Funding information delivery using advertising revenue

• US 7,853,478 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2007
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blegen, Darrell LeRoy, Donahue, Joseph Jude, Stockwell, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US11/844,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20090055256A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.11, 705/1.1, 705/14.4, 705/14.43
• US Class Current: 705/14.43
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to deliver information to a user such that data information delivery costs are less than an amount of generated advertising revenue. In an embodiment, a system can be configured to deliver information, including content and advertisements, to a user which operates to remove the burden of payment for the information delivery by the user. In one embodiment, bandwidth, compression, minimization, protocols, timing, and other optimization parameters can be used to minimize the cost to communicate information, including content and advertisements, to a user. Embodiments can be configured to optimally package advertisements and content, such that advertising revenue can be used to compensate for or override costs associated with the transmission of the content and advertisements. Other embodiments and functionality are available.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed, manage a communication of information by:

optimizing a number of transmission parameters associated with the communication of information, wherein the information includes content and a number of advertisements used to generate advertising revenue;

caching one or more of the number of advertisements such that the one or more of the number of advertisements can be used multiple times while having a single transmission cost associated with the transmission of the number of advertisements;

dynamically displaying the information based in part on an interactive context and user preferences;

tracking user interactions when one or more of the number of advertisements are displayed; and

,

generating revenue based in part on user interactions including comparing a cost to transmit the content and number of advertisements with an amount of advertising revenue generated by the number of advertisements and adjusting one or more communication parameters to provide a positive amount of residual revenue, wherein the generating includes using the advertising revenue to compensate for the transmission of the information such that a user is not charged for a data transaction fee associated with a communication service.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by caching one or more of the number of advertisements on a delivery platform and controlling the delivery of the one or more of the number of advertisements to a user to maximize an amount of revenue associated with the delivery of the information.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by caching one or more of the number of advertisements on a user device and controlling the delivery of the one or more of the number of advertisements to the user device to maximize an amount of revenue associated with the delivery of the information.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by calculating a cost per advertisement associated with a display of an associated advertisement when a user interacts with a device displaying the advertisement.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by timing a delivery of the information based in part on a peak communication interval associated with a communication network.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by timing a delivery of the information based in part on an off-peak communication interval associated with a communication network.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by charging more for a directed advertisement to an advertising entity based in part on an advertising target.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by optimizing bandwidth, compression, and timing parameters associated with the communication of the information.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by using historical advertising revenue to adjust a number of the communication parameters associated with a delivery of information to an end user.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by managing an amount of information traffic to be communicated during a given time period.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, manage the communication of the information by managing a request frequency and a time period associated with an information request when delivering the information.

12. A system to manage a communication comprising:

a delivery platform to control the communication of information to users associated with a communication service, wherein the delivery platform comprises;

a data request handling component to determine a number of time periods to deliver the information in an effort to minimize costs associated with the communication of the information including using configuration information to reduce information traffic when responding to an information request; and

,

a compression and formatting component to serialize requested information before responding to the information request including limiting an amount of descriptive information to be included with the requested information; and

,

a store to store advertisement counts associated with an advertisement interaction, wherein the system uses an amount of advertising revenue associated with the advertisement interaction to compensate for the transmission of the information which includes a comparison of a cost to transmit content and a number of advertisements with an amount of advertising revenue generated by the number of advertisements and an adjustment of one or more communication parameters to realize residual revenue.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising a computing device having a cache, wherein the number of advertisements are stored in the cache for viewing multiple times, wherein the number of advertisements can be deleted from the cache upon reaching an expiration event.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the delivery platform further comprises a cache for storing user preferences and configuration information, wherein the delivery platform can reduce transmission costs by using the user preferences and configuration information when transmitting the content and the number of advertisements to a user.

15. A method of managing a communication of information as part of a communication service using a communication channel comprising:

optimizing a number of transmission parameters associated with the communication of information including reducing an amount of header information and handshake packet traffic associated with the communication of the information using the communication channel, wherein the information includes content and a number of advertisements;

packaging the information for communication, wherein the packaging includes using a format having minimal descriptive information associated with an information package;

saving user preferences including configuration information associated with the delivery of select content, wherein the saving of the user preferences operates to reduce data traffic associated with a request for the information;

receiving detection information associated with a detection of user interactions when one or more of the number of advertisements are displayed;

calculating an amount of generated revenue based in part on the detection information associated with the detection of user interactions, wherein the calculating includes comparing a cost to transmit the content and number of advertisements with an amount of advertising revenue generated by the number of advertisements and using the amount of advertising revenue to determine if a cost to transmit information is compensated for by the amount of advertising revenue such that a user is not charged for information transaction fees associated with the communication service; and

,

adjusting one or more communication parameters to provide a positive amount of residual revenue.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising dynamically displaying the information based in part on the user preferences, including displaying one or more advertisements based in part on a display context.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising adjusting a delivery time of the content and number of advertisements based in part on a measure of historical advertising revenue.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing the number of advertisements in a local cache for viewing multiple times, wherein the number of advertisements can be deleted from the cache upon reaching an expiration event.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising adjusting bandwidth and timing parameters as part of the communication of the information to realize a positive revenue stream.