Targeted mobile content insertion and/or replacement

• US 20090131025A1
• Filed: 11/16/2007
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Modi, Shishir C., Sharma, Ranjan
• Granted Patent: US 8,620,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.300
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1467 involving prepayment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method is provided for altering content of a webpage served from a content provider'"'"'s server (32). The method includes: receiving a data request at a proxy server (22) over a wireless telecommunication network (20), the data request being initiated by a mobile device (10) served by the wireless network (20); forwarding the request from the proxy server (22) to the content provider'"'"'s server (32) over the Internet (30) such that the content provider'"'"'s server (32) returns a webpage with original content contained therein in response to the forwarded request; receiving the returned webpage at the proxy server (22); altering the original content of the webpage received by the proxy server (22); and, forwarding the webpage with the altered content to the mobile device (10) initiating the data request.

Claims

1. A method for altering content of a webpage served from a content provider'"'"'s server, said method comprising:

(a) receiving a data request at a proxy server over a wireless telecommunication network, said data request being initiated by a mobile device served by the wireless network;

(b) forwarding the request from the proxy server to the content provider'"'"'s server over the Internet such that the content provider'"'"'s server returns a webpage with original content contained therein in response to the forwarded request;

(c) receiving the returned webpage at the proxy server;

(d) altering the original content of the webpage received by the proxy server; and

,

(e) forwarding the webpage with the altered content to the mobile device initiating the data request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to step (b), the proxy server determines if a pre-paid subscriber of the mobile device has a sufficient balance in their account to cover fulfillment of the data request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the prior to step (d), the proxy server notifies a pre-paid accounting server to debit the subscribers account for fulfillment of the data request, and receives confirmation of the debit from the pre-paid accounting server.

4. The method of claim 3, said method further comprising:

caching the webpage received from the content provider'"'"'s server at the proxy server.

5. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

obtaining an IP address for the mobile device; and

,

determining a location of the mobile device based upon the IP address.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein step (d) comprises at least one of:

(i) adding new content to the webpage; and

(ii) replacing at least some portion of the original content with new content.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the new content varies based upon the determined location of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) comprises:

identifying an advertisement in the original content; and

,

replacing the identified advertisement with a new advertisement.

9. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

obtaining one of a telephone number for the mobile device; and

,

determining a subscriber preference from based upon the telephone number.

10. A telecommunication network that supports altering content of a webpage served from a content provider'"'"'s server, said network comprising:

a mobile portion used by a mobile device to wirelessly access the network;

a proxy server that receives a data request from the mobile device over the mobile portion of the network and forwards the request to the content provider'"'"'s server over the Internet such that the content provider'"'"'s server returns to the proxy server a webpage with original content contained therein in response to the forwarded request; and

,

a content alteration engine that receives the webpage with the original content from the proxy server, alters the original content of the webpage, and returns the webpage with altered content to the proxy server, which in turn forwards the same to the mobile device that initiated the data request.

11. The network of claim 10, said network further comprising:

a pre-paid accounting system, wherein prior to forwarding the request to the content provider'"'"'s server, the proxy server queries the pre-paid accounting system to determine if a pre-paid subscriber of the mobile device has a sufficient balance in their account to cover fulfillment of the data request.

12. The network of claim 11, wherein the prior to content alteration engine altering the original content, the proxy server notifies the pre-paid accounting server to debit the subscribers account for fulfillment of the data request, and receives confirmation of the debit from the pre-paid accounting server.

14. The network of claim 10, wherein the content alteration engine operates to perform at least one of:

(i) addition of new content to the webpage; and

(ii) replacement of at least some portion of the original content with new content.

15. The network of claim 14, wherein the new content varies based upon a determined location of the mobile device.

16. The network of claim 15, wherein the location of the mobile device is determined based upon an IP address of the mobile device.

17. The network of claim 10, wherein the content alteration engine identifies an advertisement in the original content, and replaces the identified advertisement with a new advertisement.

18. The network of claim 17, further comprising:

a preference database that contains preferences of subscribers such that the new advertisement is selected based upon the preferences in the database for a particular subscriber and other constraints imposed by the advertiser (such as counts of display, validity period, validity time, or even a null constraint).

13. The network of claim 13, wherein said proxy server also caches the webpage received from the content provider'"'"'s server.