Customized electronic newspapers and advertisements

• US 7,483,871 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2002
• Issued: 01/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fred HERZ Patents LLC
• Original Assignee: Pinpoint Incorporated (Altitude Capital Partners)
• Inventors: Herz, Frederick S. M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Uyen T.
• Application Number:
  US10/262,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20030037041A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,310 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/10, 725/14, 725/105, 709/217
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4665 involving classification methods, e.g. Decision trees
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 : for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 : Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 : in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 : Communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/943 : News
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 : Access augmentation or optimizing

Abstract

This invention relates to customized electronic identification of desirable objects, such as news articles, in an electronic media environment, and in particular to a system that automatically constructs both a “target profile” for each target object in the electronic media based, for example, on the frequency with which each word appears in an article relative to its overall frequency of use in all articles, as well as a “target profile interest summary” for each user, which target profile interest summary describes the user'"'"'s interest level in various types of target objects. The system then evaluates the target profiles against the users'"'"' target profile interest summaries to generate a user-customized rank ordered listing of target objects most likely to be of interest to each user so that the user can select from among these potentially relevant target objects, which were automatically selected by this system from the plethora of target objects that are profiled on the electronic media. Users'"'"' target profile interest summaries can be used to efficiently organize the distribution of information in a large scale system consisting of many users interconnected by means of a communication network. Additionally, a cryptographically-based pseudonym proxy server is provided to ensure the privacy of a user'"'"'s target profile interest summary, by giving the user control over the ability of third parties to access this summary and to identify or contact the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper that is accessible via an electronic data transmission media, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections on said electronic data transmission media to a server system which provides said user with access to a plurality of target object news articles and advertisements, said method comprising the steps of:

automatically generating separate target profiles for said plurality of target object news articles and advertisements that are accessible via said electronic data transmission media, each of said target profiles being generated automatically, by a computer system running a profile generation algorithm, from the contents of an associated one of said target object news articles and advertisements;

automatically generating at least one user target profile interest summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from said target object profiles associated with said news articles and advertisements accessed by said user, such that the at least one user target profile interest summary is not generated based on input from the user;

determining automatically a correspondence between said at least one user target profile interest summary and said target profiles; and

automatically creating a customized electronic newspaper for said user by presenting said user with a customized selection, as a function of said correspondence, of said plurality of target object news articles and advertisements.

2. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

automatically transmitting a notification to said user to identify newly received ones of said target object news articles and advertisements of interest to said user, as determined by at least one user target profile interest summary.

3. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 2, wherein said step of automatically creating comprises:

presenting to said user said newly received target object news articles in a rank order listing based upon the predicted level of interest by said user to said target object news articles according to matching criteria associated with said at least one user target profile interest summary.

4. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 1, wherein said step of automatically creating comprises:

dynamically creating a rank ordered listing on said server of said customized selection of target object news articles and advertisements in accordance with at least one of;

a predicted degree of interest of said user towards said target object news articles and advertisements, and electronic mailing lists for said user.

5. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

specifically identifying to said user said customized selection of target object news articles in which said target object news articles are accessible within an online directory.

6. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

specifically identifying to said user said customized selection of target object news articles by high lighting hyper links to said selected target object news articles.

7. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

enabling said user to perform an on-line search of said plurality of target object news articles via said electronic transmission media; and

customizing results of said on-line search based upon a predicted level of interest by said user to said target object news articles within said on-line search results.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said correspondence is determined at least partially based on aggregate behavior of a plurality of users other than said user, said aggregate behavior indicating at least one similar interest to said user.

9. A system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper that is accessible via an electronic data transmission media, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections on said electronic data transmission media to a server system which provides said user with access to a plurality of target object news articles and advertisements, said system comprising:

means for automatically generating separate target profiles for said plurality of target object news articles and advertisements that are accessible via said electronic data transmission media, each of said target profiles being generated automatically, by a computer system running a profile generation algorithm, from the contents of an associated one of said target object news articles and advertisements;

means for automatically generating at least one user target profile interest summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from said target object profiles associated with said news articles and advertisements accessed by said user, such that the at least one user target profile interest summary is not generated based on input from the user;

means for determining correspondence between said at least one user target profile interest summary and said target profiles; and

means for automatically creating a customized electronic newspaper for said user by presenting said user with a customized selection, as a function of said correspondence, of said plurality of target object news articles and advertisements.

10. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 9, further comprising, means for automatically transmitting a notification to said user to identify newly received ones of said target object news articles and advertisements of interest to said user, as determined by said at least one user target profile interest summary.

11. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 10, wherein said means for automatically creating comprises:

means for presenting to said user said newly received target object news articles in a rank order listing based upon the predicted level of interest by said user to said target object news articles according to matching criteria associated with at least one user target profile interest summary.

12. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 9, wherein said means for automatically creating comprises:

means for dynamically creating a rank ordered listing on said server of said customized selection of target object news articles and advertisements in accordance with at least one of;

a predicted degree of interest of said user towards said target object news articles and advertisements, and electronic mailing lists for said user.

13. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 9 further comprising:

means for specifically identifying to said user said customized selection of target object news articles in which of said target object news articles are accessible within an online directory.

14. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper claim 9 further comprising:

means for specially identifying to said user said customized selection of target objects news articles by high lighting hyper links to said selected target object news articles.

15. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 9 further comprising:

means for enabling said user to perform an on-line search of said plurality of target object news articles via said electronic transmission media; and

means for customizing results of said on-line search based upon a predicted level of interest by said user to said target object news articles within said on-line search results.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein said correspondence is determined at least partially based on aggregate behavior of a plurality of users other than said user, said aggregate behavior indicating at least one similiar interest to said user.

17. A method for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object advertisements that are accessible via an electronic data transmission media, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections on said electronic data transmission media to a server system which provides said user with access to a plurality of bulletin boards, said method comprising the steps of:

automatically generating target object profiles for target object advertisements that are accessible by said electronic data transmission media, each of said target object profiles being generated automatically, by a computer system running a profile generation algorithm, from the contents of an associated one of said target object advertisements;

automatically generating at least one user target profile summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from said plurality of target object profiles associated with said target object advertisements accessed by said user, such that the at least one user target profile interest summary is not generated based on input from the user;

determining numerical interest values indicating degrees of correspondence between said at least one user target profile interest summary and said target object profiles; and

generating a customized selection, as a function of said numerical interest values, of said plurality of target object advertisements.

18. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 17 wherein said user is a consumer of an off-line newspaper, further comprising the step of:

delivering said selected ones of said plurality of advertisements to said user via an inserted piece of printed material in said off-line newspaper.

19. The method of providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 17, wherein said step of automatically creating comprises:

dynamically creating a rank ordered listing on said server of said customized selection of target object advertisements in accordance with at least one of;

a predicted degree of interest of said user towards said advertisements, and electronic mailing lists for said user.

20. A system for providing a user with access to selected ones of a plurality of target object advertisements that are accessible via an electronic data transmission media, where said users are connected via user terminals and data communication connections on said electronic data transmission media server system which provides said user with access to a plurality of bulletin boards, said method comprising:

means for automatically generating target object profiles for target object advertisements that are accessible by said electronic data transmission media, each of said target object profiles being generated automatically, by a computer system running a profile generation algorithm, from the contents of an associated one of said target object advertisements;

means for automatically generating at least one of said target object advertisements;

means for automatically generating at least one user target profile interest summary for a user at a user terminal, each said user target profile interest summary being generated from said plurality of target object profiles associated with said target object advertisements accessed by said user, such that the at least one user target profile interest summary is not generated based on input from the user;

means for determining numerical interest values indicating degrees of correspondence between said at least one user target profile interest summary and said target object profiles; and

means for generating a customized selection, as a function of said numerical interest values, of said plurality of target object advertisements.

21. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 20, wherein said user is a consumer of an off-line newspaper, further comprising:

means for delivering said selected ones of said plurality of advertisements to said user via an inserted piece of printed material in said off-line newspaper.

22. The system for providing a user with a customized electronic newspaper of claim 20, wherein said means for automatically creating comprises:

means for dynamically creating a rank ordered listing on said server of said customized selection of target object advertisements in accordance with a least one of;

a predicted degree of interest of said user towards said advertisements, and electronic mailing lists for said user.