Event prediction using hierarchical event features

摘要

Event prediction using hierarchical event features is described. In an embodiment a search engine monitors search results presented to users and whether users click on those search results. For example, features describing the search result events are universal resource locator prefix levels which are inherently hierarchically related. In an embodiment a graphical data structure is created and stored and used to represent the hierarchical relationships between features. An online training process is used in examples which enables knowledge to be propagated through the graphical data structure according to the hierarchical relations between features. In an example, the graphical data structure is used to predict whether a user will click on a search result and those predictions are used by the search engine to rank search results for future searches. In another example the events are advertisement impressions and the predictions are used by an online advertisement system.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
monitoring, by one or more processors, a stream of user click events occurring at an apparatus, each event being associated with a plurality of features describing the event, at least some of the plurality of features being related in a hierarchical manner; creating a graphical data structure comprising variable nodes connected by edges, the plurality of features describing the event being represented by variable nodes and the variable nodes being connected such that sequences of connected variable nodes represent the hierarchical relations between features, each variable node being associated with statistics describing a probability distribution representing a latent event score; arranging a training engine to update the statistics for at least one of the variable nodes on the basis of the monitoring; and predicting an event related to a simultaneous scope search using the graphical data structure.