Category-based advertisement
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements comprising:
- assigning, in a computer, a plurality of electronic advertisements to a plurality of category nodes within a category hierarchy, wherein;
said category hierarchy comprises a plurality of levels of said category nodes,said category nodes include a plurality of ancestor category nodes associated witha plurality of descendant category nodes and identified by a number oflevels separating the ancestor category nodes from the associateddescendant category nodes;
assigning, in a computer, a plurality of available advertisement slots to said plurality ofcategory nodes within said category hierarchy; and
selecting, in a computer;
for each electronic advertisement assigned to a particular category node, anavailable advertisement slot assigned to a matching particular categorynode, if said available advertising slot assigned to a matching particularcategory node exists,if said available advertising slot assigned to a matching particular category nodedoes not exist, then selecting, in a computer, for the electronicadvertisement assigned to a particular category node, an availableadvertising slot assigned to an ancestor category node associated with saidparticular category node, wherein the ancestor category node is separatedfrom said matching particular category node by less than a predeterminednumber of levels.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A hierarchical category system for organizing and displaying electronic advertisements is disclosed. Each electronic advertisement is assigned one or more categories from a hierarchical categorization system. Similarly, each available advertisement placement location is also provided with a category from the hierarchical categorization, system. Then, when displaying advertisements, the system attempts to locate advertisements that have matching categorizations. When no matching advertisement with an exact matching categorization can be found, the system will attempt to locate an advertisement from a more specific (child) category that is a sub category of the current category. However, the advertisement from the more specific (child) category must specify the broader category within its own allowable fall-back path.
42 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of organizing and displaying electronic advertisements comprising:
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assigning, in a computer, a plurality of electronic advertisements to a plurality of category nodes within a category hierarchy, wherein; said category hierarchy comprises a plurality of levels of said category nodes, said category nodes include a plurality of ancestor category nodes associated with a plurality of descendant category nodes and identified by a number of levels separating the ancestor category nodes from the associated descendant category nodes; assigning, in a computer, a plurality of available advertisement slots to said plurality of category nodes within said category hierarchy; and selecting, in a computer; for each electronic advertisement assigned to a particular category node, an available advertisement slot assigned to a matching particular category node, if said available advertising slot assigned to a matching particular category node exists, if said available advertising slot assigned to a matching particular category node does not exist, then selecting, in a computer, for the electronic advertisement assigned to a particular category node, an available advertising slot assigned to an ancestor category node associated with said particular category node, wherein the ancestor category node is separated from said matching particular category node by less than a predetermined number of levels. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A computer readable medium, said computer readable medium comprising a set of instructions for organizing and displaying electronic advertisements, said set of instructions performing the steps of:
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assigning, in a computer, a plurality of electronic advertisements to a plurality of category nodes within a category hierarchy, wherein; said category hierarchy comprises a plurality of levels of said category nodes, said category nodes include a plurality of ancestor category nodes associated with a plurality of descendant category nodes and identified by a number of levels separating the ancestor category nodes from the associated descendant category nodes; assigning, in a computer, a plurality of available advertisement slots to said plurality of category nodes within said category hierarchy; and selecting, in a computer; for each electronic advertisement assigned to a particular category node, an available advertisement slot assigned to a matching particular category node, if said available advertising slot assigned to a matching particular category node exists, if said available advertising slot assigned to a matching particular category node does not exist, then selecting, in a computer, for the electronic advertisement assigned to a particular category node, an available advertising slot assigned to an ancestor category node associated with said particular category node, wherein the ancestor category node is separated from said matching particular category node by less than a predetermined number of levels. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer-implemented hybrid method of categorizing electronic advertisements in a category hierarchy, said method comprising the steps of:
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examining, in a computer, information about an electronic advertisement with a classification engine, said classification engine assigning a first pass categorization of said electronic advertisement, wherein said first pass categorization comprises identification of a matching category node within a plurality of levels of category nodes, said plurality of levels of category nodes including a plurality of ancestor category nodes associated with a plurality of descendant category nodes and identified by a number of levels separating the ancestor category nodes from the associated descendant category nodes; displaying, on a computer display, said first past categorization of said electronic advertisement to a human in a form of said category hierarchy displayed with said first pass categorization high-lighted; and accepting, at a computer, changes to said first pass categorization by said human to said displayed category hierarchy, wherein said changes comprise identifying a maximum number of levels between an acceptable ancestor category node and said matching category node. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification