Targeted advertising system and method

• US 20060212353A1
• Filed: 03/15/2006
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Phorm UK Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Phorm UK Incorporated
• Inventors: Roslov, Anton, Ertugrul, Kent
• Application Number:
  US11/377,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212353A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.540
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search

Abstract

A targeted advertising server system for providing advertising material to a browser which is operatively coupled with an internet of interconnected computer networks via an internet service provider (ISP). The system includes a database containing a plurality of advertisements and a matching engine operatively coupled with the database. The matching engine includes computer-readable instructions adapted to receive browsing information transmitted to the targeted advertising server system via the ISP, where the browsing information pertains to one or more web pages requested by the browser and is obtained by a context reader applied from the ISP to operate on the requested web pages. The computer readable instructions are further adapted to select one of the plurality of advertisements from the database for delivery to and presentation at the browser, such selection being dependent upon the browsing information received from the ISP.

Claims

1. A targeted advertising server system for providing advertising material to a browser which is operatively coupled with an internet of interconnected computer networks via an internet service provider (ISP) and operable to request and retrieve web pages from the internet, the targeted advertising server system comprising:

a database containing a plurality of advertisements; and

a matching engine operatively coupled with the database, the matching engine including computer-readable instructions adapted to;

receive browsing information transmitted to the targeted advertising server system via the ISP, where the browsing information pertains to one or more web pages requested by the browser and is obtained by a context reader applied from the ISP to operate on the one or more web pages; and

select one of the plurality of advertisements from the database for delivery to and presentation at the browser, such selection being dependent upon the browsing information received from the ISP.

2. The system of claim 1, where the context reader is a script embedded by the ISP into web pages requested by the browser.

3. The system of claim 2, where the script is a javascript.

4. The system of claim 2, where the script is embedded into each of a plurality of web pages requested by the browser.

5. The system of claim 2, where the browsing information includes keywords on web pages requested by the browser.

6. The system of claim 2, where the browsing information includes, for a web page requested by the browser, a position of a keyword on the web page.

7. The system of claim 2, where the browsing information includes, for a web page requested by the browser, a frequency of a keyword on the web page.

8. The system of claim 2, where the script is configured to set a cookie in the browser, and where the cookie contains at least a portion of the browsing information.

9. The system of claim 8, where the script is configured set the cookie so that the cookie contains browsing information corresponding to multiple web pages requested by the browser.

10. The system of claim 1, where said one of the plurality of advertisements selected from the database is adapted for presentation on a web page requested by the browser.

11. The system of claim 1, where said one of the plurality of advertisements selected from the database is adapted for presentation as a transition advertisement during a transition by the browser from a first web page to a second web page.

12. The system of claim 1, where the context reader is applied from a proxy server of the ISP.

13. A method of providing advertising material to a browser which is operatively coupled with an internet of interconnected computer networks via an internet service provider (ISP) and operable to request and retrieve web pages from the internet, the method comprising:

at the ISP, receiving a request of the browser to view a selected web page and forwarding such request to the internet;

at the ISP, receiving response data for the request from the internet and forwarding such response data to the browser, the response data being usable by the browser to display the selected web page;

applying, from the ISP, a context reader to the response data, the context reader being operable to obtain browsing information pertaining to the selected web page; and

delivering a targeted advertisement to the browser based upon the browsing information obtained by the context reader.

14. The method of claim 13, where applying a context reader to the response data is performed by a proxy server of the ISP.

15. The method of claim 13, where applying the context reader to the response data includes causing a script to be embedded into the selected web page.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising embedding the script into each of a plurality of web pages requested by the browser.

17. The method of claim 15, where the script is stored in a memory location at the ISP.

18. The method of claim 15, where the script is a javascript.

19. The method of claim 15, where the script is configured to set a cookie at the browser, the cookie containing at least a portion of the browsing information.

20. The method of claim 13, where the browsing information includes a keyword from the selected web page.

21. The method of claim 13, where the browsing information includes a position of a keyword on the selected web page.

22. The method of claim 13, where the browsing information includes a frequency of a keyword on the selected web page.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising forwarding the browsing information from the ISP to a targeted advertising server system.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising, at the targeted advertising system, selecting the targeted advertisement based on the browsing information and returning the targeted advertisement for forwarding to the browser.

25. The method of claim 13, where the targeted advertisement is formatted for presentation on a web page requested by the browser.

26. The method of claim 13, where the targeted advertisement is formatted as a transition advertisement for presentation at the browser during a transition by the browser from a first web page to a second web page, without being applied to either the first web page or the second web page.

27. A targeted advertising system, comprising:

an internet service provider (ISP) adapted to operatively couple computing devices with browsers to an internet of interconnected computer networks, so as to enable the browsers to request and retrieve web pages from the internet; and

context reading software stored in a memory location of the ISP, where the ISP is configured to activate the context reading software so that the context reading software operates on data comprising web pages requested from the internet by browsers coupled to the internet via the ISP, the context reading software including computer-readable instructions configured to, for a web page requested by a browser coupled to the internet through the ISP;

obtain browsing information from the web page; and

cause the browsing information to be reported to an advertising server system coupled to the internet, the browsing information being usable at the advertising server system to select an advertisement for delivery to the browser.

28. The system of claim 27, where the context reading software includes a script, and where the ISP is configured to embed the script into the web page.

29. The system of claim 28, where the script is a javascript.

30. The system of claim 28, where the script is configured to cause at least a portion of the browsing information to be stored locally on a computing device running the browser.

31. The system of claim 30, where the browsing information is stored locally in a cookie.

32. The system of claim 30, where the script is configured to cause at least a portion of the browsing information to be stored remotely at the advertising server system.

33. The system of claim 28, where the script is configured to cause at least a portion of the browsing information to be stored remotely at the advertising server system.

34. The system of claim 28, where the ISP is configured to embed the script into each of a plurality of web pages that are requested by browsers coupled to the internet through the ISP.