SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONDUCTING ONLINE CAMPAIGNS

• US 20090271730A1
• Filed: 12/01/2008
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Reputation.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Social Mecca, Inc.
• Inventors: Rose, Robert, Derfer, Brian, Wiles, Jeremy, Adams, Owen, Rollins, Kevin, Underwood, Tom, Goodyear, Nichole, Matthews, Camille, Hung, Kelvin
• Granted Patent: US 8,656,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/772
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating displays showing interactions with a piece of content accessible via a number of unrelated websites are described. One embodiment of the invention includes storing a piece of content within a database and providing access to the piece of content via a website hosted by a server associated with the database, receiving a request from a user to propagate the piece of content to a 3^rd party website hosted via a 3^rd party server, obtaining user account information, accessing the 3^rd party server using the user account information, providing propagation player code to the 3^rd party server, where the propagation player code includes information enabling a browser application to access the piece of content via the server associated with the database, receiving requests from browser applications, where the requests are associated with user interactions with the piece of content, identifying requests associated with a user interaction via the propagation player included in the 3^rd party website, updating database records tracking user interactions with the piece of content via different websites in response to the received requests, and generating a display of the websites to which the content has been propagated, where the display includes the 3^rd party website.

Claims

1. A method of generating a graphical display showing interactions with a piece of content accessible via a number of unrelated websites, comprising:

storing a piece of content within a database and providing access to the piece of content via a website hosted by a server associated with the database;

receiving a request from a user to propagate the piece of content to a 3^rd party website hosted via a 3^rd party server;

obtaining user account information;

accessing the 3^rd party server using the user account information;

providing propagation player code to the 3^rd party server, where the propagation player code includes information enabling a browser application to access the piece of content via the server associated with the database;

receiving requests from browser applications, where the requests are associated with user interactions with the piece of content;

identifying requests associated with a user interaction via the propagation player included in the 3^rd party website;

updating database records tracking user interactions with the piece of content via different websites in response to the received requests; and

generating a display of the websites to which the content has been propagated, where the display includes the 3^rd party website.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the website hosted by the server associated with the database includes a user interface, which enables a user to request that the piece of content be propagated to a 3^rd party website hosted via a 3^rd party server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the server associated with the database uses identifying information included in requests received from propagation players to identify the 3^rd party website through which a user is interacting with the piece of content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the propagation player code includes a unique URL for each piece of content;

the propagation player requests information from the server, where the request includes the URL and information identifying the URL of the website containing the propagation player;

the server associated with the database uses the URL of the website when update database records tracking user interactions with the piece of content via different websites in response to the received requests.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the propagation player includes a user interface, which enables a user to request that the piece of content be propagated to a 3^rd party website hosted via a 3^rd party server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is a graph, where the vertices of the graph represent websites and the edges of the graph represent propagation of the piece of content.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each vertex is represented by a circle and the radius of the circle is proportional to the number of interactions with the piece of content via the website represented by the vertex.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein multiple propagations originating from a first website to a second website are represented by a single line annotated with a number indicating the number of propagations.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the vertex corresponding to the website hosted by the server associated with the database is located at the center of the graph and edges corresponding to propagations from the website radiate outward.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein each vertex is annotated with at least one annotation indicative of the number of a particular type of interaction that occurred with a piece of content via the website corresponding to the vertex.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular type of interaction is viewing, scrolling over, accessing, voting, reviewing, or playing the content.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one annotation is indicative of a score that is calculated using a function of the number of multiple different types of interaction.

13. A method of generating a graphical display of interactions with a piece of content, comprising:

storing a piece of content within a database and providing access to the piece of content via a website hosted by a server associated with the database;

receiving requests from browser applications, where the requests are associated with user interactions with the piece of content;

identifying the geographic location from which the requests originated;

updating database records tracking user interactions with the piece of content based upon geographic location in response to the received requests; and

generating a map showing the geographic locations in which interactions with the content have occurred.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request from a user to propagate the piece of content to a 3^rd party website hosted via a 3^rd party server;

obtaining user account information;

accessing the 3^rd party server using the user account information;

providing propagation player code to the 3^rd party server, where the propagation player code includes information enabling a browser application to access the piece of content via the server associated with the database; and

identifying requests associated with a user interaction via the propagation player included in the 3^rd party website.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the map indicates the website via which the user interactions occurred.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein interactions are indicated on the map as a single aggregated pinpoint.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein different types of interactions are indicated on the map using different identifiers.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying the geographic location from which the requests originated comprises mapping an I.P. address associated with the request to a geographic location.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying the geographic location from which the requests originated further comprises:

maintaining user accounts including address information;

receiving log in information from users accessing the content; and

identifying a request from a user logged into a user account and assigning the address information in the user account as the geographic location from which the request originated.

20. A method of generating a graphical display showing interactions with content accessible via a number of unrelated websites, comprising:

storing multiple pieces of content within a database and providing access to the pieces of content via a website hosted by a server associated with the database;

receiving requests from users to propagate the content to 3^rd party websites hosted via 3^rd party servers;

obtaining user account information;

accessing the 3^rd party servers using user account information;

providing propagation player code to the 3^rd party servers, where the propagation player code includes information enabling a browser application to access a piece of content via the server associated with the database;

receiving requests from browser applications, where the requests are associated with user interactions with one of the pieces of content;

identifying requests associated with a user interaction via a propagation player included in a 3^rd party website;

updating database records tracking user interactions with each of the pieces of content via different websites in response to the received requests; and

generating a display of the websites to which pieces of content have been propagated.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the display also includes information concerning interactions with content that occurred via each website.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein generating a display of the websites to which pieces of content have been propagated comprises:

selecting pieces of content according to a filtering criteria;

identifying websites to which the selected pieces of content have been propagated; and

generating a display of the websites to which the selected pieces of content have been propagated.