Content targeting with audiences

• US 7,853,665 B1
• Filed: 02/18/2004
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Huang, Lin, Fink, Nathan, Tennisberg, Targo, Veeraraghavan, Venkatesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gupta; Muktesh G
• Application Number:
  US10/782,563
• Time in Patent Office: 2,491 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 715/700, 707/1
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for targeting content to audiences. The audience is defined by rules that may be based on properties as well as organizational structure associated with the users. Each of the rules is compiled to determine the group of members belonging to the rule. Logical operators are then applied to the groups to determine the audience membership. Compiling the rules enhances performance as the rules do not have to be run each time. Instead, a simple check against the rules results is performed. The rules making up the audience may be compiled at predetermined times in order to keep the audience up-to-date. Audiences are then selected and tagged to content so that the content may be viewed by the selected audiences.

Claims

1. A method for targeting content to an audience that comprises a plurality of users, the method comprising:

receiving rules from an administration client computing device, the rules comprising query criteria for the audience, each rule defined as a unit of functionality;

storing the received rules in a database;

scheduling the compilation of the rules on a predetermined time schedule;

using the received rules to determine a membership list of the plurality of users to receive the content, the received rules comprising a property query rule, a member of rule, and a reports under rule, by;

independently generating separate results of the property query rule by determining if a property value matches a property of one or more of the plurality of users, including receiving the separate results of the property query rule from a directory service, wherein the directory service is separate from the database;

independently generating separate results of the member of rule by determining if one or more of the plurality of users are a member of a pre-existing group email distribution list; and

independently generating separate results of the reports under rule by determining if one or more of the plurality of users are located hierarchically under another person within an organization structure, the determination comprising receiving the separate results of the reports under rule from the directory service maintaining the organization structure; and

after independently generating the separate results of each of the property query rule, the member of rule, and the reports under rule, compiling the membership list of users according to the predetermined schedule by applying one or more conditional logic operators to combine the separate results of the property query rule, the separate results of the member of rule, and the separate results of the reports under rule;

associating the compiled membership list of users with content;

obtaining the content from a data store; and

providing the content to the users listed within the compiled membership list.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules to define the audience further comprise an attribute;

a member; and

an organization.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is provided within a web part.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an organization structure is stored in the directory service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the content from a data store comprises accessing the content from one or more data servers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling the compilation of the rules on a predetermined time schedule is processed as a SQL job by the database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing access to the content through a web interface that is created individually for that audience member.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the rules to define the audience as an XML representation.

9. A system for targeting content to an audience that comprises users, comprising:

a management client device coupled to a network of computing devices; and

a server computer coupled to the management client device and the network of computer devices, wherein the server computer includes a processor and memory containing computer executable instructions defining a content targeting application, the content targeting application, when executed by the processor, operates to;

receive a plurality of rules from the management client device, the rules defining the audience, the rules comprising a property query rule, a member of rule and a reports under rule;

store the received rules in a database;

schedule the compilation of the rules on a predetermined time schedule;

independently generate separate results for the property query rule that determines if a property value matches a property of one or more users stored in a separate directory service;

independently generate separate results for the member of rule that determines if one or more users are within a pre-existing group email distribution list; and

independently generate separate results for the reports under rule that determines if one or more users are located hierarchically under another user within the separate directory service;

compile the rules according to the predetermined time schedule to define the audience by combining the separate results of the property query rule, the separate results of the member of rule, and the separate results of the reports under rule with conditional logical operators; and

associate the users of the audience with the content.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one rule is selected from a set of rule types, including:

an attribute based rule type;

a member type; and

an organizational rule type.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the database schedules the compilation of the rules on predetermined time schedule.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein displaying the content further comprises displaying the content to the audience through a web interface.

13. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions embodied in a hardware computer-readable storage media, the instructions comprising:

receiving a plurality of rules from an administrator client device;

storing the received rules in a database;

scheduling the compilation of the rules on a predetermined basis;

independently applying the plurality of rules to define an audience to receive the content, wherein the audience comprises a list of users, and the plurality of rules comprise;

a property query rule that independently determines if a property value matches a property of users in an organization structure stored in a directory service;

a member of rule that independently determines if a user is a member of an organization structure stored in a pre-existing group mail distribution list; and

a reports under rule that independently determines if a user is located hierarchically under another user within an organization structure stored in the directory service;

compiling the rules according to the predetermined schedule by gathering information from the organization structure and the group mail distribution list to compile members of the audience wherein the compilation applies conditional logic operators to combine the results from the property query rule, the results from the member of rule and the results from the reports under rule; and

associating the members of the audience with the content.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein the rules are created from a set of rule types, including:

an attribute based rule type;

a member type; and

an organizational rule type.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein gathering information from the organization structure comprises invoking a directory service rules compiler.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein gathering information further comprises accessing an active directory to obtain the organizational structure.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein the database schedules the compilation of the rules on the predetermined basis.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 13, further comprising providing access to the content to the audience through a web interface.