System and method for augmenting content in electronic documents with links to contextually relevant information

• US 8,055,642 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2009
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quotient Technology Inc.
• Original Assignee: Quotient Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Walsh, Michael, Boal, Steven R
• Primary Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US12/638,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20100094873A1
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• Field of Search: 707/713, 707/726, 707/728, 707/706, 707/708, 707/727, 707/729, 707/755, 707/769, 707/770, 707/771, 705/14, 705/14.4
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• 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 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

An electronic document and associated system, methods and apparatus is described. The electronic document is loaded in a user device configured to communicate with an external device that generates instructions for augmenting content contained in the electronic document with links to contextually relevant information. The content can be augmented with one or more user interface elements, and the augmented content can be displayed with one or more attributes which can be selected by a document author. The document author can mark or otherwise designate one or more portions of the electronic document to be excluded from the augmenting process.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a first set of instructions configured to cause a client device to;

parse a displayed portion of content, locate a set of terms in the displayed portion of content, based on the parsing; and

,

in response to locating the set of terms, send the set of terms to a server;

receiving, at the server, from the client device, a first request comprising the set of terms;

based on the set of terms, the server identifying one or more coupon offers;

in response to the first request, the server sending to the client device a second set of instructions configured to cause the client device to;

display, in association with a particular term in the displayed portion of content, an interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and a control for selecting a particular coupon offer of the one or more coupon offers; and

,

upon a user selecting the control, send information identifying the particular coupon offer to a coupon distribution server;

wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause display of a plurality of interfaces, each interface of the plurality of interfaces configured to appear in association with a different term of the set of terms, and each interface of the plurality of interfaces comprising information about at least one coupon offer, of the one or more coupon offers, that was identified by the server based on the different term in association with which the interface is configured to appear;

receiving, at the coupon distribution server, from the client device, a second request identifying the particular coupon offer;

in response to the second request, the coupon distribution server providing the user with a coupon corresponding to the particular coupon offer;

wherein at least the steps of identifying one or more coupon offers and providing the coupon are performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the first set of instructions comprises sending the first set of instructions to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a browser that executes the first set of instructions and the second set of instructions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed portion of content is a portion of a web page delimited by a predefined tag.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the coupon comprises providing a printable copy of the coupon.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the first request, the coupon distribution server identifying a plurality of coupon offers based on the set of terms;

the coupon distribution server returning a presentation of information about the plurality of coupon offers, the presentation being prioritized based on the number of times coupons have previously printed or redeemed coupons for each coupon offer in the plurality of coupon offers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause displaying the interface in association with a particular term of the set of terms for which the particular coupon offer was selected.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause modifying the particular term to include a link configured to cause display of the interface as a pop-up interface upon selection of the link.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more coupon offers comprises querying a database of coupon offers from a plurality of manufacturers based on one or more keywords, wherein the one or more keywords are either the set of terms, or identified based on the set of terms.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of instructions is configured to cause each interface of the plurality of interfaces to appear in association with a different term of the set of terms upon selection of the different term at the client device.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of:

providing a first set of instructions configured to cause a client device to;

parse a displayed portion of content, locate a set of terms in the displayed portion of content, based on the parsing; and

,

in response to locating the set of terms, send the set of terms to a server;

receiving, at the server, from the client device, a first request comprising the set of terms;

based on the set of terms, the server identifying one or more coupon offers;

in response to the first request, the server sending to the client device a second set of instructions configured to cause the client device to;

display, in association with a particular term in the displayed portion of content, an interface comprising information about the one or more coupon offers and a control for selecting a particular coupon offer of the one or more coupon offers; and

,

upon a user selecting the control, send information identifying the particular coupon offer to a coupon distribution server;

wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause display of a plurality of interfaces, each interface of the plurality of interfaces configured to appear in association with a different term of the set of terms, and each interface of the plurality of interfaces comprising information about at least one coupon offer, of the one or more coupon offers, that was identified by the server based on the different term in association with which the interface is configured to appear;

receiving, at the coupon distribution server, from the client device, a second request identifying the particular coupon offer;

in response to the second request, the coupon distribution server providing the user with a coupon corresponding to the particular coupon offer.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein providing the first set of instructions comprises sending the first set of instructions to the client device.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the client device comprises a browser that executes the first set of instructions and the second set of instructions.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the displayed portion of content is a portion of a web page delimited by a predefined tag.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein providing the coupon comprises providing a printable copy of the coupon.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further cause performance of:

in response to the first request, the coupon distribution server identifying a plurality of coupon offers based on the set of terms;

the coupon distribution server returning a presentation of information about the plurality of coupon offers, the presentation being prioritized based on the number of times coupons have previously printed or redeemed coupons for each coupon offer in the plurality of coupon offers.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause displaying the interface in association with a particular term of the set of terms for which the particular coupon offer was selected.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the second set of instructions is further configured to cause modifying the particular term to include a link configured to cause display of the interface as a pop-up interface upon selection of the link.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein identifying the one or more coupon offers comprises querying a database of coupon offers from a plurality of manufacturers based on one or more keywords, wherein the one or more keywords are either the set of terms, or identified based on the set of terms.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the second set of instructions is configured to cause each interface of the plurality of interfaces to appear in association with a different term of the set of terms upon selection of the different term at the client device.