Advertising based on widgets

• US 20080010133A1
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Haggman, Kaj, Saarimaa, Tero-Markus, Pyhalammi, Seppo
• Granted Patent: US 9,002,726 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Electronic advertisements and other types of electronic information are distributed based on user profiles and in particular, collections of widgets. User profiles may be generated based on a combination of user entered information and information inferred or derived from user behavior and interaction patterns. The use and collection of various widgets may also be recorded by a user profile to determine a user'"'"'s preferences and interests. An advertisement may be distributed by segmenting a user population according to user profile information and one or more attributes of the advertisement. Users may further interact with the widgets in a variety of ways including requesting additional information about the advertised product or service and/or requesting communications with an advertiser without compromising their privacy.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an advertisement from an advertiser;

identifying one or more attributes of the advertisement, wherein the one or more attributes are used to target users;

segmenting a user population into a plurality of groups based on the identified one or more attributes of the advertisement and information associated with a widget collection stored on a mobile terminal of each user in the user population; and

selecting at least one group from the plurality of groups for receiving the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying one or more attributes of the advertisement includes determining a target demographic associated with the advertisement.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of selecting at least one group from the plurality of groups for receiving the advertisement includes determining whether the at least one group matches the target demographic.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes identify a target geographic location.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining one or more common characteristics of users in the at least one selected group.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

retrieving a user profile associated with a user of the user population; and

extracting widget collection information corresponding to the user from the user profile.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from the user to contact the advertiser;

in response to the request, establishing a first network connection with the advertiser and a second network connection with the requesting user; and

linking the first network connection with the second network connection.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of sending a contact request to the advertiser.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of identifying private contact information of the user from a user profile associated with the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second network connection is established with the user based on the identified private contact information.

11. A method comprising:

receiving an advertisement;

transmitting the advertisement to a user through an advertisement widget;

receiving a request from the user for additional information associated with the advertisement;

in response to the request, requesting and receiving the additional information from the advertiser, wherein the privacy of private information associated with the user is maintained when requesting the additional information; and

transmitting the additional information to the user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the request from the user for additional information includes an advertisement identification.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the advertiser is identified based on the advertisement identification.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the advertisement is transmitted to a first device associated with the user and the additional information is transmitted to a second device associated with the user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein contact information associated with the second device is determined from a user profile corresponding to the user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the additional information is transmitted to the second device through e-mail.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to communicate with an advertiser associated with an advertisement;

transmitting the user'"'"'s communication request to a widget stored on a device associated with the advertiser;

in response to the user'"'"'s communication request, receiving a request from the advertiser to communicate with the user; and

establishing a network connection between the user and the advertiser.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the advertisement is transmitted to a widget on a device associated with the user.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the user'"'"'s communication request is received in response to the user selecting an option included in the advertisement.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of establishing a network connection between the user and the advertiser includes determining private contact information associated with the user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the private contact information is determined from a user profile corresponding to the user.

22. A mobile communication terminal comprising:

a display configured to display a user interface including a dashboard;

a user input device;

a processor;

memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the process, cause the mobile terminal to perform a method comprising;

receiving a widget from a content server;

displaying the widget in the dashboard;

receiving a first advertisement from the content server;

displaying the first advertisement in the widget;

transmitting user profile information to a database, wherein the user profile information includes a list of widgets running on the mobile terminal; and

receiving a second advertisement from the content server based on the user profile information.

23. The mobile terminal of claim 22, wherein the user profile information further includes one or more user interactions associated with the first advertisement.

24. The mobile terminal of claim 22, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, cause the mobile terminal to perform an additional step of determining one or more characteristics of a user associated with the mobile terminal, wherein the determination is made based on the list of widgets running on the mobile terminal.

25. The mobile terminal of claim 22, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, cause the mobile terminal to perform additional steps including:

receiving private user information from a user;

receiving access rights information associated with the private information from the user; and

transmitting the private user information and the access rights information to the database, wherein the database restricts access to the user'"'"'s private information based on the access rights information.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface module;

a database connection module;

a processor;

memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform a method comprising;

receiving an advertisement from an advertiser;

identifying one or more attributes of the advertisement, wherein the one or more attributes are used to target users;

segmenting a user population into a plurality of groups based on the identified one or more attributes of the advertisement and information associated with a widget collection stored on a mobile terminal of each user in the user population; and

selecting at least one group from the plurality of groups for receiving the advertisement.