Time slicing web based advertisements

• US 7,945,660 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2006
• Issued: 05/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamilton, Sam, Patel, Jatin, Goyal, Prabhakar
• Primary Examiner(s): Colin; Carl
• Assistant Examiner(s): THIAW, CATHERINE B
• Application Number:
  US11/493,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20080028064A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,756 Days
• Field of Search: 705 10- 15, 709/224, 370240-477
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for rotating an advertisement on a single page or screen. The advertisement may be rotated when the user is active on the page or screen. In addition, the advertisement that replaces the original ad may be based on the user'"'"'s activity, or may be based on the content displayed in the page or screen. This system and method may increase advertising inventory that is displayed on a page or screen by displaying advertisements for a set time interval, which results in increased flexibility for sellers and buyers of online advertising.

Claims

1. A method for displaying advertisements on a single page, the method comprising:

displaying a first advertisement within the page on a display;

measuring a passage of time after the first advertisement is displayed with a plurality of successive time slots, wherein each time slot includes a first time period that includes a portion of time at a beginning of a respective time slot, and a look back time period after the first time period, the look back time period including a portion of time at an end of the respective time slot;

ignoring user activity within the page during the first time period of each respective time slot;

monitoring whether there is user activity within the page after the first time period and during the look back time period of each respective time slot;

determining, at the end of each of the successive time slots, whether there was any user activity within the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot;

replacing, with a processor, the first advertisement with a second advertisement on the page when the determination indicates there was user activity within the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot;

displaying the second advertisement within the page on the display when the second advertisement replaces the first advertisement; and

continuing to display the first advertisement after the ending time slot when the determination indicates there was no user activity within the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot, wherein the determination of whether there was any interaction with the page continues for the successive time slot following the ending time slot.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the page is a web page displayed on a web browser and the first and second advertisements are displayed at the same location on the web page.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the user activity is determined based on a user interaction with the page, including interaction by a mouse movement, a keyboard activity, a joystick movement, or combinations thereof.

4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

measuring a passage of time after the second advertisement is displayed with a plurality of subsequent time slots, wherein each of the subsequent time slots includes a second time period that includes a portion of time at a beginning of a respective subsequent time slot, and a second look back time period after the second time period, the second look back time period including a portion of time at an end of the respective subsequent time slot;

monitoring whether there is user activity within the page after the second time period and during the second look back time period of each of the subsequent time slots;

determining, at the end of each of the subsequent time slots, whether there was any user activity within the page during the second look back time period for the ending subsequent time slot;

replacing the second advertisement with a third advertisement on the page when the determination indicates there was user activity within the page during the second look back time period for the ending subsequent time slot;

displaying the third advertisement within the page on the display.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the second advertisement is chosen based on content of the page.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the second advertisement is from the same advertiser and related to the first advertisement.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the second advertisement and the first advertisement are part of a series of advertisements displayed to convey a related message.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the series of advertisements displayed to convey a related message comprise a series of advertisements from one advertiser displayed to tell a story.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a relationship between the user activity and content of the second advertisement; and

choosing the second advertisement to replace the first advertisement based on the relationship between the user activity and content of the second advertisement.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for providing advertisements to be displayed on a single page, said method comprising:

transmitting data over a network, wherein the data includes the page;

providing a first advertisement configured to be displayed on the page;

measuring a passage of time after the first advertisement is displayed with a plurality of successive time slots, wherein each time slot includes a first time period that includes a portion of time at a beginning of a respective time slot, and a look back time period after the first time period, the look back time period including a portion of time at an end of the respective time slot;

ignoring user interaction with the page during the first time period of each respective time slot;

monitoring user interaction with the page after the first time period and during the look back time period of each respective time slot;

determining, at the end of each of the successive time slots, whether there was any interaction with the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot;

providing a second advertisement configured to be displayed in place of the first advertisement on the page when the determination indicates there was an interaction with the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot; and

continuing to provide the first advertisement after the ending time slot when the determination indicates there was no interaction with the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot, wherein the determination of whether there was any interaction with the page continues for the successive time slot following the ending time slot.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 wherein the providing a first advertisement comprises displaying the first advertisement, further wherein the providing a second advertisement comprises displaying the second advertisement.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising providing a different advertisement after each successive time slot when there was an interaction with the page during the look back time period for that successive time slot, wherein the different advertisement is not provided after an ending time slot when there was no interaction with the page during the look back time period for that ending time slot.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 wherein the second advertisement is selected based on the content of the page, the user activity, or combinations thereof.

14. A system displaying a page with advertising, the system comprising:

a processor configured to be connected with a network;

a user interface coupled with the processor and configured to receive input;

a display coupled with the processor; and

a browser coupled with the processor and configured to display, on the display, data received over the network, the data including a page with a first advertisement,

wherein the processor is configured to;

provide the first advertisement for display by the browser;

measure a passage of time after the first advertisement is displayed with a plurality of successive time slots, wherein each time slot includes a first time period that includes a portion of time at a beginning of a respective time slot, and a look back time period after the first time period, the look back time period including a portion of time at an end of the respective time slot;

ignore user interaction with the page during the first time period of each respective time slot;

monitor user interaction with the page after the first time period and during the look back time period of each respective time slot;

determine, at the end of each of the successive time slots, whether there was an interaction with the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot;

provide a second advertisement configured to be displayed in place of the first advertisement on the page when then determination indicates there was an interaction with the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot; and

continue to provide the first advertisement after the ending time slot when the determination indicates there was no interaction with the page during the look back time period for the ending time slot, wherein the determination of whether there was any interaction with the page continues for the successive time slot following the ending time slot.

15. The system according to claim 14 wherein the browser is stored in memory coupled with the processor.

16. The system according to claim 14 wherein the user interface includes a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, or combinations thereof.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein a user interaction is detected when input is received from the keyboard, the mouse, the joystick, or combinations thereof.