Probabilistic inference of demographic information from user selection of content
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsDeepak Jindal, Gokul Rajaram
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Demographic information for users and content are collected based on users' content selections. Each user is associated with some demographic data. Users who select particular content, such as an advertisement or a web page, are probabilistically inferred to be in the demographic associated with the content. The demographic data of users who selected the content are aggregated into visitor demographic data for the content. The demographic associated with the content may be modified based on the visitor demographic data. A feedback loop is formed, whereby the demographic data of both users and the content are continuously refined.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method of inferring demographic information, comprising:
- at a server system including one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs, the one or more processors executing the one or more programs to perform the operations of:
- incrementally updating demographic data stored in memory of the server system in response to a respective access of content by a respective user, wherein updating demographic data comprises:
- identifying user demographic data for the respective user, wherein the user demographic data includes demographic characteristics associated with the respective user;
- modifying the user demographic data in accordance with demographic data associated with the content accessed by the respective user to produce modified user demographic data;
- identifying visitor demographic data for the content accessed by the respective user, wherein the visitor demographic data is an aggregate of the user demographic data of users who accessed the content;
- modifying the visitor demographic data for the content in accordance with the user demographic data for the respective user;
- and
- repeating the updating in response to a plurality of successive content access operations by a plurality of respective users over time, including modifying the user demographic data for a respective user in accordance with the modified visitor demographic data associated with content accessed by the respective user.
A system for inferring demographic data, comprising:
- one or more processors;
- memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors;
- and
- a demographic data module including instructions, executable by the one or more processors, for:
- incrementally updating demographic data in response to a respective access of content by a respective user, wherein updating demographic data comprises:
- identifying user demographic data for the respective user, wherein the user demographic data includes demographic characteristics associated with the respective user;
- modifying the user demographic data in accordance with demographic data associated with the content accessed by the respective user to produce modified user demographic data;
- identifying visitor demographic data for the content accessed by the respective user, wherein the visitor demographic data is an aggregate of the user demographic data of users who accessed the content;
- and
- modifying the visitor demographic data for the content in accordance with the user demographic data for the respective user;
- and
- repeating the updating in response to a plurality of successive content access operations by a plurality of respective users over time, including modifying the user demographic data for a respective user in accordance with the modified visitor demographic data associated with content accessed by the respective user.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of a server system, the computer readable storage medium including instructions for inferring demographic information, comprising instructions for:
- incrementally updating demographic data in response to a respective access of content by a respective user, wherein updating demographic data comprises:
- identifying user demographic data for the user, wherein the user demographic data includes demographic characteristics associated with the respective user;
- modifying the user demographic data in accordance with demographic data associated with the content accessed by the respective user to produce modified user demographic data;
- identifying visitor demographic data for the content accessed by the respective user, wherein the visitor demographic data is an aggregate of the user demographic data of users who accessed the content;
- modifying the visitor demographic data for the content in accordance with the user demographic data for the respective user;
- and
- repeating the updating in response to a plurality of successive content access operations by a plurality of respective users over time, including modifying the user demographic data for a respective user in accordance with the modified visitor demographic data associated with content accessed by the respective user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.