Content syndication in web-based media via ad tagging

• US 9,124,631 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Harding, John M., Doig, Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANDRAMUNO, FRANKLIN S
• Application Number:
  US12/643,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20100287580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,080 Days
• Field of Search: 725/14, 725/32
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing advertisements for inclusion in video content. In one embodiment, a video is formatted into a specific format for advertising purposes. The format describes a standard for advertisement placement opportunities within a video in which a client device may select advertisements for display during these opportunities.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying advertisements in a video on a client device, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the client device, a request for the video;

receiving the video at the client device responsive to transmitting the request, the video including advertisement insertion points, each advertisement insertion point describing attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video at the advertisement insertion point;

identifying, by the client device, the advertisement insertion points included in the video;

responsive to unavailability of network connectivity;

dynamically selecting, by the client device responsive to the unavailability of network connectivity, an advertisement from a plurality of candidate advertisements available for display at each advertisement insertion point according to the described attributes for selection of advertisements for each advertisement insertion point, each advertisement including an advertisement tag specifying parameters relating to display of the advertisement on the client device and the advertisement tag including instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisement for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisement if the advertisement is selected by the client device and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisement; and

displaying the advertisements selected by the client device at the advertisement insertion points, each advertisement displayed in an advertisement insertion point according to an associated advertisement tag specifying parameters related to the display of the advertisement.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements describe a priority of advertisement formats for display at an associated advertisement insertion point.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements describe a maximum number of advertisements that can be inserted at an associated advertisement insertion point.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements describe an order in which an advertisement is to be displayed at an associated advertisement insertion point.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the described order varies between a first and a second playing of the video at the client device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements describe a frequency with which each selected advertisement is displayed at an associated advertisement insertion point.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein dynamically selecting the advertisement from the plurality of candidate advertisements available for display in the advertisement insertion point comprises selecting the advertisements from a collection of advertisements included with the video responsive to the unavailability of network connectivity.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

responsive to availability of the network connectivity, fetching advertisements to display within the video from an advertisement service to replace the advertisements from the collection of advertisements included with the video.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to network connectivity;

requesting, by the client device, the advertisements from an advertisement service;

receiving , by the client device, the advertisements from the advertisement service; and

inserting, by the client device, each advertisement into the video at an associated advertisement insertion point in the video.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

measuring interactions with the advertisements by the user based on the advertisement tags associated with the advertisements; and

generating a report that describes the interactions with the advertisements for compensation purposes.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

monitoring for availability of network connectivity; and

responsive to the availability of network connectivity, transmitting the report to an advertisement service associated with the advertisements; and

responsive to no availability of network connectivity, continuing monitoring for availability of network connectivity.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement insertion points describes low interest regions within the video or transitions between scenes in the video.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein displaying the advertisements comprises:

for each advertisement, analyzing the parameters relating to display of the advertisement specified in the advertisement tag; and

displaying each advertisement in the video according to the parameters relating to display of each advertisement.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining types of user-interactions to measure for each advertisement based on the one or more different types of user interactions specified by the advertisement tag associated with each advertisement;

measuring user interaction with each advertisement according to the determined types of user interactions during playback of the video and the advertisements; and

storing the user interaction associated with each advertisement.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of user interactions include a length of time an advertisement is displayed to the user.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of user interactions include a number of views of the advertisement by the user.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of user interactions include a percentage of time that an advertisement is viewed in the video by a user relative to a total possible display time of the advertisement.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of user interactions include clicking of a hyperlink within an advertisement.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating a digital signature of the video to verify that the advertisement tags are not altered by a malicious user; and

logging whether the advertisement tags are altered.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein generating the report comprises:

aggregating the interactions with each advertisement for display in the report.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the report further comprises information describing whether the advertisement tags have been altered.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the report further comprises information indicating a manufacturer of the client device and a model associated with the client device.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining an advertisement service associated with each advertisement from information included in the attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted at an associated insertion point; and

for each advertisement, transmitting a report to an advertisement service associated with the advertisement, wherein the report describes user interaction with the advertisement.

48. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein dynamically selecting the advertisement comprises:

selecting, by the client device, an advertisement having a format that the client device is capable of displaying.

24. A computer-implemented method for providing video advertisements to a client device, the method executed by a computer and comprising:

receiving a request for a video from a client device, the video including a plurality of advertisement insertion points, each advertisement insertion point describing attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video at the advertisement insertion point;

selecting, by a computer server, advertisements to be inserted by the client device at each of the advertisement insertion points according to the described attributes for selection of advertisements for each advertisement insertion point responsive to the client device lacking network connectivity;

inserting the selected advertisements into the video, each selected advertisement including an advertisement tag specifying parameters relating to the display of the advertisement on the client device and the advertisement tag including instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisement for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisement if the advertisement is selected for display by the client device and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisement; and

providing the video to the client device, the video including the advertisement insertion points describing the attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video, the advertisements for display at the advertisement insertion points, and advertisement tags associated with the advertisements that specify the parameters related to the display of the advertisements on the client device and including the instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisements for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisements and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisements.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein selecting advertisements to be inserted at the insertion points further comprises:

selecting advertisements having content associated with the video content.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein selecting advertisements to be inserted by the client device at the insertion points further comprises:

providing an advertising service the attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted at each insertion point; and

receiving for each insertion point, one or more advertisements according to the attributes associated with the insertion point.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein selecting advertisements to be inserted by the client device at the insertion points further comprises selecting advertisements having a format that the client device is capable of displaying.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein inserting the selected advertisements into the video comprises:

inserting the selected advertisements into an advertisement pool associated with the video, wherein the advertisement pool represents a collection of advertisements from which the client device displays at the advertisement insertion points at least one of the advertisements in the collection.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the parameters relating to display of the advertisement on the client device include attributes of an advertisement format associated with the advertising tag.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the one or more different types of user interactions include a length of time an advertisement is displayed to a user.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the one or more different types of user interactions include a number of views of the advertisement by a user.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the one or more different types of user interactions include a percentage of time that an advertisement in the video is viewed by a user relative to a total possible display time of the advertisement.

33. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the one or more different types of user interactions include clicking of a hyperlink in an advertisement within the video.

34. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point further describes an identification of an advertisement service for reporting user interaction with the associated advertisement.

35. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point further include instructions to cause the client device to report a model identification and a device identification associated with the client device to dynamically fetch advertisements for display in the video.

36. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, further receiving identification of the advertisement insertion points included in the video from a content publisher associated with the video.

37. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point describe a priority of advertisement formats for display at the insertion point.

38. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point describe a maximum number of advertisements that can be inserted at the insertion point.

39. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point describe an order in which advertisements are to be displayed in the insertion point.

40. The computer-implemented method of claim 39, wherein the described order varies between a first and a second playing of the video.

41. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point describe describes a frequency with which each selected advertisement is displayed at the associated insertion point.

42. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving a report from the client device describing interactions with the advertisements by the user;

determining a total amount of revenue generated by the advertisements; and

distributing the revenue to a manufacturer associated with the client device and a content publisher associated with the video.

43. The computer-implemented method of claim 42, wherein determining a total amount of revenue comprises:

determining from the report a total amount of time that each advertisement was interacted with by the user; and

determining the total amount of revenue generated by the advertisements based at least in part on the total amount of time.

44. A computer program product for displaying advertisements in a video on a client device, comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for controlling a processor to perform a method comprising:

transmitting, by the client device, a request for the video;

receiving the video at the client device responsive to transmitting the request, the video including advertisement insertion points, each advertisement insertion point describing attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video at the advertisement insertion point;

identifying, by the client device, the advertisement insertion points included in the video;

responsive to unavailability of network connectivity;

dynamically selecting, by the client device responsive to the unavailability of network connectivity, an advertisement from a plurality of candidate advertisements available for display at each advertisement insertion point according to the described attributes for selection of advertisements in each advertisement insertion point, each advertisement including an advertisement tag specifying parameters relating to display of the advertisement on the client device and the advertisement tag including instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisement for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisement if the advertisement is selected by the client device and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisement; and

displaying the advertisements selected by the client device at the advertisement insertion points, each advertisement displayed in an advertisement insertion point according to an associated advertisement tag specifying parameters related to the display of the advertisement.

45. A computer program product for providing video advertisements to a client device, comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for controlling a processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving a request for a video from a client device, the video including a plurality of advertisement insertion points, each advertisement insertion point describing attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video at the advertisement insertion point;

selecting, by a computer server, advertisements to be inserted by the client device at each of the advertisement insertion points according to the described attributes for selection of each insertion point responsive to the client device lacking network connectivity;

inserting the selected advertisements into the video, each selected advertisement including an advertisement tag specifying parameters relating to the display of the advertisement on the client device and the advertisement tag including instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisement for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisement if the advertisement is selected for display by the client device and to report monitored user interactions s that occur during the display of the advertisement; and

providing the video including the advertisements to the client device, the video including the advertisement insertion points describing the attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video, the advertisements for display at the advertisement insertion points, and advertisement tags associated with the advertisements that specify parameters related to the display of the advertisements on the client device and including the instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisements for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisements and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisements.

46. A client device for displaying advertisements in a video at the client device, the client device comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the steps of;

transmitting a request for the video;

receive the video responsive to transmitting the request, the video including advertisement insertion points, each advertisement insertion point describing attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video at the advertisement insertion point;

identify advertisement insertion points included in the video;

responsive to unavailability of network connectivity;

dynamically select an advertisement from a plurality of candidate advertisements available for display at each advertisement insertion point according to the described attributes for selection of advertisements of each advertisement insertion point responsive to the unavailability of network connectivity, each advertisement including an advertisement tag specifying parameters relating to display of the advertisement on the client device and the advertisement tag including instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisement for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisement if the advertisement is selected by the client device and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisement; and

display the advertisements selected by the client device at the advertisement insertion points, each advertisement displayed in an advertisement insertion point according to an associated advertisement tag specifying parameters related to the display of the advertisement.

47. A system for providing video advertisements to a client device, the system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the steps of;

receive a request for a video from a client device, the video including a plurality of advertisement insertion points, each advertisement insertion point describing attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video at the advertisement insertion point;

select, by the system, advertisements to be inserted by the client device at each of the advertisement insertion points according to the described attributes for selection of advertisements for each insertion point responsive to the client device lacking network connectivity;

insert the selected advertisements into the video, each selected advertisement including an advertisement tag specifying parameters relating to the display of the advertisement on the client device and the advertisement tag including instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisement for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisement if the advertisement is selected for display by the client device and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisement; and

provide the video to the client device, the video including the advertisement insertion points describing the attributes for selection of advertisements to be inserted into the video, the advertisements for display at the advertisement insertion points, and advertisement tags associated with the advertisements that specify the parameters related to the display of the advertisements on the client device and including the instructions for the client device specifying one or more different types of user interactions with the advertisements for the client device to monitor during display of the advertisements and to report monitored user interactions that occur during the display of the advertisements.