Search company granted patent for delivering ads based on user profile and behavioral information.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent 7,680,786 (pdf) to Yahoo! today for “Optimization of targeted advertisements based on user profile information”.

The invention covers using both behavioral and user profile information in combination with traditional keyword and event driven factors to deliver targeted ads. For example, a user might enter a search query for “Madonna tickets” on Yahoo. Traditionally, ads related solely to those keywords would be displayed. The invention adds an additional layer, taking into consideration user information (e.g. user profile data, behavioral data) to determine which ads to show to the user. This targeting isn’t limited to searches; keywords in the domain name or the content of the page being viewed can also be considered when delivering the ads.

Yahoo! filed the patent application on October 30, 2006.

Yahoo-Microsoft payday for domainers is finally within view.

It’s getting closer.

Yahoo and Microsoft have announced they’ve cleared U.S. and European regulatory requirements for their search partnership.

The first change will be that Bing’s search results will start showing up on Yahoo search pages. That means one less search engine to optimize for.

The good news for domain name parking is that later this year — or perhaps in early 2011 — the Yahoo and Microsoft advertising marketplaces will merge. This means more advertisers bidding on the same keywords for a bigger slice of the search ad market. That pushes up bid prices and covered keywords, which should mean more money for parked domains. As Yahoo tells it, the combination “will create more advertiser competition for placement and broader keyword coverage, resulting in potentially better monetization for you.”

It’s been a long wait, and we’re not there yet, but it’s getting closer.

Method helps brand managers prioritize cybersquatting disputes.

Yahoo has filed a patent application (pdf) for a method for prioritizing which cybersquatted domain names to pursue.

The application describes a system that generates a list of domain names related to a trademark (“seed” term), then runs calculations based on probable traffic to those domain names to determine which ones a trademark owner should pursue.

For example, if one of the domains generated is YahooMail.com, the system can use a variety of traffic data sources (search volume, ISP date, etc.) to determine how many type-ins the domain probably gets.

This can be helpful for companies that have thousands of domain names that infringe their mark, and need to prioritize their UDRP and lawsuits to focus on the bigger traffic domains. Even though UDRP is efficient and fairly affordable, it still usually costs a complainant thousands of dollars to file. Many of the domain names recovered may not be worth the cost.

This method seems similar to tools used by CitizenHawk, a typosquatting recovery firm. CitizenHawk takes all of the risk in UDRPs it files, receiving payment by basically monetizing domains it wins on behalf of clients for a set period of time. It therefore needs methods to determine how much revenue a domain can generate over that period of time.

The patent application was filed August 14, 2008, and published today. The inventor is Jonathan Matkowsky, who is Yahoo’s Legal Director, Global Brand Protection.

Yahoo gets a whopper of a patent for domain name parking optimization.

Yahoo, one of the largest providers of advertising to parked domain names, has filed a patent application been granted a patent for optimizing the keyword links on “two-click” domain parking pages.

U.S. patent 7,647,316 (pdf) for “Link Optimization” was filed March 5, 2007, and issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday. It describes a system that optimizes the keyword links shown on parked domain names in many ways:

Number of Keyword Links – Yahoo explains that reducing the number of keyword links on a page may increase the total revenue realized per visitor. Its system optimizes both the number displayed and which keywords are actually displayed, as well as the order of the links. It is partially determined based on the click-through rate of ads delivered following the click of the keyword link (i.e., the actual ads on the second page of a two-click lander).

“The reduction of keywords is valuable to prevent cannibalization of user clicks. Underperforming keywords linked on a web page have the effect of lessening the overall monetization of the web page via a number of factors. One of these factors is the frequency by which users who click on an underperforming keyword wind up not clicking on perhaps a more valuable or likely to be monetized keyword. This may be due to the user, for example, deciding only to click on one keyword before giving up.”

User-targeted Keywords – The system can target keyword links based on a user profile. This may include the web site visitor’s location or browsing habits.

“For example, the keywords displayed on a particular web page may be keyed towards the particular keywords most likely to get a response from the user. A user profile for the user may be accessed in order to aid in this analysis. Certain presumptions may be made based upon this user profile. Additionally, metrics such as geographical location and time of day may be utilized as well.”

Mobile Optimization – Domain parking pages on mobile devices may show fewer links due to the smaller screen size, and may also be optimized for geo-location.

“As an example, a typical domain matching technique may be used to extract 10 keywords for a particular domain name. By applying various optimization techniques described above, the “best” 7 keywords may be displayed for users viewing the corresponding web page on a traditional computer, whereas the “best” 4 keywords may be displayed for users viewing the corresponding web page on a mobile device. In the mobile device embodiment, additional metrics may be utilized as well. For example, rather than using a user profile to determine geographical location, Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality built into the mobile device may be utilized for such purposes.”

Text display optimization – This is a dynamic optimization of font, font color, font size, and spacing to maximize overall earnings per visitor.

Yahoo’s patent notes that this optimization is not limited to domain parking, and can be applied to contextual ads as well, such as contextual keyword ad links on web page (think Google Adsense’ Adlinks, or even Google Adsense text ads).

Update: Thanks do a DNW reader for pointing out that I was asleep at the wheel this morning: the patent has been issued, not just applied for. The story has been updated accordingly.

Marketing analytics firm reports steep drop in Yahoo click costs.

According to marketing analytics company Covario, Yahoo’s cost-per-click prices were down 29% after instituting widespread variable click pricing in September. Although it’s unclear what universe of click data Covario used to calculate this, Yahoo is happily quoting it. Covario says the typical CPA is down 11% since the change.

Although initial estimates among parking companies were that parking click revenue would decline anywhere from 2% to about 12% following the change, individual publishers are seeing wide variances as their traffic quality scores change.

A bigger drop may be in store once Yahoo implements its new “premium” channel segmentation as part of a lawsuit settlement.

But there are a couple bright spots in the news. First, if CPAs are falling as Covario suggests, advertisers might start moving back to Yahoo and push CPC rates back up. Second, Covario reports that click through rates were up 46% after making the change (a correlation that doesn’t make immediate sense to me).