Method and system for selecting and delivering media content via the internet

• US 8,265,990 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2009
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nytell Software LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Utrom Processing Co LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Penberthy, John S., Assaad, Simon A., Carson, David V., Johnson, Bradley G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lastra, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US12/465,907
• Publication Number:
  US 20090287567A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.1
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions

Abstract

A system and method for selecting portions of content, and media content sets to be delivered over a packet based network is provided. The selected portions of content (such as a web page) may be keywords such as a word or a group of words. The media content sets may include one or more of video content (that may include an audio portion), audio content, graphics, images, or other multimedia or single media content. The media content set may include advertising, informational, business, educational, governmental, institutional, customized (e.g., personalized) content and/or other content. According to an example embodiment, the present invention provides a heuristic model employing a piece-wise linear optimization function to select keywords and the media content sets for delivery by a media delivery provider.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, at a server, a plurality of values for a keyword of a web page;

receiving, from a user computer at the server, a request for identification of keywords of the web page, the request comprising data associated with the user computer;

determining, at the server, a location of the user computer and a local time at the user computer based on the data associated with the user computer;

selecting, at the server, a value from among the plurality of values for the keyword that corresponds to the location of the user computer and the local time at the user computer;

determining, at the server, that the value meets a criterion;

responsive to determining that the value meets the criterion, selecting, at the server, the keyword;

determining, at the server, keyword identifying information based on the value and the keyword; and

transmitting, from the server to the user computer, the keyword identifying information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the keyword comprises at least two words.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the user computer comprises at least one of a location of the user computer, a time at which the request was generated by the user computer, a date on which the request was generated by the user computer, a day on which the request was generated by the user computer, an internet protocol address of the user computer, a user identifier, or a web page viewing history of the user computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for identification of the keywords of the web page further comprises at least one of the web page address or a uniform resource locator of the web page.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the server, assessment data for the keyword.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the keyword identifying information comprises a link that, when activated, will generate a request for content.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the keyword based on a hypertext markup language tag associated with the keyword.

8. A server configured to:

determine a plurality of values for a keyword of a web page;

receive, from a user computer, a request for identification of keywords of the web page, the request comprising data associated with the user computer;

determine a location of the user computer and a local time at the user computer based on the data associated with the user computer;

select a value from among the plurality of values for the keyword that corresponds to the location of the user computer and the local time at the user computer;

determine that the value meets a criterion;

select the keyword responsive to determining that the value meets the criterion;

determine keyword identifying information based on the value and the keyword; and

transmit, to the user computer, the keyword identifying information.

9. The server of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to periodically determine the plurality of values for the keyword.

10. The server of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to receive the web page from a web site publisher.

11. The server of claim 8, wherein the keyword identifying information comprises data identifying at least one of content, a content channel, an advertiser, a product, a product category, or a web page.

12. The server of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to rank the keyword among a plurality of keywords of the web page based on the value.

13. The server of claim 8, wherein the keyword identifying information comprises a link that, when activated, will generate a request for content.

14. The server of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to determine that the value is a greatest value of any value associated with a plurality of keywords.

15. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions for determining a plurality of values for a keyword of a web page;

instructions for receiving, from a user computer, a request for identification of keywords of the web page, the request comprising data associated with the user computer;

instructions for determining a location of the user computer and a local time at the user computer based on the data associated with the user computer;

instructions for selecting a value from among the plurality of values for the keyword that corresponds to the location of the user computer and the local time at the user;

instructions for determining that the value meets a criterion;

instructions for selecting the keyword responsive to determining that the value meets the criterion;

instructions for determining keyword identifying information based on the value and the keyword; and

instructions for transmitting, to the user computer, the keyword identifying information.

16. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the keyword identifying information comprises a unique keyword identifier.

17. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for receiving a request for content associated with a keyword from the user computer and transmitting a content identifier to the user computer.

18. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for assigning a keyword identifier to the keyword.

19. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the keyword identifying information comprises the keyword identifier.

20. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for determining the plurality of values for the keyword based on at least one of a content associated with the keyword, a content channel associated with the keyword, an advertiser associated with the keyword, a brand associated with the keyword, or a product category associated with the keyword.