IP Library Granted Patent US 12,530,415
Granted Patent B2
US 12,530,415 · App. 17/872,706 · Granted Jan 20, 2026

Method and system of personalized blending for content recommendation

Inventors: Rao Shen (Sunnyvale, CA); Kostas Tsioutsiouliklis (Saratoga, CA); Donghyun Kim (San Jose, CA); Yufeng Ma (Sunnyvale, CA); Yu Wang (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: YAHOO ASSETS LLC
G06F16/9535G06F16/972G06N5/04G06N20/00
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,530,415
App. No.
17/872,706
Granted
Jan 20, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present teaching relates to personalized content recommendation. A webpage is contrasted for a user having a plurality of slots each of which is to be allocated with a content item. For each of the plurality of slots, a plurality of content items in a plurality of types of content are accessed. For each of the plurality of types of content, a personalized score is predicted for each content item in the type of content, wherein the personalized score is obtained based on a trained model trained. A recommended content item of the type of content is selected based on personalized scores. An overall recommended content item is selected and allocated to a slot based on criteria associated with the personalized scores of the recommended content items and a business rule. The webpage with the plurality of slots allocated with content items is provided to the user.

Claims (57)

1 . A method, implemented on a machine having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform capable of connecting to a network for training a model used for estimating a reward for a content item, the method comprising:

obtaining, by a training engine, training data which provides a guided exploration mechanism that efficiently balances between exploration and exploitation strategies;

training, by the training engine via machine learning, the model by performing training iterations each of which includes:

selecting, from a plurality of actions, a first action associated with the content item according to a policy, wherein the first action has been previously selected, and wherein the first action corresponds to selecting the content item from one of a plurality of data corpuses and allocating the selected content item at a first slot on a first webpage, wherein the plurality of data corpuses store different types of content items, respectively,

obtaining a reward associated with the first action,

updating the model based on the obtained reward,

updating the policy based on at least one of the first action, the obtained reward, and the obtained training data,

choosing a second action and obtaining information about the second action, wherein the second action has not been previously chosen, and

updating the model and the policy based on the information about the second action;

selecting, based on the model and from the plurality of data corpuses, at least one content item to be displayed at one of slots on a second webpage;

validating the at least one content item based on a rule indicating that a type of the content item is allowed to be displayed at the one slot on the second webpage;

allocating the validated content item to the one slot; and

repeating the selecting, validating and allocating until all the slots on the second webpage are allocated with the corresponding validated content items.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising revealing contextual information in each of the training iterations, wherein the selecting the first action in the training interaction is further based on the revealed contextual information.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the policy is mapping from the revealed contextual information to the first action.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reward is a proxy for a level of user satisfaction.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the training data comprises a plurality of training data-records each of which is associated with a corresponding weight.

6 . A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having information recorded thereon for training a model used for estimating a reward for a content item, wherein the information, when read by at least one processor, effectuate operations comprising:

obtaining training data which provides a guided exploration mechanism that efficiently balances between exploration and exploitation strategies;

training, via machine learning, the model by performing training iterations each of which includes:

selecting, from a plurality of actions, a first action associated with the content item according to a policy, wherein the first action has been previously selected, and wherein the first action corresponds to selecting the content item from one of a plurality of data corpuses and allocating the selected content item at a first slot on a first webpage, wherein the plurality of data corpuses store different types of content items, respectively,

obtaining a reward associated with the first action,

updating the model based on the obtained reward,

updating the policy based on the first action, the obtained reward, and the obtained training data,

choosing a second action and obtaining information about the second action, wherein the second action has not been previously chosen, and

updating the model and the policy based on the information about the second action;

selecting, based on the model and from the plurality of data corpuses, at least one content item to be displayed at one of slots on a second webpage;

validating the at least one content item based on a rule indicating that a type of the content item is allowed to be displayed at the one slot on the second webpage;

allocating the validated content item to the one slot; and

repeating the selecting, validating and allocating until all the slots on the second webpage are allocated with the corresponding validated content items.

7 . The medium of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise revealing contextual information in each of the training iterations, and

wherein the selecting the first action in the training interaction is further based on the revealed contextual information.

8 . The medium of claim 7 , wherein the policy is mapping from the revealed contextual information to the first action.

9 . The medium of claim 6 , wherein the reward is a proxy for a level of user satisfaction.

10 . The medium of claim 6 , wherein the training data comprises a plurality of training data-records each of which is associated with a corresponding weight.

11 . A system for training a model used for estimating a reward for a content item, the system comprising:

memory storing computer program instructions; and

one or more processors that, in response to executing the computer program instructions, effectuate operations comprising:

obtaining training data which provides a guided exploration mechanism that efficiently balances between exploration and exploitation strategies;

training, via machine learning, the model by performing training iterations each of which includes:

selecting, from a plurality of actions, a first action associated with the content item according to a policy, wherein the first action has been previously selected, and wherein the first action corresponds to selecting the content item from one of a plurality of data corpuses and allocating the selected content item at a first slot on a first webpage, wherein the plurality of data corpuses store different types of content items, respectively,

obtaining a reward associated with the first action,

updating the model based on the obtained reward,

updating the policy based on at least one of the first action, the obtained reward, and the obtained training data,

choosing a second action and obtaining information about the second action, wherein the second action has not been previously chosen, and

updating the model and the policy based on the information about the second action;

selecting, based on the model and from the plurality of data corpuses, at least one content item to be displayed at one of slots on a second webpage;

validating the at least one content item based on a rule indicating that a type of the content item is allowed to be displayed at the one slot on the second webpage;

allocating the validated content item to the one slot; and

repeating the selecting, validating and allocating until all the slots on the second webpage are allocated with the corresponding validated content items.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise revealing contextual information in each of the training iterations, and

wherein the selecting the first action in the training interaction is further based on the revealed contextual information.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the policy is mapping from the revealed contextual information to the first action.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the reward is a proxy for a level of user satisfaction.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the different types comprise images, videos, documents, and slideshows.

16 . The medium of claim 6 , wherein the different types comprise images, videos, documents, and slideshows.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the different types comprise images, videos, documents, and slideshows.

Assignments (4)
SUPPLEMENTAL PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Sep 17, 2025
From: YAHOO ASSETS LLC
To: ROYAL BANK OF CANADA, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 072915/0540 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 25, 2022
From: SHEN, RAO; TSIOUTSIOULIKLIS, KOSTAS; KIM, DONGHYUN; MA, YUFENG; WANG, YU
To: OATH INC.
Reel/Frame 060608/0619 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 25, 2022
From: OATH INC.
To: VERIZON MEDIA INC.
Reel/Frame 060883/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 25, 2022
From: YAHOO AD TECH LLC (FORMERLY VERIZON MEDIA INC.)
To: YAHOO ASSETS LLC
Reel/Frame 060883/0287 →
Continuity (2)
Continuation 16712278 · Dec 12, 2019
Related Publication 20220358175A1 · Nov 10, 2022
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