Patent Application
20080319841
Present computer-based advertising delivery systems are directed towards online environments where advertisements are displayed on a web page that a user visits. Displaying the ad (impression-based advertising) or enticing a click from the user on the ad (click-based advertising) results in revenue being allocated to the web page owner for each impression or click.
Concurrently, owners of computers that are used to generate revenue by short-term rentals (e.g., internet café owners, kiosks in airports, etc.) are constantly looking for new ways to increase their business profit. Current strategies include enticing more customers through competitive and/or teaser rates, offering added-value goods such as coffee and snacks, or other such marketing strategies. Computer owners currently do not have access to revenue generated by online website-based advertising delivery systems.
A need exists to create a computer machine-based advertising delivery solution to benefit computer machine owners. Any such advertising delivery solution needs to be robust enough to detect and mitigate fraudulent activity to improve the odds of commercial success. In the case where the owner of a computer running the advertising client on his/her machine has an incentive to artificially drive up advertising activity, a need exists to place constraints in the ad delivery system to minimize the owner's potential (fraudulent) benefit of gaming the system.
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.
A per-machine based owner compensation advertising system may provide a way for computer owners to obtain a financial benefit for advertisements displayed on computers that they own, where the owner's compensation may be correlated for each advertisement displayed or exposed on each individual physical machine. One target market for this ad delivery system may be internet café owners, however, other markets may also applicable, such as libraries, computer kiosks in airports, consumer personal computers, and the like. Using the example of an internet café owner, advertisements may be loaded onto one or more computers in his/her café and may be displayed when customers purchase computer time on the machines. Each computer may have an advertising display configuration which may or may not be the same as the other computers. These ad display configurations are correlated to the physical computer machine itself. For example, the wallpaper of a computer may display a series of ads that rotate at a prescribed time interval. Or, after a customer has been using the computer for a predetermined amount of time, a pop-up window may appear to print out a coupon for a free drink from a neighboring restaurant. A marquee bar may appear in a browser tool bar with rolling advertisements of goods available to be purchased in the café. A café owner with several different locations may choose to display different advertising strategies for city and suburban storefronts. Many other per-machine advertising strategies may be possible. Owner compensation may occur through revenue sharing, where a portion of the revenue generated by a specific displayed advertisement on an individual machine may be allotted to the internet café owner. Alternatively, an owner may be compensated via ad-subsidized software, discounts, or other means.
Per-machine based owner compensation advertising may be different than browser-based advertising approaches. Typical browser-based advertising systems may generate revenue by a user actively visiting a website and either viewing or clicking on an advertisement displayed on that website. A portion of the revenue generated by the viewing or clicking of the ad may be allotted to the website host as payment from the advertising company for advertising space on the host website. With the per-machine based owner compensation advertising approach, the ad delivery mechanism is not associated with a website—it is attributed to a physical machine. The user may not be required to take active action (e.g., visit a website); the advertisements may be automatically displayed on the physical computer in the café independent of internet activity. Furthermore, the owner of the physical machine may receive a portion of the advertising revenue or be financially compensated through subsidies or other means. Indeed, the advertising system may not be required to link to a website at all; for example, the advertising may be embedded in the browser bar or the wallpaper of the computer, or the advertising may be embedded when a customer sends a file to a printer in the café. Many other advertising strategies and implementations may be possible. This application, however, does not disclose advertising content, timing, or strategy on the client computers. This application is directed towards the framework on the server of the ad delivery service provider that supports the per-machine based owner compensation advertising system, and associated fraud detection/mitigation strategies for the framework.
The computer owner may enroll with the service provider of per-machine based owner compensation ad delivery thus creating an owner account with the server of the service provider. The owner account may specify compensation agreements, preferences for advertising configurations, computer identifications, physical locations of computers, contact information, and other such administrative information. The preferences for advertising configurations may be forwarded to an ad content service, whose responsibilities may be determining and packaging actual advertising content, timing, and strategy. The ad content service may be on the same server that processed the registration, it may be a different server of the ad delivery service provider, or it may even be managed by a third party.
Based on the owner account information, the ad delivery service provider may then download (or may send using some other mechanism) a local ad module to a site specified by the owner. At the site, the owner or an operator may install the local ad module on each client computer that the owner wishes to use into the per-machine based owner compensation ad delivery system. Each client computer may then be registered at the server, so that advertising activity generated by that client computer may be properly attributed to the owner. The record for the computer in the owner account may maintain data about the client computer, that may include but is not limited to a unique identifier of the physical computer, physical location, an ad configuration, the owner of the computer, request constraints and parameters. The data may be able to be selected and modified by another process, an administrator of the ad delivery service provider, or by the owner/operator beforehand or in real-time via a user interface; the parameters may be predetermined and static; or the parameters may be a mix of the above. The information retained at the server about each client computer may also be stored in various formats such as but not limited to a machine list.
The server may retrieve an ad configuration, send it to the client computer, and correlate it to the client computer's entry in the machine list. The ad configuration may be retrieved from a local database, a remote database, a third party, or some other source. The ad configuration may or may not be created based on input from the ad content server, and may be stored at the local ad module on the client computer. The content of the ad configuration may contain but is not limited to a timestamp and a set of sequences. The set of sequences may contain a first time sequence that lists a series of ad content type and exposure time pairs to be executed once by the client computer. The set of sequences may also contain a continuous sequence that lists a series of ad content type and exposure time pairs that may or may not be the same series as defined by the first time sequence. The continuous sequence may be executed in a repeating fashion after the first time sequence has been completed. Other sequences may also be defined in the ad configuration. In notation form, these terms may be expressed as follows:
FTS=First Time Sequence
CS=Continuous Sequence
CT=Content Type
ET=Exposure Time
Configuration={Timestamp, FTS, CS}
FTS={(CT1, ET1), (CT2, ET2), . . . , (CTm, ETm)}
CS={(CT1, ET1), (CT2, ET2), . . . , (CTn, ETn)}
The client computer may retain the ad configuration and use the sequence information (first time, continuous, or other) to determine the specific ad content type to request from the server. The client computer may then send an ad request to the server that may contain its machine identification, a timestamp, and a content type. Upon reception of the content type from the server, the client computer may expose the content type for the duration specified by the corresponding paired exposure time in the ad configuration. The client computer may then use the next pair in the sequence to determine the next specified content type in the series and send a subsequent ad request to the server for that content type.
When the server receives an ad request from a client computer, it may record the ad request in an ad request history and may validate the request by comparing the content of the ad request against the ad configuration on record for the client computer. Since both the client computer and the server may be operating off of the same ad configuration and since the ad configuration is deterministic, the server may determine if the client computer is behaving in an expected manner, i.e., asking for the correct next content type after the correct amount of exposure time. If the ad request is valid, the server may obtain a legitimate ad content type and may send it to the client computer for it to expose. The legitimate ad content type delivery event may be then credited towards the owner account for compensation.
Fraud may be attempted when a malicious owner modifies client computers to request ads at a faster rate, thus attempting to increase the share of compensation associated with the owner's computers. Alternatively, a malicious user may try to falsely represent unregistered machines as legitimate or hack into the system in order to gain financial benefit. A fraud engine at the server may be responsible for detecting and mitigating potential fraud in the per-machine based owner compensation ad delivery system.
The fraud engine may have responsibility for detecting potentially fraudulent activity. It may be invoked by the process that receives the ad requests from the client computer, or it may run asynchronously to that process. The fraud engine may operate on an incoming, newly received ad request or it may traverse the list of ad requests retained in the request history or other data repository to operate on its entries. For a given ad request, the fraud engine may select from a library of fraud detection actions to use for detection. One example of a fraud detection action may be administrating a score for each client computer that may be decreased for each valid ad request and increased for each invalid ad request. If the score exceeds a predetermined score threshold, the fraud engine may initiate fraud mitigation for the suspicious client computer.
Another example of a fraud detection action may be validating the location of a client computer. If an ad request is received for a client computer expected to be located in Boston and the ad request comes from New York, the fraud engine may then initiate fraud mitigation. A third example may be validating the frequency of received ad requests. Using the ad request history, the entry on which the fraud engine is operating, and the expected ad configuration for the entry, the fraud engine may determine if ad requests are being received at a frequency greater than expected. If so, the fraud engine may initiate fraud mitigation. Other examples of fraud detection may include monitoring machine utilization and failed requests from invalid machines, and triggering fraud mitigation in each case upon surpassing a corresponding predetermined threshold.
Score threshold and other threshold levels associated with fraud detection may be set by another process or by administrative action, or they may be determined and adjusted in contextual real-time by the fraud engine itself. Of course, other fraud detection actions in addition to those already discussed may be possible and are not limited to the above examples.
The fraud engine may have responsibility for the fraud mitigation process. Fraud mitigation may or may not run asynchronously with the other processes previously discussed. The fraud engine may determine an appropriate selection of one or more fraud mitigation actions to be performed in response to the reception of a single suspicious ad request. It may also periodically traverse the request history, the machine list, and/or other retained data to collect an aggregate view of the behavior of a particular machine, and then select one or more fraud mitigation actions to be performed. Selection may be determined from a fixed algorithm, it may be tailored for seriousness and frequency of violations, or it may be based on real-time or a priori input from another entity such as the service provider, administrator, or another process. Fraud mitigation actions may include but are not limited to: flagging a machine to watch for a pattern over time; throttling requests where requests arriving after a prescribed timing window are allowed but those that arrive before a prescribed timing window are ignored; denial of all requests from a machine for a specific amount of time or denial forever; and returning an impotent ad content type where the ad content is delivered but the event is not credited to the owner account so that a malicious user will not be aware that his/her fraud has been detected. Of course, other fraud mitigation actions may be defined and used.
An interface to administer the fraud engine may also be employed. This interface may allow another process, an administrator, or some other party to adjust and add parameters used by the fraud engine, such as score thresholds, tolerance levels for triggering fraud mitigation actions upon fraud detection, timing windows, and the like. The interface may also allow addition, deletion, and modification to the set of fraud detection and fraud mitigation actions.
a illustrates an exemplary ad configuration and
a, 7b, and 7c illustrate examples of fraud detection actions, respectively, the methods for administrating a score, location validation, and frequency validation; and
Although the following text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment since describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.
It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent is referred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term by limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph.
Much of the inventive functionality and many of the inventive principles are best implemented with or in software programs or instructions and integrated circuits (ICs) such as application specific ICs. It is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation. Therefore, in the interest of brevity and minimization of any risk of obscuring the principles and concepts in accordance to the present invention, further discussion of such software and ICs, if any, will be limited to the essentials with respect to the principles and concepts of the preferred embodiments.
The computer 110 may include a security module 125. The security module 125 may be used for verifying the authenticity of received messages and for safe-guarding sent messages. The security module 125 may be embodied in the processing unit 120, as a standalone component, or in a hybrid, such as a multi-chip module. A clock 126 may be incorporated into the security module 125 to help ensure tamper resistance. To allow user management of local time setting, including daylight savings or movement between time zones, the clock 126 may maintain its time in a coordinated universal time (UTC) format and user time calculated using a user-settable offset. The security module 125 may also include a cryptographic function (not depicted).
Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computer 110.
The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131 and random access memory (RAM) 132. A basic input/output system 133 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 120. By way of example, and not limitation,
The computer 110 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in
The computer 110 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers (not depicted) over a network interface 170, such as broadband Ethernet connection or other known network.
Once the owner 205 is enrolled with the service provider, the server 203 may generate an owner account capable of being administered via an account management process 212. The owner account may be used to link one or more client computers 215218220 possessed by the owner 205 with the per-machine based owner compensation ad delivery system 200. The client computers 215218220 may have the form of computer 110. The server 203 may then invoke an installation service 225 to communicate a local ad module 227 to an installer 230 at a site specified by the owner 205. The communication mechanism may utilize a download from a website, installation of a program from a CD, or some other transfer mechanism. An operator 233 at the site who may be the owner 205 or may be another entity may administrate the installer 230 and distribute the local ad module 227 to the client computers 215218220. Administration of the installer 230 may register each client computer 215218220 with the registration service 235 and may result in associating each client computer 215218220 with the account of owner 205.
After registration 235 is completed, the server 203, with or without input from the ad content service 210, may invoke an ad configuration service 238 to designate an active ad configuration for the registered client computers 215218220. This active configuration may be delivered as a part of the registration service 235 or it may be delivered in response to an out-of-band request by the local ad module 227 at any time subsequent to successful completion of the registration service 235. Each client computer 215218220 of the owner 205 may receive the same ad configuration or they may receive different ad configurations. The ad configuration may be used by the local ad module 227 to administer the ad delivery on the client computer 215218220 for viewing by a customer 242 by defining sequences of content type and exposure time pairs. The local ad module 227 may use the specified content type in the active sequence specified by the active ad configuration to request a specific ad content type from the server 203. The local ad module 227 may use the corresponding exposure time as an indicator of how long to expose the ad content at the client computer 215128220.
An ad module service 245 at the server 203 may communicate with the local ad module 227 at the client computer 215218220. The ad module service 245 may receive and process ad requests from the local ad module 227, and may interface with the ad content service 210 to obtain appropriate ad content types for the client computer 215218220 based upon the input obtained from the owner 205 during enrollment 208 and/or machine registration 235. The ad content types may include but are not limited to contents (e.g., company names and products), mechanisms (e.g., pop-ups, browser bar banners, etc.), and behaviors (e.g., don't show ads during full-screen games, etc.). The ad module service 245 also may monitor incoming ad requests and request histories for fraud and may initiate fraud mitigation strategies.
As
Next, an ad request may be received 322 from the client computer. (An exemplary ad request is shown by
If the owner possesses other client computers such as client computers A2218 through Ax 220 of
a illustrates an exemplary ad configuration 410 that may be sent to the client computer and may be stored, along with a linkage to its associated client computer, at the server as an entry, for instance, in a machine list such as 312 of
b illustrates an exemplary ad request 460 that may be sent from the client computer or may be stored at the server as an entry in a request history such as in 325 of
If the content type is found in the current ad configuration, a maximum expected frequency may be determined 620 from the content type of the ad request 468 and the current ad configuration 410. The last request sent may be determined 622 from the machine identity of the ad request 463 and the content type of the ad request 468. Then, the expected request count may be determined 625 based upon the maximum expected frequency, the last request, and the ad request 460. The expected request count may be compared 628 to a tolerance threshold. If the expected request count is greater than or equal to a tolerance threshold, this may signify that the client computer is behaving in an expected manner as defined by the stored ad configuration 410, i.e., sending expected ad requests for an expected content type at an expected rate. The ad request 460 may be found to be valid 630, and the process may end 618. If the expected request count is less than a tolerance threshold, the ad request may be found to be invalid 615. The process may end 618 and return to 300 for potential fraud mitigation 330. The tolerance threshold may be set at the same level for each client computer, or may be set based on another grouping such as but not limited to an owner, a location, or a group of computers. The tolerance threshold may also be capable of being administered by another process, an administrator of the service provider, or some other entity.
The fraud detection action of administrating a score 715 for a client computer is illustrated in more detail by
The fraud detection action of validating a client computer's location 718 is illustrated in more detail by
c illustrates in more detail the fraud detection action of validating the frequency of requests 720 for a client computer. At the start 802, using the machine identity of the client computer, the current ad configuration may be obtained 810 from the machine list 812. The current ad configuration may be of the form 410 of
The set of fraud mitigation actions 858 may include options such as but not limited to allowing the request 868, denying the request 870, communicating an updated ad configuration to the client computer 871, and flagging the request as suspicious or to be examined more closely 873. Another fraud mitigation action of the set 858 may consist of returning an impotent ad content 875 where the ad content looks legitimate but does not cause the owner account to be credited, thus concealing from the malicious user the fact that potential fraud may have been detected at the server. Any of these mitigation actions may be recorded/delayed for future execution 878, or a complete traversing of the request history 880 may be performed for each machine identity. Other fraud mitigation actions 882 may be possible. Adding to, deleting from, and modifying the set of fraud mitigation actions 858 may be enabled by another process, an administrator, or some other means through an interface.
The set of fraud mitigation actions 858 may also be added to, deleted from or modified by another process, an administrator, or by some other means through an interface. Also, any parameters, thresholds, and the like associated with configuring execution of the mitigation actions 858 may also be added to, deleted from or modified by another process, an administrator, or by some other means through an interface. For instance, when a per-machine based owner compensation ad delivery system is initially configured and installed, the service provider may want to enable the variable parameters to be modified for aid in determining an acceptable level of tolerance in that particular owner's set-up. One fraud mitigation strategy may be to allow invalid ad requests up to a certain level or time or frequency, and to return impotent ad contents or deny all requests after that point. Another strategy may be to flag a machine so that requests coming faster than a predetermined rate are dropped, and every fifth (or some other changeable parameter) ad request is allowed. Many other different fraud mitigation strategies may be configured by method 800 depending on the combination of actions selected and when and in what sequence the actions are scheduled to be performed according to the determined fraud mitigation strategy 855.
Although the forgoing text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the scope of the patent is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment because describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.
Thus, many modifications and variations may be made in the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present claims. Accordingly, it should be understood that the methods and apparatus described herein are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the claims.
