System and method for augmenting content in electronic documents with links to contextually relevant information

• US 8,224,803 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2011
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quotient Technology Inc.
• Original Assignee: Quotient Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Boal, Steven, Walsh, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US13/240,958
• Publication Number:
  US 20120016732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 299 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/708, 707/726, 707/727, 707/728, 707/729, 707/755, 707/769, 707/770, 707/771, 705/14.4
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

An electronic document and associated system, methods and apparatus is described. The electronic document is loaded in a user device configured to communicate with an external device that generates instructions for augmenting content contained in the electronic document with links to contextually relevant information. The content can be augmented with one or more user interface elements, and the augmented content can be displayed with one or more attributes which can be selected by a document author. The document author can mark or otherwise designate one or more portions of the electronic document to be excluded from the augmenting process.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a first set of instructions configured to cause a client device to;

parse a portion of content, locate a set of terms in the portion of content, based on the parsing, and send the set of terms to a server;

wherein the first set of instructions is provided to the client device separately from the content;

receiving, at the server a first request comprising a first set of terms;

based on the first set of terms, the server identifying one or more coupon offers;

in response to the first request, the server sending a second set of instructions configured to cause the client device to;

insert into the content, in association with a particular term in the portion of content, first code configured to cause displaying an interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and a control for selecting a particular coupon offer of the one or more coupon offers, the first code further configured to, upon receiving input indicating that a user selected the control, send information identifying the particular coupon offer to a coupon distribution server;

receiving, at the coupon distribution server, a second request identifying the particular coupon offer;

in response to the second request, the coupon distribution server providing a coupon corresponding to the particular coupon offer;

wherein at least the steps of identifying one or more coupon offers and providing the coupon are performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the first set of instructions comprises sending the first set of instructions to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a browser that executes the first set of instructions and the second set of instructions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of content is a portion of a web page delimited by a predefined tag.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the coupon comprises providing a printable copy of the coupon.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the first request, the coupon distribution server identifying a plurality of coupon offers based on the first set of terms;

the coupon distribution server returning a presentation of information about the plurality of coupon offers, the presentation being prioritized based on the number of times coupons have previously printed or redeemed coupons for each coupon offer in the plurality of coupon offers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first code is further configured to cause displaying the interface in association with a particular term of the first set of terms for which the particular coupon offer was selected.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause modifying the particular term to include a link configured to cause display of the interface as a pop-up interface upon selection of the link.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first code is further configured to cause display of a plurality of interfaces, each interface of the plurality of interfaces configured to appear in association with a different term of the first set of terms, and each interface of the plurality of interfaces comprising information about at least one coupon offer, of the one or more coupon offers, that was identified by the server based on the different term in association with which the interface is configured to appear.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first code is configured to cause each interface of the plurality of interfaces to appear in association with a different term of the first set of terms upon selection of the different term at the client device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more coupon offers comprises querying a database of coupon offers from a plurality of manufacturers based on one or more keywords, wherein the one or more keywords are either the first set of terms, or identified based on the first set of terms.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein locating a set of terms in the portion of content based on the parsing comprises processing text nodes in a document object model of the content into a list of unique terms.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of instructions is configured to cause the client device to insert first code into the content by replacing, in a document object model of the content, the particular term with a link node comprising the particular term, the link node referencing a third set of instructions that, upon selection of the link node, causes the client device to at least display the interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and the control for selecting a particular coupon offer.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of:

providing a first set of instructions configured to cause a client device to;

parse a portion of content, locate a set of terms in the portion of content based on the parsing, and send the set of terms to a server;

wherein the first set of instructions is provided to the client device separately from the content;

receiving, at the server a first request comprising a first set of terms;

based on the first set of terms, the server identifying one or more coupon offers;

in response to the first request, the server sending a second set of instructions configured to cause the client device to;

insert into the content, in association with a particular term in the portion of content, first code configured to cause displaying an interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and a control for selecting a particular coupon offer of the one or more coupon offers, the first code further configured to, upon receiving input indicating that a user selected the control, send information identifying the particular coupon offer to a coupon distribution server;

receiving, at the coupon distribution server, a second request identifying the particular coupon offer;

in response to the second request, the coupon distribution server providing a coupon corresponding to the particular coupon offer.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein providing the first set of instructions comprises sending the first set of instructions to the client device.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the client device comprises a browser that executes the first set of instructions and the second set of instructions.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the portion of content is a portion of a web page delimited by a predefined tag.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein providing the coupon comprises providing a printable copy of the coupon.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further cause performance of:

in response to the first request, the coupon distribution server identifying a plurality of coupon offers based on the first set of terms;

the coupon distribution server returning a presentation of information about the plurality of coupon offers, the presentation being prioritized based on the number of times coupons have previously printed or redeemed coupons for each coupon offer in the plurality of coupon offers.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the first code is further configured to cause displaying the interface in association with a particular term of the first set of terms for which the particular coupon offer was selected.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 20, wherein the first code is further configured to cause modifying the particular term to include a link configured to cause display of the interface as a pop-up interface upon selection of the link.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the first code is further configured to cause display of a plurality of interfaces, each interface of the plurality of interfaces configured to appear in association with a different term of the first set of terms, and each interface of the plurality of interfaces comprising information about at least one coupon offer, of the one or more coupon offers, that was identified by the server based on the different term in association with which the interface is configured to appear.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 22, wherein the first code is configured to cause each interface of the plurality of interfaces to appear in association with a different term of the first set of terms upon selection of the different term at the client device.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein identifying the one or more coupon offers comprises querying a database of coupon offers from a plurality of manufacturers based on one or more keywords, wherein the one or more keywords are either the first set of terms, or identified based on the first set of terms.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein locating a set of terms in the portion of content based on the parsing comprises processing text nodes in a document object model of the content into a list of unique terms.

26. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the second set of instructions is configured to cause the client device to insert first code into the content by replacing, in a document object model of the content, the particular term with a link node comprising the particular term, the link node referencing a third set of instructions that, upon selection of the link node, causes the client device to at least display the interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and the control for selecting a particular coupon offer.

27. A system comprising:

a first server device configured to perform;

providing a first script configured to cause a client device to;

parse a portion of web page, locate a set of terms in the portion of web page based on the parsing, and send the located set of terms to the first server device, the first script being provided to the client device separately from the web page;

receiving, at the first server device, a first request comprising a first set of terms;

the first server device querying a database using the first set of terms to identify one or more coupon offers;

in response to the first request, the first server device sending a second script configured to cause the client device to;

insert into the web page, in association with a particular term in the portion of the web page, a link node that references a third script, the third script configured to cause the client device to display an interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and a control for selecting a particular coupon offer of the one or more coupon offers, the third script further configured to, upon receiving input indicating that a user selected the control, send information identifying the particular coupon offer to a coupon distribution server device;

the database, coupled to the first server, storing at least mappings between a plurality of coupon offers and a plurality of terms;

the coupon distribution server device, configured to perform;

receiving, at the coupon distribution server device, a second request identifying the particular coupon offer;

in response to the second request, the coupon distribution server device providing a coupon corresponding to the particular coupon offer.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the first server device is the coupon distribution server device.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the second script includes the third script.