Computerized system and method for advanced advertising

• US 7,747,619 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2005
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intersections Incorporated (Aura Sub, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Anchorfree Incorporated
• Inventors: Govrilov, Dimitry, Gorodyansky, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Hosain T
• Assistant Examiner(s): HARPER, ELIYAH STONE
• Application Number:
  US11/291,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136295A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/10, 707/100, 707/7, 707/3, 709/203
• US Class Current: 707/732
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule

Abstract

The invention provides an improved algorithm for selecting paid advertisements for inclusion with search engine results or with any resource retrieved from the Internet. The algorithm collects personalized data of each user and feeds the collected personalized data into search queries of search engines, to retrieve paid advertisements. The advertisements are retrieved based not only on search keywords input by the user, but also based on personal preferences, interests and demographics of the user, as well as the location of the user and the time when the search is performed. In other words, the inventive technology enables each user to receive very targeted, localized and personalized advertising materials.

Claims

1. A client computer system directly accessed by a user, the system comprising:

a display;

a gateway operable to connect the client computer system to a server;

a local database, located on the client computer system and comprising at least preferences information of the user; and

a processing module, located on the client computer system and operable to;

i. obtain at least preferences information of the user by monitoring online activities of the user, wherein the preferences information of the user is based on a history of the online activities of the user on the Internet;

ii. store the obtained preferences information of the user in the database;

iii. receive a query from the user, the query identifying target information requested by the user;

iv. after receiving the query, cause at least a portion of the received query to be transmitted to the server;

v. receive information from the server, the received information being in response to the at least a portion of the query transmitted to the server;

the received information comprising the target information requested by the user;

vi. display to the user the target information requested by the user;

vii. process the information received from the server;

viii. determine likely preferences of the user based on contents of the database and the information received from the server in response to the at least a portion of the query transmitted to the server;

ix. filter the information received from the server based on the likely preferences of the user; and

x. cause the filtered information to be displayed to the user on the display,

wherein the preferences information of the user is not accessible to any other entity except for the client computer system;

wherein the server comprises a search engine, wherein the query is a search engine query and wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results,

wherein the processing module is further operable to select at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based on the determined likely preferences of the user, wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system.

2. The client computer system of claim 1, wherein the information received from the server comprises a plurality of advertisements and wherein the processing module is further operable to retrieve the plurality of advertisements from the server and to select at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based on the determined likely preferences of the user, wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system.

3. The client computer system of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further operable to append the location information indicative of a current location of the user to the query and wherein the query transmitted to the server is the appended query.

4. The client computer system of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further operable to append local time information to the query to the server.

5. The client computer system of claim 1, wherein the database further comprises user identity and demographic information and wherein the processing module is further operable to obtain the user identity and demographic information and store the obtained user identity and demographic information in the database.

6. The client computer system of claim 1, wherein displaying the filtered information to the user comprises displaying the selected at least one advertisement to the user.

7. The client computer system of claim 1, wherein the query is a uniform resource locator of an Internet content and wherein the information received from the server comprises a plurality of advertisements related to the Internet content.

8. A client computer system directly accessed by a user, the system comprising:

a display;

a gateway operable to connect the client computer system to a server;

a local database, located on the client computer system and comprising at least preferences information of the user; and

a processing module, located on the client computer system and operable to;

i. obtain at least preferences information of the user by monitoring online activities of the user, wherein the preferences information of the user is based on a history of the online activities of the user;

ii. store the obtained preferences information of the user in the database;

iii. process information received from the server after the user submits a query;

iv. determine likely preferences of the user based on contents of the database and the information received from the server;

v. provide to the server decision information based, at least in part, on the determined likely preferences of the user and, in response, receive from the server targeted information based on the provided decision information; and

vi. display the targeted information to the user on the display

wherein the preferences information of the user is not accessible to any other entity except for the client computer system;

wherein the server comprises a search engine, wherein the query is a search engine query and wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results,

wherein the processing module is further operable to select at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based on the determined likely preferences of the user, wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system.

9. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein the decision information comprises a hint.

10. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein the decision information comprises information on a portion of the information received from the server selected by the processing module based, at least in part, on relevance to the determined likely preferences of the user.

11. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein the information received from the server comprises advertisements, commercials, video or music.

12. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein displaying the targeted information to the user comprises displaying the at least one advertisement and the search results to the user.

13. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein the query is a uniform resource locator of an Internet content and wherein the targeted information received from the server comprises at least one advertisement related to the Internet content and the likely preferences of the user.

27. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein the processing module is further operable to:

receive a query from the user, the query identifying target information requested by the user;

after receiving the query, cause at least a portion of the received query to be transmitted to the server;

receive the information from the server, the received information being in response to the at least a portion of the query transmitted to the server;

the received information comprising the target information requested by the user; and

cause the target information requested by the user to be displayed to the user.

28. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein the server decision information is based on the determined likely preferences of the user.

29. The client computer system of claim 8, wherein determining the likely preferences of the user comprises matching the contents of the database and the information received from the server and, if a match is found, using the match as indication of the likely preferences of the user and wherein the decision information provided to the server is based on the found match.

14. A method performed on a client computer system directly accessed by a user, the method comprising:

i. obtaining at least preferences information of the user by monitoring online activities of the user, wherein the preferences information of the user is based on a history of the online activities of the user;

ii. locally storing at least the obtained preferences information of the user in a local database located on the client computer system;

iii. receiving a query from the user, the query identifying target information requested by the user;

iv. after receiving the query, causing at least a portion of the received query to be transmitted to the server;

v. receiving information from the server, the received information being in response to the at least a portion of the query transmitted to the server;

the received information comprising the target information requested by the user;

vi. displaying to the user the target information requested by the user;

vii. processing the information received from the server;

viii. determining, on the client computer system, likely preferences of the user based on contents of the database located on the client computer system and the information received from the server;

ix. filtering, on the client computer system, the information received from the server based on the determined likely preferences of the user the filtering comprising selecting at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based at least on the determined likely preferences of the user; and

x. displaying the selected at least one advertisement to the user on a display device of the client computer system,

wherein the preferences information of the user is not accessible to any other entity except for the client computer system;

wherein the server comprises a search engine, wherein the query is a search engine query and wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results; and

wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the information received from the server comprises a plurality of advertisements and wherein the method further comprises retrieving the plurality of advertisements from the server and selecting at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based on the determined likely preferences of the user, wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein location information indicative of a current location of the user is appended to the query to the server.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein local time information is appended to the query to the server.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the database further comprises user identity and demographic information of the user.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein displaying the filtered information to the user comprises displaying the selected at least one advertisement to the user.

20. A client computer system directly accessed by a user, the system comprising:

a display;

a gateway operable to connect the client computer system to a server, the server comprising a search engine;

a database, located on the client computer system comprising at least preferences information of the user; and

a processing module, located on the client computer system and operable to;

i. obtain at least the preferences information of the user by monitoring online activities of the user, wherein the preferences information of the user is based on a history of the online activities of the user on the Internet;

ii. store at least the obtained preferences information of the user in the database;

iii. receive a query from the user, the query identifying target information requested by the user;

iv. after receiving the query, cause at least a portion of the received query to be transmitted to the server;

v. receive information from the server, the received information being in response to the at least a portion of the query transmitted to the server;

the received information comprising the target information requested by the user;

vi. cause the target information requested by the user to be displayed to the user;

vii. process the information received from the server, wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results;

viii. determine likely preferences of the user based, at least, on contents of the database, wherein the determining is performed on the client computer system;

ix. select at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based on the determined likely preferences of the user, wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system; and

x. cause the selected at least one advertisement to be displayed to the user on the display,

wherein the preferences information of the user is not accessible to any other entity except for the client computer system;

wherein the server comprises a search engine, wherein the query is a search engine query and wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results.

21. The client computer system of claim 20, wherein the processing module is further operable to append the location information indicative of a current location of the user to the query.

22. The client computer system of claim 20, wherein the processing module is further operable to append local time information to the query to the server.

23. A method performed on a client computer system directly accessed by a user, the method comprising:

i. obtaining at least preferences information of the user by monitoring online activities of the user, wherein the preferences information of the user is based on a history of the online activities of the user;

ii. locally storing at least the obtained preferences information of the user in a local database located on the client computer system;

iii. processing information received from the server after the user submits a query, wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results;

iv. determining likely preferences of the user based, at least, on contents of the local database, wherein the determining is performed on the client computer system;

v. selecting at least one of the plurality of advertisements for displaying to the user based on the determined likely preferences of the user, wherein the selection is performed on the client computer system; and

vi. displaying the selected at least one advertisement to the user on a display device of the client computer system,

wherein the preferences information of the user is not accessible to any other entity except for the client computer system;

wherein the server comprises a search engine, wherein the query is a search engine query and wherein the information received from the server comprises search results responsive to the query submitted by the user and a plurality of advertisements related to the search results.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising appending the location information indicative of a current location of the user to the query, wherein the query transmitted to the server is the appended query.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising appending local time information to the query to the server.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving a query from the user, the query identifying target information requested by the user;

after receiving the query, causing at least a portion of the received query to be transmitted to the server;

receiving information from the server, the received information being in response to the at least a portion of the query transmitted to the server;

the received information comprising the target information requested by the user; and

displaying to the user the target information requested by the user.

30. The client computer system of claim 23, wherein determining the likely preferences of the user comprises matching the contents of the database and the information received from the server and, if a match is found, using the match as indication of the likely preferences of the user and wherein the at least one of the plurality of advertisements is selected for displaying based on the found match.