Patent Application
20120239511
This invention relates to automatically forming graphical advertisements.
Techniques for manually providing graphical advertisements are known. Such techniques typically involve generating a suitable advertisement, populating it with relevant information, and displaying it for an end user to view. Such techniques suffer from a lack of automation, which presents substantial burdens on advertisement developers' resources.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of forming graphical advertisements is presented. The method includes receiving a document, the document being of a first size. A graphical advertisement is formed using the document, the graphical advertisement being of a second size. A link associated with at least a portion of the graphical advertisement is included.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a system for generating a graphical advertisement is presented. The system includes a connection to a network and a network server configured to accept a document, a first link, and a second link. The system also includes a computer operatively coupled to the connection. The computer is configured to receive the document, the first link, and the second link, to form a graphical advertisement based on the document, the first link, and the second link, and to produce the graphical advertisement. The first link directs a user to vendor information upon activation and the second link allows a user to provide feedback.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of forming a graphical advertisement is presented. The method includes receiving a document, receiving a first link, a second link, and a third link, and forming a graphical advertisement based on the document. The method further includes including the first link on the document, where a user activating the first link directs the user's navigation application in accordance with the second link. A user activating the third link allows the user to provide feedback. The method further includes producing the graphical advertisement to be displayed to a user.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of forming graphical documents is presented. The method includes receiving a first document and forming a graphical document using the first document. At least one link is included on a designated portion of the graphical document. The graphical document is produced to be displayed to at least one end user, where the act of producing includes one or both of displaying the graphical document and transferring the graphical document to an entity for display of the graphical advertisement.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of forming a graphical advertisement is presented. The method includes providing a document, providing a text string, and providing a link. A graphical advertisement is received, the graphical advertisement being based on the document, the first link, and the text string. The graphical advertisement is approved. Activating the text string directs an end user's viewing application in accordance with the link.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles and advantages of the invention.
The present invention is further described in the detailed description which follows, in reference to the noted plurality of drawings by way of non-limiting examples of certain embodiments of the present invention, in which like numerals represent like elements throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:
At block 120, one or more of a display link and/or a destination link may be received from the advertiser or other party interacting with the process. The display link may be a text string that represents a uniform resource locator (“URL”), or any other identifier of a resource on a network. As described further below in reference to
At block 130, the size of the document may be adjusted, if necessary, to meet preferred dimensions. This adjustment process may involve transforming the document into an appropriate electronic format, such as bitmap, graphics interchange format (“GIF”), joint photographic expert's group (“JPEG”) format, or portable network graphics (“PNG”) format. Such transformation maybe used when, for example, the document arrives as a drawing on tangible paper. Once the document is in electronic form, its size may be adjusted. The size adjustment may be accomplished by a variety of techniques. By way of non-limiting example, the document may simply be cropped by removing portions of the document to reduce its overall size or change its proportions. Alternately, or in addition, the document may be scaled or compressed. Scaling or compression may be accomplished by duplicating or removing pixels, with or without interpolation. Scaling may also be used to change the document's proportion by scaling along an axis. Scaling thus allows for the possibility of both increasing and decreasing the size of the graphical advertisement in one or more dimensions. Such scaling or compression may be accomplished by using a software package or language, such as PHOTOSHOP or JAVA.
Many factors govern the particular size of the final graphical advertisement. Among these factors are industry standards, advertiser or seller preferences, and agreements, such as partnering agreements, with the entity that is to display the graphical advertisement. By way of non-limiting example, the size of the final graphical advertisement may be rectangular with dimensions measured in terms of pixels. Such dimensions may include, again by way of non-limiting example: 468×60 (a typical banner advertisement, see
At block 140, a swatch may be added to the graphical advertisement. Such a swatch may comprise a portion of the graphical advertisement that is set off from the rest of the image. Also, such a swatch may be sized so as to be capable of containing the display link conveyed at block 120 and a feedback link, described further below in reference to
At block 170, the color and font of the swatch and links appearing therein may be adjusted so as to promote readability by an end user. Various techniques exist and are appropriate for choosing the colors of the swatch and font. By way of non-limiting example, such techniques include: rescaling the pixel intensity to improve contrast, employing PHOTOSHOP tools, and accounting for various psycho-optical considerations. By way of non-limiting example, such psycho-optical considerations include: accounting for the color differentiation ability of the human eye as a function of brightness, accounting for the human eye's ability to better distinguish brightness than color, accounting for pixel granularity compared with vision granularity, and accounting for the fatiguing effect of various color combinations. By way of non-limiting example, these considerations may lead to adjusting font and background color in order to ensure that they differ in both brightness and color to achieve a 180 degree differential, in one illustrative embodiment.
At block 180, a completed graphical advertisement may be produced. The producing process may be direct. For example, the process may immediately post the graphical advertisement in a forum where one or more end users can view it. Such posting may be automated and/or guided by advertiser preferences. The server may act as a graphical advertisement provider consistent with this example. Alternately, or in addition, the delivery process may be indirect. Such an indirect delivery may involve a human component, such as a judgment as to the appropriateness of posting the graphical advertisement in a particular forum. One system and method for judging appropriateness of the graphic advertisement may include that described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 64557.000024), entitled “System and Method for Rating Documents Comprising an Image,” filed May 10, 2004, the subject matter of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The completed graphical advertisement may be presented to the advertiser or seller for approval before posting. The completed graphical advertisement may undergo a financial vetting process, whereby it is subjected to market consideration in order to choose a posting forum. By way of non-limiting example, producing block 180 may include submitting the competed graphical advertisement to an auction where its placement is determined by one or more bidding prices. Or the producing may simply involve making the completed graphical advertisement available to an interested party such as the seller, advertiser, or provider. The third party may receive the graphical advertisement by way of, e.g., by email or by posting on a password-secured web site, and may subsequently post the graphical advertisement in a forum where it may be viewed by an end user.
The graphical advertisements produced according to the techniques disclosed herein may be made available to end users in variety of forums. By way of non-limiting example, graphical advertisements produced using the techniques described herein may be utilized with the targeted systems and methods described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/742,791 (Attorney Docket No. 64557.000011) filed Dec. 23, 2003, entitled “Method and System for Providing Targeted Graphical Advertisements,” the subject matter of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Thus, a decision as to whether to include a graphical advertisement in a particular forum may be based on whether the products or services advertised by the graphical advertisement are appropriate for the forum. Such a decision may be based on the content of the forum, which may be, for example, a web page. Alternately, or in addition, a graphical advertisement may be displayed on a search-results page or in response to a query. Such a placement may take into account key words and/or pricing parameters.
The graphical advertisement creation interface of
The graphical advertisement creation interface of
Server 350 may include modules for forming a finalized graphical advertisement. Thus, server 350 includes size adjustment module 330. Size adjustment module 330 provides, by way of non-limiting example, the functionality described above in reference to block 130 of
Server 350 may be operatively connected to a variety of entities. Advertiser systems 315 and 317 may be coupled to and interact with server 310 through, by way of non-limiting example, the internet. Advertisers are thus able to convey documents (through e.g., document reception module 320), display links (through e.g., display link reception module 325), and destination links (through e.g., destination link reception module 345) to server 350. Again by way of non-limiting example, advertisers may interact with server 350 through the graphical advertisement creation interface of
As used herein, the term “module” may connote either, or a combination, of hardware or software. The software portion may be a particular portion of executable code, such as an object in an object oriented programming language. The hardware portion may include one or both of processing hardware, such as a central processing unit (“CPU”), and storage hardware, such as random access memory (“RAM”) or read only memory (“ROM”).
An end user may view and interact with graphical advertisement 400 as described presently. An end user may encounter graphical advertisement 400 on, by way of non-limiting example, a web page accessible on the internet or an intranet. The end user will generally first view document portion 410, which is typically designed to attract a potential viewer's attention. The end user will generally next notice swatch potion 420, which stands off from document portion 410 and typically bears a different color or pattern compared with document portion 410. Upon further inspection, the end user will generally notice display link 430 and feedback link 440.
Display link 430 is generally chosen to provide a clear indication of the resource to which an end user will likely be directed upon its activation. Display link 430 may be readable when set against swatch portion 420. Display link 430 may typically illustrate a simple and readable domain name URL. Display link 430 may be formed to resemble a portion of a URL (e.g., omitting the “http://” portion where the resource is accessible by hypertext transfer protocol (“http”)). Display link 430 may be comprised of a common word, or words or phrases concatenated together. Display link 430 may be selected to convey to the end user some amount of confidence that the user's viewer will not be directed to a resource involving pop-up windows, the inability to backtrack, exit windows, or other unpleasant and unintended effects. Thus, display link 430 may provide a simple, clear indication of a simple, clear consequence of its activation.
The end user may choose to activate display link 430. Typically, such activation occurs by the end user “clicking on” display link 430 with a mouse. Other methods of user selection are also possible. The resource to which an end user's viewer is directed upon activation of display link 430 may be identified by a different link. In particular, the resource actually called by activating display link 430 may be identified by a destination link conveyed by an advertiser at block 120 of
The end user may also activate feedback link 440. Feedback link 440 allows end users and others to comment on any aspect of the finalized graphical advertisement such as its placement, content, or operation. More specifically, feedback link 440 calls up, by way of non-limiting example, a web page where the user may provide feedback, a properly-addressed email using the user's native email application, or a dedicated feedback email web page. The end users' comments may be conveyed to a party that is responsible for the production or placement of the graphical advertisement, such as the producer or provider. Feedback link 440 may identify the party that reviews the comments. Feedback link 440 may identify the entity that generated graphical advertisement 400 from advertiser-supplied information, e.g., as illustrated by
Feedback link 440 may allow the vendor associated with graphical advertisement 400 to share in the good will enjoyed by the entity identified by the feedback link. End users are generally more willing to take a chance with an unfamiliar vendor if that vendor is endorsed by or associated with a known entity. Thus, users that are unfamiliar with the goods or services associated with graphical advertisement 400 or leery of the entity that sells such goods or services may nevertheless activate display link 430 based upon the good will associated with the entity identified by feedback link 440 (e.g., the entity that produces or displays the graphical advertisement).
Each of server 750, providers 720, 723, 725, and advertisers 703, 705, and 707 may comprise computerized systems that include one or more of the following systems: a web server, a database server, proxy server, network balancing mechanisms and systems, and various software components that enable the system to operate on the interne or other network-type systems. Additionally, networks 710, 713, 715, and 717, may comprise networks such as private lines, intranets, http networks, virtual private networks (“VPN”), the interne, connection-based networks such as a SNA network, or any other network. In an exemplary embodiment, the connection between an advertiser 703, 705, or 707 and server 750 (and other connections such as between a providers 720, 723, and 725 and server 750) may comprise secure network connections to insure that data is not subject to attack or corruption by any hacker or other third party. In addition, whereas three advertisers 703, 705, and 707 are depicted, it should be appreciated that one or more advertisers 703, 705, and 707 may be provided in the network. Similarly, although two databases 755, 757 are depicted, it should be appreciated that one or more databases may be provided and that such databases may be connected to the server 750 via any type of network connection, including a distributed database server architecture.
Similarly, providers 720, 723, and 725 may comprise any number of such systems connected to server 750 via any type of network, including but not limited to an http, https, or VPN network. Providers 720, 723, and 725 may comprise systems such as server 750 that provides functionality for enabling connection over the interne or other network. End users 760, 765, 770, and 775 may comprise any user (such as users connected to the internet) and may comprise computerized systems that enable that connection through any of various types of networks, including through interne service providers, cable companies, and any other method of accessing data on the interne. Providers 720, 723, and 725 may comprise any system that distributes content such as advertising to end-users 760, 765, 770, and 775.
In an embodiment of the present invention, an advertiser provides a document to be used to create a graphical advertisement by supplying a link instead of or in addition to uploading a document. Referring to
According to an embodiment of the present invention, foreign languages are accommodated. This may occur at several junctures. An advertiser may chose the language of the user interface, such as that depicted in
In an embodiment of the present invention, the advertiser may be prompted to select one or more languages that the final graphical advertisement will employ. This selection process may occur via a user interface such as that depicted in
While the foregoing description includes details and specificities, it should be understood that such details and specificities have been included for the purposes of explanation only, and are not to be interpreted as limitations of the present invention. Many modifications to the embodiments described above can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as it is intended to be encompassed by the attached claims and their legal equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10841827 | May 2004 | US |
| Child | 13483029 | US |
