NDLI: Explore/Exploit Schemes for Web Content Optimization

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Agarwal, D. Bee-Chung Chen Elango, P.
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	We propose novel multi-armed bandit (explore/exploit) schemes to maximize total clicks on a content module published regularly on Yahoo! Intuitively, one can ``explore'' each candidate item by displaying it to a small fraction of user visits to estimate the item's click-through rate (CTR), and then ``exploit'' high CTR items in order to maximize clicks. While bandit methods that seek to find the optimal trade-off between explore and exploit have been studied for decades, existing solutions are not satisfactory for web content publishing applications where dynamic set of items with short lifetimes, delayed feedback and non-stationary reward (CTR) distributions are typical. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian solution and extend several existing schemes to our setting. Through extensive evaluation with nine bandit schemes, we show that our Bayesian solution is uniformly better in several scenarios. We also study the empirical characteristics of our schemes and provide useful insights on the strengths and weaknesses of each. Finally, we validate our results with a ``side-by-side'' comparison of schemes through live experiments conducted on a random sample of real user visits to Yahoo!
Starting Page	1
Ending Page	10
File Size	318029
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781424452422
ISSN	15504786
DOI	10.1109/ICDM.2009.52
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2009-12-06
Publisher Place	USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Publishing Conference management Engineering management Books Software engineering Distributed computing Meetings Computer science Portals Universal Serial Bus Bayes optimal multi-armed bandits web application content scheduling
Content Type	Text

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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