TARGETING ADVERTISEMENTS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK

摘要

A social networking website logs information about actions taken by members of the website. For a particular member of the website, the website presents targeted ads based on actions by the member and one or more characteristics of the member. The social networking website maintains a profile associated with the member which describes characteristics of the member, such as age, geographic location, employment, educational history and interests. The social networking website compares the member profile to targeting criteria for a plurality of advertising requests and determines the advertising requests that match the member profile and generate the most revenue for the social networking website. When presenting a member with an ad, the website may optimize advertising revenue by selecting an ad from the received ads that will maximize the expected value of the ad.