CONSUMER GROUP BUYING THROUGH ONLINE ADS

• US 20120109732A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jaffe, Howard
• Granted Patent: US 10,282,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A system for presenting advertising materials including group sales offers within the context of a network-accessible document such as a Web page. One embodiment stores a plurality of ads, including some group sales offers. Fulfillment of each group sales offer is conditioned upon acceptance of the offer by a prescribed minimum number of viewers. The system receives a request for online content from a client computer operated by a viewer, where the requested online content is unrelated to group sales offers. Responsive to the request, the system selects a group sales offer from the plurality of ads based on the nature of the requested content and/or viewer characteristics or past behavior accumulated from past communications with the viewer. The system automatically delivers the selected group sales offer and the requested content to the client computer for display.

Claims

1. A method, comprising operations of:

storing a plurality of advertisements, where at least some of the advertisements comprise group sales offers, where fulfillment of each of the group sales offers is conditioned upon acceptance of the group sales offer by a prescribed minimum number of viewers;

receiving a request for online content from a client computer operated by a viewer, where the requested online content is unrelated to group sales offers;

responsive to receiving the request for the online content, selecting a group sales offer from the plurality of advertisements, where the selection is based on one or more of (1) the nature of the requested content or (2) viewer characteristics or past behavior accumulated from prior communications with the viewer; and

automatically delivering the selected group sales offer and the requested content to the client computer for display thereon;

where at least one of the operations is performed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 where the viewer characteristics or past behavior include a history of participation by the viewer in group sales offers.

3. The method of claim 1 where the viewer characteristics or past behavior include one or more of:

current geographic location of the client computer, where the client computer is a mobile device;

content of web searches previously initiated by the viewer;

characteristics of online purchases previously conducted by the viewer; and

data submitted by the viewer for entry into a user profile.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

presenting content to viewers including, for each viewer, a listing of businesses local to the viewer;

for each of one or more businesses in the listing, providing an interface to receive viewers'"'"' expression of interest in receiving a future group sales offer for products or services from the business;

employing the received expressions of interest according to one or more of the following;

displaying a count of the received expressions of interest in the listings of local businesses;

using a viewer'"'"'s expression of interest as viewer characteristics or past behavior for selecting future group sales offers for delivery to the viewer;

sorting businesses in the listing according to a count of the received expressions of interest;

responsive to the received expressions of interest meeting a predetermined number for a business, contacting the business to propose establishing a new group sales offer for products or services of the business.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

presenting content to viewers including a listing of businesses local to the respective viewers;

for each of one or more businesses in the listing, providing a link to any active group sales offers involving the business.

6. The method of claim 1 where said operation of selecting is limited to an active inventory of the group sales offers, and the operations further comprise removing a given group sales offer from the active inventory responsive to any of:

(1) receiving acceptance of the given group sales offer from a prescribed minimum number of viewers, (2) presenting a prescribed minimum number of views of the given group sales offer to viewers, (3) responsive to arrival of a predetermined expiration time without acceptance of the given group sales offer by the prescribed minimum number of viewers.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to acceptance of a given group sales offer by a viewer, automatically ceasing delivery of the given group sales offer to the viewer;

responsive to demand by a viewer, displaying a hub interface showing a summary and status of all active group sales offers accepted by the viewer.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the following operations performed only in response to acceptance of the selected group sales offer by a prescribed minimum number of viewers:

notifying viewers that accepted the selected group sales offer of successful completion of the selected group sales offer; and

for each viewer that accepted the selected group sales offer, conducting or facilitating an exchange of money for products or services whose sale is governed by the selected group sales offer by one or more of the following;

issuing a certificate or electronic code redeemable toward purchase of the products or services or transmitting an instruction to a vendor to ship specified goods.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving entry from a given viewer of an expiration time for participation by the given viewer in the selected group sales offer; and

responsive to arrival of the entered expiration time without acceptance of the selected group sales offer by the prescribed minimum number of viewers, notifying the given viewer that the selected group sales offer has expired.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein each group sales offers pertains to specified products or services, and the specified product or service for the selected group sales offer includes delivery of one or more online advertisements.

11. A system, comprising:

digital data storage containing data comprising;

a plurality of advertisements, where at least some of the advertisements comprise group sales offers, where fulfillment of each of the group sales offers is conditioned upon acceptance of the group sales offer by a prescribed minimum number of viewers;

records representing viewer characteristics or past behavior accumulated from past communications with viewers;

an interface configured to receive a request for online content from a client computer operated by a requesting viewer, where the requested online content is unrelated to group sales offers;

a content server configured to respond to the request for online content by automatically delivering the requested online content to the client computer for display thereon; and

a group sales server configured to respond to the request for online content by automatically selecting a group sales offer from the plurality of advertisements and automatically delivering the selected group sales offer to the client computer for display thereon, wherein the selection is based on one or more of (1) the nature of the requested online content or (2) some or all of the records that pertain to the requesting viewer.

12. The system of claim 11 where the characteristics or past behavior include a history of viewers'"'"' participation in group sales offers.

13. The system of claim 11 where the records that pertain to the requesting viewer represent one or more of:

current geographic location of the client computer, where the client computer is a mobile device;

content of web searches previously initiated by the requesting viewer;

characteristics of online purchases previously conducted by the requesting viewer; and

data submitted by the requesting viewer for entry into a user profile.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein:

the content server is further configured to present content to viewers including, for each viewer, a listing of businesses local to the viewer;

the system further includes an interface to receive, for each of one or more businesses in the listing, viewers'"'"' expression of interest in receiving a future group sales offer for products or services from the business; and

one or more of the content server or the group sales server is further configured to perform one or more of the following;

display a count of the received expressions of interest in the listings of local businesses;

use a viewer'"'"'s expression of interest as viewer characteristics or past behavior for selecting future group sales offers for delivery to the viewer; and

sort businesses in the listing according to a count of the received expressions of interest.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein:

the content server is further configured to present content to viewers including a listing of businesses local to the respective viewers;

where said listing includes, for each of one or more businesses in the listing, a link to any active group sales offers involving the business.

16. The system of claim 11 where the group sales server is configured such that the selection of group sales offers is limited to an active inventory of the group sales offers, and the group sales server is further configured to remove a given group sales offer from the active inventory responsive to any of:

(1) receiving acceptance of the given group sales offer from a prescribed minimum number of viewers, (2) presenting a prescribed minimum number of views of the given group sales offer to viewers, (3) responsive to arrival of a predetermined expiration time without acceptance of the given group sales offer by the prescribed minimum number of viewers.

17. The system of claim 11 where the group sales server is further configured to perform operations comprising:

(1) responsive to acceptance of a given group sales offer by a viewer, automatically ceasing delivery of the given group sales offer to the viewer, and (2) responsive to demand by a viewer, displaying a hub interface showing a summary and status of all active group sales offers accepted by the viewer.

18. The system of claim 11 where:

the group sales server is further configured to perform additional operations comprising;

only in response to acceptance of the selected group sales offer by a prescribed minimum number of viewers, notifying viewers that accepted the selected group sales offer of successful completion of the selected group sales offer; and

the system further includes one or more management computers configured to perform operations comprising;

for each viewer that accepted the selected group sales offer, conducting or facilitating an exchange of money for products or services whose sale is governed by the selected group sales offer by one or more of (1) issuing a certificate or electronic code redeemable toward purchase of the products or services or (2) transmitting an instruction to a vendor to ship specified goods.

19. The system of claim 11 where:

the system further includes an interface configured to receive entry from a given viewer of an expiration time for participation by the given viewer in the selected group sales offer; and

the group sales servers are configured to perform additional operations comprising;

responsive to arrival of the entered expiration time without acceptance of the selected group sales offer by the prescribed minimum number of viewers, notifying the given viewer that the selected group sales offer has expired.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein each group sales offers pertains to specified products or services, and the specified product or service for the selected group sales offer includes delivery of one or more online advertisements.