Advertising middleware

• US 9,135,626 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Koli, Ari
• Primary Examiner(s): Plucinski, Jami A
• Assistant Examiner(s): HENRY, RODNEY M
• Application Number:
  US11/428,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20080004952A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,364 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating interaction with one or more advertisement functionalities is provided. An advertisement middleware provides advertisement functionalities for interfacing with one or more systems and components of an underlying device. The advertisement middleware includes a transport layer, an application programming interface and one or more functional modules. The functional modules may include a player module, a cache, a report module, a profile module, a loyalty module and a payment module. Each module may perform various advertising tasks for an advertisement application. In addition, use of a particular advertisement application may be tracked to provide incentives to developers to create advertisement applications.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a middleware component, an advertisement request from an application, the advertisement request including one or more parameters wherein the middleware component and the application are included in a mobile communication device;

selecting, at the middleware component, one or more advertisements from a database, wherein the selection is based on the one or more parameters; and

providing the selected one or more advertisements to the application in accordance with the one or more parameters.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a request for one or more advertisements to an advertisement server in accordance with the one or more parameters.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving the requested one or more advertisements from the advertisement server; and

storing, at the middleware component, the one or more advertisements from the advertisement server in the database.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the selected one or more advertisements to an end-user interface in accordance with the one or more parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing usage information to at least one of the application or an advertisement server.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing user profile information to at least one of the application or the advertisement server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking, at the middleware component, loyalty information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking, at the middleware component, payment information associated with the usage information.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the apparatus to;

receive, at a middle-ware component of a mobile communication device, a request for advertisements from one or more applications of the mobile communication device through one or more application interfaces, the request including one or more advertisement parameters;

select one or more advertisements from an advertisement cache in accordance with the one or more advertisement parameters; and

provide the selected one or more advertisements to the one or more applications.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to request one or more advertisements from a server in accordance with the one or more advertisement parameters.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

receive the requested one or more advertisements from the server; and

store the requested one or more advertisements from the server in the advertisement cache.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a report module configured to track usage information.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a user profile module configured to track user profile information.

14. One or more computer readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, provide an advertising middleware configured to:

receive a request for advertisements from the one or more applications of a mobile communication device through one or more application interfaces, the request including one or more advertisement parameters. wherein the advertising middleware is included in the mobile communication device;

select one or more advertisements from an advertisement cache in accordance with the one or more advertisement parameters; and

providing the selected one or more advertisements to the one or more applications.

15. The one or more computer readable media of claim 14, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to request one or more advertisements from an advertisement server in accordance with the one or more advertisement parameters.

16. The one or more computer readable media of claim 15, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

receive the one or more requested advertisements from the advertisement server; and

store the requested one or more advertisements in the advertisement cache.

17. The one or more computer readable media of claim 14, wherein the advertising middleware further comprises a report module configured to track usage information.

18. The one or more computer readable media of claim 14, wherein the advertising middleware further comprises a user profile module configured to track user profile information.

19. A method comprising:

implementing, at a computing device, interface functionality into an application to provide one or more advertisements via an advertisement middleware;

registering, by the computing device, the application with a server;

the advertisement middleware providing a report to the server, wherein the report indicates a number of advertisements displayed via the application; and

determining a revenue generated from the one or more advertisements based on the report.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the report indicates a number of click-throughs.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the advertisement middleware and the application are included in a same device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the same device is the computing device.

23. One or more computer readable media storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause an apparatus to:

implement, at a computing device, interface functionality into an application to provide one or more advertisements via an advertisement middleware;

register, by the computing device, the application with a server;

provide, by the advertisement middleware, a report to the server, wherein the report indicates a number of advertisements displayed via the application; and

determine a revenue generated from the one or more advertisements based on the report.

24. The one or more computer readable media of claim 23 wherein the report indicates a number of click-throughs.

25. The one or more computer readable media of claim 23, wherein the advertisement middleware and the application are included in the computing device.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the apparatus to;

implement, at a computing device, interface functionality into an application to provide one or more advertisements via an advertisement middleware;

register, by the computing device, the application with a server;

provide, by the advertisement middleware, a report to the server, wherein the report indicates a number of advertisements displayed via the application; and

determine a revenue generated from the one or more advertisements based on the report.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the report indicates a number of click-throughs.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the advertisement middleware and the application are included in the computing device.