Advertisement refresh rules for network applications

• US 20060294258A1
• Filed: 06/28/2005
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Leung, Thomas A., Genna, John A., Schuller, Megan M., Powers-Boyle, Elizabeth I.
• Granted Patent: US 8,069,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure

Abstract

Advertisements are refreshed in an interface based on one or more parameters provided over a network. The parameters can be retrieved from a web service and implemented at a client device. Advertisement refreshing is performed independently of web page content loading. The parameters may include a time period and user action count and be configured differently for different markets, geographical areas, other customer groups, sections of an application or different advertisement types. One or more of the parameters may be adjusted at a back-end server and distributed to machines in the different customer groups, allowing an efficient and centralized mechanism for managing and updating advertisement refreshing.

Claims

1. A method for providing content to a user through a user interface, comprising:

determining a period of time has elapsed;

receiving user input through a user interface; and

updating a portion of content within the user interface in response to receiving the user input and determining the period of time has elapsed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining a period of time includes:

determining a minimum period of time has elapsed since the portion of content to be updated was last updated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of receiving includes:

receiving user input through the user interface after the period of time has elapsed.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting the received user input qualifies as a user action; and

determining a number of user actions have been detected, the received user input associated with the most recent of the detected user actions.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the number of user actions is a minimum number of user actions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of updating a portion of content includes:

replacing one or more advertisements provided in the user interface with one or more new advertisements, the remainder of the user interface content being displayed without requiring a content request from a remote source.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of content includes an advertisement.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface is a mail system interface provided by a network browser.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of content is accessed from a server over a network.

10. A system for providing updated content for a user interface, comprising:

a first server including;

a memory device; and

a processor in communication with the memory device, the first server able to generate content update parameters associated with updating advertisements and transmit the content update parameters, the content update parameters including a time parameter and a user action parameter.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first server is configured to receive input from an administrator, the parameters derived from the administrator input.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first server is configured to generate a plurality of sets of content update parameters, each set configured for a customer group.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said first server is able to transmit the content update parameters to a client over a network.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the content update parameters are associated with updating advertisements in a network browser application.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a plurality of web servers; and

a content share server able to receive the content update parameters and provide the content update parameters to said plurality of web servers, said plurality of web servers including said first server.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the content share server is configured to provide a timestamp associated with the content update parameters.

17. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on one or more said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:

determining a minimum number of user actions have been detected through a user interface;

determining a minimum period of time has elapsed; and

updating an advertisement in the user interface in response to determining the minimum number of user actions have been detected and the minimum period of time has elapsed.

18. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 17, wherein the minimum number of user actions and minimum period of time are received from a remote server.

19. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 17, wherein said step of updating includes:

updating an advertisement without generating a content request for other content for the user interface.

20. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 17, wherein said steps of determining the minimum number of user actions have been detected, determining the minimum period of time has elapsed, and updating an advertisement in the user interface are performed at a client device.