Advertising in an online community

• US 8,700,609 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2008
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hsiao, Chung-Li Aliku, Kao, Yu-Lung Larry
• Primary Examiner(s): Mamillapalli, Pavan
• Application Number:
  US12/195,332
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,064 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/732, 707/738, 707/608, 707/796, 705/300, 709/206
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions

Abstract

An online advertising method which may allow advertisers to recruit a user of a websites to become an advertisement carrier, who may carry the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements and display the advertisements to his fellow users in an online community. Since users in the advertisement carrier'"'"'s online community have similar browsing interests, if an advertisement is related to the browsing interests of the online community, it may be better targeted at the users in the online community. The method may be used in, e.g., eCommerce, social networking and online photo albums.

Claims

1. A method for advertising in an online community which has at least two users, the method comprising:

receiving a first search request to search a website from a first user;

obtaining a list of search results matching the first search request;

causing the list of search results to be displayed on a screen of the first user;

receiving a second search request to search the website from a second user;

in response to receiving the second search request, providing an inquiry from an advertiser to the second user that requests that a representation of the second user to be displayed with an advertisement of the advertiser on a screen of another user;

receiving an answer to the inquiry from the second user that indicates that the second user agrees that the representation of the second user can be displayed with the advertisement of the advertiser;

determining that the second user searches the website with a third search request having a scope that at least partly overlaps with a scope of the first search request; and

causing the representation of the second user and the advertisement of the advertiser to be displayed on the screen of the first user in response to determining that the second user searches the website with the third search request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation is a graphical representation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the first user clicks on the advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

redirecting the first user to a website of the advertiser when the first user clicks on the advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a record indicating that the advertisement is clicked on.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

analyzing, click-through data for the second user.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating an advertising result report for the second user based on the click-through data.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

causing a representation of the first user and an advertisement that the first user agrees to be displayed with the representation of the first user on a screen of the second user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing terms of an agreement between the website and the advertiser.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing terms of an agreement between the second user and the advertiser.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first search request is made by the first user by selecting a category of items of interests.

12. A system for advertising in an online community which has at least two users, the method comprising:

a computer system which runs a website and is coupled to a computer network; and

a database,

wherein the computer system;

receives a first search request to search the website from a first user;

obtains a list of search results matching the first search request;

causes the list of search results to be displayed on a screen of the first user;

receives a second search request to search the website from a second user;

in response to receiving the second search request, provides an inquiry from an advertiser to the second user that requests that a representation of the second user to be displayed with an advertisement of the advertiser on a screen of another user;

receives an answer to the inquiry from the second user that indicates that the second user agrees that the representation of the second user can be displayed with the advertisement of the advertiser;

determines that the second user searches the website with a third search request having a scope that at least partly overlaps with a scope of the first search request; and

causes the representation of the second user and the advertisement of the advertiser to be displayed on the screen of the first user in response to determining that the second user searches the website with the third search request.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the representation is a graphical representation.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the computer system further:

determines whether the first user clicks on the advertisement.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the computer system further:

redirects the first user to a website of the advertiser when the first user clicks on the advertisement.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the computer system further:

stores a record indicating that the advertisement is clicked on.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer system further:

analyzes click-through data for the second user.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer system further:

generates an advertising result report for the second user based on the click-through data.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the database stores terms of an agreement between the website and an advertiser.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the database stores terms of an agreement between the second user and the advertiser.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable device having instructions which, when performed by a computer, perform a method for advertising in an online community which has at least two users, the method comprising:

receiving, a first search request to search a website from a first user;

obtaining a list of search results matching the first search request;

causing the list of search results to be displayed on a screen of the first user;

receiving a second search request to search the website from a second user;

in response to receiving the second search request, providing an inquiry from an advertiser to the second user that requests that a representation of the second user to be displayed with an advertisement of the advertiser on a screen of another user;

receiving an answer to the inquiry from the second user that indicates that the second user agrees that the representation of the second user can be displayed with the advertisement of the advertiser;

determining that the second user searches the website with a third search request having a scope that at least partly overlaps with a scope of the first search request; and

causing the representation of the second user and the advertisement of the advertiser to be displayed on the screen of the first user in response to determining that the second user searches the website with the third search request.