Patent Application
20090248484
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
Advertisers have no way of customizing ads once they are created for delivery to a web page. In many instances, advertisers submit ads for their products to an ad service such as Microsoft adCenter by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. These ads are created in advance and cannot be changed.
The problem with a pre-defined ad is that it may be shown on a web page that is hostile or negative to the advertiser. For example, an advertiser for a travel company may pay monies to have its ad shown on a travel website. However, other advertisers may pay monies as well vying for the same advertising space. The ad service takes into account several factors for delivering the advertiser's ad to the travel website for rendering. In addition to the monies paid, the ad service may consider the probability of the ad being selected for viewing, the relevance of the keywords submitted by the advertiser to the travel website, and the monetary value of the keyword. Once the ad service makes a selection of which advertiser's ad to display at the travel website, the ad is selected and appropriately shown. Unfortunately, no information is taken from the website to determine if the ad is really a proper fit for the website. For example, the travel website could contain travel reviews that disparage the travel company. It would be most unfortunate to render an ad from the travel company on the travel website that contains disparaging comments about the travel company. It would be beneficial to know some information about the travel website and allow an ad to be customized according to features of the website.
The present invention is defined by the claims below. Embodiments of the present invention solve at least the above problems by providing media and system for tailoring advertisements to a web page at a time of delivery, for determining how an ad is to appear in a web page, and for determining an ad for display in a web page.
Advertisements can be created and customized at a time of delivery to a web page. A person's sentiment towards an aspect or a feature of product can automatically be detected from written information in the web page. This information can come from blogs or review websites. The sentiment can be detected as being positive, negative, or neutral, and can be detected as a whole on the entire web page or detected as blocks of information within the web page. From the sentiment, an ad can be created from the written information in the web page. The ad is then rendered within the web page to be shown to a user that has accessed the web page over a communication connection.
Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which are incorporated by reference herein and wherein:
Embodiments of the present invention provide media and system for tailoring advertisements to a web page at a time of delivery, for determining how an ad is to appear in a web page, and for determining an ad for display in a web page.
Many different arrangements of the various components depicted, as well as components not shown, are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Embodiments of the present invention will be described with the intent to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art. A skilled artisan may develop alternative means of implementing improvements without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Throughout the description of the present invention, several acronyms and shorthand notations are used to aid the understanding of certain concepts pertaining to the associated system and services. These acronyms and shorthand notations are solely intended for the purpose of providing an easy methodology of communicating the ideas expressed herein and are in no way meant to limit the scope of the present invention. The following is a list of these acronyms:
Further, various technical terms are used throughout this description. A definition of such terms can be found in Newton's Telecom Dictionary by H. Newton, 23 Edition (2007). These definitions are intended to provide a clearer understanding of the ideas disclosed herein but are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The definitions and terms should be interpreted broadly and liberally to the extent allowed the meaning of the words offered in the above-cited reference.
As one skilled in the art will appreciate, embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as, among other things: a method, system, or computer-program product. Accordingly, the embodiments may take the form of a hardware embodiment, a software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. In one embodiment, the present invention takes the form of a computer-program product that includes computer-useable instructions embodied on one or more computer-readable media.
Computer-readable media include both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and nonremovable media, and contemplates media readable by a database, a switch, and various other network devices. Network switches, routers, and related components are conventional in nature, as are means of communicating with the same. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media comprise computer-storage media and communications media.
Computer-storage media, or machine-readable media, include media implemented in any method or technology for storing information. Examples of stored information include computer-useable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data representations. Computer-storage media include, but are not limited to RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile discs (DVD), holographic media or other optical disc storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, and other magnetic storage devices. These memory components can store data momentarily, temporarily, or permanently.
Communications media typically store computer-useable instructions—including data structures and program modules—in a modulated data signal. The term “modulated data signal” refers to a propagated signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed to encode information in the signal. An exemplary modulated data signal includes a carrier wave or other transport mechanism. Communications media include any information-delivery media. By way of example but not limitation, communications media include wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, infrared, radio, microwave, spread-spectrum, and other wireless media technologies. Combinations of the above are included within the scope of computer-readable media.
In an implementation of an embodiment of the present invention, an advertisement can be customized at a time of delivery to a web page rather than be pre-defined in advance. The customization can take various features of the web page into consideration in order to create an advertisement as indicated in the following manner.
In a first aspect, advertisements are tailored to a web page at a time of delivery. Words are evaluated in the web page to determine separately a product for advertising. Sentiments are determined about the product from an evaluation of the words. An extracted summary or a descriptive summary is created based on the sentiments. Either the extracted summary or the descriptive summary is placed into a template to form an advertisement focused on the product. The advertisement is rendered in the web page.
In another aspect, a determination is made how an ad is to appear in a web page. In the web page, text is evaluated that discusses a product. The text is grouped into blocks where the blocks discuss the product. Each of the blocks is classified as having a positive sentiment, a negative sentiment, or a neutral sentiment for the product or an aspect of the product. A determination is made whether the ad is to be placed in the web page based on sentiments assigned to the blocks. If the ad is to be placed in the web page, the ad is created with words from the text of the web page. The ad is rendered in the web page.
In yet another aspect, a system having a computer with a processor and a memory, to determine an ad for display in a web page is provided that includes determining a set of advertisers that desire to place ads in the web page. The advertisers provide a name of a product, a link to a product web page of the product, and keywords associated with the product. A first subset of the set of advertisers is determined based on at least an amount paid by an advertiser to display the ad, a probability of the ad being selected by a user, or a relevance of the keywords to the web page. A second subset of the set of advertisers is determined from the first subset based on an evaluation of the web page. Sentiments about products or an aspect of the products are determined from the evaluation. The advertiser is selected where the sentiments are positive about the product or the aspect of the product of the advertiser. The ad for the advertiser is created with words in the web page. The ad is rendered in the web page.
In
Turning now to
Once a determination is made about the sentiment, an embodiment of the present invention searches for words or phrases to create an extracted summary or a descriptive summary. These summaries are used to create the ad that will be rendered in web page 200. In
Words or phrases are taken and placed in the ad as illustrated by ad 225. Ad 225 is created upon the delivery of the web page to the user at their computing device. Ad 225 is created once the web page is accessed rather than being created in advance. In
Although words 215 and 220 are selected to create ad 225, words 215 and 220 are indicative of the extracted summary where selected words and phrases are obtained and placed directly into the ad. In another aspect of the invention, a descriptive summary can also be created. The descriptive summary is a variety of words and phrases that are selected and reformed to provide advertising information that can be placed in ad 225. For example, several words or phrases from text 225 or text 210 can be selected and then reformulated to illustrate a slogan to purchase the product, to promote the product, or to indicate where to purchase the product. The information can then be provided to a template to create the ad such as ad 225.
In another embodiment, the location of ad 225 can vary according to the desires of the implementer. In
For those web pages where the sentiment varies according to different blocks of information such as a positive sentiment for the first paragraph, a negative sentiment for the second paragraph, another positive sentiment for another paragraph, and may be a neutral sentiment, the ad can be located in proximity or near the text of information where the sentiment is positive. Or, a decision can be made in an implementation of the embodiment not to show an ad at all. For example, if the overall sentiment is negative then a decision may be made not to show an ad from a particular manufacturer or advertiser. Furthermore, if the overall sentiment is negative or neutral, a decision may be made to show a competitive product in place of the original intended product.
In
In
In a step 440, a determination is made whether an ad is to be placed in the web page based on the sentiments that have been assigned to the blocks of text. In a step 450, if the ad is to be placed in the web page, the ad is created with words from the text of the web page as was discussed in
Turning now to
In an embodiment of the present invention, advertisers do not provide an ad to the ad service. Advertisers provide other types of information as will be shown below.
In a step 520, a first subset of the advertisers are determined based on the amount paid by an advertiser to display their ad, a probability of the ad being selected by a user, or the relevance of the key words. Step 520 is indicative of the process that is followed for the auctioning of ads. For example, to gain a better understanding, advertisers vie for having their ads placed in web pages. This activity is usually called an auction since there are limited space on a web page with limited time to display the ad. In a scenario, ten advertisers, which are representing ten manufacturers, may desire to advertise on a particular web site. Those advertisers pay a fee or indicate to the ad service the amount of monies they are willing to pay for their ad to be shown. In an aspect, the highest bidder has an opportunity to get their ad placed in the particular desired web page. But, in addition to the bidding to have an ad displayed in the web page, the ad service may also have or may determine other factors such as the probability of a particular ad being selected by a user. For example, if one of the advertisers is a travel company and the web page is a travel web site, the probability is higher that a user or the user will select the ad rendered by the travel company.
The ad service may also determine another factor in selecting an advertiser to render their ad on the web page based on how relevant a keyword is to the particular web page. Typically, advertisers provide certain keywords to the ad service. A camera company can provide several keywords about their particular camera product. So, whenever a web site has information containing the keyword, that particular advertiser for the camera company becomes a candidate for having their information about their camera product displayed as an ad in the particular web page.
Going back to the travel scenario, the travel company may submit a keyword such as “Hawaii”, “resort”, or “airfare”. Those three key words are relevant to the travel industry and may result in a higher probability that the travel company's ad may be selected for rendering in the travel web site. However, with an implementation of the present invention, the advertiser no longer provides an ad to the ad service, but as shown in a step 530, a second subset of the advertisers are determined based on an evaluation of the web page. This evaluation is based on determining sentiments as shown by text 205 and text 210 in
The prior discussion is only for illustrative purposes to convey exemplary embodiments. The steps discussed in
It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations and are contemplated within the scope of the claims. Not all steps listed in the various figures need be carried out in the specific order described.
