Method and system for automated intelligent electronic advertising

• US 20050289113A1
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blake Bookstaff
• Original Assignee: Blake Bookstaff
• Inventors: Bookstaff, Blake
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method and system for automated intelligent electronic advertising. The method and system parse electronic information messages (e.g., e-mail messages, instant messages, etc.) for keywords and make search engine queries or database queries for electronic links based on the identified keywords. The electronic links returned from search engine queries or database queries are added to the electronic information messages creating a modified electronic information message. This allows additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the original electronic information message.

Claims

1. A method for automatically processing electronic information messages, comprising:

receiving an electronic information message on a network device via a communications network from a source device;

parsing the electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message;

submitting the identified one or more keywords from the network device to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network;

receiving query results from the one or more search engines;

selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more query results; and

adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message is an electronic mail (e-mail) message or an instant message (IM).

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic links include mark-up language electronic links.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the mark-up language electronic links include Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) electronic links or Extensible Markup Language (XML) electronic links.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more keywords include advertising keywords.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes an intranet, Internet, a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN).

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the parsing step includes parsing the electronic information message for advertising keywords.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the modified electronic information message from the network device to a destination device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the adding step comprises:

adding an electronic link in the electronic information message wherein the electronic link includes a search string query that provides search engine results when selected.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the adding step includes adding a search electronic link that provides a list of electronic links returned from the search engine query results relating to an identified keyword.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the modifying step includes modifying a font color, a font size, a font bolding, a font underlining, or a font italicizing of a font for enhancing display the identified keyword in the electronic information message.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the parsing step includes parsing a current electronic information message and one or more other related electronic information messages in a chain of related electronic information messages.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the one or more related electronic information messages include a chain of related e-mail messages or instant messages.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the network device is a server device.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the server device is an e-mail server.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the network device is a client device comprising a computer, personal digital/data assistant (PDA), mobile phone, non-mobile phone, two-way pager or an Internet appliance.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the submitting step includes mapping a single identified keyword into a plurality of related keywords, or mapping a plurality of identified keywords into a single keyword before submitting the one or more queries to the one or more search engines.

19. A method for automatically providing electronic advertising, comprising:

receiving an electronic mail (e-mail) message on a server device via a communications network from a source device;

parsing the e-mail message to identify one or more advertising keywords in the e-mail message;

submitting the identified one or more advertising keywords from the server device to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network;

receiving query results from the one or more search engines;

selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more query results; and

adding the one or more selected electronic links to the advertising keywords in the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing advertising information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

sending the modified e-mail message from the server device to a destination device.

22. A method for automatically processing electronic information messages, comprising:

receiving an electronic information message on a network device via a communications network from a source device;

parsing the electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message;

submitting the identified one or more keywords as a query to a database, wherein the database includes one or more electronic links for one or more electronic information suppliers who entered into a pre-determined agreement to provide electronic links;

returning a database query result from the database including one or more electronic links; and

adding the one or electronic links to the electronic information message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the returning step includes returning a database query with one or more electronic links provided based on priority order for which an electronic information provider pays a pre-determined fee.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the returning step includes returning a database query with one or o more links provided based on a random or round-robin ordering.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein the submitting step further includes submitting the identified one or more keywords to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network.

27. The method of claim 22 wherein the submitting step includes mapping a single identified keyword into a plurality of related keywords or mapping a plurality of identified keywords into a single keyword before submitting the database query.

28. A method for automatically processing electronic information messages, comprising:

receiving an electronic information message on a network device via a communications network from a source device;

parsing the electronic information message and all electronic information messages related to the electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message and any related electronic information messages;

submitting the identified one or more keywords from the network device to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network;

receiving query results from the one or more search engines;

selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more query results; and

adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

30. An electronic information processing system, comprising in combination:

a parsing means for parsing an electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message;

a query means for submitting the identified one or more keywords to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries or one or more databases as one or more database queries via a communications network, for receiving one or more query results from the one or more search engine queries or databases and for selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more search engine queries or database queries; and

a modifying means for adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content from the electronic information message.

31. An electronic information processing system, comprising in combination:

a parsing module for parsing an electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message;

a query module for submitting the identified one or more keywords from to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via a communications network, for receiving one or more search engine query results from the one or more search engine queries;

a selection module for selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more search engine queries; and

a modifying module for adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content from the electronic information message.