System for separating mobile search traffic from web search traffic using keyword separation

• US 7,917,392 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Arvind, Brayshaw, Ian B., Umezu, Kenta, Walker, Sean P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Myhre; James W
• Application Number:
  US11/830,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20070266014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,338 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.64, 705/14.73
• US Class Current: 705/14.73
• 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 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages

Abstract

A system is described for separating mobile search traffic from web search traffic. The system may include a processor, a memory and an interface. The memory may store a keyword, mobile data related to the keyword, web data related to the keyword, and a search request. The interface may communicate with a user. The processor may be operatively connected to the interface and the memory and may store the mobile data and web data in the memory. The processor may receive a search request from a user via the interface and may determine if the search request is mobile traffic or web traffic. The processor may then retrieve and serve the mobile data to the user if the search request is mobile traffic, or may retrieve and serve the web data to the user if the search request is web traffic.

Claims

1. A method for separating mobile search traffic from web search traffic using keyword separation, comprising:

storing a mobile data relating to a keyword wherein the mobile data is formatted for display on a mobile device;

storing a web data relating to the keyword wherein the web data is formatted for display on a web page;

receiving a search request for the keyword from a user;

determining, by a processor, if the search request comprises a mobile traffic or a web traffic;

appending a prefix and a separator to the keyword, wherein the prefix is indicative of whether the search request comprises the mobile traffic or the web traffic, and the separator distinguishes the prefix from the keyword;

retrieving the mobile data and serving the mobile data to the user if the prefix indicates that the search request comprises the mobile traffic; and

retrieving the web data and serving the web data to the user if the prefix indicates that the search request comprises the web traffic.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the web data comprises at least one advertisement related to the keyword.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile data comprises at least one mobile advertisement related to the keyword.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining, if the search request comprises the mobile traffic, whether the mobile traffic originated on a mobile network of the plurality of mobile networks.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the prefix is further indicative of whether the search request comprises the mobile traffic originating on the mobile network of the plurality of mobile networks, and retrieving the mobile data and serving the mobile data to the user if the prefix indicates that the search request comprises the mobile traffic further comprises retrieving the mobile data and serving the mobile data to the user if the prefix indicates that the search request comprises the mobile traffic originating on the mobile network of the plurality of mobile networks.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the formatting of the mobile data is based a technology supported by the mobile phone.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the search request is received via an SMS search service.

8. A method for separating web traffic from mobile traffic comprising:

receiving a network traffic containing a keyword from a user;

determining, by a processor, a traffic type of the network traffic, wherein the traffic type comprises at least one of a mobile traffic type and a web traffic type, wherein the mobile traffic type represents a mobile traffic and the web traffic type represents a web traffic,

appending a prefix and a separator to the keyword, wherein the prefix is indicative of whether the network traffic comprises the mobile traffic or the web traffic, and the separator distinguishes the prefix from the keyword;

communicating the traffic type of the network traffic and the network traffic to a data serving system;

retrieving a data, by the data serving system, based on the communicated traffic type and network traffic; and

serving the data to the user.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the network traffic comprises a search request for the keyword.

10. The method as in claim 9 wherein the separator comprises “

vxv”

.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the data serving system comprises an advertisement serving system.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the advertisement serving system retrieves at least one mobile advertisement relating to the keyword if the traffic type comprises the mobile traffic type, wherein the mobile advertisement is formatted for display on a mobile device.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile phone.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the advertisement serving system retrieves at least one web advertisement relating to the keyword if the traffic type comprises the web traffic type, wherein the web advertisement is formatted for display on a web page.

15. A system for separating mobile search traffic from web search traffic using keyword separation, comprising:

a memory to store a keyword, a mobile data relating to the keyword, wherein the mobile data is formatted for display on a mobile device, a web data relating to the keyword, wherein the web data is formatted for display on a web page, and a search request containing the keyword;

an interface operatively connected to the memory to communicate with a user; and

a processor operatively connected to the memory and the interface, the processor for running instructions, wherein the processor stores the mobile data in the memory, stores the web data in the memory, receives the search request from a user via the interface, determines if the search request comprises a mobile traffic or a web traffic, appends a prefix and a separator to the keyword in the search request, wherein the prefix is indicative of whether the search request comprises the mobile traffic or the web traffic, and the separator distinguishes the prefix from the keyword, retrieves and serves the mobile data to the user, via the interface, if the search request comprises mobile traffic and retrieves and serves the web data to the user if the search request comprises web traffic.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the web data comprises at least one advertisement related to the keyword.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the mobile data comprises at least one mobile advertisement related to the keyword.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile phone.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the formatting of the mobile data is based a technology supported by the mobile phone.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the interface communicates to the mobile device via a mobile carrier.