Method and system for automated intelligent electronic advertising

• US 7,720,828 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blake Bookstaff
• Original Assignee: Blake Bookstaff
• Inventors: Bookstaff, Blake
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hwa, Shyue Jiunn
• Application Number:
  US11/170,263
• Publication Number:
  US 20050289113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,784 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method and system for automated intelligent electronic advertising. The method and system parse electronic information messages (e.g., e-mail messages, instant messages, etc.) for keywords and make search engine queries or database queries for electronic links based on the identified keywords. The electronic links returned from search engine queries or database queries are added to the electronic information messages creating a modified electronic information message. This allows additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the original electronic information message.

Claims

1. A method for automatically processing electronic information messages, comprising:

automatically via a software module receiving an electronic information message on a network device with one or more processors via a communications network from a source network device with one or more processors;

automatically via the software module parsing the electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message, wherein the identified one or more keywords include keywords include advertising keywords stored in a database, non-advertising keywords such as public interest keywords and keywords dynamically generated using information theory to decide relevant keywords;

automatically via the software module mapping a selected single identified keyword into a plurality of related keywords, or mapping a plurality of selected identified keywords into a single keyword before submitting the one or more queries to one or more search engines;

automatically via the software module submitting the identified one or more keywords from the network device to the one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network, wherein the one or more search engines include one or more publicly available search engines and one or more privately available search engines;

automatically via the software module receiving query results from the one or more search engines;

automatically via the software module selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more query results, wherein the one or more electronic links are selected based on pre-determined conditions, wherein one of the pre-determine conditions includes fee agreements with advertisers and wherein the electronic links include electronic links for linking directly to another information site on the communications network, for initiating a static search engine query and for initiating a dynamic search engine query;

automatically via the software module adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message, wherein a same selected electronic link is added to repeating occurrences of an identified keyword and wherein different selected electronic links are added to repeating occurrences of the identified keyword.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message is an electronic mail (e-mail) message or an instant message (IM).

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic links include mark-up language electronic links.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the mark-up language electronic links include Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) electronic links or Extensible Markup Language (XML) electronic links.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more keywords include advertising keywords.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes an intranet, Internet, a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN).

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the parsing step includes parsing the electronic information message for advertising keywords.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the modified electronic information message from the network device to a destination device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the adding step comprises:

adding an electronic link in the electronic information message wherein the electronic link includes a search string query that provides search engine results when selected.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the adding step includes adding a search electronic link that provides a list of electronic links returned from the search engine query results relating to an identified keyword.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the modifying step includes modifying a font color, a font size, a font bolding, a font underlining, or a font italicizing of a font for enhancing display the identified keyword in the electronic information message.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the parsing step includes parsing a current electronic information message and one or more other related electronic information messages in a chain of related electronic information messages.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the one or more related electronic information messages include a chain of related e-mail messages or instant messages.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the server device is an e-mail server.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the network device is a server device.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the network device is a client device comprising a computer, personal digital/data assistant (PDA), mobile phone, non-mobile phone, two-way pager or an Internet appliance.

18. A method for automatically providing electronic advertising, comprising:

automatically via a software module receiving an electronic mail (e-mail) message on a server network device with one or more processors via a communications network from a source network device with one or more processors;

automatically via the software module parsing the e-mail message to identify one or more advertising keywords and one or non-advertising public interest keywords, if any, in the e-mail message, wherein the identified one or more keywords include keywords include advertising keywords stored in a database, non-advertising public interest keywords and keywords dynamically generated using information theory to decide relevant keywords and wherein identified keywords are mapped into a plurality of related advertising keywords that are also used for searching;

automatically via the software module mapping a selected single identified keyword into a plurality of related keywords, or mapping a plurality of selected identified keywords into a single keyword before submitting the one or more queries to one or more search engines;

automatically via the software module submitting the identified one or more advertising keywords or non-advertising public interest keywords from the server network device to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network, wherein the one or more search engines include one or more publicly available search engines and one or more privately available search engines;

automatically via the software module receiving query results from the one or more search engines;

automatically via the software module selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more query results, wherein the one or more electronic links are selected based on pre-determined conditions, wherein one of the pre-determine conditions includes fee agreements with advertisers and wherein the electronic links include electronic links for linking directly to another information site on the communications network, for initiating a static search engine query and for initiating a dynamic search engine query; and

automatically via the software module adding the one or more selected electronic links to the advertising keywords or public interest keywords in the e-mail message creating a modified e-mail message, thereby allowing advertising or public interest information to be accessed from the modified e-mail message based on information content of the e-mail message, wherein a same selected electronic link is added to repeating occurrences of an identified keyword and wherein different selected electronic links are added to repeating occurrences of the identified keyword.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

sending the modified e-mail message from the server network device to a destination network device with one or more processors.

21. A method for automatically processing electronic information messages, comprising:

automatically via the software module receiving an electronic information message on a network device with one or more processors via a communications network from a source network device with one or more processors;

automatically via the software module parsing the electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message, wherein the identified one or more keywords include keywords include advertising keywords stored in a database, non-advertising keywords and keywords dynamically generated using information theory to decide relevant keywords;

automatically via the software module submitting the identified one or more keywords as a query to one or more search engine databases associated with one or more search engines via a communications network, wherein the one or more search engine databases include one or more electronic links for one or more electronic information suppliers who entered into a pre-determined agreement to provide electronic links via the one or more search engines, wherein the one or more search engines include one or more publicly available search engines and one or more privately available search engines and wherein identified keywords are mapped into a plurality of related advertising keywords and non-adverting keywords that are also used for searching;

automatically via the software module returning a database query result from the one or more search engine databases including one or more electronic links wherein the one or more electronic links are selected based on pre-determined conditions, wherein one of the pre-determine conditions includes fee agreements with advertisers, wherein the electronic links include electronic links for linking directly to another information site on the communications network, for initiating a static search engine query and for initiating a dynamic search engine query and wherein the database query results may also include a mapping from a first identified keyword to a plurality of other related keywords; and

automatically via the software module adding the one or electronic links to the electronic information message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the returning step includes returning a search engine database query with one or more electronic links provided based on priority order for which an electronic information provider pays a pre-determined fee.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the returning step includes returning a search engine database query with one or o more links provided based on a random or round-robin ordering.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein the submitting step further includes submitting the identified one or more keywords to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the submitting step includes mapping a single identified keyword into a plurality of related keywords or mapping a plurality of identified keywords into a single keyword before submitting the database query.

27. A method for automatically processing electronic information messages, comprising:

automatically via a software module receiving an electronic information message on a network device with one or more processors via a communications network from a source network device with one or more processors;

automatically via the software module parsing the electronic information message and all electronic information messages related to the electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message and any related electronic information messages, wherein the any related messages include a plurality of related electronic information messages connected together and accessible from the electronic information message and to all the related messages;

automatically via the software module submitting the identified one or more keywords from the network device to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via the communications network, wherein the identified one or more keywords include keywords include advertising keywords stored in a database, non-advertising keywords such as public-interest keywords and keywords dynamically generated using information theory to decide relevant keywords and wherein identified keywords are mapped into a plurality of related advertising keywords that are also used for searching;

automatically via the software module receiving query results from the one or more search engines;

automatically via the software module selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more query results, wherein the one or more electronic links are selected based on pre-determined conditions, wherein one of the pre-determine conditions includes fee agreements with advertisers and wherein the electronic links include electronic links for linking directly to another information site on the communications network, for initiating a static search engine query and for initiating a dynamic search engine query; and

automatically via the software module adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content of the electronic information message, wherein a same selected electronic link is added to repeating occurrences of an identified keyword and wherein different selected electronic links are added to repeating occurrences of the identified keyword.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for processing the steps of the method.

29. An electronic information processing system with one or more processors and a memory with a plurality of software modules stored in the memory being executed by the one or more processors, comprising in combination:

a parsing module for parsing an electronic information message to identify one or more keywords in the electronic information message, wherein the identified one or more keywords include keywords include advertising keywords stored in a database, non-advertising keywords such as public-interest keywords and keywords dynamically generated using information theory to decide relevant keywords and wherein identified one or more keywords are mapped into a plurality of related advertising keywords that are also used for searching and for automatically via the software module mapping a selected single identified keyword into a plurality of related keywords, or mapping a plurality of selected identified keywords into a single keyword before submitting the one or more queries to one or more search engines;

a query module for submitting the identified one or more keywords from to one or more search engines as one or more search engine queries via a communications network, for receiving one or more search engine query results from the one or more search engine queries, wherein the identified one or more keywords include keywords include advertising keywords stored in a database and keywords dynamically generated using information theory to decide relevant keywords and wherein;

a selection module for selecting one or more electronic links from the one or more search engine queries, wherein the one or more electronic links are selected based on pre-determined conditions, wherein one of the pre-determine conditions includes fee agreements with advertisers and wherein the electronic links include electronic links for linking directly to another information site on the communications network, for initiating a static search engine query and for initiating a dynamic search engine query; and

a modifying module for adding the one or more selected electronic links to the electronic message creating a modified electronic information message, thereby allowing additional electronic information to be accessed from the modified electronic information message based on information content from the electronic information message, wherein a same selected electronic link is added to repeating occurrences of an identified keyword and wherein different selected electronic links are added to repeating occurrences of the identified keyword.