SYSTEM FOR SELECTING AD INVENTORY WITH A CLICKABLE MAP INTERFACE

• US 20090012866A1
• Filed: 07/17/2008
• Published: 01/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Choie, Tak-Leung, Celik, Aytek Esen
• Granted Patent: US 8,682,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.480
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A method is disclosed for providing advertising content for display in a page over a network. Ad inventory is identified and/or organized based on a category and a geographic region. The ad inventory may be displayed on an interactive map that is used for selecting from the inventory based on the geographic location.

Claims

1. A method for displaying geographic specific advertisement inventory comprising:

identifying a geographic location in which an advertisement is displayed;

receiving a category for the advertisement to be displayed;

providing an interactive map displaying the geographic location including an inventory of advertisement listings within the geographic location, wherein the advertisement listings are related to the category;

receiving a selection of at least one of the advertisement listings from the displayed inventory; and

providing an advertisement to be displayed for the selected advertisement listing.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the selection of at least one of the advertisement listings comprises a purchase of the at least one of the advertisement listings.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic location is selected by the advertiser.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a request to resize the interactive map; and

updating the geographic location based on the resized interactive map.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

updating the inventory of advertisements based on the resized geographic location, wherein the updated inventory includes advertisements within the resized geographic location.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the resized interactive map comprises a smaller geographic location, further wherein the updated inventory is reduced to include advertisements within the smaller geographic location.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the resized interactive map comprises a larger geographic location, further wherein the updated inventory is increased to include advertisements within the larger geographic location.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the indentifying the geographic location comprises receiving a selection of the geographic location from the interactive map.

9. A method for displaying advertisement inventory comprising:

receiving a category for an advertisement;

receiving a selection for a geographic region;

displaying an interactive map of the selected geographic region;

displaying ad inventory on the map that is related to the category, wherein the inventory includes available inventory, unavailable inventory, purchased inventory, and an ad location; and

displaying details of the inventory on the interactive map at respective locations of the inventory within the geographic region.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving another selection of a different geographic region; and

updating the interactive map to display the different geographic region.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the different geographic region is a subset of the selected geographic region, further wherein the selected geographic region is narrowed to the different geographic region.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the ad inventory is updated to display inventory within the different geographic region.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the selected geographic region is a subset of the different geographic region, further wherein the selected geographic region is broadened to the different geographic region.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the ad inventory is updated to display inventory within the different geographic region.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the inventory comprises a listing for displaying an advertisement.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the listing comprises an enhanced listing or a featured listing.

17. The method of claim 9 wherein the details of the inventory comprises price, location, or availability.

18. A method for providing an advertiser interface comprising:

receiving a request for ad inventory including a category and geographic region, wherein the ad inventory comprises a listing of available slots for advertisements;

providing a map of the geographic region;

identifying ad inventory based on the category, wherein the ad inventory is within the geographic region;

displaying the ad inventory within the geographic region including a price an location for each listing of the ad inventory; and

receiving a selection of ad inventory from the map.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the selection comprises a purchase of the selected ad inventory.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the selected ad inventory is listed as unavailable or purchased.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the selection comprises a click of the selected ad inventory as displayed on the map.