Bill Slawski at SEO by the Sea spots a Yahoo patent that looks like a formula for serving behaviorally-targeted paid search ads. The “Framework for selecting and delivering advertisements over a network based on combined short-term and long-term user behavioral interests” describes a method of ‘scoring’ behavioral interest by “awareness” and “response” within different categories. [...]
Bill Slawski at SEO by the Sea spots a Yahoo patent that looks like a formula for serving behaviorally-targeted paid search ads.
The “Framework for selecting and delivering advertisements over a network based on combined short-term and long-term user behavioral interests” describes a method of ‘scoring’ behavioral interest by “awareness” and “response” within different categories. According to one of the flowcharts attached to the patent, elements contributing to behavioral data include:
- Pages viewed
- Search history
- Links clicked on
- Advertisements clicked on
- Content of articles viewed by user
- User activity data within predetermined interest categories
- Short-term behavioral interest scores
- Long-term behavioral interest scores
Below is a flowchart of their process for picking out behavioral ads:
Granted, this patent is over 2 years old – but it’s interesting to consider in light of Yahoo’s vertical expansion across “lifestyle” content. In comparison to Google and MSN, Yahoo is probably the best suited for a behavioral targeting network because they have the largest portfolio of personal services.
How would this work, though, with Panama’s quality-based ranking system? A behaviorally-targeted ad is theoretically what yahoo determines to be the *most relevant – so where do other quality score indicators of “relevancy” factor in?
