Patent Application
20100076846
1. Field
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to computer based target advertising based upon information collected about a user.
2. Information
Advertising in an Internet environment may involve target or personalized advertising based upon user information. User information may include information that a user declares, such as information that a user voluntarily provides to a website and/or webpage by vehicles such as filling out a form or entering information unto a webpage. User information may include user behavior or actions, such as information related to which website and/or web pages a user visits, how long a user stays on a particular website or web page, or click-stream information. User information may include information inferred about a user based upon advertising models in conjunction with user declared information and/or user behavior information. Sometimes “cookies” or other tracking mechanisms are used to collect user information. Based upon this user information, personalized advertising may be selected for presentation to a user.
Subject matter is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. Claimed subject matter, however, both as to organization and method of operation, together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference of the following detailed description if read with the accompanying drawings in which:
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, methods, apparatuses or systems that would be known by one of ordinary skill have not been described in detail so as not to obscure claimed subject matter.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” may mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with a particular embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of claimed subject matter. Thus, appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” or “an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily intended to refer to the same embodiment or to any one particular embodiment described. Furthermore, it is to be understood that particular features, structures, or characteristics described may be combined in various ways in one or more embodiments. In general, of course, these and other issues may vary with the particular context. Therefore, the particular context of the description or the usage of these terms may provide helpful guidance regarding inferences to be drawn for that particular context.
Likewise, the terms, “and,” “and/or,” and “or” as used herein may include a variety of meanings that will depend at least in part upon the context in which it is used. Typically, “or” as well as “and/or” if used to associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C, here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here used in the exclusive sense. In addition, the term “one or more” as used herein may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in the singular or may be used to describe some combination of features, structures or characteristics. Though, it should be noted that this is merely an illustrative example and claimed subject matter is not limited to this example.
In accordance with various embodiments, methods, articles and apparatuses may be provided which allow for interactive modification of information collected about a user, which may be used for target or personalized online advertising. Information collected associated with a user may be provided to the user. The user may interact with the collected information, by, for example, editing such collected information, providing feedback about such collected information, and/or indicating preferences and/or information accuracy. It should be understood, however, that these are merely examples of how a user may interactively modify collected information and claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. Based upon such modified user information, advertising content may be generated and/or selected for presentation to the user.
Unlike “cookies,” or other tracking mechanisms, with one or more present embodiments, a user may view information collected about him/her. Unlike cookies and other tracking mechanisms, with one or more present embodiments, a user may provide input as to whether and/or how collected information may be used for target advertising.
As shown in
Information collected at 101 may include information declared by a user. Declared information may comprise information that a user submits to a website or webpage. Declared information may comprise information that a user provides via telephone, in person meeting, and/or from various print materials, such as reports, writings, government records and/or other media. Declared information may comprise information regarding or associated with a user obtained from computer, online, document or other sources. Examples may include user account information, information that a user enters into a web based form or database, or user survey information. In particular embodiments, declared information may include user demographic information, such as but not limited to name, address, gender, age, or information about a user's hobbies, family or profession. Declared information may also include user responses to questions or surveys about user interests, such as gardening, transportation, travel, shopping, dining, athletics and/or activities. Of course, these are merely examples of possible declared user information and claimed subject matter is not so limited.
In various embodiments, information collected at 101 may also include observed information associated with a user. For example, in various embodiments, observed information may include click stream information, or information about which websites and/or webpages a user visits. Observed information may include information about one or more durations of time a user is on a particular website and/or webpage. Observed information may include information about one or more search terms a user selects for performing one or more internet searches. Observed information may include information about a user viewing or clicking on one or more advertisements. These are merely examples of possible observed user information and claimed subject matter is not intended to be so limited.
Additionally, information collected at 101 may also include inferred information. Such inferred information may include information inferred about a user based upon declared user information and/or observed user information. Inferred information may be based upon advertising models, for example. In one implementation, inferred information may be based upon an evaluation of one or more patterns in user data and correlating such patterns to one or more interests of a user. For example, a user performing internet searches for toddler beds, may be more interested in minivans than a user looking for vacation resorts for singles. Also, a user visiting websites about fine wine may be interested in fine dining. In yet another example, a user performing internet searches for real estate agents may be interested in mortgage rate information. It should be understood, however, that these are merely examples of how inferred information may be determined according to particular embodiments and that claimed subject matter is not intended to be limited to these particular examples.
In one or more embodiments, as depicted at 102, a user may be able to interactively modify and/or provide feedback regarding at least a portion of user information associated with the user. For example, a user may be able to edit declared information, such as but not limited to, by editing user account information and/or providing updated address information.
In various embodiments, a user may be able to interactively modify and/or provide feedback regarding at least a portion of user information by specifying one or more user preferences. For example, a user may be able to specify one or more preferences about which interest category(ies) should be utilized for interest matching and/or target advertising. For example, a user may be able to select that (s)he prefers to have interest matching with an “automotive” interest category, but not with a “fashion” interest category. In various embodiments, collected information may be displayed or available to a user, so that the user may view what information is associated with him/her and then the user may be given one or more opportunities to indicate one or more preferences for which collected information should be used and/or disregarded for selecting target advertising content for that user. Again, these examples are merely possible embodiments and claimed subject matter is not so limited.
A user may also be able to interactively modify at least a portion of the user information by providing feedback about inferred information. For example, in various embodiments, a user may be able to state whether or not an inference is accurate. For example, if a user performing Internet searches for toddler beds is targeted as being interested in purchasing minivans, the user may have one or more opportunities to provide input as to whether s/he is actually interested in minivans. Again, claimed subject matter is not intended to be limited to these particular examples.
In various embodiments, as shown at 103, advertisement content may be selected to be directed to a computing platform associated with the user based, at least in part, on the modified user information. For example, based upon a user updating declared address information to reflect that the user has moved from California to Michigan, advertising content presented to that user may include Michigan businesses and/or be modified to include Michigan businesses as opposed to California businesses, if advertising content includes one or more local businesses geographically near that user.
In some embodiments, advertising content may be selected to include one or more interest categories for which a user as indicated a preference to use for advertising content selection. For example, if a user indicates a preference for interest matching to include “consumer electronics,” advertising content may be selected to include consumer electronics. Conversely, advertising content may be selected to exclude one or more interest categories for which a user has indicated a preference to exclude from consideration in selecting advertising content. For example, if a user indicates that s/he is not interested in “finance,” advertising content may be selected to exclude finance related advertisements. As a further example, if a user indicates that inference data is not accurate, that data may be excluded from consideration for selecting advertising conterit. Claimed subject matter is not intended to be limited to these examples.
In some embodiments, the user information may be displayed to the user upon successful user authentication procedure, such as but not limited to, user entry of a username and password. In this particular implementation, user information may not be publicly available. In this sense, user information may be only displayed or provided to the user upon successful password authentication. Again, this is merely an example of how user information may be accessed for interaction and claimed subject matter is not limited to this particular detail associated with one or more embodiments.
Referring to
Computing platform 800, as shown in
Communication with processor 804 may be implemented via a bus (not shown) for transferring information among the components of computing platform 800. A bus may include a data channel for facilitating information transfer between storage and other peripheral components of computing platform 800. A bus further may provide a set of signals utilized for communication with processor 804, including, for example, a data bus, an address bus, and/or a control bus. A bus may comprise any bus architecture according to promulgated standards, for example, industry standard architecture (ISA), extended industry standard architecture (EISA), micro channel architecture (MCA), Video Electronics Standards Association local bus (VLB), peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus, PCI express (PCIe), hyper transport (HT), standards promulgated by the. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) including IEEE 488 general-purpose interface bus (GPIB), IEEE 696/S-100, and so on, although the scope of the scope of claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.
Other components of computing platform 800 may include, for example, memory 806, including one or more auxiliary memories (not shown). Memory 806 may provide storage of instructions and data for one or more programs 808 to be executed by processor 804, such as all or a portion of
Computing platform 800 further may include a display 810. Display 810 may comprise a video display adapter having components, including, for example, video memory, a buffer, and/or a graphics engine. Such video memory may comprise, for example, video random access memory (VRAM), synchronous graphics random access memory (SGRAM), windows random access memory (WRAM), and/or the like. Display 710 may comprise a cathode ray-tube (CRT) type display such as a monitor and/or television, and/or may comprise an alternative type of display technology such as a projection type CRT type display, a liquid-crystal display (LCD) projector type display, an LCD type display, a light-emitting diode (LED) type display, a gas and/or plasma type display, an electroluminescent type display, a vacuum fluorescent type display, a cathodoluminescent and/or field emission type display, a plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC) type display, a high gain emissive display (HGED) type display, and so forth.
Computing platform 800 further may include one or more I/O devices 812. I/O device 812 may comprise one or more I/O devices 812 such as a keyboard, mouse, trackball, touchpad, joystick, track stick, infrared transducers, printer, modem, RF modem, bar code reader, charge-coupled device (CCD) reader, scanner, compact disc (CD), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD), video capture device, TV tuner card, touch screen, stylus, electroacoustic transducer, microphone, speaker, audio amplifier, and/or the like.
Computing platform 800 further may include an external interface 814. External interface 814 may comprise one or more controllers and/or adapters to prove interface functions between multiple I/O devices 812. For example, external interface 814 may comprise a serial port, parallel port, universal serial bus (USB) port, and IEEE 1394 serial bus port, infrared port, network adapter, printer adapter, radio-frequency (RF) communications adapter, universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) port, and/or the like, to interface between corresponding I/O devices 812.
It will, of course, be understood that, although particular embodiments have just been described, the claimed subject matter is not limited in scope to a particular embodiment or implementation. For example, one embodiment may be in hardware, such as implemented to operate on a device or combination of devices, for example, whereas another embodiment may be in software. Likewise, an embodiment may be implemented in firmware, or as any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware, for example. Likewise, although claimed subject matter is not limited in scope in this respect, one embodiment may comprise one or more articles, such as a storage medium or storage media. This storage media, such as, one or more CD-ROMs and/or disks, for example, may have stored thereon instructions, that if executed by a system, such as a computer system, computing platform, or other system, for example, may result in the system performing techniques for groundwater monitoring in accordance with claimed subject matter. Such techniques may comprise one or more of the example embodiments described herein, for example.
In the preceding description, various aspects of claimed subject matter have been described. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, systems and/or configurations were set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. However, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that claimed subject matter may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, features that would be understood by one of ordinary skill were omitted or simplified so as not to obscure claimed subject matter. While certain features have been illustrated or described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes or equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications or changes as fall within the true spirit of claimed subject matter.
