Method and apparatus for modifying an information page transmitted in a communications network

• US 6,311,185 B1
• Filed: 10/30/1997
• Issued: 10/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Markowitz, Robert Edward, O'Neil, Joseph Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Choules, Jack M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US08/961,487
• Time in Patent Office: 1,461 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/8, 707/9, 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104, 707/203, 707/501, 707/511, 707/513, 707/514, 707/516, 707/522, 707/528, 707/529, 707/531, 707/902, 395/200.47, 395/200.49, 395/200.48, 395/200.59, 395/200.33, 395/200.23, 705/10, 705/14, 705/1, 705/1.D, 705/22, 705/26-28, 709/200-203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method and apparatus for modifying an information page transmitted in a communications network, such as the Internet. A request to display an information page is received from a client computer. Information page data, such as hypertext markup language data, is obtained for the requested information page. Additional data, such as an advertisement, is selected and the information page data is modified to include the additional data based on attributes of the requested information page. The modified information page data is then sent to the client computer for display.

Claims

1. A method of modifying an information page transmitted in a communications network, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to display the information page from a client computer in the communications network;

obtaining information page data for the requested information page;

determining attributes of the requested information page based on the obtained information page data;

selecting an advertisement to be included on the information page;

modifying the information page data to include the selected advertisement based on the attributes of the requested information page; and

sending the modified information page data to the client computer for display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications network is the Internet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information page is a World Wide Web page.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of modifying the information page data is performed by modifying hypertext markup language data to create a modified hypertext markup language data.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said steps of receiving, obtaining, selecting, modifying and sending are performed by a central server computer.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the central server computer is located at an Internet service provider.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said steps of receiving, obtaining, selecting, modifying and sending are performed by an application residing on the client computer.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

downloading additional advertisement candidates from an advertisement repository database to the client computer,

wherein said step of selecting the advertisement is performed by selecting at least one of the additional advertisement candidates.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of downloading is performed using channel definition format protocol.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of selecting the advertisement is performed by selecting the advertisement from an advertisement repository database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the attributes of the requested information page include the presence and location of text and graphics on the information page as indicated by the hypertext markup language data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the attributes of the requested information page include the colors of the text, graphics and background on the information page as indicated by the hypertext markup language data.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein said step of selecting the advertisement is performed using an information page request history database.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein said step of selecting the advertisement is performed using a user profile database.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said step of selecting the advertisement is performed using a demographic database.

16. An apparatus for modifying hypertext markup language data transmitted over the Internet, comprising:

means for receiving a request to display an information page from a client computer;

means for obtaining the hypertext markup language data for the requested information page;

means for determining attributes of the requested information page based on the obtained hypertext markup language data;

means for selecting an advertisement to be included on the information page;

means for modifying the hypertext markup language data to include the selected advertisement based on the attributes of the requested information page; and

means for sending the modified hypertext markup language data to the client computer for display.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said means for selecting selects the advertisement from an advertisement repository database.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said means for receiving, obtaining, selecting, modifying and sending are located at an Internet service provider central server computer.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said means for receiving, obtaining, selecting, modifying and sending reside on the client computer.

20. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps for modifying hypertext markup language data transmitted over the Internet, said steps comprising:

receiving a request to display an information page from a client computer;

obtaining the hypertext markup language data for the requested information page;

means for determining attributes of the requested information page based on the obtained hypertext markup language data;

selecting an advertisement to be included on the information page;

modifying the hypertext markup language data to include the selected advertisement based on the attributes of the requested information page; and

sending the modified hypertext markup language data to the client computer for display.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein said step of selecting the advertisement selects the advertisement from an advertisement repository database.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein said steps of receiving, obtaining, selecting, modifying and sending are performed by an Internet service provider central server computer.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein said steps of receiving, obtaining, selecting, modifying and sending are performed by an application residing on the client computer.

24. A method of modifying an information page transmitted in a communication network, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to display the information page from a client computer in the communication network;

obtaining information page data for the requested information page;

selecting an advertisement to be included on the information page;

modifying the information page to include the advertisement based on at least one of the presence, location and color of at least one of text, graphics and a background included in the information page; and

sending the modified information page data to the client computer for display.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the information page data is hypertext markup language data and the additional data is an advertisement.

26. A method of modifying an information page transmitted in a communication network, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to display the information page from a client computer in the communication network;

obtaining hypertext markup language data for the requested information page;

selecting an advertisement to be included on the information page;

modifying the hypertext markup language data for the requested information page to include the advertisement such that the display of the advertisement does not conflict with at least one of the presence, location and color of at least one of text, graphics and a background indicated by the obtained hypertext markup language data; and

sending the modified hypertext markup language data for the requested information page to the client computer for display.

27. The method of claim 26, where said step of modifying comprises the further step of modifying one of the size, location and color of information included in the requested information page.

28. The method of claim 26, where said step of modifying comprises the further step of modifying one o the size, location and color of information included in the advertisement.

29. A system for modifying an information page data associated with an information page, the information page data including a specific attribute, the information page data transmitted in a network, comprising:

a user computer communicating with the network through an ISP;

an server communicating with the ISP including;

an advertisement database including an advertisement;

a history database including history information;

a user profile database including user information;

a demographic database including demographic information;

a computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the following steps;

selecting the advertisement from the advertisement database;

examining the information page data;

determining the specific attribute;

deciding how to add the advertisement to the information page based on the specific attribute and the advertisement;

modifying the information page data into a modified information page including the information page data and the advertisement;

sending the modified information page to the user computer for display.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the deciding step is based on demographic information.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the deciding step is based on history information.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the deciding step is based on user information.