Systems and methods for monetizing subscription and archival news content

• US 9,251,519 B1
• Filed: 12/31/2003
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bharat, Krishna, Schmitt, Michael, Curtiss, Mike, Mayer, Marissa, Pelczarski, Kerah, Hess, Duane Scott, Zhou, Janny
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US10/748,662
• Time in Patent Office: 4,416 Days
• Field of Search: 705/40, 705 11-912, 455/556.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

A news aggregation server aggregates and monetizes restricted news content. The news aggregation server fetches the restricted news content from multiple news source servers that are remote from the news aggregation server. The news aggregation server aggregates the fetched restricted news content and searches the aggregated news content based on input received from a client. The news aggregation server provides access to selected news content from the aggregated news content that is relevant to the client input and charges the user a price for accessing the selected restricted news content.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

fetching, by a news aggregation server, news content that is restricted to users that are permitted to access the news content,

where the news content is fetched from a plurality of news source servers that are remote from the news aggregation server;

aggregating, by the news aggregation server, the news content;

searching, by the news aggregation server, the aggregated news content,

the searching being based on input received from a client;

selecting, by the news aggregation server and from the aggregated news content, news content that is responsive to the input;

providing, by the news aggregation server, links to the selected news content;

receiving, at the news aggregation server, a selection of a link of the provided links;

determining, by the news aggregation server, a monetary payment relating to the selected link,

an amount of the monetary payment being increased or decreased based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the selected link;

receiving, at the news aggregation server, the monetary payment;

providing access, by the news aggregation server, to news content corresponding to the selected link based on receiving the monetary payment; and

allocating, by the news aggregation server, a portion of the monetary payment between one or more entities associated with the news aggregation server and one or more entities associated with a news source server, of the plurality of news source servers, associated with the news content corresponding to the selected link.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving registration information from a user associated with the client,

where the registration information identifies one or more publications to which the user is subscribed, and

where the registration information indicates that rankings, associated with news content from the one or more publications, is to be increased relative to rankings associated with news content from one or more publications to which the user is not subscribed;

where providing access to the news content comprises;

providing access to a portion of the news content based on the portion of the news content being from the one or more publications;

where selecting the news content includes;

retrieving a ranked list of news content that is responsive to the input, and

modifying the ranked list of news content to increase a ranking of links to the portion of the news content relative to one or more links to another portion of the news content based on the registration information; and

where providing the links to the selected news content includes;

providing the modified ranked list of news content.

3. The method of claim 1, where providing access to the news content comprises:

providing access to all or a portion of the news content based on an identity of a user associated with the client.

4. The method of claim 1, where fetching the news content comprises:

accessing at least one of the plurality of news source servers based on an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the news aggregation server.

5. The method of claim 1, where fetching the news content comprises:

receiving, at the news aggregation server, an address from at least one of the plurality of news source servers; and

using the address to access the at least one of the plurality of news source servers.

6. The method of claim 1, where fetching the news content comprises:

receiving, at the news aggregation server, a password from at least one of the plurality of news source servers; and

using the received password to access the at least one of the plurality of news source servers.

7. The method of claim 1, where aggregating the news content comprises:

indexing at least one of a fetched subscription or archival news content.

8. The method of claim 1, where the input received from the client includes a search query, and

where searching the aggregated news content includes:

recreating, based on the search query, a particular newspaper, that was previously published on a particular day.

9. The method of claim 1, where the input received from the client includes an indication of the client browsing specified news content.

10. A news aggregation server, comprising:

a processing unit to;

fetch news content that is restricted to users that are registered to access the news content,

the news content being fetched from a plurality of news source servers that are remote from the news aggregation server,

aggregate the restricted news content at the news aggregation server,

search the aggregated restricted news content based on input received from a client,

select, from the aggregated restricted news content, news content that is responsive to the input;

provide links to the selected news content;

receive a selection of a link of the provided links;

determine a monetary payment relating to the selected link,

an amount of the monetary payment being increased or decreased based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the selected link;

receive the monetary payment;

permit access to selected news content associated with the selected link based on receiving the monetary payment; and

share a portion of the monetary payment with one or more entities associated with a news source sever, of the plurality of news source servers, associated with the selected news content.

11. The news aggregation server of claim 10, where the amount of the monetary payment is further determined based on an age of the news content.

12. The news aggregation server of claim 10, where the amount of the monetary payment is further determined based on an amount specified by the user.

13. A method comprising:

providing, by a news aggregation server, access to a plurality of news source sites;

retrieving, by the news aggregation server, restricted and unrestricted news content from the plurality of news source sites;

indexing, by the news aggregation server, the retrieved restricted and unrestricted news content;

receiving, at the news aggregation server, first user input data related to a particular news item;

searching, by the news aggregation server, the indexed restricted and unrestricted news content to retrieve restricted and unrestricted news content relevant to the particular news item;

receiving, at the news aggregation server, second user input data selecting particular restricted news content;

determining, by the news aggregation server and based on receiving the second user input, an amount of payment for permitting access to the particular restricted news content,

where determining the amount of payment includes;

determining the amount of the payment based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the particular restricted news content,

the amount of the payment being increased or decreased based on the quantity of users that have previously accessed the particular restricted news content;

sending, by the news aggregation server, the particular restricted news content to a user in exchange for receiving the payment from the user; and

allocating, by the news aggregation server, a portion of the payment from the user to one or more entities associated with a news source site, of the plurality of news source sites, associated with the particular restricted news content.

14. The method of claim 13, where providing access to the plurality of news source sites comprises:

granting access to at least one of the plurality of news source sites based on an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the at least one of the news source sites.

15. The method of claim 13, where providing access to the plurality of news source sites comprises:

receiving, at the news aggregation server, a uniform resource locator (URL) from at least one of the plurality of news source sites; and

using the URL to access the at least one of the plurality of news source sites.

16. The method of claim 13, where providing access to the plurality of news source sites comprises:

receiving, at the news aggregation server, a password from at least one of the plurality of news source sites; and

using the received password to access the at least one of the plurality of news source sites.

17. The method of claim 13, where the first user input data comprises a search query.

18. The method of claim 13, where the first user input data comprises an indication of the user browsing specified news content.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

sending a sample portion of the particular restricted news content to the user based on receiving the second user input data; and

receiving third user input data requesting access to the particular restricted news content,

where sending the particular restricted news content to the user is based on the third user input data.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing a ranked list of the restricted and unrestricted news content relevant to the particular news item to the user,

where the list specifies a price associated with each of a plurality of restricted and unrestricted news content, and

where a ranking of restricted news content, that are part of a group of news content that the user has previously subscribed to access, is increased relative to restricted news content that the user has not previously subscribed to access.

21. A system, comprising:

a news aggregation server to;

access one or more remote news source servers;

fetch restricted news content from the one or more news source servers;

index the fetched restricted news content;

receive first input data, from a client, related to a particular news item;

search the indexed restricted access news content to retrieve a ranked list of links to restricted news content relevant to the particular news item;

modify the ranked list of links to increase a ranking of a particular link, associated with restricted news content for which the client has prepaid to access, relative to a link associated with restricted news content for which the client has not prepaid to access;

receive second input data, from the client, selecting a link to particular restricted news content from the modified ranked list of links to restricted news content;

determine an amount of payment for permitting access to the particular restricted news content,

where when determining the amount of payment, the news aggregation server is to;

determine the amount of payment based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the particular restricted news content,

the amount of payment being increased or decreased based on the quantity of users that have previously accessed the particular restricted news content;

send the particular restricted news content to the user based on receiving the payment from the user; and

share a portion of the payment with one or more entities associated with a news source server, of the one or more news source servers, associated with the particular restricted news content.

22. The system of claim 21, where the amount of payment is further determined based on a measure of importance of the particular restricted news content.

23. A system for aggregating and monetizing restricted news content at a news aggregation server, the system comprising:

one or more devices to;

fetch the restricted news content from a plurality of news source servers that are remote from the news aggregation server;

aggregate the fetched restricted news content at the news aggregation server;

search the aggregated news content based on input received from a client;

present a list of links to restricted news content, relevant to the input, from the aggregated news content,

each link of the list of links being associated with a price for accessing restricted news content corresponding to the link,

where at least one price is increased or decreased based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the restricted news content;

receive a selection of a link, of the list of links, corresponding to particular restricted news content;

charge the user the price associated with the particular restricted news content;

present the particular restricted news content; and

allocate a portion of the price charged to the user to one or more entities associated with a news source server, of the news source servers, associated with the particular restricted news content.

24. The system of claim 23, where the price is further based on an age of the particular restricted news content.

25. A method, performed by a news aggregation server, of providing access to restricted and unrestricted news content, the method comprising:

fetching, by the news aggregation server, unrestricted news content from a plurality of unrestricted news sources;

fetching, by the news aggregation server, restricted news content from at least one restricted news source;

aggregating, by the news aggregation server, the unrestricted and restricted news content to form aggregated news content;

searching, by the news aggregation server and based on input received from a client, the aggregated news content to retrieve a ranked list of links to news content, of the aggregated news content, that is relevant to the input received from the client,

where each link, of the list of ranked links, corresponding to restricted news content, includes a price associated with the corresponding restricted news content,

where at least one price is increased or decreased based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed corresponding restricted news content;

modifying, at the news aggregation server, the ranked list of links to increase a ranking of a particular link, associated with restricted news content for which the client has prepaid to access, relative to a link associated with restricted news content for which the client has not prepaid to access;

receiving, at the news aggregation server, selection of a link, of the modified ranked list of links, corresponding to particular restricted news content, of the aggregated news content;

charging, by the news aggregation server, the client the price corresponding to the particular restricted news content; and

sharing a portion of the price charged to the client with one or more entities associated with the restricted news source associated with the particular restricted news content.

26. The method of claim 25, where the price is further based on an event covered by the particular restricted news content.

27. A news aggregation server, comprising:

a memory to store information relating to restricted news content retrieved from a plurality of different sources of news content; and

a processing unit to;

search the memory based on input received from a client,

receive input specifying news content,

provide one or more references to restricted news content that is relevant to the input,

where the references include a price associated with each restricted news content,

where at least one price is increased or decreased based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the restricted news content,

receive selection of a reference, of the one or more references, associated with particular restricted news content,

charge the user the price corresponding to the particular restricted news content,

present the particular restricted news content based on receiving payment corresponding to the price, and

share a portion of the payment with one or more entities associated with a source of news content, of the plurality of different sources of news content, associated with the particular restricted news content.

28. The news aggregation server of claim 27, where the price is further based on a measure of importance of the particular restricted news content.

29. A news aggregation server, comprising:

a memory to store information relating to restricted and unrestricted news content retrieved from a plurality of different sources of news content; and

a processing unit to;

receive an input from a client specifying news content of interest to a user;

search the memory to retrieve a ranked list of links to selected news content, from the restricted and unrestricted news content, that are relevant to the input received from the client;

modify the ranked list of links to increase a ranking of a particular link associated with a source of news content, of the plurality of different sources of news content, to which the client is subscribed, relative to a link associated with a source of news content, of the plurality of different sources of news content, to which the client is not subscribed;

provide, for display at the client, the modified ranked list of links;

provide, for display at the client, prices associated with links included in the modified ranked list of links,

where at least one price is increased or decreased based on a quantity of users that have previously accessed the restricted news content;

receive selection of a link, included in the modified ranked list of links, associated with particular restricted news content;

charge the user the price associated with the particular restricted news content;

provide the particular restricted news content based on receiving a payment corresponding to the price; and

allocate a portion of the received payment to one or more entities associated with a source of news content, of the plurality of different sources of news content, associated with the particular restricted news content.

30. The news aggregation server of claim 29, where the price is further based on an age of the particular restricted news content.