Keyword expression language for online search and advertising

• US 8,145,620 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2008
• Issued: 03/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: FERREIRA, IAN P., Dominowska, Ewa
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, BINH VAN
• Application Number:
  US12/118,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20090282035A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 707/713
• US Class Current: 707/713
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements

Abstract

Media and methods are provided for creating and operating a keyword expression language. Syntax is generated as an abbreviation to represent a list of keywords. The syntax is executed as part of the keyword expression language to provide keywords. The syntax includes tokens that substitute for groups of information. Advertisers generate syntax which is subsequently used by a third-party to match to search queries and ads. The third-party may also generate keywords to match to the search queries and ads. The keywords are used to trigger advertising over the Internet.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer instructions embodied thereon for performing a method for executing a keyword expression language to match keyword expression language syntax to search queries and ads, the method comprising:

implementing the keyword expression language to use a syntax and to generate a set of keywords;

receiving one or more letters with one or more symbols to represent an instance in the keyword expression language, wherein a combination of the one or more letters with the one or more symbols or a subset of the combination of the one or more letters with the one or more symbols is the syntax that is represented by the instance, and wherein the instance in the keyword expression language defines one or more permutations of a set of keywords;

associating the instance with one or more ads, wherein the one or more permutations of the set of keywords are also associated with the one or more ads;

storing the instance in a database; and

executing the keyword expression language with a set of tokens, wherein a token represents a group of related keywords.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more letters with the one or more symbols comprises receiving from an advertiser or a user the one or more letters with the one or more symbols.

3. The media of claim 2, further comprising generating a set of keywords from one or more permutations of the instance;

and

associating the set of keywords with the one or more ads.

4. The media of claim 3, further comprising providing the one or more ads to a computing device of the user when a match occurs between a search query and the instance or the match occurs between the search query and a member of the set of keywords.

5. The media of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving the search query from the computing device operated by the user;

matching the query to the member of the set of keywords; and

based on the match, providing one of the one or more ads to the computing device wherein the one of the one or more ads is displayed to the user.

6. The media of claim 1, further comprising receiving one or more words with the one or more letters and the one or more symbols to represent the instance.

7. The media of claim 6, wherein the keyword expression language is a subset of a regular expression language.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein the keyword expression language includes keywords expressed as patterns.

9. The media of claim 6, wherein the group of related keywords is derived from an aspect about a user.