INTERACTIVE HOST-AWARE ADVERTISING

• US 20090254846A1
• Filed: 04/02/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: SINGH, BALBIR, VAIDYANATHAN, SHANKAR, VADDADI, PHANI K.
• Application Number:
  US12/061,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20090254846A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system, and media for enabling an advertisement to interact with a software application. This can include receiving advertising content that is to be hosted by a software application. The advertising content can include an advertisement to be presented as well as an object that includes product information. The object can be interacted with by the software application. The product information relates to a product offering that is being promoted by the advertisement. The method further includes presenting the advertisement within the software application, and enabling an interaction method with the software application such that the product information is utilized by the software application to present a presentation that becomes part of a work of the software application. The software application can then be used to modify imported product information. Links to the outside world enable dynamic updating of even the imported product information, and also enable transactions to be performed that are associated with the advertisement.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of enabling an advertisement to interact with a software application, the method comprising:

receiving advertising content that is useable to host an advertisement in the software application in an area of a user interface of the software application, wherein the advertising content includes,

(1) an advertisement to be presented within the area; and

(2) an object that includes product information and that can be interacted with by the software application, wherein the product information relates to a product offering that is being promoted by the advertisement;

presenting the advertisement within the software application; and

enabling an interaction method with the software application such that the product information is utilized by the software application to present a presentation that becomes part of a work of the software application such that a the software application can then be utilized to modify imported product information.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the software application is a thick-client application.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the advertising content is variable according to attributes of a user such that the advertising content includes a first set of data in connection with a first user, but a second set of data in connection with a second user.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the software application includes a selection from the following:

a word-processing application;

a spreadsheet application;

a database program;

a presentation program;

a drawing program;

a messaging application;

an application-development application;

a finance-related application; and

a productivity-enhancement application.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the software application includes an internet-browsing application.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the work includes one or more selections from the following:

a word-processing document;

a spreadsheet or workbook;

a presentation;

a database;

a web-based application;

a drawing file;

a message;

or

a calendaring-related item.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein presenting the advertisement includes presenting a visual indication that the advertisement can be interacted with.

8. The media of claim 1, wherein the interaction method includes one or more of the following:

dragging the advertisement to a destination associated with the software application;

double clicking the advertisement;

completing a key sequence that invokes the method;

or automatically adding the interaction content based, at least in part, on a portion of the advertising content.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein the interaction method is made possible by way of one or more of the following processes:

modifying the software application to receive the product information;

or

utilizing a software enhancement in connection with the software application to receive the product information.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein the interaction method further includes importing product information into the software application, resulting in a presentation in the software application of imported product information, which is modifiable by the software application.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the presentation of imported product information is variable according to the software application such that the presentation takes on a first form when the product information is imported in a first software application but takes on a second form when imported into a second software application.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein the product information includes transaction data that is useable to present a transaction-initiation control which, if acted on, initiates a transaction related to the advertisement even if later in time from when the product information was first imported into the software application.

13. The media of claim 12, further comprising facilitating at least a start of a transaction associated with the advertisement incident to receiving user input by way of the transaction-initiation control.

14. The media of claim 13, wherein the start of the transaction was initiated after a closing and a reopening of the work, and wherein the product information was immediately present and available by way of the work incident to the reopening without a need to receive any additional data.

15. The media of claim 1, further comprising automatically updating the advertising content with new advertising content, and wherein automatically updating the advertising content includes automatically updating imported product information that had been imported into the work.

16. The media of claim 15, wherein automatically updating the interaction content includes one or more of:

providing live content from a remote location;

updating the interaction content from a local data source.

17. The media of claim 1, further comprising providing to a remote recipient usage information associated with the advertising content.

18. A method for facilitating advertisement interaction with a software application, the method comprising:

communicating advisement content to a remote computing device, the advertising content including an advertisement and an object that includes,

(1) product information associated with the advertisement that facilitates an integration of the product information into a work of the software application; and

(2) transaction-initiation information that enables a transaction associated with the advertisement to be initiated from within the work;

such that a recipient of the advertising content is enabled to utilize the software application to interact with the product information by acting on the advertisement to import the product information into the software application;

wherein the advertising content is variable according to attributes of a user such that the advertising content includes a first set of data in connection with a first user, but a second set of data in connection with a second user; and

wherein a presentation of imported product information varies according to the software application such that the presentation takes on a first form when the product information is imported into a first software application but takes on a second form when imported into a second software application.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving by a recipient an indication of at least a start of a transaction that was initiated from the transaction-initiation information.

20. A system for facilitating advertisement interaction with a software application, the system comprising:

a remote computing device that communicates advertising content ultimately to be received by a client application;

wherein the advertising content includes an object that describes how product information within the advertising content is to be directly imported into the client application incident to an importing event; and

incident to an occurrence of the event, the product information is imported into the software application based on a type of software application that the software application is such that the product information takes on a first form if imported into a first type of software application but takes on a second form if imported into a second type of software application.