Method and apparatus for customization of information content provided to a requestor over a network using demographic information yet the user remains anonymous to the server
First Claim
1. A method for providing demographic information on a computer network user to machines in the computer network, comprising the acts of:
- (a) obtaining demographic information on the computer network user, the demographic information in the computer network user being entirely self-represented yet the computer network user remains anonymous;
(b) associating at least a portion of the demographic information to a remote page request, the remote page request being directed to a remote server machine in the computer network; and
(c) transmitting the remote page request with at least the portion of the demographic information to the remote server machine over the computer network.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Improved techniques for customizing information provided from a content server through a network to a user of a computer system in accordance with demographic classifications, user interests, or preferences are disclosed. Such customizing can involve banner advertising on the Internet whereby the advertising banners are able to be targeted to the user. The customizing can also involve altering portions of a web page to be displayed to the user so that the web page is more effective, useful or desirable for the user. Besides customization of the information to be displayed to the user, the invention also provides techniques for obtaining demographic information about the user of the computer system, and techniques for transmitting the demographic information over the network so that remote content servers that provide information content to the user can do so with knowledge of the demographic information about the user.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for providing demographic information on a computer network user to machines in the computer network, comprising the acts of:
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(a) obtaining demographic information on the computer network user, the demographic information in the computer network user being entirely self-represented yet the computer network user remains anonymous; (b) associating at least a portion of the demographic information to a remote page request, the remote page request being directed to a remote server machine in the computer network; and (c) transmitting the remote page request with at least the portion of the demographic information to the remote server machine over the computer network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer implemented method for utilizing demographic information over a network of computers, said method comprising the acts of:
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(a) receiving a request from a user to access a remote web page over the network; (b) retrieving self-represented demographic information for the user, the demographic information being self-represented yet the user remains anonymous; (c) modifying the remote web page for the user based on the demographic information or selecting a previously modified version of the remote web page for the user based on the demographic information, wherein said modifying operates to modify the remote web page other than with respect to an advertisement or wherein said selecting operates to select a previously modified version of the remote web page in which the modification is other than with respect to an advertisement, and wherein the demographic information used for said modifying or selecting is other than user preferences. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for customizing web pages provided over a network, comprising the acts of:
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(a) receiving, at a server computer, a page request issued by a requestor over the network from a requestor'"'"'s computer; (b) retrieving self-represented demographic information on the requestor stored on the requestor'"'"'s computer and supplying the demographic information to the server computer, the demographic information being self-represented yet the requester remains anonymous to the server computer; (c) customizing a web page to be displayed on the requestor'"'"'s computer in response to the page request based on the demographic information; and (d) transmitting the customized web page to the requestor'"'"'s computer for display thereon. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A method for providing advertisements on HTML pages provided over a network, comprising the acts of:
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(a) receiving a HTML page request having a demographics identifier associated therewith, the HTML page request being received from a requester over the network, the demographics identifier representing self-represented demographic information about the requestor yet the requestor remains anonymous; (b) identifying a data file associated with the HTML page request; (c) identifying an advertising banner within the HTML page requested; (d) selecting one of a plurality of available image files for the identified advertising banner based on the demographics identifier; and (e) transmitting over the network to the requester the data file associated with the HTML page requested and the selected image file. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification