Company files patent application for ranking algorithm.
Demand Media has content revenue prediction down to a science. The company has an army of freelancers who produce content based on the company’s prediction of how much ad revenue each piece of content will bring in. Now the company wants to patent its methodology for figuring out which keywords are the most profitable.
U.S. patent application 12/337550 is for a “Method and System for Ranking of Keywords for Profitability”:
A physical computing device receives information regarding a total number of people who are searching on the search term. Information is received regarding an amount advertisers pay for the search term. Information is received regarding a click through rate of the search term. A traffic estimate of the search term is determined. Longevity of the search term is determined.
One embodiment of the invention covers many of the steps people take to figure out which keywords are best:
(1) the number of likely audience members for each search term,
(2) the likely dollar amount advertisers will pay for each search term,
(3) the likely click rate for each search term,
(4) the ability of content targeting a given search term to compete with other content targeting that same term, and
(5) the estimated longevity of content created relating to each search term.
Most publishers — even domainers — take into consideration the first three factors. The ability to rank content in search engines is also taken into consideration by most publishers. (There are a number of inexpensive software programs that will crunch these numbers for you.) The longevity of content is something that may be a little unique, in that Demand is trying to figure out how long it can expect to get revenue from content it produces for a particular search term.
The patent application (pdf) was filed in December 2008 and published yesterday.
(Hat tip to DNW reader Paul.)
tricolorro says
“(There are a number of inexpensive software programs that will crunch these numbers for you.) ”
Such as?
Andrew Allemann says
@tricolorro – haven’t used any in a while. Try googling ‘keyword analyzer’
Domainer says
none of these seem to be unique enough for them to get a patent on it. If they have some kind of special formula, that’s fine, but what’s the point of getting a patent on the formula? why not just keep it private because patent means they have to disclose everything and not sure if that would be to their benefit.
Paul J. Kapschock says
What Google gives it…Google takes it.
Looks like Google updated their own patent for “inadequate content” on the internet, based on comparisons of what people search for and what they find….”
Here is link to good read:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/891e2946-796b-11df-b063-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss
“Demand has become the 17th largest web property in terms of unique visitors, ahead of Comcast, the top US cable operator, and Vevo, a YouTube-backed music site, according to comScore, which tracks internet traffic.”
Here is another story, good read:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bba9fefc-795d-11df-b063-00144feabdc0.html
I am kinda glad Google will clean up some porous content.
Good luck to Demand and their business model but it can and probably will all change one day.
Paul
tricolorro says
Okay. Thanks. I will.
Brad says
I don’t really understand their patent at all. There are already tools out there that are established and basically do everything they have listed.
Brad
Mike Sullivan says
Is this a marketing ploy to perhaps be able to say “..our patented key word technology…”?
Tim says
Sounds like a bogus patent to me.
ibeadomainer says
Not so fast Demand Media – See patent US 7,281,042 from none other than competitor Oversee.net. Aggregate search and click data, use of commercial bid values for the purpose of predicting and monetizing web pages is nothing new to domain industry veterans. See http://www.google.com/patents?id=r0epAAAAEBAJ
Maybe Demand should buy Oversee to create a truly huge IPO.
Jason says
Demand Media is an irritating company. They always brag or try to outsmart everyone. The new article format is a joke. I search for hours, and can’t find anything that I can write.
After writing a detailed article on how to appraise a domain, it got rejected two times based on length. The content great; the length too long. First time length becomes a problem.
Anyways, Demand Media only changed their format to make more profit. They knew that owning the rights to articles would mean that writers made less profit. Whereas you can share profit on certain articles, it is not as lucrative as in the past.
Who will be searching to sell a textbook out in a Southeast Asia location? The titles are as condensed as that. The editors will reject everything.
Seems like Sedo’s approach – accept the same old domains into their auction, while rejecting ones that can perform well. Two companies who only care about profit and brand recognition.
Thanks for sharing the article.
Jason
Patricia Kaehler says
Sounds like the same old stuff lots of us have already been doing for a decade +
Being able to SAY they have the patent on
yaddddda yadddda yaddda is a good marketing move… more power to them…
there’s room for everyone…
~Patricia Kaehler – DomainBELL