Category-based Advertisement

• US 20080313030A1
• Filed: 06/13/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sheward, Lou, Talmor, Yoram, Makeev, Evgeniy
• Granted Patent: US 7,865,397 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A hierarchical category system for organizing and displaying electronic advertisements is disclosed. Each electronic advertisement is assigned one or more categories from a hierarchical categorization system. Similarly, each available advertisement placement location is also provided with a category from the hierarchical categorization, system. Then, when displaying advertisements, the system attempts to locate advertisements that have matching categorizations. When no matching advertisement with an exact matching categorization can be found, the system will attempt to locate an advertisement from a more specific (child) category that is a sub category of the current category. However, the advertisement from the more specific (child) category must specify the broader category within its own allowable fall-back path.

Claims

1. A method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements, said method comprising the steps of:

categorizing a plurality of electronic advertisements with a category hierarchy;

categorizing a plurality of available advertisement slots with said category hierarchy; and

selecting, for each available advertisement slot with a particular category, an electronic advertisement with a matching particular category node or an electronic advertisement from a sub category of said particular category node.

2. The method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements as set forth in claim 1 wherein said electronic advertisements are internet advertisements.

3. The method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements as set forth in claim 1 wherein each electronic advertisements has a fall-back path that specifies broader categories.

4. The method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements as set forth in claim 3 wherein said fall-back path is limited to a category node earlier than a root node.

5. The method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements as set forth in claim 1 wherein advertiser'"'"'s bid for categories in said category hierarchy using an auction system.

6. The method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements as set forth in claim 3 wherein when an advertiser has a particular advertisement displayed in a category node in a fall-back path for said particular advertisement then said advertiser pays no more than a price agreed upon for a target category node for said particular advertisement.

7. The method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said electronic advertisements specify particular advertisement locations that may not be used to display said electronic advertisement.

8. A computer readable medium, said computer readable medium comprising a set of instructions for organizing and displaying electronic advertisements, said set of instructions performing the steps of:

categorizing a plurality of electronic advertisements with a category hierarchy;

categorizing a plurality of available advertisement slots with said category hierarchy; and

selecting, for each available advertisement slot with a particular category, an electronic advertisement with a matching particular category node or an electronic advertisement from a sub category of said particular category node.

9. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein said electronic advertisements are internet advertisements.

10. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein each electronic advertisements has a fall-back path that specifies broader categories.

11. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 10 wherein said fall-back path is limited to a category node earlier than a root node.

12. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein advertiser'"'"'s bid for categories in said category hierarchy using an auction system.

13. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 10 wherein when an advertiser has a particular advertisement displayed in a category node in a fall-back path for said particular advertisement then said, advertiser pays no more than a price agreed upon for a target category node for said particular advertisement.

14. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein each said electronic advertisements specify particular advertisement locations that may not be used to display said electronic advertisement.

15. A hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy, said method comprising the steps of:

examining information about an electronic advertisement with a classification engine, said classification engine assigning a first pass categorization of said electronic advertisement;

displaying said first past categorization of said electronic advertisement to a human in a form of said category hierarchy displayed with said first pass categorization high-lighted; and

accepting changes to said first pass categorization by said human, to said displayed category hierarchy.

16. The hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy as set forth in claim 15 wherein said, first past categorization comprises at least one target category node high-lighted with a fall-back path to a root node in said category hierarchy.

17. The hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy as set forth in claim 16 wherein said changes to said first pass categorization by said human comprise a limiting of said fall-back path to a category node other than said root node.

18. The hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy as set forth in claim 16 wherein said changes to said first pass categorization by said human comprise an addition of a category node.

19. The hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy as set forth in claim 15 wherein said information about said electronic advertisement comprises a web site of an advertiser.

20. The hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy as set forth in claim 15 wherein said information about said electronic advertisement comprises text information from an existing electronic advertisement.