Method and system for advanced messaging

• US 9,626,683 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2007
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intersections Incorporated (Aura Sub, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Anchorfree Incorporated
• Inventors: Gorodyansky, David, Lewis, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Desrosiers, Evans
• Application Number:
  US11/684,560
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162598A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,693 Days
• Field of Search: 709224-229
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An implementation of the inventive concept enables an outside entity to alter user'"'"'s internet experience on a system-wide level. Specifically, inventive system enables a merchant, a distributor or any other entity to send contextually-relevant messages directly to the user'"'"'s computer. Upon the receipt of the messages by the controller application residing on the user'"'"'s computer, the messages are shown to the user by being incorporated into representation of various resources viewed by the user. For example, the received messages are incorporated into web pages viewed by the user by means of code injection. This way, the merchant, distributor or any other entity may provide targeted advertising to the user in a contextually relevant manner. Specifically, the controller application residing on the user'"'"'s computer may detect requests for specific resources issued by the user in accordance with a predetermined criteria and incorporate the aforesaid received messages into those selected resources.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

collecting, at a client computer directly accessed by a user, the client computer being in communication with a server, information on online activities of the user, the information on online activities of the user comprising at least information on a plurality of network resources accessed by the user;

indexing, at the client computer, the collected information on online activities of the user and storing the indexed information on online activities of the user on the client computer, wherein the stored information is encrypted;

storing a plurality of user request selection criteria in a memory device of the client computer, the plurality of user request selection criteria being remotely updatable;

receiving a request from the user for a network resource;

comparing, on the client computer, the received user request with the user request selection criteria and selecting, on the client computer, the received user request if the received user request matches the user request selection criteria;

using the indexed collected information to inject an HTML code into the network resource to be viewed by the user, the network resource received from the server based on a command sent to the server by the client computer, the command being based on the selected user request; and

displaying both the network resource and the HTML code injected on the client computer to the user in the same single web browser window, wherein the injecting of the HTML code is performed on the client computer, wherein the HTML code comprises an advertising material and wherein the information on online activities of the user is prevented from being sent outside of the client computer directly accessed by the user to preserve privacy of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the indexed collected information comprises:

obtaining the HTML code to be injected into the network resource requested by the user based on the selected user request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein using the indexed collected information further comprises:

sending information on the selected user request from the user to a second server;

sending at least a portion of the indexed collected information on online activities of the user to the second server; and

receiving the HTML code to be injected from the second server in response to the sent information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the network resource with the injected HTML code to the user, wherein the request from the user for predetermined detection criteria stored on the client computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network resource is selected from a group consisting of a web page, a download and a streaming transmission.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the user for the network resource is selected based on a content of the network resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the network resource requested by the user is a merchant'"'"'s web page for a product.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the HTML code comprises competitor'"'"'s advertising information for the product.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the HTML code comprises a link to the product'"'"'s page in a competitor'"'"'s website.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the network resource requested by the user is a web search result page for a product provided to the user in response to a user'"'"'s query to a search engine.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the HTML code comprises advertising information for the product from a competitor search engine.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the HTML code comprises a link to the product'"'"'s page in a competitor search engine website.

13. A computer programming product embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the computer programming product comprising computer instructions causing one or more processors executing the instructions to:

collect, using a processing unit, at a client computer directly accessed by a user, the client computer being in communication with a server, information on online activities of the user, the information on online activities of the user comprising at least information on a plurality of network resources accessed by the user;

index, at the client computer, the collected information on online activities of a user and store the indexed information on online activities of the user on the client computer, wherein the stored information is encrypted;

store a plurality of user request selection criteria in a memory device of the client computer, the plurality of user request selection criteria being remotely updatable;

receive a request from the user for a network resource;

compare, on the client computer, the received user request with the user request selection criteria and selecting, on the client computer, the received user request if the received user request matches the user request selection criteria;

use the indexed collected information to inject an HTML code into the network resource requested by the user, the network resource received from the server based on a command sent to the server by the client computer, the command being based on the selected user request; and

displaying, using a display unit, both the network resource and the HTML code injected on the client computer to the user in the same single web browser window, wherein the injecting of the HTML code is performed on the client computer, wherein the HTML code comprises an advertising material and wherein the information on online activities of the user is prevented from being sent outside of the client computer directly accessed by the user to preserve privacy of the user.

14. The computer programming product of claim 13, wherein the use of the collected information comprises the HTML code to be injected into the network resource requested by the user based on the detected request.

15. The computer programming product of claim 14, wherein the use of the collected information further comprises:

sending information on the selected user request from the user to a second server;

sending at least a portion of the indexed collected information on online activities of the user to the second server; and

receiving the HTML code to be injected from the second server in response to the sent information.

16. The computer programming product of claim 13, wherein the computer instructions further cause the one or more processors to present the network resource is detected based on an address of the network resource and a predetermined detection criteria stored on the client computer.

17. The computer programming product of claim 13, wherein the network resource is selected from a group consisting of a web page, a download and a streaming transmission.

18. The computer programming product of claim 13, wherein the request from the user for the network resource is selected based on a content of the network resource.

19. The computer programming product of claim 13, wherein the network resource requested by the user is a merchant'"'"'s page for a product.

20. The computer programming product of claim 19, wherein the HTML code comprises competitor'"'"'s advertising information for the product.

21. The computer programming product of claim 19, wherein the HTML code comprises a link to the product'"'"'s page in a competitor'"'"'s website.

22. The computer programming product of claim 13, wherein the network resource requested by the user is a web search result page for a product provided to the user in response to a user'"'"'s query to a search engine.

23. The computer programming product of claim 22, wherein the HTML code comprises advertising information for the product from a competitor search engine.

24. The computer programming product of claim 22, wherein the HTML code comprises a link to the product'"'"'s page in a competitor search engine website.

25. A computer system comprising one or more central processing units (CPUs) and a memory unit storing a programming product, the computer programming product comprising computer instructions causing the one or more central processing units to:

collect, at a client computer directly accessed by a user, the client computer being in communication with a server, information on online activities of the user, the information on online activities of the user comprising at least information on a plurality of network resources accessed by the user;

index, at the client computer, the collected information on online activities of a user and store the indexed information on online activities of the user on the client computer, wherein the stored information is encrypted;

store a plurality of user request selection criteria in a memory device of the client computer, the plurality of user request selection criteria being remotely updatable;

receive a request from the user for a network resource;

compare, on the client computer, the received user request with the user request selection criteria and selecting, on the client computer, the received user request if the received user request matches the user request selection criteria;

use the indexed collected information to inject an HTML code into the network resource requested by the user, the network resource received from the server based on a command sent to the server by the client computer, the command being based on the selected user request; and

display both the network resource and the HTML code injected on the client computer to the user in the same single web browser window, wherein the injecting of the HTML code is performed on the client computer, wherein the HTML code comprises an advertising material and wherein the information on online activities of the user is prevented from being sent outside of the client computer directly accessed by the user to preserve privacy of the user.