SYSTEM, APPARATUS, AND METHOD TO PROVIDE TARGETED CONTENT TO USERS OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

• US 20080294607A1
• Filed: 05/21/2008
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: MySpace Incorporated (Capital V LLC)
• Original Assignee: MySpace Incorporated (Capital V LLC)
• Inventors: Partovi, Hadi, Partovi, Ali
• Application Number:
  US12/124,983
• Publication Number:
  US 20080294607A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A system, apparatus, and method for providing targeted content to users of a social network. The system, apparatus, and method may be used to provide advertisements, promotions, and other relevant content to a user of a social network based on analysis of the user'"'"'s preferences, interests, and tastes as expressed in data contained in the user'"'"'s social network. Additional targeted-content may be selected and provided to a user based on the preferences, interests, and tastes of a user'"'"'s friends within the social network.

Claims

1. A method of providing content targeted for a user of a third party social network, comprising:

collecting information about the user from the third party social network;

processing the collected information to identify keywords that are relevant to determining targeted-content for the user;

determining a relevant category for each identified keyword to determine one or more databases;

conducting a search using the each identified keyword over the determined databases for locating matching targeted-content; and

presenting the matching targeted-content to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting information about the user includes collecting information about one or more of the following:

the user'"'"'s preferences;

the user'"'"'s favorites;

the user'"'"'s hobbies; and

the user'"'"'s interests.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information about the user is collected from the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the information about the user is collected from a user profile database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the collected information includes:

parsing the collected information into a set of discrete keywords;

identifying extraneous keywords that are not to be used for conducting a search; and

obtaining a subset of keywords by removing the extraneous keywords from the set of discrete keywords.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more from the determined databases are provided from an advertising network of a third party.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein conducting a search includes:

performing a direct matching searching; and

performing an indirect matching searching.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing a direct matching searching includes, using each identified keyword, querying the determined databases for matching targeted-content.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein performing an indirect matching searching includes:

determining a second keyword, wherein the second keyword is related one or more keywords in the subset determined from the parsed information; and

retrieving targeted-content from the determined databases using the second keyword.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the targeted-content is one or more of the following:

an advertisement for a product or service;

information regarding a product or service;

an offer to provide a product or service;

a promotion for a good or service; and

a coupon or other incentive for a good or service.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the matching targeted-content to the user includes:

generating an output including one or more groups of the matching targeted-content; and

presenting the output to the user,

wherein each group is determined based on the keyword and the relevant category for the keyword.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, if the relevant category is Music, a calendar including the targeted content that is concert information is generated for an output.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the concert information includes one or more from ticket purchase information, time information, venue information, and singer information.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the output is sent to the user via an email.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching targeted-content is presented to the user more than once.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the targeted-content in a user profile database.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting information about friends of the user from the third party social network, wherein the friends are designated by the user in the third party social network;

processing the collected information to identify a second set of keywords that are relevant to determining targeted-content for the user or the friends;

determining a relevant category for each identified keyword in the second set;

conducting a search using the each identified keyword in the second set over the targeted-content databases for locating matching targeted-content; and

presenting the matching targeted-content to the user.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising, presenting, to the user, information about friends who are interested in the matching targeted-content.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein, if the relevant category is Movies, the output is a calendar including the targeted content that is movie ticket information or other movie related content.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching targeted-content is presented to the user in a Web page or via email.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching targeted-content is provided by a third party service provider.

22. A system for providing content targeted for a user of a third party social network, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

collect information about the user from the third party social network;

process the collected information to identify keywords that are relevant to determining targeted-content for the user;

determine a relevant category for each identified keyword;

conduct a search using the each identified keyword over content databases for locating targeted-content that matches the identified keyword; and

present the matching targeted-content to the user.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the information about the user includes one or more of the following:

the user'"'"'s preferences;

the user'"'"'s favorites;

the user'"'"'s hobbies; and

the user'"'"'s interests.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein one or more of the content databases are constructed and maintained by a third party service provider that provides the system with a network interface to access the one or more of the content databases.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

parse the collected information into a set of discrete keywords;

identify extraneous keywords that are not to be used for conducting a search; and

obtain a subset of keywords by removing the extraneous keywords from the set of discrete keywords.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a direct matching searching using each identified keyword, querying the content databases for matching targeted-content.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

determine a second keyword, wherein the second keyword is related one or more keywords in the subset determined from the parsed information; and

retrieve targeted-content from the databases using the second keyword.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the targeted-content is one or more of the following:

an advertisement for a product or service;

information regarding a product or service;

an offer to provide a product or service;

a promotion for a good or service; and

a coupon or other incentive for a good or service.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

group the matching targeted-content based on corresponding category;

generate an output based the grouping result; and

present the output to the user.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein, if the relevant category is Music, the output is a calendar including the targeted content that is concert information.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the concert information includes one or more from ticket purchase information, time information, venue information, and singer information.

32. The system of claim 22, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

collect information about friends of the user from the third party social network, wherein the friends are designated by the user in the third party social network;

process the collected information to identify a second set of keywords that are relevant to determining targeted-content for the user or the friends;

determine a relevant category for each identified keyword in the second set;

conduct a search, using the each identified keyword in the second set and the relevant category, over the targeted-content databases for locating matching targeted-content; and

presenting the matching targeted-content to the user.

33. A method of providing concert content targeted for a user of a social network, comprising:

collecting information about the user from the social network;

processing the collected information to identify keywords that are relevant to determining concert content targeted for the user;

conducting a search using the each identified keyword over databases for locating matching concert content;

generating an output including the matching concert content; and

presenting the output to the user.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the output is a calendar including information about the matching concert content.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the information about the matching concert content includes one or more of ticket purchase information, time information, venue information, or artist information.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising enabling a user to purchase a ticket for the matching concert content.

37. The method of claim 33, further comprising enabling a user to inform a friend in the social network about the matching concert content.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein the output is sent to the user via an email.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein the information about the user includes one or more information about preferences, interests, hobbies, and likes of the user.

40. The method of claim 33, wherein the information about the user includes information about friends of the user, including one or more information about preferences, interests, hobbies, and likes of each friend.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein information about a friend who is interested in the matching concert content is present to the user.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the friend who is interest in the matching concert content is identified based on the one or more information about preferences, interests, hobbies, and likes of the friend.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the identified friend receives the formation about the matching concert content.

44. The method of claim 33, further comprising enabling the user to specify criteria for the search.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the specified criteria include a desired location of a concert.

46. The method of claim 33, wherein additional information is collected and processed for locating more matching concert content.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the additional information is collected from a third party social network where the user is a member.

48. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

if the social network is a third party;

obtaining, from the user, a permission to access the social network, and

accessing the social network using the permission to obtain information relating to determining targeted-concert content,

wherein the obtained information includes information about the user and a list of friends designated by the user within the social network.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein accessing the third party social network includes using an API interface to directly access the third party social network.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the API interface is provided by the third party social network.

51. The method of claim 48, wherein accessing the third party social network includes using screen scraping to obtain the list of friends.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the permission is a user'"'"'s login credential information.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein the information about the friend is obtained through screen scraping of a Web page in the third party social network.

54. A server for providing concert content targeted for a user of a social network, the server comprising:

one or more databases for storing information about the user, concert content items, related-keywords, and interest-categories; and

a computing device communicatively coupled to the database, the computing device is operable to;

obtain information about the user;

process the obtained information to identify keywords that are relevant to determining concert content targeted for the user;

conduct a search using the each identified keyword over the databases for locating matching concert content items;

generate an output including the matching concert content items in a predetermined format; and

present the output to the user.

55. The server of claim 54, wherein the predetermined format is a calendar format, a Web page format, an email format, or text message format.

56. The server of claim 54, wherein the server communicates with a third party service provider to obtain the matching concert content items, the third party service provider independently managing concert content items.

57. A method for finding targeted-content for a user with a first set of keywords that are identified from information about the user, the method comprising:

conducting a search over targeted-content databases with each keyword in the first set;

obtaining search results including targeted content that matched at least one keyword in the first set;

obtaining a second set of keywords by querying a related keyword database using each keyword in the first set,

wherein a keyword in the second set is relevant to at least one keyword in the first set;

conducting a search over the targeted-content databases with each keyword in the second set; and

obtaining additional search results including targeted content that matched at least one keyword in the second set.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein the obtained search results are presented to the user as direct matching content.

59. The method of claim 57, wherein the obtained additional search results are presented to the user as indirect matching content.

60. The method of claim 57, wherein the targeted content includes an advertisement, an offer, a promotion material, information about a product, information about a service, or a discount coupon.