Method and system for displaying contextual rotating advertisements

• US 8,595,633 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2005
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Celik, Aytek Esen, Han, Xiaobing
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matt
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pan, Yongjia
• Application Number:
  US11/264,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20070100867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,948 Days
• Field of Search: 715/825
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method is disclosed for providing advertising content for display in a page over a network. A plurality of advertisements are determined that are qualified for display at a location in the page. When an advertiser has stores located at a plurality of geographic sites, only one advertisement for a store located at a first geographic site may be displayed. Thereafter, the advertisement for a store located at a second geographic site different from the first geographic site may be displayed.

Claims

1. An ad server comprising a processor and processor-readable media for providing advertising content for display in a page over a computer network to a user, comprising:

a database to store a plurality of advertisements; and

a computer executed program, including;

a first routine to determine a qualified advertisement from the plurality of advertisements for display in a portion of the page, wherein the qualified advertisement is for a single advertiser'"'"'s business at a location in a geographic area, wherein the single advertiser has a plurality of business locations, and wherein the single advertiser has a different version of an advertisement corresponding to each of the plurality of business locations;

a second routine to determine when the single advertiser has a plurality of different qualified advertisements, each of the single advertiser'"'"'s different qualified advertisements corresponding to a different business location located within the same geographic area; and

a third routine, based on the second routine determination, to rotate the different qualified advertisements when the single advertiser has a plurality of qualified advertisements and each of the single advertiser'"'"'s qualified advertisements is for a different business location in the geographic area, such that only one qualified advertisement corresponding to one of the single advertiser'"'"'s business locations is displayed for each display of the page,

wherein the one qualified advertisement comprises a hyperlink configured to initiate a fourth routine to display a plurality of the single advertiser'"'"'s business locations on a map of the geographic area.

2. The ad server of claim 1, wherein the plurality of business locations is comprised of entities having different names, or entities having the same name and different store locations.

3. The ad server of claim 1, wherein an advertisement is qualified if the advertisement correlates to a geographic location of the user.

4. The ad server of claim 1, wherein more than one advertisement is displayed in the established portion of the page.

5. A method for displaying advertisements on a page, the method comprising:

receiving a search query;

determining a plurality of advertisements that are qualified for display on the page, wherein the qualified advertisements are related to the search query;

determining whether more than one of the qualified advertisements are for a single advertiser having a plurality of business locations in a geographic region, wherein the qualified advertisements correspond to different business locations in the geographic region;

displaying only one of the qualified advertisements from the single advertiser at a particular location on the page including results from the search query when the single advertiser has more than one of the qualified advertisements; and

displaying, in response to a second receipt of the search query, a different one of the qualified advertisements from the single advertiser when the single advertiser has more than one of the qualified advertisements, wherein the displaying of a different one of the qualified advertisements from the single advertiser comprises rotating the more than one of the qualified advertisements, such that only a first advertisement from the single advertiser is displayed at the particular location on the page including results from search query, and only a second advertisement from the single advertiser is displayed at that particular location on the page provided in response to the second receipt, the second advertisement being different than the first advertisement;

wherein the displayed qualified advertisements each comprise a link configured to initiate the display of a plurality of the single advertiser'"'"'s business locations on a map when the user interacts with the link.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the displayed advertisement for the single advertiser is for a business location that is located at one of a geographic location that correlates to a physical location of a user;

or a geographic location that correlates to a location input by the user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein single advertiser'"'"'s more than one of the qualified advertisements comprises advertisements for entities having different names, or entities having the same name and different store locations.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the single advertiser comprises an advertiser that has businesses established at different locations.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the advertiser comprises businesses having more than one brand.

10. A method for providing advertising content for display in a page over a network to a user, the method comprising:

providing an input selector for an advertiser to input a search category for each of the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements, wherein the search category corresponds to a possible query term of the user;

providing an input selector for a single advertiser to input an advertisement region for each of the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements, wherein the advertisement region corresponds to a possible location of the user, wherein the single advertiser has a plurality of business locations in the advertisement region and a different advertisement for each of the business locations in the advertisement region;

receiving a user query term inputted by the user;

identifying a user region comprising a user location; and

determining when the single advertiser'"'"'s advertisements comprise two or more qualified advertisements each comprising different versions of an advertisement specific to a different business location of the single advertiser located within the user region, wherein the qualified advertisements have a search category that corresponds to the user query term and an advertisement region that corresponds to the user region; and

displaying, based on the determination, only one of the qualified advertisements from the single advertiser'"'"'s advertisements during each display of the page, wherein the displaying comprises rotating the two or more qualified advertisements, such that only a first qualified advertisement from the single advertiser is displayed during a first display of the page, and only a second qualified advertisement from the single advertiser is displayed during a second display of the page,

wherein the displayed first or second qualified advertisement comprises a link configured to initiate the display of a plurality of the single advertiser'"'"'s business locations on a map when the user interacts with the link.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user location comprises a physical location of the user at the time a search is conducted by the user.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the input selector comprises a dropdown menu.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the input selector comprises a map.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the user location is determined based on a feed from the user.

15. A method for providing advertising content for display in a page over a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving a search query, the search query associated with a geographic area;

identifying a set of qualified advertisements for businesses located within the geographic area;

selecting, upon receipt of the search query, an advertiser that has more than one qualified advertisements for a plurality of businesses located with the geographic area associated with the search query, wherein each of qualified advertisement is specific to at least one of the advertiser'"'"'s business locations in the geographic area; and

displaying only one of the qualified advertisements for the advertiser in response to the search query, wherein the displaying only one of the qualified advertisements for the advertiser comprises rotating the more than one qualified advertisements for the plurality of business locations such that a different qualified advertisement for the advertiser is displayed in response to a second receipt of the search query,

wherein the displayed only one of the qualified advertisements comprises a link configured to initiate the display of a plurality of the single advertiser'"'"'s business locations on a map.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the advertiser comprises a business having locations at more than one geographic site.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the geographic area comprises a geographic location of a user and is determined by an input from a user, a physical location of a user at a time of determining the qualified advertisement, a computer profile of a user, or information from a computer that performed the search query.