APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING TARGETED ADVERTISING FROM USER BEHAVIOR

• US 20110131503A1
• Filed: 01/28/2011
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (ViacomCBS Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (ViacomCBS Incorporated)
• Inventors: Graham, William W. JR.
• Application Number:
  US13/016,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20110131503A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Various embodiments for providing content targeted according to user behavior are described. In one or more embodiments, a content optimizing service may be invoked by a client operating a browser application when the browser loads a web page from a web site. The content optimizing service may collect behavior events and compare the collected behavior to a set of rules. When behavior matches a rule, the user may be associated with a segment, which may be provided to a content source that selects content according to the segment. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a content optimizing service, an invoking request from a client loading the content of a page served from a web site;

collecting behavior events from the client;

selecting a segment for the client based on the behavior events;

providing the segment to a content source for selection of content according to the segment;

receiving the selected content from the content source; and

providing the selected content to the web site for display in the page at the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing at least one rule to at least one behavior event to determine if the rule is matched; and

assigning a segment to the client when a rule is matched, wherein the segment is specified by the matched rule.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a unique identifier to the client; and

storing the behavior events indexed by the unique identifier in a data store.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a behavior event comprises at least one of:

a web paged loaded, a search string entered, a hyperlink followed, a file downloaded, a form filled out, a product purchased, and metadata associated with a loaded web page.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein collecting behavior events comprises at least one of:

collecting behavior events from a cookie file stored on the client;

collecting behavior events from a browser history file; and

receiving behavior events from the web site in the invoking request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting behavior events from the client as long as the client is accessing the web site; and

periodically selecting a segment for the client based on the behavior events.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the client accesses a plurality of web sites during a session, the method further comprising:

collecting behavior events from the client throughout the session;

storing the collected behavior events from the session in one data store; and

selecting the segment based on the collected behavior events in the one data store.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory to store a content optimizing service that when executed by the processor is operative to receive an invoking request from a client loading the content of a page served from a web site, receive one or more behavior events from a client, select a segment when the one or more behavior events match one or more rules, provide the segment to a content source for selection of content according to the segment, receive the selected content from the content source, and provide the selected content to the client, wherein a behavior event comprises an action taken by a user of the client at a web site.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, the content optimizing service further comprising:

a behavior event collector to collect the behavior events from the client.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a data store, the content optimizing service further to store the behavior events in the data store.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, the behavior event collector further to collect behavior events from the client accessing a plurality of web sites in a session, and to store the collected behavior events from the session in one data store.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, the behavior event collector further to collect behavior events from the client as long as the client is accessing the web site;

and

the rule engine further to periodically select a segment for the client based on the behavior events.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the content optimizing service is hosted from a different server than the web site.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, a rule engine to compare the behavior events to each rule in a set of rules until a rule is matched.

15. The apparatus of claim 8, a rule engine to compare the behavior events to each rule in a set of rules.

16. The apparatus of claim 8, a rule engine to consider the age of a behavior event when determining whether the behavior event matches a rule.

17. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable a computing system to:

receive an invoking request from a client loading the content of a page served from a site application;

collect behavior events from the client;

determine whether a behavior event matches a criterion of a rule from a set of rules;

retrieve a segment from a rule when all of the criteria of a rule are matched by one or more behavior events;

provide the segment to a content source for selection of content according to the segment;

receive the selected content from the content source; and

provide the selected content to the site application for display in a page of the site application at the client.

18. The storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the computing system to:

assign a unique ID to the client when the client accesses the site application, wherein the unique ID is at least one of;

a generated anonymous ID, and an ID generated based on one or more characteristics of the client.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the computing system to:

collect behavior events from the client while the client accesses a plurality of site applications; and

store the collected behavior events in one data store indexed by the unique ID.

20. The storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions to collect behavior events comprise instructions to at least one of:

collect behavior events from a cookie file stored on the client;

collect behavior events from a browser history file; and

receive behavior events from the site application.