COLLECTION AND DELIVERY OF INTERNET ADS

• US 20070214132A1
• Filed: 09/27/2006
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Looksmart Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Looksmart, Ltd (Looksmart Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Martin, Bruce, Arena, Jeffrey, Schoen, Michael, GRUBB, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,725,464 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 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Advertisements over a network, such as the Internet, by extracting an index file of suppliers of search result sets for a plurality of keywords and/or an index of ads to be placed. A keyword in a received query may be matched to the suppliers of related search result sets and/or the ads to be placed in the index file(s). The search results may be ranked based on various criteria such as yield, click through rates and history of dealings. Search result sets for the keywords from the matching suppliers and the ads to be placed may be combined to produce a search result set ranked in accordance with estimated yields for advertisements associated with each result in the search result set and delivered in response to the received query. The search results in the combined set may be reranked and/or repriced.

Claims

1. A method of delivering advertisements over a network, comprising:

extracting an index file of suppliers of search result sets for a plurality of keywords;

matching a keyword in a received query to the suppliers of related search result sets in the index file;

combining search result sets related to the keyword obtained from the matching suppliers to produce a search result set ranked in accordance with estimated yields for advertisements associated with each result in the search result set; and

delivering the search result set in response to the received query.

2. The invention of claim 1 further comprising:

ranking the suppliers of search result sets; and

requesting search result sets related to the keyword from the suppliers in accordance with the ranking of the suppliers.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein the suppliers are ranked in accordance with data related to a quality of prior search result sets provided by each supplier in response to prior requests for search result sets.

4. The invention of claim 2 wherein the suppliers are ranked in accordance with a yield of advertisements associated with prior search result sets provided by each supplier in response to prior requests for search result sets.

5. The invention of claim 2 wherein the suppliers are ranked in accordance with a response time for providing prior search result sets provided by each supplier in response to prior requests for search result sets.

6. The invention of claim 2 wherein the suppliers are ranked in accordance with a geographical locale for advertisements with associated prior search result sets provided by each supplier in response to prior requests for search result sets.

7. The invention of claim 6 further comprising:

determining an estimated geographical locale for advertisements associated with the prior search result sets in accordance with a network address of each supplier.

8. The invention of claim 7 further comprising:

determining an estimated geographical locale for a source of the query in accordance with a network address of the source.

9. The invention of claim 3 wherein the quality is related to a geographical locale for the query.

10. The invention of claim 9 further comprising:

determining an estimated geographical locale for a source of the query in accordance with a network address of the source.

11. The invention of claim 2 wherein the suppliers are ranked in accordance with a categorization of ad content for the advertisements associated with each supplier.

12. The invention of claim 11 further comprising:

comparing a categorization of content of the query with a categorization of ad content associated with each supplier.

13. The invention of claim 2 further comprising:

repricing at least some of the ads from the matching suppliers before delivering the search result set in accordance with data related to an estimated yield for each ad.

14. The invention of claim 2 further comprising:

repricing at least some of the ads from the matching suppliers in accordance with data related to estimated click through rate for each ad before delivering the search result set in response to the query.

15. The invention of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving search result sets from at least some of the matching suppliers including data related to click through rates for ads related to at least some of the results in the search result set provided by each of those matching suppliers.

16. The invention of claim 2 further comprising:

repricing at least some of the ads from the matching suppliers before delivering the search result set by changing cost per click data delivered with the search result set in response to the query.

17. The invention of claim 2 further comprising:

effectively repricing at least some of the ads from the matching suppliers before delivering the search result set by changing a revenue sharing arrangement with those suppliers.

18. A method of delivering advertisements over a network, comprising:

matching a keyword in a received query to suppliers of related search result sets from an index of suppliers extracted from a database of suppliers and to ads to be placed from an index of advertisers extracted from a database of ads to be placed;

combining search result sets related to the keyword obtained from the matching suppliers and a search result from the matching ads to be placed to produce a combined search result set ranked in accordance with estimated yields for advertisements associated with each result in the combined search result set; and

delivering the combined search result set in response to the received query.

19. The invention of claim 18 wherein combining further comprises:

selecting one search result set entry, from a set of search result set entries associated with a common advertisement, in accordance with an estimated yield.

20. The invention of claim 19 further comprising:

ranking the matching suppliers in accordance with their ranking before requesting search result sets related to the keyword from those matching suppliers.

21. The invention of claim 20 further comprising:

ranking search result sets received from the matching suppliers.

22. The invention of claim 21 further comprising:

ranking search results associated with the matching advertisements.

23. The invention of claim 22 wherein combining further comprises:

combining the ranked search result sets from the matching suppliers and those associated with the matching advertisements in accordance with their individual rankings.

24. The invention of claim 21 wherein combining further comprises:

combining the ranked search result sets from the matching suppliers within a preselected period of time and the ranked search result sets associated with the matching advertisements in accordance with their individual rankings.

25. The invention of claim 24 wherein combining further comprises:

adjusting the preselected period of time in accordance with a quality of the ranked search result set associated with the matching advertisements.

26. The invention of claim 25 wherein the quality is the quantity of the matching advertisements.

27. The invention of claim 18 further comprising:

repricing ads associated with combined search result set before delivering the search result set in accordance with data related to estimated yield for each ad.

28. The invention of claim 18 further comprising:

repricing at least some of the ads in the combined search result set in accordance with data related to an estimated click through rate for each ad.

29. The invention of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving search result sets from at least some of the matching suppliers including data related to click through rates for associated ads.

30. The invention of claim 18 further comprising:

repricing at least some of the ads associated with the combined result set by changing cost per click data associated with each such repriced ad.

31. The invention of claim 18 further comprising:

effectively repricing at least some of the ads associated with the combined search result set by changing a revenue sharing arrangement associated with each such repriced ad.