METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAINTAINING ADVERTISING LOGIC

• US 20110295686A1
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Martin-Cocher, Christine Gaelle
• Application Number:
  US13/133,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20110295686A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.49
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements

Abstract

A method and apparatus for tracking electronic advertisements for use with an electronic device and an ad server, the method comprising the steps of providing an ad client on the electronic device, modifying at least one ad reference such that a modified ad reference includes the ad client on an ad-link path, storing the modified ad reference on the electronic device, when an ad request is received from an application, the ad client providing the modified ad reference to the application, receiving an ad fetch request at the ad client directed along the ad-link path from the application and performing a function at the ad client in response to the fetch request.

Claims

1. A method for tracking electronic advertisements for use with an electronic device and an ad server, the method comprising the steps of:

modifying at least one ad reference such that a modified ad reference includes an ad client on an ad-link path;

storing the modified ad reference on the electronic device;

when an ad request is received from an application, the ad client providing the modified ad reference to the application;

receiving an ad fetch request from the application at a device processor, the ad fetch request being directed along an ad-link path that includes the ad client;

providing the ad fetch request to the ad client as specified by the ad-link path; and

in response to the ad fetch request, the ad client at least one of tracking metrics associated with ad references, storing metrics associated with ad references, and determining that the ad fetch request is one of valid and invalid.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of modifying at least one ad reference includes the ad client receiving the at least one ad reference from the ad server at the ad client and modifying the at least one ad reference to include the ad client on an ad-link path.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of tracking or storing metrics includes storing an indication that an ad associated with the modified ad reference has been fetched.

4. The method of claim 1 also for use with an ad content provider, the method further including the step of, after receiving an ad fetch request directed along the ad-link path from the application, the ad client passing on the ad fetch request to an ad content provider.

5. The method of claim 2 further including the step of, for at least one of the ad references received from the ad server, retrieving associated ad content from an ad content provider and storing the ad content on a local device memory, the step of modifying the at least one ad reference further including modifying the at least one ad reference to identify the storage location of the ad content stored on the local device memory.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each of at least a subset of the ad references are associated with unique validity duration values indicating the period over which an associated ad reference remains valid, the method further including the steps of, prior to retrieving associated ad content, identifying an ad reference associated with a validity duration value that is greater than a threshold value, the step of retrieving associated ad content including retrieving ad content associated with at least one of the ad references that has a validity duration value that is greater than the threshold value.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of receiving an ad fetch request includes receiving an ad fetch request that identifies the storage location of the ad content stored on a local memory.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein each of at least a subset of the ad references are associated with unique qualifiers that can be used to determine the genericness of an associated ad, the method further including the steps of, prior to retrieving associated ad content, identifying an ad reference associated with a unique qualifier that indicates that an associated ad is generic, the step of retrieving associated ad content including retrieving ad content associated with a generic ad.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the ad reference is provided with additional information that includes at least one of an ad time validity, at least one ad qualifier, an ad reference time validity, a unique ad identifier and a unique ad reference identifier.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the ad reference contains the ad server in the ad path-link and wherein the step of modifying the ad reference adds the ad client to the ad-link path.

11. The method of claim 1 further including the step of, after providing the modified ad reference to the application, determining validity of the modified ad reference and, when the modified ad reference is determined to be invalid, performing a stale ad function.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one ad qualifier is associated with each of the ad references, the step of determining that a modified ad reference is still valid including analyzing conditions related to the ad qualifier.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of performing a stale ad function includes at least one of replacing the modified ad reference with a valid ad reference and providing an error message to the application that generated the ad request.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of modifying at least one ad reference includes the ad server modifying the at least one ad reference to include the ad client on an ad-link path.

14. (canceled)

16. A method for tracking electronic advertisements for use with an electronic device including an application, and an ad content provider server, the method comprising the steps of:

when the application generates an ad fetch request that includes an ad-link path that includes an ad client, routing the ad fetch request through the ad client as specified by the ad-link path to the content provider server; and

at the ad client, in response to the ad fetch request, tracking or storing metrics associated with ad references and determining that the ad fetch request is one of valid and invalid.

17. (canceled)

18. An apparatus for tracking electronic advertisements for use with an electronic device and an ad server, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to perform the step of;

modifying at least one ad reference to provide a modified ad reference such that the modified ad reference includes an ad client on an ad-link path;

an ad client processor on the electronic device configured to perform the steps of;

storing the modified ad reference;

when an ad request is received from an application, providing the modified ad reference to the application;

receiving an ad fetch request from the application where the ad fetch request is directed along an ad-link path that includes the ad-link client; and

in response to the ad fetch request, the ad client at least one of tracking metrics associated with ad references, storing metrics associated with ad references, and determining that the ad fetch request is one of valid and invalid.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the ad client processor is configured to perform the step of modifying at least one ad reference by receiving the at least one ad reference from the ad server and modifying the at least one ad reference to include the ad client on an ad-link path.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the ad client processor is configured to perform the step of performing a function by storing an indication that an ad associated with the modified ad reference has been fetched.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 also for use with an ad content provider, the ad client processor further configured to perform the step of, after receiving an ad fetch request directed along the ad-link path from the application, passing on the ad fetch request to the ad content provider.

22. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the ad client processor is further configured to perform the step of, for at least one of the ad references received from the ad server, retrieving associated ad content from an ad content provider and storing the ad content on a local device memory, the ad client processor configured to perform the step of modifying the at least one ad reference by modifying the at least one ad reference to identify the storage location of the ad content stored on the local device memory.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the ad client processor is configured to perform the step of receiving an ad fetch request by receiving an ad fetch request that identifies the storage location of the ad content stored on a local memory.

24. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the ad client processor is further configured to perform the step of, after providing the modified ad reference to the application, determining that the modified ad reference is one of valid and invalid and, when the modified ad reference is invalid, performing a stale ad function.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein at least one ad qualifier is associated with each of the ad references, and the ad client processor is configured to perform the step of determining that a modified ad reference is still valid by analyzing conditions related to the ad qualifier.

27. The apparatus of claim 18 for use in a system that includes an ad server that includes the processor that modifies the at least one ad reference to include the ad client on an ad-link path.

26. (canceled)

28. An electronic advertising system comprising:

an ad server configured to store ad references;

an ad content provider configured to store ads corresponding to the ad references; and

a user agent device including an application and an ad client, the ad client receiving an ad request from the application and providing targeted advertising to the application for presentation to a user via the device;

wherein at least one of the ad client and the ad server modifies an ad reference to add the ad client to an ad-link path so that when the application invokes the ad reference to obtain an associated ad, an ad fetch request is delivered to the ad client.