In May 2008, Yahoo filed for a behavioural targeting patent in India. According to the filing, the advertisements delivered to a particular user are selected based the users short-term and long-term behaviour, which is determined from information collected on the users online activities and linked to specific interest categories. "A first long-term score, models awareness with respect to a given category. A second long-term score and the short-term score are response-oriented scores that model the user's interest in making a response with respect to a given category, such as by purchasing a product or service within the category." Technology aside, behavioural targeting is used to make advertisements to relevant to users, and this often has an impact on the click-throughs. Greater relevancy is what Google also pitches - both in terms of search results, as well as advertising. View the patent filing here.
