Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
1997-01-22
2001-09-04
MacDonald, Allen R. (Department: 2162)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
C705S026640, C705S014270, C705S037000, C705S400000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06285987
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer networks and more particularly to a method and system for selecting and then displaying advertisements on Internet World Wide Web sites.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many web sites on the Internet World Wide Web regularly display advertisements. The particular advertisement that is displayed when a viewer accesses a web site can either be stored locally on the web site or it can be stored on a central server. (As used herein the term viewer refers to an individual who views or looks at a web page using a program such as a web browser).
The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Hyper Text Mark Up Language (HTML) provide a mechanism whereby a web page can easily reference material located on a remote server. The HTTP mechanisms for referencing and obtaining material from a remote server is useful in providing advertising material for display to viewers. There are commercially available systems which provide advertising material for web sites from a central server and various web pages have HTML references to this central server. With such an arrangement, when a viewer accesses a web page which has an appropriate HTML reference, the viewer sees advertisement that is provided by the central server.
Using standard HTTP facilities it is possible to track when a particular viewer accesses a web site and thus it is possible to compile a data base which in essence provides a profile of the sites a particular viewer has accessed. Furthermore, it is known that particular categories of viewers generally access particular types of web sites. The capabilities inherent in the World Wide Web for tracking the sites that a viewer has seen provides a mechanism for targeting particular advertisements to particular categories of viewers.
There are prior art systems which provide advertisements from a central server that has a data base of information concerning characteristics of viewers. A data base of viewer information can be compiled from a variety of sources including the information about a viewer which is available when a viewer accesses a server. In such prior art systems, the particular advertisement which is displayed when a particular viewer accesses a web site is determined by the characteristics of the viewer as provided by the data base of viewer information and by other information such as the characteristics of the web site which the viewer has accessed. Using such systems advertisers can target advertisements by criteria such as web site category, geographic location of the viewer, the operating system of the viewer's computer, the type of browser which the viewer is using, the Internet domain type of the viewer, etc.
Advertisers who use such prior art systems must specify in advance, the targeting criteria they want to use for their advertisements. The central server then provides advertisements to viewers based upon (a) the targeting criteria provided by the advertisers (b) the information which the central server has in its data base concerning the particular viewer, (c) information about the web site that has been accessed by the viewer and (d) other information available to the central server such as the time of day.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved method and system for providing advertisements from a central server to viewers who access web sites. With the present invention the central server system stores both advertisements which are to be displayed and an information data base. The data base includes information about viewers, information about the characteristics of particular web sites and other information relevant to which advertisements should be displayed for particular viewers. In contrast to the prior art systems, the present invention evaluates, in real time, bids submitted by different advertisers in order to determine which particular advertisement will be displayed to a viewer.
The fact that a viewer has accessed a web page which has an HTML reference to the advertising server of the present invention, is herein referred to as a view opportunity or view-op. The characteristics of each view-op include the characteristics of the particular web site and web page being accessed and the characteristics of the viewer including demographic information about the viewer and information as to what other sites this viewer has accessed in various periods of time.
With the present invention each advertiser provides one or more “proposed bids” which specify how much the advertiser is willing to pay for displaying a particular advertisement in response to a view-op with certain characteristics. Each proposed bid can specify a price or amount that the advertiser is willing to pay for the opportunity to display an advertisement (a) to a viewer who has a particular set of characteristics and (b) on a web site and web page that meets a particular set of criteria. Each proposed bid can be dependent upon or require satisfaction of various criteria which must be met in order for a bid of a particular amount to be submitted. For example an advertiser might specify that the first one thousand times that view-ops meeting certain criteria occurs, a bid of five cents will be submitted and each time thereafter that a view-op meeting the criteria occurs a bid of one cent will be submitted. The amount bid for a view-op can be dependent on as many criteria as the advertiser cares to specify. Another example is that an advertiser might bid ten cents if the view-op was by a viewer who had recently visited a particular web page and one cent for the same view-op if the viewer had not recently visited the particular web page. Yet another example of a parameter which could be specified in a proposed bid is the “click-through” rate for the particular site where the view-op originated. The click-through rate is the rate at which viewers click on an advertisement to access the advertiser's web site. Thus, the bidding parameters can either be simple or complex.
The present invention includes (a) a web server system which has data bases stored therein, (b) bidding agents which compare the characteristics of view-ops to the specifications in proposed bids and which submit bids as appropriate, and (c) bid selection logic which decides which bid to accept for each particular view-op.
With the present invention, when a view-op arises, the bidding agents evaluate the characteristics of the view-op compared to the specifications in proposed bids and the bidding agents submit bids to the bid selection logic where appropriate. Next, the bid selection logic selects the highest bid from the various available bids and the advertisement which is specified in the highest bid is displayed. The novel aspect of the present invention is the organization, operation and interaction between the bidding agents, the server which provides information to the bidding agents, the bid selection logic and the associated mechanisms for presenting the advertisements.
The present invention provides a very flexible system whereby advertisers can minimize cost and maximize effectiveness while the owner of web sites can obtain the highest possible revenue for displaying advertisements on their site.
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Frook, John Evans, “Web sites sell ad space through auction—Despite industry skepticism, Individual Inc. and Netscape try out new strategies”, Interactive Age, v2, n20, p. 5, 1 page, Jul. 1995.*
Article by Toland, P., entitled “CNET: The Computer Network Unveils Revolutionary Internet Advertising Tool T
Roth David William
Salisbury Dylan
Engage, Inc.
MacDonald Allen R.
Myhre James W.
Ropes & Gray
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