INCORPORATING TIME AND SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN USER/ADVERTISER LOCATIONS INTO ADVERTISEMENT RELEVANCE

• US 20110258047A1
• Filed: 04/19/2010
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Carey, John
• Application Number:
  US12/762,737
• Publication Number:
  US 20110258047A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.58
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining advertisement relevance based on time and spatial relationships or reachable locations may include determining a set of advertisements, a set of destination locations corresponding to the advertisements, a starting location, a starting time, and a desired arrival time. A particular destination location may be identified as reachable if a projected arrival time occurs prior to or at the desired arrival time. Reachable destination locations may be distinguished from unreachable destination locations on a user interface by at least one of presenting reachability indicators, differentiating presentations or appearances of indications corresponding to reachable locations and/or of corresponding advertisements, ordering location indications and/or advertisements by reachability relevance, omitting unreachable destination locations and/or corresponding advertisements from being presented on the user interface, or other actions. Advertisement relevance based on time and spatial relationships may be based on user input, and may be applied to multiple, sequential destination locations.

Claims

1. A method for determining advertisement relevance based on reachable locations, including:

determining a set of advertisements, and determining a set of destination locations corresponding to the set of advertisements;

determining a starting location, a starting time and a desired arrival time;

determining if each destination location of at least a subset of the destination locations is reachable, including;

determining a travel duration from the starting location to the each destination location;

determining a projected arrival time, including adding the travel duration to the starting time; and

identifying the each destination location as reachable if the projected arrival time is before or equivalent to the desired arrival time; and

distinguishing reachable destination locations on a user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the set of advertisements comprises determining the set of advertisements based on a term corresponding to at least one of a user input, a user action or a user characteristic.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein distinguishing the reachable destination locations comprises performing at least one of a set of distinguishing actions comprising:

including, on the user interface, a reachability indicator corresponding to at least one of a particular reachable destination location or a particular advertisement corresponding to the particular reachable destination location;

differentiating at least a portion of at least one of an indication of the particular reachable destination location or the particular advertisement;

presenting, on the user interface, the particular advertisement before presenting another advertisement corresponding to an unreachable destination location;

or

omitting, from the user interface, indications of unreachable destination locations and advertisements corresponding to the unreachable destination locations.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving an indication of a user preference of one or more of the set of distinguishing actions.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating, on the user interface, that no destination location in the at least the subset of the destination locations is reachable when no destination location in the at least the subset of the destination locations is identified as being reachable.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the starting location, the starting time, and the desired arrival time comprises determining at least one of the starting location, the starting time, or the desired arrival time based on user input.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the desired arrival time comprises determining the desired arrival time based on an event, an appointment, or a closing time of the each destination location of the at least the subset of the destination locations.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising further distinguishing the reachable destination locations based on lengths of corresponding travel durations.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the at least the subset of the destination locations based on at least one of a desired distance from the starting location or a desired travel duration.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

determining if the each destination location of the at least the subset of the set of destination locations is reachable comprises determining if a first and a second desired destination location are sequentially reachable;

determining the travel duration from the starting location to the each destination location comprises determining a sequential travel duration from the starting location to one of the first or the second desired destination location and subsequently from the one of the first or the second desired destination location to the other one of the first or the second desired destination location;

adding the travel duration to the starting time comprises adding the sequential travel duration to the starting time;

identifying the each destination location as reachable comprises identifying the first and the second desired destination locations as sequentially reachable; and

distinguishing the reachable destination locations comprises distinguishing indications and advertisements corresponding to one or both of the first and the second desired destination locations.

11. A computing device for determining advertisement relevance based on reachable locations, comprising:

a memory, a processor, a user interface, a connection to a display, and

computer-executable instructions stored on the memory and executable by the processor, the computer-executable instructions for;

determining a set of advertisements based on a term based on a user input received via the user interface, and determining destination locations corresponding to the set of advertisements;

determining a starting location, a starting time and a desired arrival time;

determining if each destination location of at least a subset of the destination locations is reachable, including;

determining a travel duration from the starting location to the each destination location;

determining a projected arrival time, including adding the travel duration to the starting time; and

identifying the each destination location as reachable if the projected arrival time is before or equivalent to the desired arrival time;

distinguishing, on the display, reachable destination locations comprising distinguishing at least one of;

an indication corresponding to a particular reachable destination location, or a particular advertisement corresponding to the particular reachable destination location; and

indicating, on the display, that no destination location in the at least the subset of the destination locations is reachable when no destination location in the at least the subset of the destination locations is identified as being reachable.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein distinguishing the reachable destination locations comprises selecting at least one from a set of distinguishing actions comprising:

displaying a reachability indicator corresponding to at least one of the particular reachable destination location or the particular advertisement corresponding to the particular reachable destination location;

differentiating at least a portion of at least one of the indication of the particular reachable destination location or the particular advertisement;

displaying the particular advertisement before an advertisement corresponding to an unreachable destination location;

or

omitting, from the display, indications of unreachable destination locations and advertisements corresponding to the unreachable destination locations.

13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein at least one of determining at least one of the starting location, the starting time, or the desired arrival time or distinguishing the reachable destination locations is based on the user input or based on another user input.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein determining the desired arrival time comprises at least one of determining the desired arrival time based on an event or an appointment or determining a closing time of the each destination location of the at least the subset of the destination locations.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein:

determining if the each destination location of the at least the subset of the destination locations is reachable comprises determining if a first and a second desired destination location are sequentially reachable;

determining the travel duration from the starting location to the each destination location comprises determining a sequential travel duration from the starting location to one of the first or the second desired destination location and subsequently from the one of the first or the second desired destination location to the other one of the first or the second desired destination location;

adding the travel duration to the starting time comprises adding the sequential travel duration to the starting time;

identifying the each destination location as reachable comprises identifying the first and the second desired destination locations as sequentially reachable; and

distinguishing the reachable destination locations comprises distinguishing at least one of;

indications of the first and the second desired destination locations, or advertisements corresponding to the first and the second desired destination locations.

16. A display, comprising:

a set of advertisements; and

one of;

an indication that a particular advertisement corresponds to a particular destination location that is reachable prior to or at a desired arrival time comprising at least one of;

a reachability indicator corresponding to at least one of the particular advertisement or an indication of the particular reachable destination location;

an appearance differentiation of at least a portion of at least one of the particular advertisement or the indication of the particular reachable destination location;

or

an order of appearance of the particular advertisement and an advertisement corresponding to an unreachable destination location;

or

an indication that no advertisements in the set of advertisements corresponds to any destination location that is reachable prior to or at the desired arrival time.

17. The display of claim 16, further comprising a set of destination location indications, each destination location indication corresponding to a different advertisement, and wherein reachable destination locations are distinguished from unreachable destination locations.

18. The display of claim 17, wherein at least one of a particular destination location indication corresponding to the particular reachable destination or the particular advertisement includes an address of the particular reachable destination location and at least one of an indication of a time that the particular reachable destination location is open or a projected arrival time.

19. The display of claim 16, wherein the particular destination location is identified as reachable when a projected arrival time is at or earlier than the desired arrival time, the projected arrival time comprising a travel duration, from a starting location to the particular destination location, added to a starting time.

20. The display of claim 16, wherein the set of advertisements is limited based on a desired distance from a starting location or a desired travel duration from the starting location.