System and method for customizing requested web page based on information such as previous location visited by customer and search term used by customer

• US 6,615,247 B1
• Filed: 07/01/1999
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mei California, Inc. (Micron Technology, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Murphy, Stephen C.
• Primary Examiner(s): EL HADY, NABIL M
• Application Number:
  US09/345,759
• Time in Patent Office: 1,524 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/225, 705/26, 705/27, 707/3, 707/4, 707/500
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method and apparatus for automatically customizing a vendor'"'"'s web site, based on a web site customer'"'"'s previous location or terms used in a search by the customer, to provide incentives for the customer to remain on that vendor'"'"'s web site and purchase goods or services from that vendor is disclosed. When a customer lands on a vendor'"'"'s web site, the customer'"'"'s web browser reports the referring Universal Resource Locator (URL) to the vendor'"'"'s web site. The URL is parsed and examined by the vendor'"'"'s web site to determine the web site the customer previously was visiting or, if directed to the vendor'"'"'s web site by a search engine, the terms used by the customer for the search. The terms included in the referring URL are compared with terms previously stored in a database. If any of the terms in the referring URL match a term stored in the database, the vendor'"'"'s web page can be customized with special promotional offers, such as a coupon, or links to the other web pages related to the information retrieved from the parsed URL.

Claims

1. A method for modifying a requested web page at a vendor website comprising:

receiving customer data when a customer requests said web page, wherein requesting said web page includes a customer linking to the website using a method selected from a group comprising, directly entering a vendor universal resource locator (“

URL”

), and clicking on a vendor link displayed as a search result;

parsing said customer data into at least a first term;

comparing said at least first term of said parsed customer data with preselected names of competitors'"'"' websites, said preselected names being stored in a vendor database;

comparing at least a second term of said parsed customer data with preselected names of product types stored in said vendor database;

if said at least first term of said parsed customer data matches at least one of said preselected names of competitors'"'"' websites stored in said vendor database, and if said at least second term of said parsed customer data matches at least one of said preselected names of product types stored in said vendor database, modifying said web page to display information related to said at least first term and said at least second term of said parsed customer data; and

transmitting said modified web page to said customer.

2. The method according to claim 1, where the act of modifying includes displaying a promotional offer for a product related to at least one of said first term and said second term.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the act of displaying includes displaying a coupon for said product.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of modifying includes displaying a link to a second web page related to at least one of said first term and said second term.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of receiving customer data includes receiving a referring URL.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the act of receiving a referring URL includes receiving search terms used by said customer.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting a code for said customer related to said parsed customer data.

8. A method for automatically customizig a web page at a vendor website based on a website previously visited by a customer, said method comprising:

determining an address of said website previously visited by said customer when said customer requests said web page, wherein the act of determining includes receiving data including at least a first term and a referring URL for said website previously visited by said customer;

comparing said address of said website previously visited to at least one preselected address for a website of a competitor, said at least one preselected address for a website of a competitor being stored in a vendor database;

comparing the at least first term with preselected names of product types stored in said vendor database;

customizing said web page to display information related to said address of said website previously visited if said address of said website previously visited matches said at least one address for a website of a competitor stored in said vendor database, and if said at least first term matches at least one of said preselected names of product types stored in said vendor database; and

transmitting said customized web page to said customer.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the act of determining includes:

receiving data for said website previously visited by said customer; and

parsing said data to determine said address of said website previously visited by said customer.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the act of customizing includes:

displaying a promotional offer for a product similar to a product offered by said competitor.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the act of displaying includes:

displaying a coupon for a product similar to a product offered for sale by said competitor.

12. A method for customizing a web page of the world wide web for a customer arriving at said web page from a search engine, said method comprising:

receiving a referring universal resource locator (“

URL”

) when said customer requests said web page, said URL including a search string comprising at least one term input by said customer to said search engine for performing a search of said world wide web;

parsing said search string into at least a first term;

comparing said at least first term with at least one term of a preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in a vendor database;

comparing at least a second term of said parsed search string with preselected names of product types stored in said vendor database;

if said at least first term matches said at least one term in said preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in said vendor database, and if said at least second term matches at least one of said preselected names of product types stored in said vendor database, modifying said web page to display information related to said at least first term and said at least second term of said parsed search string; and

transmitting said modified web page to said customer.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said act of modifying includes

displaying a promotional offer for a product related to said at least second term.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the act of displaying includes displaying a coupon for said product.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein said act of modifying includes displaying a link to a second web page related to at least one of said at least first term and said at least second term.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

setting a cookie for said customer related to said parsed search string.

17. A vendor web server for displaying at least one web page to a customer over the world wide web, said vendor web server comprising:

a controller; and

a memory connected to said controller,

wherein said controller is adapted to parse at least one received customer universal resource locator (“

URL”

) into at least a first search term used by said customer, compare said at least first search term of said parsed customer URL with at least one preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in said memory, compare at least a second search term of said parsed customer URL with preselected names of product types stored in said memory, and if said at least first search term of said parsed customer URL matches said at least one preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in said memory, and if said at least second search term matches at least one of said preselected names of product types stored in said memory, modify said at least one web page to display information related to said at least first search term and said at least second search term of said parsed customer URL.

18. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said controller is further adapted to display on said web page a promotional offer for a product related to said at least second term of said parsed customer URL that matches said at least one of said preselected names of product types stored in said memory.

19. The web server according to claim 18, wherein said promotional offer is a coupon for said product.

20. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said controller is further adapted to display a link on said web page to another web page related to said at least first term of said parsed customer URL that matches said at least one preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in said memory.

21. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said at least one preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in said memory includes an address of a competitor'"'"'s website.

22. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said at least one preselected name of a competitor'"'"'s website stored in said memory includes a name of a competitor.

23. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said customer URL includes a referring URL.

24. The web server according to claim 23, wherein said referring URL includes at least one search term used by said customer to search said world wide web.

25. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said controller includes a processor.

26. The web server according to claim 25, wherein said processor includes a microprocessor.

27. The web server according to claim 17, wherein said controller is further adapted to set a cookie for said customer related to said parsed customer data.