Updating contents of asynchronously refreshable webpages

• US 8,131,591 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2007
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gorty, Sunitha, Masterson, Mark, Tomlin, Scott, Malik, Mansoor, Yun, Hyejin
• Primary Examiner(s): DIXON, THOMAS A
• Application Number:
  US11/853,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20090070190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,637 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/14.4
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide ways to update and permit third-party advertising content of a webpage developed using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“AJAX”) techniques. An illustrative method includes registering a set of possible triggering events that can invoke an advertisement-update process, registering advertisement containers (portions of the webpage that can present the advertisements), receiving an indication that a triggering event has occurred, identifying (in some cases) advertisement containers whose advertisement content is to be updated, accessing third-party advertisement data that is stored outside of the domain of the webpage to receive the fresh advertising content, and presenting the fresh advertising content in the one or more advertisement containers.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method of sourcing advertisements on a webpage developed using asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“

AJAX”

) techniques and that is associated with a first domain with advertisement data associated with a second domain even when the webpage includes a first portion that is updated independently or asynchronously with updating a second portion, the method comprising;

while programmatic code is being processed to render the webpage at the computing device, beginning an initialization process that comprises,

(1) identifying a set of advertisement containers that are separate but concurrently displayed sections within the webpage that will present advertisements, the set of advertisement containers comprising the second portion of the webpage and, without an advertisement-update process, the set of advertisement containers being refreshed independently of the webpage and the first portion of the webpage, and

(2) identifying a triggering action associated with the first portion of the webpage that, when the triggering action occurs, causes the first portion of the webpage to be refreshed and triggers the advertisement-update process that is capable of updating all advertisements of the webpage, including those in the first and second portions, the triggering action being the occurrence of an Nth frame of a video that is presented in the first portion of the webpage; and

incident to the occurring of the triggering action, initiating the advertisement-update process that comprises,

(1) from within the webpage, dynamically creating an inline frame (“

iframe”

) that is to be presented in the second portion of the webpage, the iframe having a set of attributes associated therewith,

(2) retrieving at least a portion of the advertising data to present an advertisement in the iframe, and

(3) presenting the advertisement in the iframe, wherein presenting the advertisement in the iframe includes presenting the advertisement in a screen area previously occupied by one or more of the advertisement containers.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the programmatic code is processed by a network browser.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the advertisements that can be presented in the advertisement containers include one or more of still-image content;

video content;

audio content;

programmatic animations;

form functionality;

an HTML representation; and

a Javascript representation.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein presenting the advertisement in the iframe includes removing data that was previously occupied by a control that is being replaced by the iframe.

5. The media of claim 4, wherein the removing data includes removing data from memory of a computing device being used to facilitate display of the advertisement.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the attributes of the iframe include one or more of:

a location indication that indicates a location on the webpage;

a size indication; and

a viewable attribute that allows the advertisement to be hidden.

7. The media of claim 1, further comprising providing for the modification of the set of attributes of the iframe.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein providing for the modification of the set of attributes is accomplished by creating the iframe in a security context that is common to the webpage.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method of sourcing advertisements on a webpage developed using asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“

AJAX”

) techniques and that is within a first domain with advertisement data that is stored outside of the first domain even when the webpage includes a first portion that is updated independently or asynchronously with updating a second portion, the method comprising;

registering a triggering event that is associated with the first portion of the webpage and that, when the triggering event occurs, automatically invokes an advertisement-update process to refresh a set of advertisement containers that are included in the second portion of the webpage, wherein the triggering event is the occurrence of an Nth frame of a video that is presented in the first portion of the webpage;

registering the set of advertisement containers that are included in the second portion of the webpage and simultaneously present the advertisements and are not automatically refreshed with the first portion of the webpage;

receiving an indication that the triggering event has occurred; and

executing the advertisement-update process while the webpage is presented to a user, the advertisement-update process including;

identifying at least the set of advertisement containers as advertisement containers whose advertisement content is to be updated, thereby defining a set of identified advertisement containers,

accessing the advertisement data that is stored outside of the first domain to receive a fresh advertising content,

creating at least one inline frame (iframe) within at least one of the identified advertisement containers, and

presenting the fresh advertising content in the iframe within the at least one of the identified advertisement containers in the webpage.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein registering the triggering event includes registering the triggering event with a portion of programmatic code that is launched while the webpage is initially rendered.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein registering the set of advertisement containers includes registering the set of advertisement containers with the portion of programmatic code that is launched while the webpage is initially rendered.

12. The media of claim 9, wherein the fresh advertising content is the same advertising content that was presented prior to updating.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device having a processor and a memory, perform a method of updating third-party advertising content of a webpage developed using asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“

AJAX”

) techniques, the method comprising;

during an initial rendering of the webpage,

(1) registering a set of objects within a first portion of a webpage that each simultaneously present advertising data, the set of objects being separate from but displayed concurrently with a second portion of the webpage and the set of objects not being automatically refreshed with the second portion of the webpage, and

(2) registering a triggering event associated with the second portion of the webpage that, when occurs, automatically triggers, an update process that updates at least the second portion of the webpage but not the first portion of the webpage, the triggering event including the occurrence of an Nth frame of a video that is presented in the second portion of the webpage;

when the triggering event occurs, causing the first portion of the webpage to be refreshed by dynamically creating at least, one inline frame (iframe) within at least one of the set of objects of the webpage that present advertising content;

automatically populating the iframe with third-party advertising content that is stored outside of a domain in which the webpage resides, the iframe being within a security context that is common to the webpage, wherein the populating occurs while the webpage is presented to a user; and

facilitating a modification of a set of attributes associated with the dynamically created iframe, wherein the set of attributes includes one or more of a size-related indication, a visible-attributes indication, a z-level indication, and a location-related indication.