USER INTERFACE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INCREMENTALLY SEARCHING AND SELECTING CONTENT ITEMS AND FOR PRESENTING ADVERTISING IN RESPONSE TO SEARCH ACTIVITIES
A user-interface method of incrementally identifying and presenting a collection of content items and a collection of advertisements in which the identification is at least in part based on input incrementally entered by a user on an input-constrained device is presented. The method includes providing a set of content items and bids with associated advertisements. The bids organized into unambiguous and ambiguous categories. Incremental input is entered in order to identify desired content items. In response to the incremental input content items are identified and provided. Advertisements are also identified and provided based on a predetermined function. The presentation order is determined at least in part by an economic utility function.
1 . A user-interface method of incrementally identifying and presenting a collection of content items and a collection of advertisements in which the identification is at least in part based on input incrementally entered by a user on an input-constrained device, the method comprising:
providing a set of content items, each content item having at least one associated descriptive term to describe the content item;
providing a set of bids and associated advertisements, each bid comprising at least one descriptive term to describe an associated advertisement; the bids being organized into at least an unambiguous category and an ambiguous category;
receiving incremental input entered on the input-constrained device by the user for identifying desired content items, the input having a set of user entry actions, each entry action having an associated set of at least one alphanumeric symbols, said input indicative of at least one prefix for a descriptive term the user is using to identify desired content;
in response to the incremental input entered by the user, identifying and presenting a relevant subset of the content items to the user;
in response to the incremental input entered by the use, determining, for each bid in the unambiguous category, whether the incremental input matches a descriptive term describing an associated advertisement;
if at least one match is detected, selecting and presenting the associated advertisements for all matching bids in the unambiguous category, in a presentation order determined at least in part by a pre-specified economic utility function; and
if no match is detected, selecting and presenting advertisements for all bids in the ambiguous category, in a presentation order determined at least in part by an economic utility function and by analyzing the incremental input entered by the user in relation to the descriptive terms associated with advertisements for all bids in the ambiguous category to determine the relative relevance of the advertisements.
2 . A method of claim 1 , wherein the selection of content and advertisements is additionally based on learned user preferences, the method further comprising:
receiving selection actions from the user to select content items from the presented relevant subset of content items;
analyzing the descriptive terms associated with the selected content items to determine learn user preferences, wherein the economic utility function considers the learned user preferences and raises the expected economic utility of bids associated with the learned user preferences.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection of content and advertisements is additionally based on the user context within which the input was entered, the method further comprising:
determining a user context in which the user entered the incremental input, the user context including at least one of: geographic location of the user, date, day, and time;
wherein the economic utility function considers the user context and raises the expected economic utility of bids associated with the user context.