Temporal content selection

A system for temporal content selection via a computer network, comprising:

• an interface executing on one or more processors configured to receive, responsive to a search query input into a search engine, a request for a content item to be displayed alongside search results, the request associated with a first keyword corresponding to the search query;
• a keyword lookup module executing on the one or more processors configured to parse a data structure storing historically linked keywords to select a second keyword linked to the first keyword via a historical link, the historical link generated based on a frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the second keyword in historical content;
• a content selector executing on the one or more processors configured to select a first content item for display alongside the first search results based on the second keyword;
• the interface module configured to receive a second request for a content item to be displayed alongside second search results, the second request associated with the first keyword;
• the keyword lookup module further configured to parse a second data structure storing temporally linked keywords to select a third keyword temporally linked to the first keyword in the second data structure based on a frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the third keyword in online documents published within a temporal threshold satisfying a frequency of co-occurrence threshold, wherein the temporal link between the first keyword and the third keyword is based on comparing the frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the third keyword in the online documents with a historical frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the third keyword;
• the content selector configured to identify a plurality of content items matching the third keyword, determine that a content provider of a second content item of the plurality of content items provided an indication to use temporal links for content selection, and select, based on the indication, the second content item as a candidate for display alongside the second search results.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage device comprising processor executable instructions for temporal content selection via a computer network, the instructions comprising instructions to:

• receive, responsive to a search query input into a search engine, a request for a content item to be displayed alongside search results, the request associated with a first keyword corresponding to the search query;
• parse a data structure storing historically linked keywords to select a second keyword linked to the first keyword via a historical link, the historical link generated based on a frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the second keyword in historical content;
• select a first content item for display alongside the first search results based on the second keyword;
• receive a second request for a content item to be displayed alongside second search results, the second request associated with the first keyword;
• parse a second data structure storing temporally linked keywords to select a third keyword temporally linked to the first keyword in the second data structure based on a frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the third keyword in online documents published within a temporal threshold satisfying a frequency of co-occurrence threshold, wherein the temporal link between the first keyword and the third keyword is based on comparing the frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the third keyword in the online documents with a historical frequency of co-occurrence of the first keyword and the third keyword;
• identify a plurality of content items matching the third keyword;
• determine that a content provider of a second content item of the plurality of content items provided an indication to use temporal links for content selection;
• and
• select, based on the indication, the second content item as a candidate for display alongside the second search results.