Technique for implementing interstitial web advertising through use of an Ad Descriptor file

• US 20030023488A1
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Unicast Communications Corporation (Extreme Reach, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Unicast Communications Corporation (Extreme Reach, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Wei-Yeh, Landsman, Rick W.
• Application Number:
  US10/162,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20030023488A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0262 during computer stand-by mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A technique for implementing in a networked client-server environment, e.g., the Internet, network-distributed advertising in which advertisements are downloaded, from an advertising server to a browser executing at a client computer, in a manner transparent to a user situated at the browser, and subsequently displayed, by that browser and on an interstitial basis, in response to a click-stream generated by the user to move from one web page to the next. Specifically, an HTML advertising tag is embedded into a referring web page. This tag contains two components. One component effectively downloads, from an distribution web server and to an extent necessary, and then persistently instantiates an agent at the client browser. This agent “politely” and transparently downloads advertising files (media and where necessary player files), originating from an ad management system residing on a third-party advertising web server, for a given advertisement into browser cache and subsequently plays those media files through the browser on an interstitial basis and in response to a user click-stream. The other component is a reference, in terms of a web address, of the advertising management system. This latter reference totally “decouples” advertising content from a web page such that a web page, rather than embedding actual advertising content within the page itself, merely includes an advertising tag that refers, via a URL, to a specific ad management system rather than to a particular advertisement or its content. The ad management system selects the given advertisement that is to be downloaded, rather than having that selection or its content being embedded in the web content page.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing a web page wherein the web page comprises a plurality of computer readable instructions, the instructions representing page content and an embedded advertising tag, wherein the advertising tag when executed by a web browser, causes the browser to:

download from a server, at least one media file forming a predefined advertisement, while the browser is displaying a content web page to a user; and

during an interstitial interval occurring in response to a user-initiated event for transitioning between successive web pages, suspending the download and displaying said one media file so as to render the advertisement through the browser to the user.