On-page manipulation and real-time replacement of content

• US 8,914,736 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2012
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acoustic, L.P.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cardasco, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Doon
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, TAM T
• Application Number:
  US13/401,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20120151329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234, 715/760, 715/744
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A request to render a control content is intercepted by a client application as it is being served from a content source. Based on predetermined criteria, the control content is replaced with replacement content. The replacement content may be an alternative version of the control content differing from the control content in one or more alternative elements. The replacement content may be created with a graphical interface that overlays the control content. The graphical interface allows a user to select elements of the control content, edit the selected elements of the control content, and save the edited elements as part of the replacement content.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a content management (CM) agent in a web page served from a web application operating from a website on a storage system;

intercepting, by the CM agent, a request to render original content in the web page by a client application operating on the computing device;

detecting, by the CM agent, the original content as the web page is being served from the web application;

shutting off, by the CM agent, a visual display of the web page;

sending, by the CM agent, a notification to a content server identifying the web page;

receiving, by the CM agent, replacement content from the content server, wherein the replacement content comprises an alternative version of an element in the original content in the web page and predetermined criteria associated the alternative version of the element;

dynamically replacing, by the CM agent, the original content in the web page with the replacement content based on the predetermined criteria;

turning on, by the CM agent, the visual display of the web page after replacing the original content with the replacement content; and

rendering, by the computing device, the replacement content with the web page via the client application, wherein a variant manager operating independently and remotely from the client application and the web application generates the alternative version of the element and the predetermined criteria based on the original content in the web page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacement content is created by the variant manager using a graphical interface overlaying the original content in the web page, wherein the graphical interface is configured to:

download the web page from the web application prior to the web application serving the web page to the client application operating on the computing device;

directly select the element in the original content in the web page;

create the alternative version of the element;

generate the predetermined criteria and associate the predetermined criteria with the alternative version of the element; and

save the predetermined criteria and the alternative version of the element as part of the replacement content on the content server.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the replacement content is created within a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) editor, image editor, or media editor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the computing device, use statistics using the original content and the replacement content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computing device, various versions of the replacement content from the content server based on the predetermined criteria and a user of the computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computing device, various versions of the replacement content from the content server based on the predetermined criteria and a geographical location of a user of the computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computing device, various versions of the replacement content based on the predetermined criteria and gender, income, or interests of a user of the computing device.

8. A system, comprising:

logic circuitry configured to;

download a first copy of a web page from a web application operating on a storage system;

create replacement content for original content in the first copy of the web page, wherein the replacement content differs from the original content in one or more alternative elements;

generate predetermined criteria that determines when the replacement content should replace the original content;

store the replacement content and the predetermined criteria on a content server that operates independently of the storage system;

receive a notification and parameters from a user device, wherein the user device has downloaded a second copy of the web page from the web application and the second copy of the web page contains a content management (CM) agent configured to send the notification and parameters;

send the replacement content to the CM agent based on a comparison of the parameters with the predetermined criteria, wherein the replacement content is configured to dynamically replace original content in the second copy of the web page, and wherein the logic circuitry is further configured to;

download the first copy of the web page from the web application prior to the web application serving the second copy of the web page to the user device,

select an element in the first copy of the web page,

create an alternative version of the element for replacing the element in the first copy of the web page,

associate the predetermined criteria with the alternative version of the element, and

save the predetermined criteria and the alternative version of the element as part of the replacement content.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the logic circuitry is further configured to overlay a graphical interface over the original content in the first copy of the web page, wherein the graphical interface is configured to create and save the alternative version of the element as the replacement content.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the predetermined criteria determines how the replacement content is distributed to users.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the logic circuitry is configured to distribute various versions of the replacement content based on geographical location of the users.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the logic circuitry is configured to enable distribution of various versions of the replacement content based on gender, income, or interests of users.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the CM agent is further configured to render statistics related to use of the original content and use of the replacement content.

14. A non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a content server, perform the following operations:

receiving, by the content server, different versions of web page content from a variant manager;

receiving, by the content server, predetermined criteria from the variant manager, wherein the predetermined criteria determines which of the different versions of the web page content to replace a first version of the web page content;

storing, by the content server, the different versions of the web page content;

receiving, by the content server, a notification from a content management (CM) agent operating on a client device, wherein the client device is located remotely from the content server and the notification identifies a web page containing the first version of the web page content;

based on the predetermined criteria, identifying a second version of the web page content from the different versions of the web page content stored on the content server; and

sending, by the content server, the second version of the web page content to the CM agent for replacing the first version of the web page content in the web page, wherein the variant manager is configured to;

download the first version of the web page content from a web application prior to the web application serving the first version of the web page content to the client device,

select an element in the first version of the web page content,

create an alternative version of the element in the first version of the web page content,

associate the predetermined criteria with the alternative version of the element, and

save the predetermined criteria and the alternative version of the element as part of the second version of the web page content.

15. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14 wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving use data from the client device related to the first version and the second version of the web page content; and

sending the different versions of the web page content to other client devices based on the use data.

16. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving user parameters with the notification;

comparing the user parameters with the predetermined criteria; and

selecting the second version for the web page content from the different versions of the web page content based on the comparing of the user parameters with the predetermined criteria.