Automatic advertiser notification for a system for providing place and price protection in a search result list generated by a computer network search engine

• US 7,603,294 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2006
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Huffman, Douglas T., Davis, Darren J., Singh, Narinder Pal, Soulanille, Thomas A., Cheung, Dominic Dough-Ming, Snell, Scott W.
• Primary Examiner(s): ZURITA, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US11/454,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20060247981A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/14.71
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A notification method in a computer database system includes receiving a notification instruction from an owner associated with a search listing stored in the computer database system, monitoring conditions specified by the notification instruction for the search listing, and sending a notification to the owner upon detection of a changed condition of the search listing.

Claims

1. A notification method performed by a processor in a computer database system for an advertiser desiring automatic notification about conditions of interest to the advertiser in the computer database system, the notification method comprising:

receiving at the processor a notification instruction from the advertiser, the advertiser being an owner associated with one or more search listings stored in the computer database system, the notification instruction including information from the owner specifying

a condition of the computer database system to be monitored,

a time for notification of the owner about the condition,

a mode of communication for notification of the owner about the condition, and

an action type identifying a type of corrective action to be included in a notification to the owner about the condition;

at the processor, monitoring the condition specified by the notification instruction for a search listing of the one or more search listings; and

automatically sending the notification from the computer database system to the owner upon detection of a changed condition of the search listing based on content of the notification instruction.

2. The notification method of claim 1 wherein receiving the notification instruction comprises:

receiving identification information for one or more search listings for which the associated owner desires a notification.

3. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about a change in position among search results for the search listing when the search listing is referred with other search listings forming the search results to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher.

4. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about a value of cost per clickthrough for the search listing, the cost per clickthrough being an economic value payable by the owner when the search listing is referred to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher.

5. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about an account balance for an account associated with the owner.

6. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about aggregate impressions for identified search listings.

7. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about aggregate clickthroughs for identified search listings.

8. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about aggregate clickthrough rate for identified search listings.

9. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information for notification about search listings having a cost per clickthrough which is reducible without affecting a display rank specified by the owner among search results when the search listing associated with the owner is referred among search results to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher.

10. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information including a specified cost per clickthrough and a specified display rank for notification when the identified search listings can be at the specified display rank among search results presented to a searcher in response to a search query from the search for less than the specified cost per clickthrough.

11. The notification method of claim 2 wherein receiving the identification information comprises:

receiving identification information about an average cost per clickthrough for two or more search listings.

12. The notification method of claim 1 further comprising receiving as the notification instruction one of:

receiving identification of search listings for sending an immediate notification, and

receiving identification of search listings for sending an interval notification.

13. The notification method of claim 1 wherein the mode of communication is selected from the group including:

electronic mail, instant messaging, facsimile, paging and telephone voice call.

14. The notification method of claim 1 wherein the action type is selected from the group including:

active links in a message, inactive links in a message, electronic mail, phone, auto-correct and relax.

15. The notification method of claim 1 wherein sending the notification comprises:

sending at least one of an electronic mail notification, an active link notification embedded in a message and an inactive link notification embedded in a message.

16. The notification method of claim 15 wherein sending the notification comprises sending the notification in accordance with the notification instruction.

17. The notification method of claim 1 wherein sending the notification comprises:

sending at least one of a telephone notification, an instant messaging notification, a facsimile notification and a page.

18. The notification method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at the processor an advertiser action instruction in response to the notification; and

at the processor, automatically adjusting at least one of a cost per click and display rank for the search listing according to the advertiser action instruction, the display rank for the listing defining position of the search listing among search results when the search listing is referred to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher, the cost per click being an economic value payable by the owner when the search listing is referred to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher.

19. The notification method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at the processor an advertiser action instruction in response to the notification; and

at the processor, automatically replenishing a balance of an account associated with the owner.

20. The notification method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at the processor an advertiser action instruction in response to the notification; and

at the processor, automatically relaxing one or more constraints created by the conditions specified in the notification instruction.

21. The notification method of claim 1 further comprising:

at the processor, automatically depositing funds in an account associated with the advertiser in response to an account balance too low condition.

22. The notification method of claim 1 further comprising:

at the processor, automatically adjusting at least one of a cost per click and display rank for the search listing, the display rank for the listing defining position of the search listing among search results when the search listing is referred to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher, the bid amount being an economic value payable by the owner when the search listing is referred to a searcher in response to a search query from the searcher.

23. A notification method for a processor in a computer database system which stores search listing associated with advertisers, the notification method to provide an automatic notification to an advertiser about conditions of interest to the advertiser in the computer database system, the method comprising:

receiving a notification instruction at the processor from an advertiser associated with a search listing stored in the computer database system, the notification instruction including information from the advertiser specifying

a condition of the computer database system to be monitored,

a mode of communication for notification of the advertiser about the condition, and

an action type identifying a type of corrective action to be included in a notification to the advertiser about the condition;

at the processor, monitoring the condition specified by the notification instruction for the search listing; and

automatically sending the notification from the computer database system to the advertiser upon detection of a changed condition of the search listing based on content of the notification instruction.

24. A notification method a for a processor in a computer database system which stores search listing associated with advertisers, the notification method to provide an automatic notification to an advertiser about conditions of interest to the advertiser to be monitored in the computer database system, the method comprising:

receiving a notification instruction at the processor from the advertiser associated with a search listing stored in the computer database system, the notification instruction specifying

information specifying the conditions of the computer database system of interest to the advertiser to be monitored

a time for notification of the advertiser about the conditions of interest to the advertiser condition,

a mode of communication for notification of the advertiser owner about the specified conditions of interest to the advertiser to be monitored, and

an action type identifying a type of corrective action to be included in a notification to the advertiser about the conditions the of the computer database system of interest to the advertiser to be monitored;

monitoring, at the processor, the conditions of interest to the advertiser to be monitored specified by the notification instruction for the search listing; and

sending form the computer database system a notification to the owner upon detection of a changed condition of the search listing.