System and method for using network equipment to provide targeted advertising

• US 9,396,187 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2011
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chung, Eddie
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Angelica
• Application Number:
  US13/170,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,848 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements

Abstract

A search request received from a user is converted to a search request integer value using an operational portion of a chip in network equipment. The search request integer value is compared to representative data integer values that were previously converted from a dataset of search terms using the operational portion, the representative integer values being stored on the chip. If the comparing is successful, a signal is transmitted to a second database, the signal being used to determine a message to be transmitted to the user that corresponds to the representative data integer.

Claims

1. A chip on service provider network equipment, the chip comprising:

a processor configured to detect a search request as part of a communication message being routed from a user to a search provider by the network equipment,

the processor further configured to generate a search request integer based at least in part on performing a hash function on the search request, configured to perform a comparing operation, and, when the comparing operation is successful, configured to access and transmit a message to the user; and

a first database configured to store at least one of a plurality of representative data integers, the first database being accessed during the comparing operation to compare the search request integer to the stored at least one of the plurality of representative data integers, the stored at least one of the plurality of representative data integers being integers generated by at least one of a plurality of hash functions acting on a dataset of a plurality of search terms, wherein

the processor is configured to send a signal to a second database configured to store a plurality of targeted advertisements and select a targeted advertisement to send the user based on the signal, and

the plurality of targeted advertisements correspond to at least a respective one of the plurality of representative data integers.

2. The chip of claim 1, wherein the network equipment is coupled to a user device that is used to generate the search request.

3. The chip of claim 1, wherein the first database is updated when the dataset of the plurality of search terms is updated by a plurality of searches performed by the user.

4. The chip of claim 1, wherein the plurality of targeted advertisements in the second database are updated.

5. The chip of claim 1, wherein the network equipment is a base station, a router, or a switch.

6. The chip of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of targeted advertisements comprises political information.

15. The chip of claim 1, wherein the network equipment is associated with an internet service provider.

16. The chip of claim 1, wherein an individual one of the plurality of targeted advertisements in the second database comprises content identified by an advertiser as relevant to respective ones of the plurality of search terms associated with the plurality of representative data integers in the first database.

7. A method, comprising:

detecting, using an operational portion of a chip in a network equipment, a search request as part of a communication message being routed from a user to a search provider;

converting, using the operational portion of the chip in the network equipment, the search request to a search request integer value;

comparing, using the operational portion of the chip in the network equipment, the search request integer value to a plurality of representative data integer values that were previously converted from a dataset of search terms, the plurality of representative data integer values being stored on the chip in a first database;

when the comparing is successful, transmitting a signal to a second database, the signal being used by the second database to determine a targeted advertisement stored in the second database for transmitting to the user, wherein the targeted advertisement corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of representative data integer values that matched the search request integer value; and

correlating a plurality of targeted advertisements stored in the second database to the plurality of representative data integer values stored in the first database.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising using a hash function to generate the search request integer value and the stored plurality of representative data integer values.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising coupling the network equipment to a user device that is used to generate the search request.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating the first database when the dataset of search terms is updated by at least one of a plurality of searches performed by the user.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating the second database to include the plurality of targeted advertisements related to the search request.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising using a base station, router, or a switch as the network equipment.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the targeted advertisement comprises political information.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein the network equipment is associated with an internet service provider.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein the targeted advertisement in the second database comprises content identified by an advertiser as relevant to respective ones of the dataset of search terms associated with the plurality of representative data integer values in the first database.

19. The method of claim 7, further comprising performing a hashing operation on the dataset of search terms to generate the plurality of representative data integer values.

20. The method of claim 7, further comprising performing a hashing operation on the search request to generate the search request integer value.

14. A method comprising:

processing a dataset of a plurality of previously used search terms, the dataset being generated by an advertising system;

generating a plurality of hashes from the dataset by using a hashing function;

storing the plurality of hashes in a first database that is on a chip of a network device, where the chip is configured to choose a targeted advertisement stored in a second database to send to a user based on a search hash of a search request detected by the network device from the user as part of a communication message being routed from the user to a search provider, configured to compare the search hash of the search request to the plurality of hashes stored in the first database, and, when the comparing is successful, the chip is configured to access the targeted advertisement from the second database, the targeted advertisement in the second database corresponding to the search hash stored in the first database; and

correlating a plurality of targeted advertisements stored in the second database to the plurality of hashes stored in the first database.