Prioritizing content based on user frequency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9477376-B1
Application number	US-201213720931-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 19, 2012
Priority date	Dec 19, 2012
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 2016

Abstract

Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for prioritizing content items based on a request frequency for a user. A system is configured to receive a request for a user interface containing content items for a user, retrieve, in response to the request for the user interface containing content items for the user, a set of content items for the user, and calculate a request frequency score for the user based on a frequency of user requests for the user interface containing content items for the user. The system may further be configured to adjust a priority score for each content item in the set of content items based on the request frequency score for the user and provide the set of content items for display to the user based on the priority score for each content item.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving a request for a user interface configured to display content items to a user;
retrieving, in response to the request for the user interface, a set of content items corresponding to the request;
determining that the request is one of a plurality of instances of the request having been received;
calculating a request frequency score for the user, the request frequency score identifying a frequency at which the plurality of instances of the request were received;
determining whether the request frequency score exceeds a threshold value;
adjusting a priority score for at least one content item in the set of content items based on an age score for the at least one content item and an importance score for the at least one content item, the priority score being adjusted based on the age score having a greater weighting than the importance score when the request frequency score exceeds the threshold value, the priority score being adjusted based on the importance score having a greater weighting than the age score when the request frequency score does not exceed the threshold value; and
providing the at least one content item associated with the adjusted priority score for display to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating the age score for the content item based on a current date and time and a date and time for when the content item was published; and
calculating the importance score for the content item based on at least one of a subject associated with the content item, keywords associated with the content item, a number of times the content item has been viewed, a number of times the content item has been republished, a number of times the content item has been socially endorsed, or a source of the content item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of the request frequency score for the user comprises:
identifying entries in a request history corresponding to the plurality of instances of the request received during a period of time; and
determining an average number of requests received during the period of time based on the identified entries,
wherein the request frequency score is calculated based on the average number of requests received during the period of time.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
storing, in response to the receiving of the request for the user interface containing content items for the user, an entry in the request history for the user, wherein the entry comprises a timestamp corresponding to when the request is received.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the entry is stored prior to the calculating of the request frequency score.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request for the user interface containing content items for the user comprises a request for a webpage comprising the content items.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the providing of the set of content items for display to the user comprises:
generating the webpage comprising the content items; and
transmitting the webpage to a client device associated with the user.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing of the set of content items for the display to the user comprises transmitting a prioritized list of the set of content items to a client device associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a higher request frequency score for the user is associated with the priority score for each content item being calculated with less emphasis on the importance score for the content item relative to the age score for the content item.

10. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request for content items for a user;
retrieving, in response to the request, a set of content items for the user;
determining that the request is one of a plurality of instances of the request having been received;
calculating a request frequency score for the user for the user, the request frequency score identifying a frequency at which the plurality of instances of the request were received;
determining whether the request frequency score exceeds a threshold value;
adjusting a priority score for each content item in the set of content items based on an age score for each content item and an importance score for each content item, the priority score being adjusted based on the age score having a greater weighting than the importance score when the request frequency score exceeds the threshold value, the priority score being adjusted based on the importance score having a greater weighting than the age score when the request frequency score does not exceed the threshold value; and
providing the set of content items for display to the user based on the adjusted priority score for each content item.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
calculating the age score for the content item based on a current date and time and a date and time for when the content item was published.

12. The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
calculating the importance score for the content item based on at least one of a subject associated with the content item, keywords associated with the content item, a number of times the content item has been viewed, a number of times the content item has been republished, a number of times the content item has been socially endorsed, or a source of the content item.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the calculating of the request frequency score for the user comprises:
identifying entries in a request history corresponding to the plurality of instances of the request received during a period of time;
determining an average number of requests received during the period of time based on the identified entries; and
wherein the request frequency score for the user is calculated based on the average number of requests received during the period of time.

14. The system of claim 13 , further comprising:
storing, in response to the receiving of the request, an entry in the request history for the user, wherein the entry comprises a timestamp corresponding to when the request is received.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the entry is stored after the calculating of the request frequency score.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the request for content items comprises a request for a webpage comprising the content items.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request for content items for a user;
calculating a request frequency score for the user based on at least one previous request for content items for the user, the request frequency score identifying a frequency at which the request and the at least one previous request were received;
retrieving, in response to the request, a set of content items for the user;
determining whether the request frequency score exceeds a threshold value;
calculating a priority score for each content item in the set of content items based on the request frequency score for the user, an age score for the content item, and an importance score for the content item, the priority score being calculated based on the age score having a greater weighting than the importance score when the request frequency score exceeds the thr

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Stout James
• Hendrix Philip

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F3/0482 Primary

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F16/335 Primary

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles (filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536) · CPC title