Address modification for advertisement mediation

• US 10,013,707 B1
• Filed: 01/21/2014
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Burcham, Robert H., Delker, Jason R., Holmes, Geoffrey A., Rofail, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Munson, Patricia H
• Application Number:
  US14/160,215
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A method of routing advertisement based content requests through an advertisement gateway comprises receiving, on an electronic device, an advertisement content, rendering the advertisement content in a test environment, intercepting at least one outbound request for secondary content initiated by the execution of the advertisement content, where the outbound request is directed to an external source address other than an advertisement gateway, rewriting the advertisement content to direct the outbound request to the advertisement gateway address, creating a revised advertisement content based on the rewriting, and executing the revised advertisement content on the electronic device.

Claims

1. A method of routing an advertisement based content request through an advertisement gateway, the method comprising:

receiving, on an electronic device from the advertisement gateway, an advertisement content in non-transitory memory of the electronic device;

rendering, by the electronic device executing a test environment execution application from the non-transitory memory, the advertisement content in a test environment;

intercepting, by the electronic device executing the test environment execution application, at least one outbound request for secondary content initiated by execution of the advertisement content, wherein the at least one outbound request is directed outside the electronic device and to an external source address other than the advertisement gateway;

rewriting, by the electronic device executing the test environment execution application, the advertisement content to direct the at least one outbound request to the advertisement gateway address instead of the external source address;

in response to the rewriting, creating, by the electronic device executing the test environment execution application, a revised advertisement content based on the rewriting;

writing, by the electronic device executing the test environment execution application, a definition file identifying a type of the advertisement content, the external source address, and a definition of a content of the at least one outbound request;

transmitting, by the electronic device executing the test environment execution application, the definition file to the advertisement gateway to update definitions of the advertisement gateway describing content for rewriting by the advertisement gateway when the content passes through the advertisement gateway, wherein the definition file is configured to cause the advertisement gateway to rewrite subsequent advertisement content to route outbound content requests from the electronic device through the advertisement gateway to their original destination to shift a processing load associated with rewriting the subsequent advertisement content from the electronic device to the advertisement gateway;

subsequent to creating the revised advertisement content, executing the revised advertisement content on the electronic device outside of the test environment;

upon executing the revised advertisement content outside of the test environment, generating, by the electronic device, a secondary content request message for second advertisement content based on the revised advertisement content, and redirecting the secondary content request message to the advertisement gateway via the advertisement gateway address based on the revised advertisement content; and

receiving, by the electronic device from the advertisement gateway, the subsequent advertisement content rewritten based on the definition file by the advertisement gateway responsive to receipt of the definition file.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

including the external source address as a parameter in the revised advertisement content.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

releasing, by executing the test environment execution application on the electronic device, the revised advertisement content from being rendered in the test environment on the electronic device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

sending the secondary content request message to the advertisement gateway via the advertisement gateway address, wherein the request comprises the external source address as a parameter; and

receiving the second advertisement content from the advertisement gateway.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the advertisement content in the test environment comprises preventing the at least one outbound request from communicating outside the test environment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein rewriting the advertisement content comprises at least one of:

altering the advertisement content, altering content code, deleting a portion of the content, or adding secondary content configured to redirect the at least one outbound request to the advertisement gateway.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the advertisement content comprises receiving the advertisement content from the advertisement gateway with a flag indicating that the advertisement content is to be executed via the test environment.

8. A method of routing advertisement based content requests through an advertisement gateway on a network, the method comprising the following steps, all of which are performed by the advertisement gateway on the network:

receiving, at the advertisement gateway, a first advertisement content for execution on an electronic device;

in response to receiving the advertisement content, determining that the first advertisement content is received from a content server not recognized by the advertisement gateway;

based on the determination, inserting a flag into the first advertisement content indicating that the first advertisement content is to be executed by a test environment execution application on the electronic device;

subsequent to inserting the flag, sending the first advertisement content to the electronic device, wherein the first advertisement content comprises a secondary content reference to an external source address other than the advertisement gateway and directed outside the electronic device;

in response to sending the first advertisement content, receiving, at the advertisement gateway from the electronic device;

a secondary content request for second advertisement content, wherein the secondary content request was rewritten by the electronic device to comprise the external source address as a parameter and redirect the secondary content request to the advertisement gateway instead of the external source address; and

a definition file identifying a type of the first advertisement content, the external source address, and a definition of a content of the at least one outbound request;

accessing the external source address from the parameter in response to receiving the secondary content request;

removing at least a portion of any identifying information of the electronic device from the secondary content request;

in response to removing the at least the portion of any identifying information, creating a modified request comprising the external source address, wherein the modified request has the at least the portion of any identifying information of the electronic device removed;

requesting, from the external source address, the second advertisement content using the modified request via the external source address accessed from the parameter;

in response to requesting the secondary content, receiving, at the advertisement gateway, the second advertisement content based on the modified request;

subsequent to receiving the second advertisement content, sending the second advertisement content to the electronic device,

updating, at the advertisement gateway, definitions of content to be rewritten by the advertisement gateway based on the definition file to shift a processing load associated with the rewriting of the content from the electronic device to the advertisement gateway;

receiving, at the advertisement gateway, a third advertisement content for execution on the electronic device; and

rewriting, by the advertisement gateway, the third advertisement content based on the definition file to cause an outbound content request generated by the third advertisement content to be routed through the advertisement gateway.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the secondary content request is generated by the electronic device in response to executing the advertisement content in a test environment.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the secondary content request is generated by the electronic device rewriting the external source address to an advertisement gateway address.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the external source address in the advertisement content is configured to route a request for secondary content to a server other than the advertisement gateway.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the external source address identifies a server storing the second advertisement content requested in the secondary content request.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein creating the modified request comprises rewriting the secondary content request to include the external source address as a destination address.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

rendering the second advertisement content on the electronic device.

15. A system for directing advertisement content requests to an advertisement gateway, the system comprising:

an electronic device comprising;

a processor,

a non-transitory memory, and

a test environment execution application stored in the non-transitory memory, that when executed on the processor, configures the processor to;

render an advertisement content in a test environment created by execution of the test environment execution application,

in response to the advertisement content being rendered in the test environment, detect that the advertisement content generated an outbound request for secondary content directed to a destination address other than the advertisement gateway and external to the electronic device;

prevent the outbound request for secondary content from being sent from the test environment;

extract the destination address of the outbound request;

determine that the destination address of the outbound request does not match an advertisement gateway address;

in response to the destination address being different than the advertisement gateway address, rewrite the destination address in the advertisement content to the advertisement gateway address;

create a modified advertisement content based on the destination address being rewritten to the advertisement gateway address;

write a definition file identifying a type of the advertisement content, the destination address of the outbound request, and a definition of a content of the outbound request;

transmit the definition file to the advertisement gateway to update definitions of the advertisement gateway describing content for rewriting by the advertisement gateway when the content passes through the advertisement gateway, wherein the definition file is configured to cause the advertisement gateway to rewrite subsequent advertisement content to route outbound content requests from the electronic device through the advertisement gateway to their original destination to shift a processing load associated with rewriting the subsequent advertisement content from the electronic device to the advertisement gateway;

subsequent to the creation of the modified advertisement, execute the modified advertisement content on the electronic device outside of the test environment;

upon execution of the revised advertisement content outside of the test environment, generate a secondary content request message for second advertisement content based on the revised advertisement content and redirect the secondary content request message to the advertisement gateway via the advertisement gateway address; and

receiving, by the electronic device from the advertisement gateway, the subsequent advertisement content rewritten based on the definition file by the advertisement gateway responsive to receipt of the definition file.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the test environment execution application further configures the processor to prevent the outbound request for the second advertisement content from being sent only while the advertisement content is rendered within the test environment.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the test environment execution application further configures the processor to compare the destination address of the outbound request with the advertisement gateway address, and wherein the destination address is rewritten based on the comparison indicating that the destination address and the advertisement gateway address are different.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the test environment execution application configures the processor to execute the modified advertisement content on the electronic device outside of the test environment.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the test environment execution application further configures the processor to include the destination address as a parameter in the modified advertisement content when the destination address is different than an advertisement gateway address.