Content replacement in electronically-provided archived material

• US 7,831,898 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2007
• Issued: 11/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wecker, David Brian, Cooper, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stork; Kyle R
• Application Number:
  US11/693,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20070174364A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,321 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234, 715/243, 715/254, 715/255, 715/200
• US Class Current: 715/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

A document, publication or a portion of a publication containing collateral information (e.g. advertisements) is delivered in electronic form, preferably appearing electronically as it appears in traditional printed form. Collateral information associated with the document, publication or portion of the publication is dynamically replaced, enabling the user to potentially receive more useful and relevant information and enabling the publisher to potentially generate new revenue from the replaced collateral information.

Claims

1. A method for providing archived material comprising:

receiving a query for the archived material from a requester, the archived material comprising material suitable for reproducing electronically stored in a data store, wherein the requester is associated with a set of characteristics;

in response to receiving the query;

retrieving a first instance of the archived material, the first instance of archived material satisfying the query, the first instance of archived material comprising a plurality of items including a non-substitutable item satisfying the query and at least one collateral item comprising a substitutable item, wherein the quantity of collateral items in the archived material can change over time;

retrieving metadata relating to the at least one collateral item, wherein the metadata indicates a temporal relevancy of the at least one collateral item;

identifying the at least one collateral item to be collateral based on its temporal relevancy to a date of the query;

determining a replacement for the substitutable item by referring to a set of rules comprising at least one rule associated with the substitutable item or at least one rule associated with the archived material or at least one rule associated with the set of characteristics, wherein the set of rules determine at least one allowable replacement of an original collateral item by a replacement collateral item;

selecting a second collateral item according to the set of rules;

generating a second instance of the archived material comprising the non-substitutable item and the second collateral item, wherein the second collateral item replaces the substitutable item of the first instance; and

providing the second instance of the archived material to the requester.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising charging a fee for providing the second instance.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising charging a fee for replacing the substitutable information with the second collateral item in the second instance of the archived material.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first instance of the archived material is retrieved from a data store resident on a first computing device, and wherein the method further comprises transmitting the second instance of the archived material to a second computing device communicatively coupled to the first computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the substitutable item comprises an advertisement and the second collateral item comprises requestor-targeted content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the archived material comprises television programming, a document, a publication, a portion of a publication or a plurality of publications.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the archived material comprises links to related information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the related information comprises alternate versions of a document displayed with different substitutable information, printable coupons associated with a topic of the archived material or with requester preferences.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second collateral item is substituted for the substitutable item before the second instance of the archived material is provided to the requester.

10. A system for rendering archived material comprising:

a data store which stores plurality of instances of archived material; and

a processor, wherein the processor is adapted to;

upon receiving a query from a requester having a set of characteristics;

retrieve a selected first instance of the archived material, the selected first instance of archived material satisfying the query, the selected first instance of archived material comprising a plurality of items including a non-substitutable item satisfying the query and at least one collateral item comprising a substitutable item, wherein the quantity of collateral items in the archived material can change over time;

retrieve metadata relating to the at least one collateral item, wherein the metadata indicates a temporal relevancy of the at least one collateral item;

identifying the at least one collateral item to be collateral based on its temporal relevancy to a date of the query;

determining a replacement for the substitutable item by referring to a set of rules comprising at least one rule associated with the substitutable item or at least one rule associated with the archived material or at least one rule associated with the set of characteristics, wherein the set of rules determine at least one allowable replacement of an original collateral item by a replacement collateral item;

selecting a second collateral item according to the set of rules and the metadata;

generating a second instance of the archived material comprising the non-substitutable item and the second collateral item, wherein the second collateral item replaces the substitutable item of the first instance; and

providing the second instance of the archived material to the requester.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the substitutable item comprises a first advertisement and wherein the second item comprises a targeted advertisement.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first advertisement is determined to be substitutable by comparing a date on which the query is received with an expiration date associated with the first advertisement, wherein the date on which the query is received is later than the expiration date.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the data store of instances of archived material is resident on a first computing device and wherein the system further comprises a module which transmits the second instance to a second computing device communicatively coupled to the first computing device via a communications network.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising charging a fee for providing the second instance.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising charging a fee for replacing the substitutable item.

16. A computer storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computing environment:

in response to receiving a query from a requester associated with a set of characteristics;

retrieve a first instance of archived material, the first instance of archived material comprising a plurality of items including a non-substitutable item satisfying the query and at least one collateral item comprising a substitutable item, wherein the quantity of collateral items in the archived material can change over time;

retrieve metadata relating to the at least one collateral item, wherein the metadata indicates a temporal relevancy of the at least one collateral item;

identifying the at least one collateral item to be collateral based on its temporal relevancy to a date of the query;

determine a replacement for the substitutable item by referring to a set of rules comprising at least one rule associated with the substitutable item or at least one rule associated with the archived material or at least one rule associated with the set of characteristics, wherein the set of rules determine at least one allowable replacement of an original collateral item by a replacement collateral item;

select a second collateral item according to the set of rules;

generate a second instance of the archived material comprising the non-substitutable item and the second collateral item, wherein the substitutable item of the first instance is replaced by the second collateral item before returning the second instance; and

provide the second instance to the requester.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-executable instructions that when executed by the computing environment:

charge a fee for providing the second instance.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-executable instructions that when executed by the computing environment:

charge a fee for replacing the substitutable information with the second collateral item in the second instance.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-executable instructions that when executed by the computing environment:

replace the substitutable item comprising an advertisement of the first instance with a second collateral item comprising a targeted advertisement in the second instance.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-executable instructions that when executed by the computing environment:

retrieve a first instance of archived material, wherein the archived material comprises television programming, a document, a publication, a portion of a publication or a plurality of publications.