SELF-TARGETING LOCAL AD SYSTEM

• US 20110179359A1
• Filed: 01/20/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Watfa, Allie K., Nussel, Dale, Kilroy, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,595 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A system for serving localized advertisements receives data that defines an advertisement from an advertiser and determines a geographic location of the advertiser. The system also receives a request to serve an advertisement from a browser operated by a user and determines a geographic location associated with the user. The system communicates the advertisement to the browser if the geographic location associated with the user matches the geographic location of the advertiser.

Claims

1. A method for serving an advertisement in a networked system, the method comprising:

receiving, at an advertisement server, data that defines an advertisement from an advertiser;

determining, by a location server, a geographic location of the advertiser;

receiving, at the advertisement server, a request to serve an advertisement from a browser operated by a user;

determining, by the location server, a geographic location associated with the user; and

communicating, by the advertisement server, the advertisement to the browser if the geographic location associated with the user matches the geographic location of the advertiser.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving user preferences from a user operating the browser.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

communicating advertisements to the browser that match the user preferences.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving a rating associated with an advertisement from the user.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising communicating browser code to the browser that is operable by the browser to cause the browser to display a plurality of advertisements from advertisers in a geographic location that match the geographic location associated with the user.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein an order in which the plurality of advertisements is displayed is based on a rating associated with each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the rating associated with each advertisement increases in proportion to a number of times each advertisement is selected by a user.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein an order in which the plurality of advertisements is displayed is based on a weight associated with each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the browser code is further operable by the browser to enable a user to post an advertisement.

10. A system for serving an advertisement in a networked system, the system comprising:

an advertisement server configured to receive data that defines an advertisement from an advertiser;

receive, from a browser, a request to serve an advertisement; and

communicate the advertisement to the browser if a geographic location associated with a user of the browser matches a geographic location of the advertiser; and

a location server configured to determine the geographic location of the advertiser and the geographic location associated with the user.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the system further comprises circuitry configured to receive user preferences from the user.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the advertisement server is further configured to communicate advertisements to the browser that match the user preferences.

13. The system according to claim 10, wherein the advertisement server is further configured to receive a rating associated with an advertisement from the user.

14. The system according to claim 10, further comprising a front-end server configured to communicate browser code to the browser that is operable by the browser to cause the browser to display a plurality of advertisements from advertisers in a geographic location that match the geographic location associated with the user.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein an order in which the plurality of advertisements is displayed is based on a rating associated with each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the rating associated with each advertisement increases in proportion to a number of times each advertisement is selected by a user.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein an order in which the plurality of advertisements is displayed is based on a weight associated with each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the browser code is further operable by the browser to enable a user to post an advertisement.

19. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising at least one code section for serving an advertisement in a networked system, the at least one code section being executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform acts of:

receiving data that defines an advertisement from an advertiser;

determining a geographic location of the advertiser;

receiving a request to serve an advertisement from a browser operated by a user;

determining a geographic location associated with the user;

communicating the advertisement to the browser if the geographic location associated with the user matches the geographic location of the advertiser.

20. The machine-readable storage medium according to claim 19, further comprising receiving user preferences from the user.

21. The machine-readable storage medium according to claim 20, further comprising:

communicating advertisements to the browser that match the user preferences.

22. The machine-readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein the code is executable by the machine to cause the machine to receive a rating associated with an advertisement from the user.

23. The machine-readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein the code is executable by the machine to cause the machine to communicate browser code to the browser that is operable by the browser to cause the browser to display a plurality of advertisements from advertisers in a geographic location that match the geographic location associated with the user.

24. The machine-readable storage according to claim 23, wherein an order in which the plurality of advertisements is displayed is based on a rating associated with each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements.

25. The machine-readable storage according to claim 24, wherein the rating associated with each advertisement increases in proportion to a number of times each advertisement is selected by a user.