Method and apparatus for context-specific content delivery

• US 10,032,190 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2016
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Marsh, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, Fred
• Application Number:
  US15/069,832
• Publication Number:
  US 20160267546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for generating and delivering selected primary content and contextually-related, targeted secondary content to users of a network. In an exemplary embodiment, the network comprises a packet-switched data (e.g., IP) network such as the Internet, and the primary content comprises video or media clips that are user-selectable via a network site or web page. The primary content carries with it descriptive metadata that is accessed by a distribution server and forwarded to a secondary content source. The secondary content source (or its proxy) utilizes the metadata to identify and return contextually-related secondary content such as advertising links. This secondary content is then presented to the user in conjunction with the primary content, such as in a common display window and in a seamless fashion, thereby avoiding distractions to the user associated with generating ancillary windows or other display mechanisms, and providing the user with highly relevant secondary content choices.

Claims

1. In a digital content delivery network having a server and a client device in data communication therewith, a method of providing primary digital content and contextually-related secondary digital content to one or more users of said digital content delivery network, said method comprising:

receiving, at said server from said client device, a request for said primary digital content;

based at least in part on said act of receiving, automatically accessing a metadata file associated with said primary digital content, said metadata file relating to one or more topics of said primary digital content;

identifying a plurality of terms in said metadata file;

accessing a statistical data file comprising data relating to frequency of occurrence statistics for one or more of said plurality of terms in one or more other metadata files;

analyzing said plurality of terms and said data relating to frequency of occurrence statistics to identify one or more unique terms from said metadata file, said one or more unique terms having a frequency of historical usage in said plurality of other metadata files that is lower than one or more others of said plurality of terms;

utilizing said one or more unique terms identified from said metadata file to automatically generate a search string;

providing said search string to a search entity for a search of a database of secondary content, said search producing a set of said contextually related secondary digital content which has been evaluated to bear a prescribed relationship to at least one of said one or more topics of said primary digital content; and

causing transmission of said primary digital content and said secondary digital content to said client device, thereby enabling display of said primary digital content and said secondary digital content on a display device associated with said client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said evaluation comprises application of a one or more rules on said search.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising applying said one or more rules via a supervisory entity in data communication with said search entity.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein applying said one or more rules comprises selectively applying said one or more rules depending on one or more of:

(i) time of day, (ii) duration of said primary content, (iii) location of said client device, and/or (iv) an identity of a user associated with said client device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said search string comprises only said one or more unique terms.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing said metadata file to identify one or more string queries from said plurality of terms, each of said one or more string queries comprising a specific sequence of terms.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said search string comprises said one or more string queries.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering said set of said contextually related secondary digital content, said filtration comprising automatically removing one or more secondary content items.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said filtering comprises removing said one or more secondary content items based on one or more of:

(i) display window area, (ii) redundancy, (iii) inappropriate content, or (iv) platform compatibility.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking of one or more secondary content items in said set of contextually related secondary digital content and transmitting only a top-ranked subset of secondary content items to said client device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said ranking comprises ordering said one or more secondary content items based on one or more of:

(i) profitability, (ii) historical high performance, (iii) a tier of a provider of said one or more secondary content items, or (iv) historical user behavior.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more unique terms have a frequency of historical use in said plurality of other metadata files that is lower than all others of said one or more terms.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more unique terms comprises a string of terms.

14. An apparatus for use in a digital content delivery network, a plurality of client devices in data communication with said digital content delivery network, said apparatus comprising:

processing apparatus;

a network interface in data communication with said processing apparatus and configured to communicate with one or more of said plurality of client devices via at least said content delivery network; and

a storage apparatus in data communication with said processing apparatus, said storage apparatus having at least one computer program stored thereon, said at least one computer program comprising a plurality of instructions which are configured to, when executed by said processing apparatus, cause said apparatus for use in said digital content delivery network to;

receive a request for digital primary content from one of said plurality of client devices;

based at least in part on said receipt of said request, automatically extract one or more human-recognizable words from descriptive data related to said digital primary content, said extraction of said one or more human recognizable words from said descriptive data comprising;

(i) identification of one or more search term fields in said descriptive data, and (ii) identification of said one or more human-recognizable words from said one or more search term fields;

automatically perform computerized data processing on said descriptive data to produce processed descriptive data, said performance of computerized data processing on said descriptive data at least in part comprising;

access of a statistical data file related to statistical frequency of occurrence for each of said one or more human-recognizable words extracted from descriptive data in a plurality of other descriptive data; and

analysis of (i) said one or more human-recognizable words extracted said descriptive data and (ii) said statistical data file to identify one or more unique human-recognizable words from said descriptive data, said one or more unique human-recognizable words each having a lower frequency of historical usage in said plurality of other descriptive data files relative to a prescribed standard;

automatically provide said one or more unique human-recognizable words identified from said descriptive data to a computerized search entity for a content search, said content search producing a set of contextually related digital secondary content which has been evaluated to bear a prescribed relationship to said digital primary content via said processed descriptive data; and

cause transmission of said digital primary content and said set of contextually related digital secondary content to said one of said plurality of client devices, said transmission enabling display of said digital primary content and said set of contextually related digital secondary content on a display device associated with a user of said one of said plurality of client devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said performance of computerized digital processing on said descriptive data further comprises assemblage of the determined one or more unique human-recognizable words into a query string.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said one or more unique human-recognizable words comprise at least a first unique human-recognizable word and a second unique human-recognizable word, and said query string comprises said first unique human-recognizable word associated with said second unique human-recognizable word in a Boolean AND relationship.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said performance of computerized data processing on said descriptive data further comprises:

one or more of removal, addition, or replacement of at least one human-recognizable word from said one or more unique human-recognizable words, and

assembly of remaining unique human-recognizable words of said one or more unique human-recognizable words into a query.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed, cause said apparatus to:

provide a cryptographic hash configured to anonymize an identification of said one of said plurality of client devices; and

access collected and stored user data associated with said anonymized identification, said user data comprising one or more of historical user activity data or user profile data;

wherein said performance of computerized data processing further comprises filtration of said descriptive data according to said user data to produce said processed descriptive data.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said prescribed standard comprises a lower frequency of historical usage in said plurality of other descriptive data files relative to one or more others of said one or more human-recognizable words.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said prescribed standard comprises a lower frequency of historical usage in said plurality of other descriptive data files relative to all others of said one or more human-recognizable words.

21. A computerized apparatus for use in a digital content delivery network, a plurality of computerized client devices in data communication with said digital content delivery network, said computerized apparatus comprising:

digital processing apparatus;

a network data interface in data communication with said digital processing apparatus and configured to communicate with one or more of said plurality of computerized client devices via at least said content delivery network; and

a storage apparatus in data communication with said processing apparatus, said storage apparatus having at least one computer program stored thereon, said at least one computer program comprising a plurality of instructions which are configured to, when executed by said digital processing apparatus, cause said computerized apparatus for use in said digital content delivery network to;

receive data relating to a request for digital primary content from one of said plurality of computerized client devices;

based at least in part on said receipt of said data relating to said request, automatically extract descriptive data related to said digital primary content, said extraction of said descriptive data comprising;

(i) identification of one or more metadata fields, and (ii) identification of one or more search terms from said one or more metadata fields;

automatically perform computerized data processing on said descriptive data to produce processed descriptive data, said performance of computerized data processing on said descriptive data at least in part comprising;

access of a data file related to statistical frequency of occurrence for each of said one or more search terms in a plurality of other descriptive data; and

analysis of said one or more search terms and said data file to determine one or more unique search terms from said one or more search terms, said one or more unique terms having a lower frequency of historical usage in said plurality of other descriptive data files relative to a prescribed standard;

provide said one or more unique search terms to a computerized search entity for a content search, said content search producing a set of contextually related digital secondary content which has been evaluated to bear a prescribed relationship to said digital primary content via said processed descriptive data; and

cause transmission of said digital primary content and said set of contextually related digital secondary content to said one of said plurality of client devices, said transmission enabling display of said digital primary content and said set of contextually related digital secondary content on a display device associated with a user of said one of said plurality of client devices;

wherein said plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed by said digital processing apparatus, cause said computerized apparatus for use in said digital content delivery network to;

provide a cryptographic hash configured to anonymize an identification of said one of said plurality of computerized client devices; and

access collected and stored user data associated with said anonymized identification, said user data comprising one or more of historical user activity data or user profile data; and

wherein said performance of computerized data processing further comprises filtration of said descriptive data according to said user data to produce said processed descriptive data.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said user data comprises one or more of historical activity data or user profile data for a particular user.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said user data comprises one or more of historical activity data or user profile data associated with said one of said plurality of computerized client devices.

24. In a digital content delivery network having a computerized server and a computerized user device in data communication therewith, a method of providing primary digital content and contextually-related secondary digital content to one or more users of said digital content delivery network, said method comprising:

receiving, at said computerized server from said computerized user device, a request for said primary digital content;

based at least in part on said act of receiving, automatically accessing metadata, said metadata (i) associated with said primary digital content, and (ii) provided by at least one of a computerized network entity or a computerized content originator entity;

identifying a plurality of human-recognizable search terms in said metadata;

automatically performing computerized processing on (i) said plurality of human-recognizable search terms and (ii) data relating to frequency of occurrence statistics to identify one or more unique human-recognizable search terms from said metadata, said one or more unique human-recognizable search terms having a frequency of historical usage in a plurality of other metadata that is lower than one or more others of said plurality of human-recognizable search terms;

utilizing at least said one or more unique human-recognizable search terms identified from said metadata to automatically generate a search string;

providing said search string to a search entity for a search of a database of secondary content, said search producing a set of said contextually related secondary digital content which has been evaluated to bear a prescribed relationship to a context of said primary digital content;

enabling transmission of said primary digital content and said contextually related secondary digital content to said computerized client device, said enabling of said transmission enabling display of said primary digital content and said secondary digital content on a display device associated with said computerized client device.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising accessing a data file comprising said data relating to said frequency of occurrence statistics for one or more of said plurality of human-recognizable search terms in one or more other metadata, said data file stored at a network storage apparatus in data communication with said computerized server.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising utilizing a Boolean AND relationship to associate at least two of said one or more unique human-recognizable search terms.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

accessing a data file comprising data relating to said frequency of occurrence statistics for said at least two of said one or more unique human-recognizable search terms associated in said Boolean AND relationship in one or more other metadata files;

wherein said utilizing at least said one or more unique human-recognizable search terms identified from said metadata file to automatically generate said search string, further comprises utilizing said at least two of said one or more unique human-recognizable search terms associated in said Boolean AND relationship to automatically generate said search string.