Bid gateway architecture for an online advertisement bidding system

• US 8,135,626 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Das, Shirshanka, Nagaraj, Sunil, Singh, Sangeeta, Botev, Chavdar
• Primary Examiner(s): Allen, Will
• Application Number:
  US12/398,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20100228641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261- 272, 705 144- 1473
• US Class Current: 705/26.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

An online advertising system integrates third party agents to permit the third party agents to participate in auctions to bid on a per opportunity basis. An advertising exchange module receives requests for opportunities to serve online advertisements to users. In response, an advertising exchange module applies one or more business rules to determine third party agents that qualify to serve the online advertisement. A bid gateway module generates and transmits requests for bids to the third party agents. The bid gateway module then receives bids from the third party agents in response to the requests for bids. The advertising exchange module then selects an advertisement based on the bid. The online advertisement exchange system provides a unified marketplace to permit integrator networks to bid on both ads pursuant to guaranteed contracts and ads not subject to guaranteed contracts (e.g., non-guaranteed ads). The online advertisement system further includes traffic management to allow the third parties to regulate bid requests sent from the online advertisement system. In some embodiments, the online advertising system caches bids, to efficiently implement the per opportunity auction, and transmits information, such as targeting information, to the third party agents to aid in the third party agents'"'"' formulation of bids.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one Web server comprising a processor unit and memory for generating at least one request for a service bid, said request for service bids comprising information to identify a plurality of third party recipients; and

at least one gateway server, comprising a processor unit and memory, coupled to said Web server, for receiving said request for a service bid from said Web server, for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient identified in said request for a service bid, for transmitting said third party bid request from said bid gateway server to said third party recipients, for collecting at least one bid from said third party recipients, and for transmitting said bids to an exchange server, wherein said transmitted third party bid requests comprise an amount of targeting information related to said service bid customized by said third party recipients.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said Web server and bid gateway server communicate using an internal protocol.

3. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said bid gateway server for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient further for identifying an end point network address for each recipient identified in said request for a service bid.

4. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said bid gateway server for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient further for generating a third party bid request based on a pre-determined protocol for each recipient identified in said request for a service bid.

5. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

said service bid further comprises information regarding a user; and

said bid gateway server for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient further for generating a third party bid request comprising at least a subset of said information.

6. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said bid gateway server for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient further for:

determining whether a third party recipient has exceeded a threshold of bid requests; and

transmitting said third party bid request from said bid gateway server to at least one third party recipient if said third party recipient has not exceeded a threshold of bid requests.

7. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said bid gateway server for collecting bids from at least one third party recipient further for waiting a predetermined amount of time for a response from a third party recipient, and for not collecting a bid from said third party recipient if said third party recipient does not respond within said predetermined amount of time.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium for storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed by a computer causes the computer transmitting bids, said instructions for:

generating, at a Web server, at least one request for a service bid, said request for service bids comprising information to identify a plurality of third party recipients;

receiving, at a bid gateway server, said request for a service bid from said Web server;

configuring a third party bid request for each recipient identified in said request for a service bid, wherein said third party bid request comprises an amount of targeting information related to said service bid customized by said third party recipients;

transmitting said third party bid request from said bid gateway server to said third party recipients, for collecting at least one bid from said third party recipients, and for transmitting said bids to an exchange server.

9. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8, further comprising instructions for communicating said Web server and said bid gateway server using an internal protocol.

10. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8, further comprising instructions for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient and further for identifying an end point network address for each recipient identified in said request for a service bid.

11. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8, further comprising instructions for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient and further for generating a third party bid request based on a pre-determined protocol for each recipient identified in said request for a service bid.

12. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8, said service bid further comprises information regarding a user, said instructions further for:

configuring a third party bid request for each recipient; and

generating a third party bid request comprising at least a subset of said information.

13. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8, said instructions for configuring a third party bid request for each recipient further comprises instructions for:

determining whether a third party recipient has exceeded a threshold of bid requests; and

transmitting said third party bid request from said bid gateway server to at least one third party recipient if said third party recipient has not exceeded a threshold of bid requests.

14. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8, further comprising instructions for waiting a predetermined amount of time for a response from a third party recipient, and for not collecting a bid from said third party recipient if said third party recipient does not respond within said predetermined amount of time.