Classifying locations for ad presentation

Abstract

This specification describes technologies relating to content presentation. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving data from a plurality of users within a geographic region associated with a location; analyzing the received data to derive a category for the location; annotating the location with the category; and using the category to boost candidate content items for delivery to users in the location in response to future content item requests.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving search data from a plurality of users within a geographic region associated with a location;   analyzing the received search data to derive one or more categories for the location, wherein each of the one or more categories are determined to be significant categories for the location; and   using the one or more categories to boost candidate content items for delivery to users in the geographic region associated with the location in response to future content item requests.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the received search data includes evaluating the search data to determine one or more candidate categories and for each candidate category, determining a baseline frequency of occurrence for a respective candidate category, and determining when a frequency of occurrence for a candidate category at the location exceeds a baseline occurrence for that candidate category by a threshold amount. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more categories for the location are derived according to whether a frequency of occurrence for each category at the location exceeds a baseline occurrence for that category. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the content items are advertisements. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein using the one or more categories to boost candidate content items further comprises:
 identifying candidate content items in response to a request to serve a content item to a user in the location;   determining whether any content items of the candidate content items are associated with the one or more categories; and   applying a weight to a score for each content items associated with a category of the one or more categories.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein each content item is associated with one or more categories specified by a creator of the content item. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the amount of the applied weight can vary according to category. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 associating the received search data with one or more times; and   deriving one or more categories for the location for each of the one or more times.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising annotating the location with the one or more categories. 
     
     
         10 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors configured to interact with a computer storage medium in order to perform operations comprising:   receiving search data from a plurality of users within a geographic region associated with a location;   analyzing the received search data to derive one or more categories for the location, wherein each of the one or more categories are determined to be significant categories for the location; and   using the one or more categories to boost candidate content items for delivery to users in the geographic region associated with the location in response to future content item requests.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the analyzing the received search data includes evaluating the search data to determine one or more candidate categories and for each candidate category, determining a baseline frequency of occurrence for a respective candidate category, and determining when a frequency of occurrence for a candidate category at the location exceeds a baseline occurrence for that candidate category by a threshold amount. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein each of the one or more categories for the location are derived according to whether a frequency of occurrence for each category at the location exceeds a baseline occurrence for that category. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the content items are advertisements. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein using the one or more categories to boost candidate content items further comprises:
 identifying candidate content items in response to a request to serve a content item to a user in the location;   determining whether any content items of the candidate content items are associated with the one or more categories; and   applying a weight to a score for each content items associated with a category of the one or more categories.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein each content item is associated with one or more categories specified by a creator of the content item. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the amount of the applied weight can vary according to category. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 associating the received search data with one or more times; and   deriving one or more categories for the location for each of the one or more times.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 10 , comprising annotating the location with the one or more categories. 
     
     
         19 . A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
 receiving search data from a plurality of users within a geographic region associated with a location;   analyzing the received search data to derive one or more categories for the location, wherein each of the one or more categories are determined to be significant categories for the location; and   using the one or more categories to boost candidate content items for delivery to users in the geographic region associated with the location in response to future content item requests.