Methods and systems for searching, selecting, and displaying content

• US 8,386,321 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2011
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mediashift Acquisition, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ad-Vantage Networks LLC
• Inventors: Grant, David, Grant, John W., Kuwadekar, Sanjeev
• Primary Examiner(s): Duran, Arthur
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUSCH, CHRISTOPHER CONRAD
• Application Number:
  US13/184,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20110264506A1
• Time in Patent Office: 592 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/14.73
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Methods and systems for identifying and presenting information are described. Search results are received from a search engine. An entity associated with a networked site is selected using a selection criterion. A determination is made as to whether the listing includes a link to the networked site or includes the link to the networked site at a list position that fails to satisfy a first criterion. After determining that the link to the site associated with the entity is not included in the search result listing, or that the link to the site associated with the entity is not at a position in the search result listing that satisfies the first criterion, the search listing is modified by causing the link to the site associated with the entity to appear in a first position in the search listing. The modified search listing is displayed on a user terminal.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor;

tangible, non-transitory memory configured to store a program that when executed by the processor by a client application at a client system is configured to perform operations, comprising;

receiving, by the client application, consent from a user of alteration of advertising content from a selected subset of one or more network reference content providers, wherein the advertising content is associated with a first advertising provider, and wherein the alteration comprises inserting, modifying, or substituting content outputted for display associated with the selected subset of one or more network reference content providers;

receiving data for a first document at the client system from a remote system, wherein the first document is to be displayed on a terminal associated with the user;

identifying, by the client application, a characteristic associated with the received first document, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of meta data, referring or embedded network resource reference, scripting, source code tag, or other source code element associated with the first document;

causing, by the client application, at least in part, an automatic identification of;

(a) a first advertisement, or

(b) a reference to content, or

(c) both (a) and (b),

in the first document data based at least in part on the user consent of alteration of advertising content from the selected subset of one or more network reference content providers and associated with the first advertising provider, and wherein the causing an automatic identification includes analyzing the first document structure to detect any specific technique or code that may be employed to make it difficult for the client application to identify advertising content to be altered in accordance with the user consent of alteration of advertising content from the selected subset of one or more network reference content providers;

causing, by the client application, at least in part, a second advertisement from a second advertisement provider to be selected based at least in part on;

information, accessed from memory, associated with an advertiser associated with the second advertisement,

user-related information;

the identified characteristic associated with the received first document; and

a shape and size of the first advertisement or the reference to content;

based at least in part on the user consent, and after outputting the first document for display to a web browser associated with the terminal associated with the user, automatically causing, by the client application, at least in part,

the first advertisement to be replaced with the second advertisement, or

the first advertisement to be obscured by the second advertisement, or

the reference to content to be replaced with a reference to the second advertisement,

so that if the first document is displayed on the terminal associated with the user, the second advertisement is displayed and the first advertisement or the reference to content is not visible and wherein the first document, with the second advertisement being displayed, preserves formatting of the first document with the first advertisement or the reference to content.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the replacement is performed by:

removing the reference to the content; and

inserting the reference to the second advertisement.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second advertisement is selected based in part on an indication related to a size of the first advertisement.

4. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

causing, at least in part, a user profile associated with the user to be accessed, the user profile including;

demographic information regarding the user;

or

an identification of an area of interest of the user;

or

both the demographic information regarding the user and the identification of the area of interest of the user,

wherein the second advertisement is selected based at least in part on the user profile.

5. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

providing the user an incentive to receive advertisement modifications.

6. A method of processing a document, comprising

providing a client application configured to execute on a client system comprising computer hardware, the client application configured to cause the client system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the client application, consent from a user of alteration of advertising content from at least a selected subset of one or more network reference content providers, wherein the advertising content is associated with a first advertising provider, and wherein the alteration comprises inserting, modifying, or substituting content outputted for display associated with the selected subset of one or more network reference content providers;

receiving, by the client application, data for a first document from a remote system, wherein the first document is to be displayed on a terminal associated with the user;

causing, by the client application, at least in part, an automatic identification of;

(a) a first advertisement, or

(b) a reference to content, or

(c) both (a) and (b),

in the first document data based at least in part on the user consent of alteration of advertising content from the selected subset of one or more network reference content providers and associated with a first advertising provider, and wherein the causing an automatic identification of includes analyzing the first document structure to detect any specific technique or code that may be employed to make it difficult for the client application to identify advertising content to be altered in accordance with the user consent of alteration of advertising content from the selected subset of one or more network reference content providers;

identifying, by the client application, a characteristic associated with the received first document, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of meta data, referring or embedded network resource reference, scripting, source code tag, or other source code element associated with the first document;

causing, by the client application, at least in part, a second advertisement from a second advertisement provider to be selected based at least in part on;

information, accessed from memory, associated with an advertiser associated with the second advertisement,

user-related information;

the identified characteristic associated with the received first document; and

a shape and size of the first advertisement or the reference to content;

based at least in part on the user consent, and after outputting the first document for display to a web browser associated with the terminal associated with the user, automatically causing, by the client application;

at least in part,

the first advertisement to be replaced with the second advertisement, or

the first advertisement to be obscured by the second advertisement, or

the reference to content to be replaced with a reference to the second advertisement,

so that if the first document is displayed on the terminal associated with the user, the second advertisement is displayed and the first advertisement or the reference to content is not visible and wherein the first document, with the second advertisement being displayed, preserves formatting of the first document with the first advertisement or the reference to content.

7. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the replacement is performed by:

removing the reference to the content; and

inserting the reference to the second advertisement.

8. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the second advertisement is selected based in part on an indication related to a size of the first advertisement.

9. The method as defined in claim 6, the method further comprising:

causing, at least in part, a user profile associated with the user to be accessed, the user profile including;

demographic information regarding the user;

or

an identification of an area of interest of the user;

or

both the demographic information regarding the user and the identification of the area of interest of the user,

wherein the second advertisement is selected based at least in part on the user profile.

10. The method as defined in claim 6, the method further comprising:

providing the user an incentive to receive advertisement modifications.