The subject invention relates generally to online advertising and in particular to the presentation of contextual advertisements, the content of which is determined at least in part by content associated with a non-textual file and/or by metadata associated with a computer file.
Advertising in general is a key revenue source in just about any commercial market or setting. To reach as many consumers as possible, advertisements are traditionally presented via billboards, television, radio, and print media such as newspapers and magazines. However, with the advent and rise of the Internet, advertisers have found a new and perhaps less expensive medium for reaching vast numbers of potential customers across a large and diverse geographic span. Advertisements on the Internet can primarily be seen on web pages or web sites as well as in pop-up windows when a particular site is visited.
In addition to such generic web site advertising, businesses interested in finding new customers and generating revenues continue to look for atypical channels that may be suitable for posting advertisements. One current delivery mode, for example, involves attaching an advertisement to an incoming email for the recipient of the email to view. The type or subject matter of the advertisement may be selected according to text included in the body of the message. Despite the current delivery mode of advertisements, there remains a need to provide the most appropriate advertisement that is most relevant and helpful to a user at any given time.
The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
The subject invention relates to a system and/or methodology that facilitate providing contextual advertisements to users when viewing non-text files or objects such as images, audio objects, video streams, and text files (text objects) such as electronic or instant messages and/or any application file. Examples of images can include pictures, drawings, photographs, video stills, scanned documents, and/or web-based fax document images. In the case of non-text files, the system and method can extract some information from the image, audio file, or video stream by employing one or more recognition techniques. For example, optical character recognition (OCR) can be used to recognize and identify the words “Laguna Beach” that appear in a photograph being viewed by the user. Consequently, an advertisement for beach attire and equipment can be presented to the user. Additional information such as the user profile and the user's demographic and geographic location can also be considered when determining the most relevant advertisement for the user while viewing a particular file or object.
Both text and non-text files can have information known as metadata associated therewith or embedded therein. When a user is viewing a file such as an attachment of a transferred file (e.g., word processing document or spreadsheet), the metadata, or a portion thereof, associated with the file can be analyzed using one or more recognition techniques to identify relevant terms. For example, imagine that a user has received a drawing file from his architect of the user's new home. The metadata of the drawing file or the image in the drawing itself may indicate that the drawing was made using a building plan template. Thus, an advertisement for a mortgage broker can be shown to the user.
In some instances, presenting advertisements may be inappropriate given the file or object currently being viewed by the user. For example, viewing a photograph of a burning house or of a car accident scene generally may not warrant receiving advertisements for a new home builder or a collision repair shop. Advertisers generally do not want advertisements shown when a user is viewing pornographic or sexually explicit photos. Thus, the subject invention can also include a detector or related component that determines or verifies that an advertisement is appropriate according to a sensitivity detector that may analyze the identified terms or objects extracted from the file. Alternatively or in addition, the sensitivity detector may analyze other related material, such as text near the file. Alternatively, the user can have the option to deactivate this sensor and always be shown advertisements when available.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the invention are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed and the subject invention is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features of the invention may become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The subject invention is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject invention. It may be evident, however, that the subject invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the subject invention.
As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
The subject invention can incorporate various inference schemes and/or techniques in connection with selecting at least one contextual advertisement to be presented to a user. As used herein, the term “inference” refers generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic - that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources.
Referring now to
Referring now to
By contrast, text files can be analyzed for their metadata information or other data derived therefrom (260) rather than for the actual content contained in the body of the file. For example, suppose that a user receives a word processor document as an email attachment. One or more portions of metadata embedded within or associated with the document can be extracted and identified using the recognition component 250. In addition to the types of metadata described, supra, metadata can also include added keywords, file size, watermarks, file format, file type, and author or creator of the file.
Hence, the recognition component 250 can identify one or more terms from information extracted from the non-text 220 or text file 230. The identified terms can then be used to determine which contextual advertisement is selected to be shown to the user. In particular, an advertisement selection component 270 can select at least one contextual advertisement for the given non-text or text file being viewed by the user. Once selected, a presentation component 280 can present or show the advertisement to the user. In practice, for example, the contextual advertisement can appear in a new window or in a pop-up window while the file is being viewed.
Turning now to
In
In
Various methodologies in accordance with the subject invention will now be described via a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the subject invention is not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with the subject invention, occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the subject invention.
Referring now to
In the case of a text object such as an email or a letter included as an attachment that is being viewed by the user, metadata associated with the text object or other data derived therefrom can be extracted and identified using a recognition technique as OCR. Hence, the content of the letter or email itself is not considered or analyzed for the purpose of selecting a contextual advertisement.
Referring now to
At 730, the process 700 can determine whether a contextual advertisement would be appropriate given the data identified in the file. This can be important considering that providing a contextual advertisement may not always be the most appropriate action to take. For example, reading a web-based fax document regarding a family member's funeral arrangements may cause a contextual advertisement about florists specializing in such arrangements. However, some users may not wish to see or may not be interested in receiving advertisements about floral arrangements at that particular time. Thus, if the context of the content is deemed to be of a “sensitive” or negative nature, the process 700 may automatically forego selecting and showing the advertisement. However, if an advertisement is determined to be appropriate, then a contextual advertisement relevant to at least the identified data can be presented at 740.
In order to provide additional context for various aspects of the subject invention,
Generally, however, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular data types. The operating environment 810 is only one example of a suitable operating environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Other well known computer systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include but are not limited to, personal computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include the above systems or devices, and the like.
With reference to
The system bus 818 can be any of several types of bus structure(s) including the memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including, but not limited to, 11-bit bus, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA), Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA), Extended ISA (EISA), Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE), VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), Personal Computer Memory Card International Association bus (PCMCIA), and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI).
The system memory 816 includes volatile memory 820 and nonvolatile memory 822. The basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines to transfer information between elements within the computer 812, such as during start-up, is stored in nonvolatile memory 822. By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory 822 can include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory 820 includes random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available in many forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM).
Computer 812 also includes removable/nonremovable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media.
It is to be appreciated that
A user enters commands or information into the computer 812 through input device(s) 836. Input devices 836 include, but are not limited to, a pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, stylus, touch pad, keyboard, microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, TV tuner card, digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and the like. These and other input devices connect to the processing unit 814 through the system bus 818 via interface port(s) 838. Interface port(s) 838 include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port, and a universal serial bus (USB). Output device(s) 840 use some of the same type of ports as input device(s) 836. Thus, for example, a USB port may be used to provide input to computer 812 and to output information from computer 812 to an output device 840. Output adapter 842 is provided to illustrate that there are some output devices 840 like monitors, speakers, and printers among other output devices 840 that require special adapters. The output adapters 842 include, by way of illustration and not limitation, video and sound cards that provide a means of connection between the output device 840 and the system bus 818. It should be noted that other devices and/or systems of devices provide both input and output capabilities such as remote computer(s) 844.
Computer 812 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computer(s) 844. The remote computer(s) 844 can be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a workstation, a microprocessor based appliance, a peer device or other common network node and the like, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to computer 812. For purposes of brevity, only a memory storage device 846 is illustrated with remote computer(s) 844. Remote computer(s) 844 is logically connected to computer 812 through a network interface 848 and then physically connected via communication connection 850. Network interface 848 encompasses communication networks such as local-area networks (LAN) and wide-area networks (WAN). LAN technologies include Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI), Ethernet/IEEE 1102.3, Token Ring/IEEE 1102.5 and the like. WAN technologies include, but are not limited to, point-to-point links, circuit switching networks like Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) and variations thereon, packet switching networks, and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL).
Communication connection(s) 850 refers to the hardware/software employed to connect the network interface 848 to the bus 818. While communication connection 850 is shown for illustrative clarity inside computer 812, it can also be external to computer 812. The hardware/software necessary for connection to the network interface 848 includes, for exemplary purposes only, internal and external technologies such as, modems including regular telephone grade modems, cable modems and DSL modems, ISDN adapters, and Ethernet cards.
What has been described above includes examples of the subject invention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the subject invention, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the subject invention are possible. Accordingly, the subject invention is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.