Determining advertisements using user behavior information such as past navigation information

• US 20060069616A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bau, David
• Application Number:
  US10/955,828
• Publication Number:
  US 20060069616A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.530
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested

Abstract

Ads better targeted to individual users can be determined by using (recent) navigation history. User navigation (e.g., Web browsing) may be tracked, recorded and maintained. The navigation history information, and perhaps information about a current document, may be used to determine content-relevant and personalized ads. By doing so the ads seen by the user are more interesting and relevant to a current user interest inferred from their (recent) navigation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a) tracking, with a client device, a history of documents of a first type and documents of a second type requested by the client device;

b) generating and storing, on the client device, navigation history information from the tracked history of documents; and

c) generating, after requesting a document of the first type by the client device, an ad request, wherein the ad request includes at least some of the navigation history information.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

d) forwarding, from the client device, the ad request towards an ad delivery system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein documents of the first type have an ad serving agreement with the ad delivery system, and

wherein documents of the second type have no ad serving agreement with the ad delivery system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the ad delivery system is a content-relevant ad delivery system, and

wherein the ad request includes document information.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

e) determining, with the ad delivery system, a set of one or more ads using at least some of the at least some navigation history information in the ad request.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

f) forwarding, from the ad delivery system, the determined set of ads towards the client device.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

g) receiving, with the client device, the determined set of ads; and

h) rendering, with the client device, the determined set of ads with the document of the first type loaded.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of generating and storing, on the client device, navigation history information includes encrypting the navigation history information.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the act of generating and storing, on the client device, navigation history information includes attaching a unique identifier to the navigation history information.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the navigation history information includes a unique identifier of the client device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the navigation history information includes an Internet protocol address of the client device.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the navigation history information includes a media access control address of the client device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the navigation history information includes a unique identifier of a browser of the client device.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the navigation history information includes a unique identifier of a browser toolbar of the client device.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the documents include Webpages.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the documents include emails.

17. A method comprising:

a) tracking, with a client device, a history of documents of a first type and documents of a second type requested by the client device;

b) generating, on the client device, navigation history information from the tracked history of documents;

c) forwarding, from the client device, at least some of the navigation history information, including data for matching the navigation history with a later ad request; and

d) generating, after requesting a document of the first type by the client device, an ad request, wherein the ad request includes data for matching the ad request with an earlier navigation history.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

e) forwarding, from the client device, the ad request towards an ad delivery system.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein documents of the first type have an ad serving agreement with the ad delivery system, and

wherein documents of the second type have no ad serving agreement with the ad delivery system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the ad delivery system is a content-relevant ad delivery system, and

wherein the ad request includes document information.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

f) matching, with the ad delivery system, the ad request with the navigation history information using (i) the data for matching the navigation history with a later ad request, and (ii) the data for matching the ad request with an earlier navigation history; and

g) determining, with the ad delivery system, a set of one or more ads using at least some of the at least some navigation history information in the ad request.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

h) forwarding, by the ad delivery system, the determined set of ads towards the client device.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

i) receiving, with the client device, the determined set of ads; and

j) rendering, with the client device, the determined set of ads with the document of the first type loaded.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 22 wherein documents of the first type have an ad serving agreement with an ad delivery system, and

wherein documents of the second type have no ad serving agreement with the ad delivery system.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the ad delivery system is a content-relevant ad delivery system, and

wherein the ad request includes document information.

24. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a machine-readable data structure comprising:

a) content information; and

b) machine-executable code which, when implemented by a machine,

i) obtains client device navigation history information, and

ii) generates an ad request including at least some of the client device navigation history information,

wherein the machine-executable code is included in documents of a first type, and

wherein the navigation history includes documents of the first type and documents of a second type that had been requested by the client device.

27. Apparatus comprising:

a) means for saving navigation history information about documents of a first type and documents of a second type requested by the device; and

b) means for generating an ad request, including at least some of the navigation history information, when the device requests a document of the first type but not when the device loads a document of the second type.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein documents of the first type have an ad serving agreement with an ad delivery system, and

wherein documents of the second type have no ad serving agreement with the ad delivery system.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the ad delivery system is a content-relevant ad delivery system, and

wherein the ad request includes document information.

30. A method for targeting online advertisements for a document being accessed by a user, the method comprising:

a) accepting document information associated with the document; and

b) selecting a set of advertisements using at least the document information and information from previous user behavior of the user.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein previous user behavior includes other documents previously accessed by the user.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the previous user behavior includes previous queries submitted by the user.

33. The method of claim 30 wherein the previous user behavior includes previous selections by the user.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein the previous selections include at least one of (A) previous ad selections, and (B) previous document selections.

35. The method of claim 30 wherein the publisher document information includes content of the publisher document.

36. Apparatus for targeting online advertisements for a publisher document being accessed by a user, the apparatus comprising:

a) an input for accepting document information associated with the publisher document; and

b) means for selecting a set of advertisements using at least the document information and information from previous user behavior.

37. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein the previous user behavior includes documents previously visited by the user.

38. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein the previous user behavior includes search queries previously submitted by the user.

39. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein the previous user behavior includes selections previously made by the user.

40. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions which, when executed by a machine, perform a method comprising:

a) tracking, with a client device, a history of documents of a first type and documents of a second type requested by the client device;

b) generating and storing, on the client device, navigation history information from the tracked history of documents; and

c) generating, after requesting a document of the first type by the client device, an ad request, wherein the ad request includes at least some of the navigation history information.

41. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions which, when executed by a machine, perform a method comprising:

a) tracking, with a client device, a history of documents of a first type and documents of a second type requested by the client device;

b) generating, on the client device, navigation history information from the tracked history of documents;

c) forwarding, from the client device, at least some of the navigation history information, including data for matching the navigation history with a later ad request; and

d) generating, after requesting a document of the first type by the client device, an ad request, wherein the ad request includes data for matching the ad request with an earlier navigation history.

42. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-executable instructions which, when executed by a machine, perform a method comprising:

a) accepting document information associated with the publisher document; and

b) selecting a set of advertisements using at least the document information and information from previous user behavior of the user.