System for targeting data to users on mobile devices

• US 8,635,106 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2007
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sarukkai, Ramesh R., Sundaresan, Subash, Hamilton, P. Sam, Anand, Shubhasheesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sabouri, Mazda
• Application Number:
  US11/776,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20090017805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,386 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.25, 705/14.53
• US Class Current: 705/14.53
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

A system is described for targeting data to users on mobile devices. The system may include a processor, a memory and an interface. The memory may be operatively connected to the processor and the interface and may store a request, a mobile identifier, a session identifier, a user behavior dataset and a data. The interface may be operatively connected to the memory and the processor and may communicate with the mobile device. The processor may be operatively connected to the interface and the memory and may receive a request from a user on a mobile device via the interface. The processor may extract a mobile identifier from the request and map the mobile identifier to a session identifier. The processor may use the session identifier to collect a user behavior dataset and may communicate data to the user based on the user behavior dataset via the interface.

Claims

1. A method for targeting data to users on mobile devices, comprising:

determining a mobile identifier from a first request of a user on a mobile device, wherein the mobile identifier uniquely identifies requests received from the user on the mobile device;

mapping the mobile identifier to a session identifier, upon determining the mobile identifier from the first request;

collecting a mobile user behavior dataset describing mobile behavior of the user operating the mobile device wherein at least a portion of the behavior of the user is identified by extracting the mobile identifier from each subsequent request received from the mobile device of the user and identifying the session identifier mapped thereto;

storing data of the mobile user behavior dataset in a mobile behavior data store;

collecting a user behavior dataset describing a behavior of the user on a plurality of platforms other than the mobile device;

storing data of the user behavior dataset in a web behavior data store;

identifying a user identifier of the user of the mobile device;

subsequently, merging the data of the mobile user behavior dataset and the data of the user behavior dataset to form a merged user behavior dataset;

storing the merged user behavior data set in a merged user behavior store; and

using the user identifier of the user of the mobile device, serving data to the user on the mobile device and on at least one other of the plurality of platforms based on the merged user behavior dataset;

if the user identifier of the user of the mobile device cannot be identified, serving data to the user on the mobile device based only on the mobile user dataset describing the mobile behavior of the user operating the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein serving data comprises serving data defining a mobile advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile identifier comprises a phone number of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the session identifier comprises a cookie.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile identifier comprises a string of characters.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising applying a behavior targeting mechanism to the dataset to identify the data to serve.

7. A method for serving advertisements over mobile devices, comprising:

extracting a mobile identifier from a request of a user on a mobile device, wherein the mobile identifier identifies requests received from the user through the mobile device separate from other requests received from the user;

collecting data about behavior of the mobile device and storing the collected mobile behavior data in a mobile behavior data store;

determining if a user identifier used by the user to access one or more online services may be determined, wherein the user identifier is distinct from the mobile identifier and associated with a user dataset describing a historical online behavior of the user, the user dataset being stored in a web behavior data store;

if the user identifier may be determined, linking the mobile identifier to the user dataset and the user identifier and merging mobile behavior data from the mobile behavior data store with the user dataset from the web behavior data store to form merged user behavior data stored in a user behavior store; and

serving an advertisement to the user based on the merged user behavior data stored in the user behavior data upon receiving a subsequent request comprising the mobile identifier, and

if the user identifier may not be determined, serving an advertisement to the user based only on user behavior data associated with a device dataset describing a historical online behavior of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the advertisement comprises a mobile advertisement.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the advertisement is served as a part of an SMS message.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the mobile identifier is appended to the mobile request by a mobile network operator.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein determining if a user identifier of the user may be determined comprises:

identifying a mobile phone number associated with the mobile device;

matching the mobile phone number to a phone number associated with the user identifier; and

linking the mobile identifier to the user identifier.

12. A method for serving advertisements over mobile devices, comprising:

determining a mobile identifier which identifies requests received from a user on a mobile device through a mobile network operator gateway separate from other requests received from the user;

collecting mobile behavior data about behavior of the mobile device and storing the collected mobile behavior data in a mobile behavior data store;

determining a web identifier which identifies the other requests received from the user on devices other than the mobile device, wherein the web identifier is distinct from the mobile identifier and associated with a web dataset describing previous web interactions with the user the web dataset being stored in a web behavior data store;

if the collected mobile behavior data identifies the user with the web identifier, linking the mobile identifier to the web identifier and merging mobile behavior data from the mobile behavior data store with the web dataset from the web behavior data store to form merged user behavior data stored in a user behavior store;

retrieving an advertisement based on the merged user behavior data;

if the collected mobile behavior data does not identify the user with the web identifier, retrieving an advertisement based only on the collected mobile behavior data; and

serving the retrieved advertisement to the user through the mobile network operator gateway, upon receiving a subsequent request comprising the mobile identifier.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

storing interactions with the user through the mobile network operator gateway in the merged user behavior data;

receiving a second request from the user, the second request independent of the mobile network operator gateway;

retrieving a second advertisement based on the interactions with the user through the mobile network operator gateway; and

providing the second advertisement to the user in response to the second request.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the mobile identifier is received from a mobile network operator.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the retrieved advertisement is retrieved using a behavior targeting mechanism.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

determining, based on the subsequent request, a user identifier used by the user to access one or more online services, wherein the user identifier is associated with a second dataset describing a historical behavior of the user;

linking the mobile identifier, the web identifier and the user identifier;

retrieving a second advertisement based on the historical behavior of the user; and

providing the second advertisement to the user in response to the subsequent request.

17. A system for targeting data to users on mobile devices, comprising:

a memory to store a request, a mobile identifier, a session identifier, a mobile user dataset stored in a mobile behavior store, the mobile user dataset describing user behavior of a user on a mobile device, a user behavior dataset stored in a web behavior data store, the user behavior dataset describing a behavior of a user on a plurality of platforms other than the mobile device, and a merged user behavior dataset;

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

a processor operatively connected to the memory and the interface, the processor operating in response to stored data and instructions, wherein the processor receives the request from the user on the mobile device via the interface, determines the mobile identifier from the request, wherein the mobile identifier uniquely identifies requests received from the user on the mobile device, maps the mobile identifier to the session identifier, upon determining the mobile identifier from the request, collects the mobile user behavior dataset using the session identifier and stores the mobile user behavior dataset in the mobile behavior store, the mobile user behavior dataset describing mobile behavior of the user on the mobile device, wherein at least a portion of the mobile behavior of the user is identified by extracting the mobile identifier from each subsequent request received from the mobile device of the user, and wherein the processor determines if the user is identifiable, and if the user is identifiable, the processor merges the mobile user behavior dataset and the user behavior dataset to form the merged user behavior dataset, and serves data to the user based on the merged user behavior dataset via the interface, and if the user is not identifiable, serves data to the user based only on the mobile user behavior dataset via the interface.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the processor serves data comprising a mobile advertisement.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the served data is retrieved from a data source using the user behavior dataset with a behavior targeting system.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein the session identifier comprises a cookie.

21. The system of claim 17 wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile phone.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein the interface communicates to the mobile device via a mobile network operator.