User demographic profile driven advertising targeting

• US 20060085263A1
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anand Pashupathy, Paul Greer
• Original Assignee: Anand Pashupathy, Paul Greer
• Inventors: Pashupathy, Anand, Greer, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,194,424 B2
• 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 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for targeting advertising information transmitted over the Internet. The method involves creating a user profile and transmitting an agent and ad banner from a content provider to a target computer. At the target computer, information is collected and transmitted from the target computer to the content provider. The content provider filters the information to create relevant data. The content provider then munges the relevant data into a user specific database and selects new content for transmission over the Internet based on the new user specific database.

Claims

1-19. -19. (canceled)

20. A system comprising:

a target computer to receive a content including an advertisement; and

a content provider coupled to the target computer via a network to transmit the content, the content provider comprising;

an advertisement database storing a plurality of advertisements, wherein a non-specific advertisement from the advertisement database is transmitted to the target computer based upon information obtained from an agent initially transmitted to the target computer when the target computer connects to the content provider, and wherein a content agent is transmitted to the target computer with the non-specific advertisement;

a user rule page containing information automatically obtained from the target computer by the content agent, the content agent having a triggering program to filter information and to determine whether the information is relevant to the user rule page, wherein the content agent is an object code for a control residing on a web page and the control is transmitted with the web page while a dormant object code resides on a server;

a rulebook to provide a rule based on the user rule page, the rule controlling a selection of a specific advertisement from the advertisement database, wherein the rule is stored in form of a condition-action pair, the user rule page including;

a hardware profile indicating hardware capabilities of the target computer, a software profile indicating software used by the target computer, and a user profile including dynamic information related to a user using the target computer, the dynamic information including information on web sites visited and time spent by the user on the websites; and

wherein the content agent updates information in the user rule page based upon information received from the target computer and based upon the updated user rule page selects the specific advertisement from the advertisement database that is transmitted to the target computer.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the agents use an internet programming language.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein the hardware profile includes a modem speed.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the hardware profile includes a type of processor, an amount of memory available, processor clock speed and memory usage on the target computer.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the software profile includes a software package and memory usage by the target computer.

25. The system of claim 20 wherein the advertisements are transmitted in an internet protocol format.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the advertisements are advertisement banners.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the target computer communicates with additional content providers, and wherein the target computer maintains several provider rule pages of the additional content providers.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein each provider rule page includes information from at least one of the additional content providers.

29. A system comprising:

a content provider coupled to a target computer via a network to transmit the content, the content provider comprising;

an advertisement database storing a plurality of advertisements, wherein a non-specific advertisement from the advertisement database is transmitted to the target computer based upon information obtained from an agent initially transmitted to the target computer when the target computer connects to the content provider, and wherein a content agent is transmitted to the target computer with the non-specific advertisement;

a user rule page containing information automatically obtained from the target computer by the content agent, the content agent having a triggering program to filter information and to determine whether the information is relevant to the user rule page, wherein the content agent is an object code for a control residing on a web page and the control is transmitted with the web page while a dormant object code resides on a server;

a rulebook to provide a rule based on the user rule page, the rule controlling a selection of a specific advertisement from the advertisement database, wherein the rule is stored in form of a condition-action pair, the user rule page including;

a hardware profile indicating hardware capabilities of the target computer, a software profile indicating software used by the target computer, and a user profile including dynamic information related to a user using the target computer, the dynamic information including information on web sites visited and time spent by the user on the websites; and

wherein the content agent updates information in the user rule page based upon information received from the target computer and based upon the updated user rule page selects the specific advertisement from the advertisement database that is transmitted to the target computer.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the agents use an internet programming language.

31. The system of claim 29 wherein the hardware profile includes a modem speed.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the hardware profile includes a type of processor, an amount of memory available, processor clock speed and memory usage on the target computer.

33. The system of claim 32 wherein the software profile includes a software package and memory usage by the target computer.

34. The system of claim 29 wherein the advertisements are transmitted in an internet protocol format.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the advertisements are advertisement banners.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the target computer communicates with additional content providers, and wherein the target computer maintains several provider rule pages of the additional content providers.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein each provider rule page includes information from at least one of the additional content providers.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the hardware profile includes a modem speed, a type of processor, an amount of memory available, processor clock speed and memory usage on the target computer and the software profile includes a software package and memory usage by the target computer.