Patent Application
20090319378
Advertising on the internet has distinct advantages over other types of advertising, including cost efficiency, the ability to target users, real time performance monitoring, and the like. As a publisher or content owner, however, one has little control over the look and feel of advertisements presented on your webpage. Further, if the publisher is able to create or modify an advertisement, very few options exist in designing the advertising content.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for providing customized advertising content are provided. A publisher or a content owner may generate an image of, for example, an advertising unit. More particularly, the image may be generated to coordinate with the publisher or content owner's webpage. The image is then published with the content of the advertisement. By providing code or script in the publisher's webpage, the publisher may then request the customized advertising content, so that the browser sends a request for the customized advertising content. Thus, when a user views the publisher's webpage, the customized advertising content is presented, which includes the advertising content and the generated image.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The present invention is described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:
The subject matter of the present invention is described with specificity herein to meet statutory requirements. However, the description itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimed subject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to include different steps or combinations of steps similar to the ones described in this document, in conjunction with other present or future technologies. Moreover, although the terms “step” and/or “block” may be used herein to connote different elements of methods employed, the terms should not be interpreted as implying any particular order among or between various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the order of individual steps is explicitly described.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for are provided. A publisher or a content owner may generate an image of, for example, an advertising unit. More particularly, the image may be generated to coordinate with the publisher or content owner's webpage. The image is then published with the content of the advertisement. By providing code or script in the publisher's webpage, the publisher may then request the customized advertising content, so that the browser sends a request for the customized advertising content. Thus, when a user views the publisher's webpage, the customized advertising content is presented, which includes the advertising content and the generated image.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, one or more computer storage medium with computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method for providing customized advertising content is provided. The method comprises, in part, providing an interface to a publisher; receiving advertising content; generating an image associated with the advertising content; and providing the image and advertising content for presentation on a webpage, where the webpage includes a script provided by the publisher associated with the advertising content.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a computer system for providing customized advertising units is provided. More specifically, the computer system comprises, in part, a receiving component configured to receive advertising content; an image generating component configured to generate an image associated with the advertising content; and a publishing component configured to publish the image and advertising content as a customized advertising unit.
In yet another embodiment in accordance with the present invention, one or more computer storage medium with computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method for providing customized advertising content is provided. The method comprises, in part, providing an interface to a publisher; receiving advertising content; generating an image associated with the advertising content; inserting a script in the webpage associated with the generated image; publishing an advertising unit using the generated image and the advertising content; and providing the advertising unit for presentation on a webpage using the inserted script.
Having briefly described an overview of embodiments of the present invention, an exemplary operating environment suitable for use in implementing embodiments of the present invention is described below.
Referring to the drawings in general, and initially to
The invention may be described in the general context of computer code or machine-useable instructions, including computer-executable instructions such as program components, being executed by a computer or other machine, such as a personal data assistant or other handheld device. Generally, program components including routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the like, refer to code that performs particular tasks, or implements particular abstract data types. Embodiments of the present invention may be practiced in a variety of system configurations, including hand-held devices, consumer electronics, general-purpose computers, specialty-computing devices, and the like. Embodiments of the present invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote-processing devices that are linked through a communications network.
With continued reference to
Computing device 100 typically includes a variety of computer-readable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise Random Access Memory (RAM); Read Only Memory (ROM); Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM); flash memory or other memory technologies; CDROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical or holographic media; magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to encode desired information and be accessed by computing device 100.
Memory 112 includes computer-storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory. The memory may be removable, non-removable, or a combination thereof. Exemplary hardware devices include solid-state memory, hard drives, optical-disk drives, and the like. Computing device 100 includes one or more processors that read data from various entities such as memory 112 or I/O components 120. Presentation component(s) 116 present data indications to a user or other device. Exemplary presentation components include a display device, speaker, printing component, vibrating component, etc. I/O ports 118 allow computing device 100 to be logically coupled to other devices including I/O components 120, some of which may be built in. Illustrative components include a microphone, joystick, game advertisement, satellite dish, scanner, printer, wireless device, and the like.
Turning now to
Computing system 200 includes an advertising publisher engine 212, a user device 210, and a data store 214 all in communication with one another via a network 216. The network 216 may include, without limitation, one or more local area networks (LANs) and/or wide area networks (WANs). Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet. Accordingly, the network 216 is not further described herein.
The data store 214 may be configured to store information associated with various types of content, as more fully described below. It will be understood and appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the information stored in the data store 214 may be configurable and may include any information relevant to online content. Further, though illustrated as a single, independent component, data store 214 may, in fact, be a plurality of data stores, for instance, a database cluster, portions of which may reside on a computing device associated with the advertising publisher engine 212, the user device 210, another external computing device (not shown), and/or any combination thereof.
Each of the advertising publisher engine 212 and the user device 210 shown in
As shown in
The receiving component 218 is configured for receiving content associated with advertising content and receiving content associated with image generation. The advertising content and image generation content may be received from various data sources. More specifically, advertising content may be received from an advertising database, such as an advertising system. Image generation content may be received from, for example, a publisher of a webpage. Once received by the receiving component 218, the content may be stored, for instance, in association with data store 214, such that it is searchable to determine satisfaction of a user query, as more fully described below. Such received content may additionally be indexed, if desired.
The image generating component 220 is configured for generating an image that is capable of being associated with advertising content. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the image may be generated by various users. For example, in one embodiment, the publisher generates the image, and may generate an image that is visually similar to the publisher's webpage or application. Alternatively, the image may be generated, at least in part, by the advertiser. In a further embodiment, the publisher may generate the image, while the advertiser is capable of limiting, reviewing, etc. the generated image.
In generating an image, one skilled in the art will appreciate that many aspects of the image may be created or modified. For example, the publisher may determine the outline, background, pattern, font, effect, transitions, etc. of the advertisement.
The publishing component 222 is configured to publish the content that has been received and/or generated. For example, the publishing component 222 may publish advertising content that has been received that includes text, labels, etc., with an image that has been generated (e.g., from image generating component 220) that includes visual details of the ad. One skilled in the art will appreciate that any suitable method of publishing the multiple forms of content may be used.
The delivery component 224 is configured for delivering customized advertising content to, for example, a user interface appearing on a webpage. In embodiments of the present invention, a user's browser that is viewing the webpage may send a request to the delivery component 224 for the customized advertising unit, and the delivery component 224 streams the published advertising unit (e.g., published by the publishing component 222) back to the user.
The presenting component 226 is configured for presenting at least one customized advertising unit. Typically such presentation will be by way of display in associations with a user interface. However, other forms of presentation, including audio presentation and audio/video presentation, are contemplated to be within the scope of embodiments hereof.
An interface, such as interface 316, is presented to the publisher. Using interface 316, publisher 318 follows a process, which may include setting advertising unit parameters, visual appearance, etc. Based on the publisher's input, an image (e.g., a background image) is generated. Further, at this time, a code or script 320, such as a Javascript, is provided to publisher 318 to insert or paste on the publisher's webpage, as shown as 304.
In embodiments of the present invention, the generated image is stored on an image server or, alternatively, an image generation handler, shown as 314. At 310, an advertiser database is shown, which provides the advertising content for system 300. The advertiser database 310 may, for example, be part of an advertising system. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that any type of advertiser database may be used with system 300.
The publisher database 312 serves to publish the generated image, thus giving it the look and feel of the customized advertising unit. With the publisher database 312 providing the generated image and the advertiser database 310 providing the advertising content, the combined customized advertising unit is created and is shown as the combined XML code at 308. The delivery engine 306 combines the generated image and advertising content and streams the customized advertising unit back to the client, publisher, content owner, etc.
Turning now to
Next, at block 412, advertising content is received. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the advertising content may be received at any point in method 400. At block 414, an image is generated (e.g., utilizing the image generating component 216 of
As indicated at block 418, the image and the advertising content are published to create the customized advertising unit (e.g., utilizing the publisher database 312 of
Next, using the inserted code on the webpage, the customized advertising unit is presented on the webpage, as shown at block 422. One skilled in the art will appreciate that because the majority of these steps occur on the server side, the publisher is freed from the task of maintaining any additional scripts, while still providing the user with rich and dynamic advertisements.
The present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments, which are intended in all respects to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from its scope.
From the foregoing, it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all the ends and objects set forth above, together with other advantages which are obvious and inherent to the system and method. It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claims.
