Sponsored search: an overview of the concept, history, and technology
30 Apr 2008-International Journal of Electronic Business (Inderscience Publishers)-Vol. 6, Iss: 2, pp 114-131
TL;DR: This paper conceptualise the sponsored search process as an aspect of information searching, and provides a brief history of sponsored search and an extensive examination of the technology making sponsored search possible.
Abstract: The success of sponsored search has radically affected how people interact with the information, websites, and services on the web. Sponsored search provides the necessary revenue streams to web search engines and is critical to the success of many online businesses. However, there has been limited academic examination of sponsored search, with the exception of online auctions. In this paper, we conceptualise the sponsored search process as an aspect of information searching. We provide a brief history of sponsored search and an extensive examination of the technology making sponsored search possible. We critique this technology, highlighting possible implications for the future of the sponsored search process.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the generalized second-price (GSP) auction, a new mechanism used by search engines to sell online advertising, and show that it has a unique equilibrium, with the same payoffs to all players as the dominant strategy equilibrium of VCG.
Abstract: We investigate the "generalized second-price" (GSP) auction, a new mechanism used by search engines to sell online advertising. Although GSP looks similar to the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, its properties are very different. Unlike the VCG mechanism, GSP generally does not have an equilibrium in dominant strategies, and truth-telling is not an equilibrium of GSP. To analyze the properties of GSP, we describe the generalized English auction that corresponds to GSP and show that it has a unique equilibrium. This is an ex post equilibrium, with the same payoffs to all players as the dominant strategy equilibrium of VCG.
1,406 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors introduced a novel framework based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), which directly models the dependency on user's sequential behaviors into the click prediction process through the recurrent structure in RNN.
Abstract: Click prediction is one of the fundamental problems in sponsored search. Most of existing studies took advantage of machine learning approaches to predict ad click for each event of ad view independently. However, as observed in the real-world sponsored search system, user's behaviors on ads yield high dependency on how the user behaved along with the past time, especially in terms of what queries she submitted, what ads she clicked or ignored, and how long she spent on the landing pages of clicked ads, etc. Inspired by these observations, we introduce a novel framework based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). Compared to traditional methods, this framework directly models the dependency on user's sequential behaviors into the click prediction process through the recurrent structure in RNN. Large scale evaluations on the click-through logs from a commercial search engine demonstrate that our approach can significantly improve the click prediction accuracy, compared to sequence-independent approaches.
296 citations
Proceedings Article•
27 Jul 2014
TL;DR: A novel framework based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) is introduced that directly models the dependency on user's sequential behaviors into the click prediction process through the recurrent structure in RNN.
Abstract: Click prediction is one of the fundamental problems in sponsored search. Most of existing studies took advantage of machine learning approaches to predict ad click for each event of ad view independently. However, as observed in the real-world sponsored search system, user's behaviors on ads yield high dependency on how the user behaved along with the past time, especially in terms of what queries she submitted, what ads she clicked or ignored, and how long she spent on the landing pages of clicked ads, etc. Inspired by these observations, we introduce a novel framework based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). Compared to traditional methods, this framework directly models the dependency on user's sequential behaviors into the click prediction process through the recurrent structure in RNN. Large scale evaluations on the click-through logs from a commercial search engine demonstrate that our approach can significantly improve the click prediction accuracy, compared to sequence-independent approaches.
153 citations
Cites background from "Sponsored search: an overview of th..."
...Recently, click prediction has received much attention from both industry and academia (Fain and Pedersen 2006; Jansen and Mullen 2008)....
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01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: The authors' world is an interconnected collection of economic and computational systems; within such a system, individuals optimize their actions to achieve their own, perhaps selfish, goals; and the system combines these actions with its basic laws to produce an outcome.
Abstract: Our world is an interconnected collection of economic and computational systems. Within such a system, individuals optimize their actions to achieve their own, perhaps selfish, goals; and the system combines these actions with its basic laws to produce an outcome. Some of these systems perform well, e.g., the national residency matching program which assigns medical students to residency programs in hospitals, e.g., auctions for online advertising on Internet search engines; and some of these systems perform poorly, e.g., financial markets during the 2008 meltdown, e.g., gridlocked transportation networks. The success and failure of these systems depends on the basic laws governing the system. Financial regulation can prevent disastrous market meltdowns, congestion protocols can prevent gridlock in transportation networks, and market and auction design can lead to mechanisms for allocating and exchanging goods or services that yield higher profits or increased value to society. The two sources for economic considerations are the preferences of individuals and the performance of the system. For instance, bidders in an auction would like to maximize their gains from buying; whereas, the performance of the system could (i.e., from the perspective of the seller) be measured in terms of the revenue it generates. Likewise, the two sources for computational considerations are the individuals who must optimize their strategies, and the system which must enforce its governing rules. For instance, bidders in the auction must figure out how to bid, and the auctioneer must calculate the winner and payments from the bids received. While these calculations may seem easy when auctioning a painting, they both become quite challenging when, e.g., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auctions cell phone spectrum for which individual lots have a high degree of complementarities. These economic and computational systems are complex. The space
151 citations
04 Feb 2010
TL;DR: This paper develops user-specific and demographic-based features that reflect the click behavior of individuals and groups in sponsored search and demonstrates that the personalized models significantly improve the accuracy of click prediction.
Abstract: Sponsored search is a multi-billion dollar business that generates most of the revenue for search engines. Predicting the probability that users click on ads is crucial to sponsored search because the prediction is used to influence ranking, filtering, placement, and pricing of ads. Ad ranking, filtering and placement have a direct impact on the user experience, as users expect the most useful ads to rank high and be placed in a prominent position on the page. Pricing impacts the advertisers' return on their investment and revenue for the search engine. The objective of this paper is to present a framework for the personalization of click models in sponsored search. We develop user-specific and demographic-based features that reflect the click behavior of individuals and groups. The features are based on observations of search and click behaviors of a large number of users of a commercial search engine. We add these features to a baseline non-personalized click model and perform experiments on offline test sets derived from user logs as well as on live traffic. Our results demonstrate that the personalized models significantly improve the accuracy of click prediction.
136 citations
References
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7,666 citations
"Sponsored search: an overview of th..." refers background in this paper
..., sealed-bid, one-shot), a second price auction is incentive compatible, meaning that the optimal strategy for bidders is to bid their true valuation (Vickrey, 1961)....
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...Auction theory shows that under certain conditions (e.g., sealed-bid, one-shot), a second price auction is incentive compatible, meaning that the optimal strategy for bidders is to bid their true valuation (Vickrey, 1961)....
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Posted Content•
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TL;DR: Hayek as mentioned in this paper argued that the problem of rational economic order is determined by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.
Abstract: ONE PARTY TO AN EXCHANGE often knows something relevant to the transaction that the other party does not know. Such asymmetries of information are pervasive in economic activity: for example, in the relationship between employer and employee when the employee's effort cannot be monitored perfectly; between the stockholders and the manager of a firm; between insurer and insured; between a regulated firm and the regulatory agency; between the supplier and the consumers of a public good; between a socialist firm and the central planner; or (as is the subject of this paper) between buyer and seller when the value of the item is uncertain. Forty years ago, F. A. Hayek criticized theories that purport to describe the price system but start from the assumption that individuals have symmetric information: The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess. The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate "given" resources-if "given" is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these "data." It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality. (Hayek 1945, p. 519)
2,518 citations
"Sponsored search: an overview of th..." refers background in this paper
...McAfee and McMillan (1987) define an auction as “a market institution with an explicit set of rules determining resource allocation and prices on the basis of bids from the market participants”....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the generalized second-price (GSP) auction, a new mechanism used by search engines to sell online advertising, and show that it has a unique equilibrium, with the same payoffs to all players as the dominant strategy equilibrium of VCG.
Abstract: We investigate the "generalized second-price" (GSP) auction, a new mechanism used by search engines to sell online advertising. Although GSP looks similar to the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, its properties are very different. Unlike the VCG mechanism, GSP generally does not have an equilibrium in dominant strategies, and truth-telling is not an equilibrium of GSP. To analyze the properties of GSP, we describe the generalized English auction that corresponds to GSP and show that it has a unique equilibrium. This is an ex post equilibrium, with the same payoffs to all players as the dominant strategy equilibrium of VCG.
1,406 citations
TL;DR: Findings are pointed to that enable the system designer to put the design process in the wider context of the user in the organization.
Abstract: Introduction Until recently the computer science and information systems communities have equated 'information requirements' of users with the way users behave in relation to the systems available. In other words, investigations into information requirements were concerned almost entirely with how a user navigated a given system and what he or she could do with the data (rather than information) made available by information systems. This is now beginning to change as ethnographic methods are introduced into the requirements definition stage of systems design, and Beyer and Holtzblatt (1998) have shown the benefits. However, even when such methods are employed, the designers appear to be asking, "How is this person using the system?" rather than seeking to determine what the individual's (or the organization's) information needs may be and how information seeking behavior relates to other, task-oriented behavior. In fact, a concern with what information is needed has been the province not of information systems as a discipline, but of information science and, before that, librarianship. To these fields we can add consumer behavior research, marketing, psychology, health communication research, and a number of other disciplines that take the user as the focus of interest, rather than the system. The aim of this paper is to review some of this research and to point to findings that enable the system designer to put the design process in the wider context of the user in the organization. Some Definitions Some definitions are needed before we go further. In this paper, four terms are used: information behavior, information seeking behavior, information searching behavior and information use behavior. They are defined as follows: Information Behavior is the totality of human behavior in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information seeking, and information use. Thus, it includes face-to-face communication with others, as well as the passive reception of information as in, for example, watching TV advertisements, without any intention to act on the information given. Information Seeking Behavior is the purposive seeking for information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal. In the course of seeking, the individual may interact with manual information systems (such as a newspaper or a library), or with computer-based systems (such as the World Wide Web). Information Searching Behavior is the 'micro-level' of behavior employed by the searcher in interacting with information systems of all kinds. It consists of all the interactions with the system, whether at the level of human computer interaction (for example, use of the mouse and clicks on links) or at the intellectual level (for example, adopting a Boolean search strategy or determining the criteria for deciding which of two books selected from adjacent places on a library shelf is most useful), which will also involve mental acts, such as judging the relevance of data or information retrieved. Information Use Behavior consists of the physical and mental acts involved in incorporating the information found into the person's existing knowledge base. It may involve, therefore, physical acts such as marking sections in a text to note their importance or significance, as well as mental acts that involve, for example, comparison of new information with existing knowledge. In all of the above definitions data is subsumed under information, that is, data may or may not be information depending upon the state of understanding of the information user. A datum such as "hbar=h/2pi = 6.58*10 [conjunction] -25 GeV s = 1.05*10 [conjunction]-34 J s" does not inform me because I have no framework of understanding in which to incorporate the datum. …
1,392 citations
"Sponsored search: an overview of th..." refers background in this paper
...We present an overview of the processes related to sponsored search from an information searching (Wilson, 2000) perspective....
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Book•
09 Dec 2005
TL;DR: It's important for you to start having that hobby that will lead you to join in better concept of life and reading will be a positive activity to do every time.
Abstract: combinatorial auctions What to say and what to do when mostly your friends love reading? Are you the one that don't have such hobby? So, it's important for you to start having that hobby. You know, reading is not the force. We're sure that reading will lead you to join in better concept of life. Reading will be a positive activity to do every time. And do you know our friends become fans of combinatorial auctions as the best book to read? Yeah, it's neither an obligation nor order. It is the referred book that will not make you feel disappointed.
1,139 citations