PROVISION OF LOCATION-BASED ADVERTISING

• US 20100138294A1
• Filed: 12/03/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bussmann, Alexander T., Segal, Todd, Figueroa, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US12/327,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138294A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.490
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The provision of location-based advertising services is disclosed. One disclosed embodiment provides a method of operating a location-based advertising server. The method comprises receiving from each of a plurality of advertising publishers an item of advertising content associated with a bounded area defined in a geographic region, and also receiving from each advertising publisher a bid for payment for distributing the advertising publisher'"'"'s item of advertising content to devices. The method then comprises receiving from a device a request for advertising content associated with the bounded area, and sending an item of advertising content associated with a highest bid to the device.

Claims

1. A method of operating a location-based advertising server, comprising:

receiving from each advertising publisher of a plurality of advertising publishers an item of advertising content associated with a bounded area defined in a geographic region;

receiving from each advertising publisher a bid for payment for distributing the advertising publisher'"'"'s item of advertising content to devices that request advertising content from the advertising server;

receiving from a device a request for advertising content associated with the bounded area; and

sending an item of advertising content associated with a highest bid to the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending advertising content associated with a highest bid comprises sending advertising content associated with a highest N number of bids, wherein N is a positive integer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending each advertising publisher pricing information for the bounded area before receiving the bid from the advertising publisher.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising receiving advertising category information from the advertising publisher before sending the pricing information to the advertising publisher.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the category information comprises one or more of a type of advertising content and a type of goods or services being advertised.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving time information specifying a time interval for the advertising publisher'"'"'s advertising content to be distributed.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a request for exclusive advertising rights within the bounded area, and wherein sending pricing information comprises sending pricing information for exclusive rights.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an updated bid from one or more advertising publishers.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection of a plurality of bounded areas within the geographic region.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending each advertising publisher a map showing the bounded areas defined in the geographic region before receiving the bid from each advertising publisher.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a number of advertising content items to send to a device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to view an advertisement preview from a requesting advertising publisher, and providing the advertisement preview to the requesting advertising publisher.

13. A computing device, comprising:

a processor; and

memory comprising instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor to perform a method of distributing advertising content, the method comprising;

sending to each advertising publisher of a plurality of advertising publishers a map showing a geographic region divided into a plurality of bounded areas;

receiving from each advertising publisher a selection of one or more selected bounded areas of the geographic region in which to distribute advertising content provided by the advertising publisher;

sending each advertising publisher current pricing information for the one or more selected bounded areas selected by that advertising publisher;

receiving from each advertising publisher a price bid for the one or more selected bounded areas selected by that advertising publisher;

receiving from a device a request for location-based advertising content associated with a bounded area of interest; and

sending to the device one or more items of advertising content associated with N highest bids for the bounded area of interest, wherein N is zero or a positive integer.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the instructions are further executable to receive advertising category information from each advertising publisher before sending the pricing information to the advertising publisher.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the category information comprises a type of advertising content.

16. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the instructions are further executable to receive a request for exclusive advertising rights within a selected bounded area, and wherein sending pricing information comprises sending pricing information for exclusive rights in the selected bounded area.

17. A computer-readable storage medium executable by a computing device to perform a method of distributing advertising content, the method comprising:

receiving a map from an advertising server, the map showing a geographic region divided into a plurality of bounded areas;

receiving from a user a selection of one or more bounded areas;

sending the selection of the one or more bounded areas to the advertising server;

sending advertising content associated with the one or more bounded areas to the server;

receiving pricing information from the advertising server; and

sending a price bid to the advertising server.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising sending category information and time information to the advertising server.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising sending a request for exclusive advertising rights to a selected bounded area to the server, and receiving pricing information for the exclusive advertising rights.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising displaying an advertisement preview.