Targeted advertisements using time-dependent key search terms

• US 20030050863A1
• Filed: 09/10/2001
• Published: 03/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Radwin, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,007,074 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

An advertisement generation system presents a time-dependent advertisement to a user based upon to a search term of a search query during a period of time via a communication network The system includes a search engine coupled to a web server for receiving the search query and for presenting a search results page. The search results page is accompanied with an immediate advertisement. In one embodiment, the system includes an advertisement repository to store data representing a plurality of advertisements and includes the immediate advertisement and the time-dependent advertisement. Also, the system includes a user profiler configured to communicate a plurality of search characteristics and includes a data structure to store the search characteristics. Lastly, an advertisement server is included to provide to the web server the immediate advertisement with an associated search results page and the time-dependent advertisement with a web page presented after the display of the search results page, until a period of time expires.

Claims

1. A method for presenting to a user an advertisement to a user, wherein the advertisement is selected from a plurality of advertisements, the method comprising:

accepting a first set of search terms;

determining a search result based upon the first set of search terms;

storing a representation of at least part of the first set of search terms;

presenting the user with a first search result page representing results of a search using the first set of search terms;

selecting a future advertisement based on at least the stored representations of the first set of search terms; and

presenting the future advertisement to the user as part of a later page subsequent to the viewing of the first search result page.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the future advertisement is available for selection during a period of time after accepting the first set of search terms.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the first set of search terms includes storing a representation of at least one search term in a user profiler.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the first set of search terms includes storing a representation of at least one search term in a cookie.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the first set of search terms further comprises associating at least one search term data element number to the stored first search term.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting the future advertisement further comprises:

assigning an advertisement ID data element number to each of the plurality of advertisements, where the advertisement ID data element number is associated with an advertising type in an advertisement data structure;

comparing the search term data element number with the advertisement ID data element number; and

matching the data element number to the advertisement ID data element number when the data element number is equivalent to the advertisement ID data element number;

wherein the matched advertisement ID data element number associated with the advertising type is used to select the future advertisement for presentation to the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising

accepting a second set of search terms;

determining a second search result based upon the second set of search terms;

storing a representation of at least part of the second set of search terms;

presenting a next search result page representing results of a next search using the second set of search terms; and

selecting a next future advertisement based on at least the stored representations of the first and the second set of search terms; and

presenting the next future advertisement as part of a next later page subsequent to the viewing of the second search result page.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the next future advertisement is available for selection during a next period of time after accepting the first and the second search terms.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the later page viewed is a web page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the future advertisement is shown only if the later page is requested within a time frame, otherwise the future advertisement is selected other than in the selecting step.

11. A method for presenting to a user a future advertisement from a plurality of advertisements, the method comprising:

receiving a search term of a search query into a search engine;

generating a search results web page including a plurality of documents, where the plurality of documents include a hypertext link for a next web page;

determining at least one advertisement type based on the search term;

setting an expiration period of time based on a time that the search term was received;

selecting one of the plurality of documents to view;

matching the advertisement type with at least one representation of a plurality of advertisements, where the advertisement type is associated with a subset of the advertisements;

selecting the future advertisement from the subset of the advertisements; and

presenting the future advertisement to the user, wherein the future advertisement is available for selection during the set expiration time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the at least one advertisement type further comprises setting a cookie to include data representing the at least one advertisement type upon a match.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein setting the expiration time includes setting the expiration time for the cookie.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting one of the plurality of documents further comprises accessing the cookie to retrieve the data representing the advertisement type.

15. An advertisement generation system for presenting a future advertisement to a user based upon a first set search terms of a search query, the web server configured to receive the search query and to present a search results page containing the search query results, the system comprising:

a user profiler configured to communicate a representation of one or more search characteristics associated with the search query of the user to the search engine, the user profiler including a profiler data structure to store the search characteristics where the search characteristics include the first set of search terms; and

an ad server coupled to the web server and the user profiler, where the ad server is configured to select the future advertisement based upon the first set of search terms,

wherein the future advertisement is presented to the user with a page viewed subsequent to the search results page.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the future advertisement is available for presentation to the user until a period of time expires.

17. The system of claim 15 further comprising an advertisement repository having logic and a repository data structure to store data representing a plurality of advertisements, the plurality of advertisements including the advertisement.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the search characteristics further comprises a user identifier and a time stamp, where the time stamp indicates the time at which the user uses the first set of search terms in the search query.

19. An advertisement generation system for presenting a future advertisement to a user based upon a first user input associated with a first web page, the system includes a web server configured to present the first web page and to receive the first user input, the system comprising:

a user profiler configured to communicate a representation of at least one user input characteristic associated of the user input related to the first web page presented, the user profiler including a profiler data structure to store the at least one user input characteristic; and

an ad server coupled to the user profiler and to the web server, where the ad server is configured to select the future advertisement based upon the at least one user input characteristic;

wherein the future advertisement is presented to the user with a second web page viewed subsequent to the first web page.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising an advertisement repository having logic and a repository data structure to store data representing a plurality of advertisements, the plurality of advertisements including the future advertisement.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the future advertisement is available for presentation to the user with the second web page until a period of time expires.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one user input characteristic includes text entered in a chat room.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one user input characteristic includes an item purchased.