Viral advertising for interactive services

• US 20060218577A1
• Filed: 03/11/2005
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Goodman, Joshua T., Meek, Christopher A., Kadie, Carl M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,665,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates propagating selected advertisements among users of interactive services. Interactive service users can be targeted for specific types of advertisements for particular products or services. When a user selects at least one advertisement for more detailed viewing, the advertisement can be distributed to or shared with one or more other users. These other users may be part of the original user'"'"'s social network. Thus user-selected advertisements can be shared among users who are familiar with each other'"'"'s current or future interests. In some cases, user-selected advertisements can replace system-selected advertisements. As a result, advertisers can benefit from increased exposure of and interest in their advertisements.

Claims

1. An advertisement propagation system that facilitates sharing advertisements among users of interactive services comprising:

at least one advertisement that is presented to a first user for at least one of viewing or selection; and

a distribution component that distributes one or more advertisements selected by the first user to at least a second user, whereby selection of the at least one advertisement by the first user triggers a distribution of the advertisement to the second user.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a selection component employed by the first user that selects the one or more advertisements for more detailed viewing.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a first notification component that notifies the first user when the at least second user has selected the advertisement for more detailed viewing.

4. The system of claim 3, the notification component notifies the first user in at least one of the following manners:

flashing the advertisement on the first user'"'"'s display and sending a message to the first user via at least one of a pop-up window or messaging system.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second notification component that notifies at least the second user that the first user has selected the advertisement.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a rating component that rates the one or more advertisements selected by the first user with a rating.

7. The system of claim 6, the distribution component distributes at least one of the one or more advertisements to the second user based at least in part on the rating of the advertisement.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement sale component that sells advertisement space to advertisers through auction bidding.

9. The system of claim 8, the auction bidding is based in part on at least one of the following:

cost per number of advertisements, cost per click of an advertisement, or cost per action.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement sale component that sells advertisement space to advertisers through negotiated prices.

11. The system of claim 1 employed in conjunction with at least one of a chat system, game system, email system, or messaging system.

12. An advertisement propagation system that facilitates presenting advertisements to users of interactive services comprising:

a system-based selection component that selects at least a subset of advertisements from which a first user can choose at least one advertisement to distribute to at least a second user;

a replacement component that distributes the at least one advertisement chosen by the first user to the second user.

13. The system of claim 12, the replacement component allows the first user to replace a system-selected advertisement for presentation to at least the second user with an advertisement chosen by the first user.

14. An advertisement propagation method comprising:

selecting one or more advertisements for more detailed viewing by at least the first user; and

distributing the one or more advertisements selected by the first user to at least a second user, whereby selection of the at least one advertisement by the first user triggers a distribution of the advertisement to the second user.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

rating the one or more advertisements selected by the first user; and

determining whether the rating of the one or more advertisements satisfies a threshold before distributing the advertisements to at least the second user.

16. The method of claim 15, rating the one or more advertisements is based at least in part on user profile information.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising notifying the first user that at least the second user has selected one or more distributed advertisements for more detailed viewing.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising replacing at least one system-selected advertisement with at least one user-selected advertisement for distribution to at least the second user.

19. The method of claim 14 employed in at least one of a chat system, messaging system, game system, and email system.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising presenting the first user with a plurality of system-selected advertisements from which to choose for at least one of the following:

more detailed viewing or replacing a system-selected advertisement that otherwise would be presented to the second user with at least one of the plurality of system-selected advertisements chosen by the first user.