profile 114 may be a collective inference made based on the type of content he demonstrated his interest in and the period. Some of the information that may be captured in the system as part of the user interest profile 114 may include the number of Wakes created by the user, by its category; if a user has created larger number of Wakes in a particular topic recently (e.g. sports) then that topic is added to his interest profile. The System may track the amount of activity around types of content (e.g. videos, pages, and the like). If the user has greater activity on videos, their interest profile will have videos added to it, and the like.
A user may submit a new link to the system or add a link that already exists in the system to their Wakes. This demonstrates an interest from the user.
A user may be able to create a copy of a public Wake for their own orchestration needs. When this happens it demonstrates that the user has a common interest to the specific Wake and/or Wake creator.
A user may be able to interact (including but not limited to ‘Likes’, ‘Follows’, ‘Comments’) with the links and the Wakes in the system, and the like.
The described content discovery platform encourages common interests. In an example,
In a use-case example, common interest may be used to discover related content in a research context (such as projects, studies etc). For instance, User J is a research student in neurology. User J curates a Wake consisting of large set of links related to his doctoral thesis. User S is a research assistant in another university working on the same research area. User S starts creating a Wake. Due to their quite narrow field of specialization, User S adds a link to his Wake, which is also present in User J's Wake. In this instance, the system will present all of User J's Wake to User S on his feed. User S gets access to information which is very relevant to him. Most of the information in User J will also be relevant to User S.
In another user-case example, common interest may be used to discover related content in a commercial context. For instance User K is a skiing enthusiast. He plans to enjoy a ski holiday at a new resort in southern France which he has not visited. User K creates a Wake to collect all his links for his ski trip. While adding some links, User K finds some relevant links from User T Wake, who incidentally had been to the same ski resort. User K finds links on places to eat, plan of ski track, ski rental place, hotels to stay. User T has different plans for lodging (say at a nearby town). So the links he found on lodging may be not relevant, however links he discovered on ski rental is useful to him.
The preceding two examples illustrate how one user's Wake is of interest to another, but in different respects. The producing user had a specific intention in creating each of the Wakes. The consuming user of the Wake might be interested in all or some of the links. The consuming user's action (such as copying links to his own Wake or liking a link or following a Wake), will provide a basis to understand different structures of a Wake and its related context. Similarly the metadata of each links will help to classify the structure more clearly. The system uses this information to analyze and categorize Wakes.
In another use-case example, the system may recommend Wakes, such as when the user was viewing a link from the public links page. For instance, user L goes to the landing page, where the landing page lists all the individual links in the system. User L is interested in one of the links. User L clicks to the link to explore more. The system finds all the Wakes the link is present in, and provides these Wakes to the User L. The system may also perform filtering on the all the Wakes, to select a subset of a Wake for providing it to User L. This filtering may happen based on different factors such the structure of the Wakes, user interest profile and the like.
In an embodiment example of the system, a Wake may be used to facilitate collaboration amongst a private group of disease control specialists, field scientists, epidemiologists, and the like, created by a group administer in the area of healthcare and charity. The collaborative Wake may address outbreaks, where scientists working on an outbreak of a communicable disease could each have responsibility for uploading content, pages, links, and the like, and system could create a live ‘picture’ of disease status, such as including a link to a geographical information system (GIS). The Wake can act as a journal article and evidence repository. This Wake may be a group-Wake, with permissions for group members, where members add content; new content is notified to the other members through the Wake discovery system, and the like.
In embodiments, the content aggregation and discovery facility may be used by commercial entities, such as in the form of a Wake-store facility. A user may visit the Wake-store facility, which may contain a library of external stores and their associated Wakes. Libraries may include stores for numerous verticals, such as retail, wholesale, consumer goods, healthcare, services, and the like. Each store may be visually represented by its own Wake search engine system. Each store may have its own Wakes relative to what products they are offering. The Wake search engine user interface may be visually configured to personalize the store and may allow a selection of widgets. The Wakes in the store system may be specific to a single product e.g. Rebook ‘Crossfit’ running shoes or to a group of a products e.g. Reebok Running Shoes. If the user likes a product, the user may be able to follow the specific product Wake. If the user follows a Wake from a specific store, the Wake may be displayed in the users store Wake search engine system. Following a Wake may create a relationship between the user, Wake, product, store, friends, connections, and the like. The users Wake search engine system may contain multiple Wakes from the same store or may be made up from Wakes from multiple stores. The Wakes in the users Wake search engine system may be categorized and organized. This may allow the user to personally curate his or her own store made up of components of multiple stores. The users store may only be made up of products that he or she is interested in. If the store has new information around a specific product, the store may update the product Wake. Updates may include new or removal of content articles, videos, blogs, comments, and the like. Based on the update, the user may be automatically notified through the users Wake discovery system (such as through the Wake-feed and related pages).
In embodiments, the user may not be following a brand/store, but rather a specific product Wake within the store. This may allow the store to better know the specific user interest. Since the user is following a product Wake(s) from a specific store, the user has created a relationship/interest between the user, Wake, product, store, friends, and the like, or connections using the store or following the product or similar products. The store may now be able to tailor its marketing more accurately based on the personally requested/interested needs of the user. Because the user only enters the store at will, it may also mean that the user is highly interested in browsing or potentially buying. This potentially leads to a higher conversion, where if you compare this to the physical world, a user who willingly visits a store has a much greater chance of making a purchase, and so the rate of acquiring a product may be very high. The store could also display special offers and recommend products and the like on its Wake search engine system user interface. A store loyalty system could be provided. Analytics may be provided based on user, product, friends, connections, and the like. Because of the way this system operates (the user entering at will and only selecting items of interest), it may be significantly less intrusive than the conventional types of unsolicited advertising. Moving away from conventional advertising to a store also ensures that the system usability and user experience is not impacted due to advertising. The user's personal store may be public or private and information/product recommendations may be easily established between people and products and reported through the discovery system.
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In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a web-based advertisement may be provided to users with quality relevant content (“QRC”) to engage users with one or a plurality of brand, product and/or service. QRC may be created out of existing aggregations of content (“Wakes”) or newly created Wakes on any subject or topic that are of interest by themselves and that may be linked or tied into one or a plurality of brands, products or services (referred to as “AdWakes” herein). Instead of traditional advertising promoting the features or quality of one or a plurality of brands, products or services, this application provides for the creation of stories, features, reports and accounts using aggregations of pictures, video, text, and weblinks that attract users who are targeted by the advertiser through their interest in a story, topic, feature, report or other account. Standard advertising may link to an AdWake and advertisers may identify Wakes that are relevant to their brand, product or service and link to the Wake, or copy and enhance the Wake. Advertisers may be able to build affinity groups, brand awareness, loyalty programs, and the like. User engagement may be increased through AdWakes that increases conversations among users, between users and the advertisers, through comments on AdWakes, additions to AdWakes, general communication among users and the advertiser, and the like.
The AdWakes and user interaction may provide data for analysis to further enhance and target users and improve and make AdWakes more relevant and interesting. AdWakes may help users make decisions to purchase; share information, comments or interest in one or a plurality of brands, products or services with others; contact or visit the advertiser; or otherwise pursue their interest in the brand, product or service. AdWakes may improve engagement among users since the AdWakes may be created through personal user development of QRC. Advertisers may be able to develop dynamic user communities to promote their brand, product or service instead of simple static advertisements and campaigns.
In embodiments, AdWakes may be created by advertisers linking to existing Wakes; advertisers copying existing Wakes and adding QRC; users interested in an advertisers brand, product, or service; persons interested in developing QRC for one or a plurality of brands, products or services; advertisers creating new Wakes that provide QRC through stories, features, reports and accounts; and the like.
AdWakes may be graded and ranked by relevance, interest, or other metrics for monitoring, improving, and enhancing the AdWakes, and advertisers may provide incentives to users for AdWakes drawing the most traffic, interest and/or sales and to encourage the upkeep of such AdWakes for quality, relevance and import. For instance, metrics on AdWakes may include the number of Wake links, Wake followers, Wake comments, and social media followers, social share rankings, Wake quality including ranking and grading of users and Wakes, and other means to measure interest and effectiveness of an AdWake.
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AdWakes may be displayed in a Wakelet Advert that includes one or a plurality of text, drawings and pictures including information on the brand, product or service, description of the Wake, rankings and user interaction and identifying and ranking the creator of the AdWake, such as depicted in
AdWakes may be used as an advertising platform for multiple media types including without limitation computers, smartphones, tablets, phablets, appliances and anything capable of receiving and displaying information, including use on devices included in what is referred to as the Internet of Things. Advertisers may promote brands, products and services, and provide services to customers and other parties by creating official destination page comprised of a Wake that is device agnostic and includes brand, product and service information and social media metrics related to such brand, product or service.
Wakes may be created for one or a plurality of brands, products or services as a platform to support loyal customers, affinity groups, and market segments to promote, inform, and support communication among customers, potential customers, and other interested persons. These Wakes may include community comments, collections of official brand, product and service content, collections of user generated brand, product and service content, and curated social media conversations about brands, products and services.
Wakes and AdWakes may be identified by keywords and ranked by a Wake Grader to sort Wakes by chosen criteria. Advertisers may bid or pay for highest-ranking Wakes based on keywords directly related to their brand, product or service and have an advertisement or AdWake displayed on relevant pages on the Wakelet platform. These AdWakes may be support on an advert Supplier Side Platform (“SSP”) that is part of the Wakelet platform. The SSP may measure impression and click-throughs to a Wake link, as well as the virality or tendency of an image, video, or piece of information to be circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another, as well as the engagement and behavior of users accessing Wakes.
AdWakes that are relevant to user searches, interests, and online behavior may be added as recommended Wakes to a user's Wakes or searches.
The Wakelet platform may also support a marketplace for publishers of Wakes who create Wakes for one or a plurality of brands, products or services.
Advertisers can add tracking that attributes a particular interaction (e.g. click of a link in a wake) to a sale, purchase or commercial transaction, and that may provide user details including a user profile, user email, or other user characteristics. Tracking and analysis of user behaviour and transactions can provide feedback to advertisers on Wake and AdWake ranking, quality and interest, as well as provide consumer information showing demographics, geographic locations, purchase timing, seasonality, and event-based transactions. Advertisers could test multiple AdWakes that enable it to determine effective means of reaching customers and relative strength of different ad campaigns.
Information, tracking and analysis of AdWakes and user behaviour can provide insight into user interest, preferences, and desires through analysis of individual user or a plurality of user likes and interaction habits, for example, viewing a wake on a particular topic, commenting on a wake, liking a link, liking a wake, following a user and other social metrics. This information, tracking and analysis could be included in the promotion of a link, Wake, or AdWake and included in recommended links or in the search results.
Appendix A provides an exemplary and non-limiting embodiment overview description of the how advertisements (e.g., AdWakes) may be implemented utilizing Wakes as described herein.
In embodiments, a wake ranking facility (also referred to herein as a content aggregation ranking facility) may be provided for ranking wakes, such as for determining a rank ordering of the results for a user search, for ranking wakes relative to each other, and the like. Ranking wakes is different from ranking individual web links, because wakes include a collection of interrelated links. For instance, existing methods for ranking individual links may use recursive algorithms that look at incoming and outgoing links to a web page, or machine-learning algorithms that look at factors related to the link, such as content, author, incoming links. In contrast, wake ranking ranks a collection of links, where the collection comprises a much richer set of features than a single link, and which yields a more challenging ranking problem.
The wake ranking facility may provide for the ranking of wakes as part of a process of ranking the results from an Internet search, such as where a user initiates a search in a search engine with a search term (e.g., word, string of words, logical search string, and the like) and the search engine returns a rank order of wakes, a rank order of single URL search results (e.g., a result including a URL that identifies the location of a single webpage), a combination of wakes (e.g., the wake having multiple URL links associated with it) and single URL search results, and the like. The wake ranking facility may provide a rank ordering of wakes based on a search term through relating the search term to some characteristic of a wake, such as a threshold number of URL links in a wake that relate to the search term, the popularity of a wake (e.g., determined through a popularity rating threshold from accesses of the wake) that is topically related to the search term, and the like. For example, an Internet search may be executed with the search term and the URLs returned from that search may be compared to the URLs included in a wake, where a ranking of wakes would then be made based on the number of URLs in the wakes compared to the URLs returned from the search. One skilled in the art will appreciate that this is one of many ways in which a search term may be correlated with a wake characteristic such as the wake's URL content to implement the comparison of a search term to a wake characteristic in the relative ranking of wakes in search results, and is not meant to be limiting in any way. Wake characteristics, or features, may be determined through a machine learning system, such as where the machine learning system has been trained on a training set of wakes to extract features, and where the machine learning system then evaluates wakes created by users for these features, enabling the wake ranking facility to then use these features to rank a plurality of wakes relative to the search term. The wake ranking facility may provide ranked wakes directly to a user search query, to a third-party search engine in response to a user initiating an Internet search on the third-party search engine, and the like. The wake ranking facility may provide ranked wakes in response to a user searching for wakes (e.g., directly to the content aggregation and discovery facility), in response to a general Internet search (e.g., into an Internet search engine), and the like.
The wake ranking facility may provide for the ranking of wakes relative to one another based on a characteristic or feature of wakes, such as based on the number of common links a wake has with other wakes, the number of links a wake has to popular websites, the popularity of the wake as determined by number of views (e.g., of the wake, of reference to the wake in social media, to references to the wake's topic in social media), and the like. Wake characteristics, or features, may be determined according to hand-crafted rules, may be determined through a machine learning system, and the like, such as where the machine learning system has been trained on a training set of wakes to extract features, and where the machine learning system then evaluates wakes created by users for these features, enabling the wake ranking facility to then use these features to rank a plurality of wakes relative to one another.
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The wake ranking facility may be provided for use in search engines that are only searching on wakes, or searching for individual links as well as wakes. In this way, the wake ranking facility may provide a ranking for wakes along with ranking for individual links (such as provided by the search engine or by the wake ranking facility), thus providing a system for rank searching for both wakes and individual links. With reference to
The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or in whole through a machine that executes computer software, program codes, and/or instructions on a processor. The present invention may be implemented as a method on the machine, as a system or apparatus as part of or in relation to the machine, or as a computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium executing on one or more of the machines. The processor may be part of a server, client, network infrastructure, mobile computing platform, stationary computing platform, or other computing platform. A processor may be any kind of computational or processing device capable of executing program instructions, codes, binary instructions and the like. The processor may be or include a signal processor, digital processor, embedded processor, microprocessor or any variant such as a co-processor (math co-processor, graphic co-processor, communication co-processor and the like) and the like that may directly or indirectly facilitate execution of program code or program instructions stored thereon. In addition, the processor may enable execution of multiple programs, threads, and codes. The threads may be executed simultaneously to enhance the performance of the processor and to facilitate simultaneous operations of the application. By way of implementation, methods, program codes, program instructions and the like described herein may be implemented in one or more thread. The thread may spawn other threads that may have assigned priorities associated with them; the processor may execute these threads based on priority or any other order based on instructions provided in the program code. The processor may include memory that stores methods, codes, instructions and programs as described herein and elsewhere. The processor may access a storage medium through an interface that may store methods, codes, and instructions as described herein and elsewhere. The storage medium associated with the processor for storing methods, programs, codes, program instructions or other type of instructions capable of being executed by the computing or processing device may include but may not be limited to one or more of a CD-ROM, DVD, memory, hard disk, flash drive, RAM, ROM, cache and the like.
A processor may include one or more cores that may enhance speed and performance of a multiprocessor. In embodiments, the process may be a dual core processor, quad core processors, other chip-level multiprocessor and the like that combine two or more independent cores (called a die).
The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or in whole through a machine that executes computer software on a server, client, firewall, gateway, hub, router, or other such computer and/or networking hardware. The software program may be associated with a server that may include a file server, print server, domain server, internet server, intranet server and other variants such as secondary server, host server, distributed server and the like. The server may include one or more of memories, processors, computer readable media, storage media, ports (physical and virtual), communication devices, and interfaces capable of accessing other servers, clients, machines, and devices through a wired or a wireless medium, and the like. The methods, programs, or codes as described herein and elsewhere may be executed by the server. In addition, other devices required for execution of methods as described in this application may be considered as a part of the infrastructure associated with the server.
The server may provide an interface to other devices including, without limitation, clients, other servers, printers, database servers, print servers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers and the like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitate remote execution of program across the network. The networking of some or all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a program or method at one or more location without deviating from the scope of the invention. In addition, any of the devices attached to the server through an interface may include at least one storage medium capable of storing methods, programs, code and/or instructions. A central repository may provide program instructions to be executed on different devices. In this implementation, the remote repository may act as a storage medium for program code, instructions, and programs.
The software program may be associated with a client that may include a file client, print client, domain client, internet client, intranet client and other variants such as secondary client, host client, distributed client and the like. The client may include one or more of memories, processors, computer readable media, storage media, ports (physical and virtual), communication devices, and interfaces capable of accessing other clients, servers, machines, and devices through a wired or a wireless medium, and the like. The methods, programs, or codes as described herein and elsewhere may be executed by the client. In addition, other devices required for execution of methods as described in this application may be considered as a part of the infrastructure associated with the client.
The client may provide an interface to other devices including, without limitation, servers, other clients, printers, database servers, print servers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers and the like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitate remote execution of program across the network. The networking of some or all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a program or method at one or more location without deviating from the scope of the invention. In addition, any of the devices attached to the client through an interface may include at least one storage medium capable of storing methods, programs, applications, code and/or instructions. A central repository may provide program instructions to be executed on different devices. In this implementation, the remote repository may act as a storage medium for program code, instructions, and programs.
The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or in whole through network infrastructures. The network infrastructure may include elements such as computing devices, servers, routers, hubs, firewalls, clients, personal computers, communication devices, routing devices and other active and passive devices, modules and/or components as known in the art. The computing and/or non-computing device(s) associated with the network infrastructure may include, apart from other components, a storage medium such as flash memory, buffer, stack, RAM, ROM and the like. The processes, methods, program codes, instructions described herein and elsewhere may be executed by one or more of the network infrastructural elements.
The methods, program codes, and instructions described herein and elsewhere may be implemented on a cellular network having multiple cells. The cellular network may either be frequency division multiple access (FDMA) network or code division multiple access (CDMA) network. The cellular network may include mobile devices, cell sites, base stations, repeaters, antennas, towers, and the like. The cell network may be a GSM, GPRS, 3G, EVDO, mesh, or other networks types.
The methods, programs codes, and instructions described herein and elsewhere may be implemented on or through mobile devices. The mobile devices may include navigation devices, cell phones, mobile phones, mobile personal digital assistants, laptops, palmtops, netbooks, pagers, electronic books readers, music players and the like. These devices may include, apart from other components, a storage medium such as a flash memory, buffer, RAM, ROM and one or more computing devices. The computing devices associated with mobile devices may be enabled to execute program codes, methods, and instructions stored thereon. Alternatively, the mobile devices may be configured to execute instructions in collaboration with other devices. The mobile devices may communicate with base stations interfaced with servers and configured to execute program codes. The mobile devices may communicate on a peer-to-peer network, mesh network, or other communications network. The program code may be stored on the storage medium associated with the server and executed by a computing device embedded within the server. The base station may include a computing device and a storage medium. The storage device may store program codes and instructions executed by the computing devices associated with the base station.
The computer software, program codes, and/or instructions may be stored and/or accessed on machine readable media that may include: computer components, devices, and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time; semiconductor storage known as random access memory (RAM); mass storage typically for more permanent storage, such as optical discs, forms of magnetic storage like hard disks, tapes, drums, cards and other types; processor registers, cache memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory; optical storage such as CD, DVD; removable media such as flash memory (e.g. USB sticks or keys), floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punch cards, standalone RAM disks, Zip drives, removable mass storage, off-line, and the like; other computer memory such as dynamic memory, static memory, read/write storage, mutable storage, read only, random access, sequential access, location addressable, file addressable, content addressable, network attached storage, storage area network, bar codes, magnetic ink, and the like.
The methods and systems described herein may transform physical and/or or intangible items from one state to another. The methods and systems described herein may also transform data representing physical and/or intangible items from one state to another.
The elements described and depicted herein, including in flow charts and block diagrams throughout the figures, imply logical boundaries between the elements. However, according to software or hardware engineering practices, the depicted elements and the functions thereof may be implemented on machines through computer executable media having a processor capable of executing program instructions stored thereon as a monolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or as modules that employ external routines, code, services, and so forth, or any combination of these, and all such implementations may be within the scope of the present disclosure. Examples of such machines may include, but may not be limited to, personal digital assistants, laptops, personal computers, mobile phones, other handheld computing devices, medical equipment, wired or wireless communication devices, transducers, chips, calculators, satellites, tablet PCs, electronic books, gadgets, electronic devices, devices having artificial intelligence, computing devices, networking equipments, servers, routers and the like. Furthermore, the elements depicted in the flow chart and block diagrams or any other logical component may be implemented on a machine capable of executing program instructions. Thus, while the foregoing drawings and descriptions set forth functional aspects of the disclosed systems, no particular arrangement of software for implementing these functional aspects should be inferred from these descriptions unless explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context. Similarly, it will be appreciated that the various steps identified and described above may be varied, and that the order of steps may be adapted to particular applications of the techniques disclosed herein. All such variations and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure. As such, the depiction and/or description of an order for various steps should not be understood to require a particular order of execution for those steps, unless required by a particular application, or explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context.
The methods and/or processes described above, and steps thereof, may be realized in hardware, software or any combination of hardware and software suitable for a particular application. The hardware may include a general-purpose computer and/or dedicated computing device or specific computing device or particular aspect or component of a specific computing device. The processes may be realized in one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, embedded microcontrollers, programmable digital signal processors or other programmable device, along with internal and/or external memory. The processes may also, or instead, be embodied in an application specific integrated circuit, a programmable gate array, programmable array logic, or any other device or combination of devices that may be configured to process electronic signals. It will further be appreciated that one or more of the processes may be realized as a computer executable code capable of being executed on a machine-readable medium.
The computer executable code may be created using a structured programming language such as C, an object oriented programming language such as C++, or any other high-level or low-level programming language (including assembly languages, hardware description languages, and database programming languages and technologies) that may be stored, compiled or interpreted to run on one of the above devices, as well as heterogeneous combinations of processors, processor architectures, or combinations of different hardware and software, or any other machine capable of executing program instructions.
Thus, in one aspect, each method described above and combinations thereof may be embodied in computer executable code that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof. In another aspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that perform the steps thereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number of ways, or all of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated, standalone device or other hardware. In another aspect, the means for performing the steps associated with the processes described above may include any of the hardware and/or software described above. All such permutations and combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications and improvements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention is not to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood in the broadest sense allowable by law.
All documents referenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference.
This application is a continuation-in-part of the following U.S. patent application, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/708,091, filed Dec. 7, 2012. The application Ser. No. 13/708,091 claims the benefit of the following provisional application: U.S. Pat. No. 61/568,928, filed Dec. 9, 2011. This application claims the benefit of the following provisional application: U.S. Pat. No. 62/000,236, filed May 19, 2014. All the above applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61568928 | Dec 2011 | US | |
| 62000236 | May 2014 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13708091 | Dec 2012 | US |
| Child | 14716235 | US |
