This disclosure relates to providing targeted advertising and, in particular, to providing location-aware targeted advertising that conforms to a predefined area of responsibility.
In the following description, numerous specific details are provided for a thorough understanding of the various embodiments disclosed herein. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the systems and methods disclosed herein can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In addition, in some cases, well-known structures, materials, or operations may not be shown or described in detail in order to avoid obscuring aspects of the disclosure. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more alternative embodiments.
Network-accessible services, such as websites, network-enabled applications, and the like, have become important marketing tools and/or sales fronts for a wide variety of products and/or services. As used herein, a “network-accessible service” refers to any service that is capable of and/or configured to interact with users via a communication network. A network-accessible service may be configured to provide and/or receive content from users via the communication network. The content may include, but is not limited to: text, images, video, multi-media, executable code, markup (e.g., Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)), interface components, executable and/or interpretable script, and the like. Accordingly, a network-accessible service may comprise one or more computing devices, datastores (e.g., databases, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, directories, and the like), communication interfaces, and other hardware and/or software components.
Users may access a network-accessible service using a computing device, such as a personal computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a kiosk, a cellular phone, a handheld computer, a notebook computer, a netbook, a tablet computer, or the like. User access may be provided via any communication mechanisms known in the art including, but not limited to: a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network (e.g., the Internet), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a wireless network (e.g., radio, IEEE 802.11, a cellular network), a combination of networks, and so on. A network-accessible service may be available to the general public or may be private (e.g., accessible to a predetermined set of users).
In some embodiments, a network-accessible service may provide content to users via the communication network. The content may be adapted for various computing devices and/or applications as described above (e.g., browser application, handheld device, etc.). The content may comprise and/or be implemented using any user-interface mechanism known in the art, including, but not limited to: HTML, Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), text (e.g., TELNET), audio, video, executable code (e.g., ADOBE FLASH®), may include accessibility features (e.g., a11y interface features), and so on. Alternatively, or in addition, the content may be configured to interact with one or more dedicated, client application(s), which may be special purpose applications installed on a user computing device and/or operating as plug-ins to other applications (e.g., operating as a browser application plug-in, an applet (or “app”), or the like).
In some embodiments, a network-accessible service may be implemented as a website (a computing system comprising one or more server computing devices). The website may be configured to provide content in a browser-renderable format, such as HTML. However, as discussed above, the disclosure is not limited in this regard and could be adapted to use any content delivery technique known in the art.
The network-accessible service may provide advertising content along with the content it provides to users. The advertising content may be selected by the network-accessible service itself and/or may be provided by third parties, such as affiliates, advertisers, advertising networks, or the like. The advertising content may include any content type known in the art (e.g., text, images, video, audio, multi-media, user interface elements, etc.).
In some embodiments, advertising content may be included with the content provided by the network-accessible service (e.g., above, below, and/or interspersed with the content). The advertising content may comprise a “popup” that overlays other content, is in-line with the content, or the like. Alternatively, or in addition, the advertising content may be presented interstitially (e.g., displayed before and/or after other content). Advertising content may be provided within markup-language (e.g., web pages) and/or content-presentation applications (e.g., a portion of the viewable area of an “app” provided by the network-accessible service may be used to display advertising). As would be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the teachings of this disclosure could be applied to any type of advertising space and/or advertising mechanism known in the art.
An advertising provider may select the advertising content to be displayed via the network-accessible service. In some embodiments, the advertising provider may “target” advertising to users. For example, the advertising provider may maintain and/or access user-profile information, which may be used to select advertising content that is likely to be relevant to the user. Various mechanisms for aggregating user profile information are described in co-pending application Ser. No. 12/243,855, entitled, “Systems and Methods for Aggregating User Profile Information in a Network of Affiliated Websites,” filed Oct. 1, 2008, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Alternatively, or in addition, the advertising provider may consider a “context” of the user to select advertising content. As used herein, a “context” refers to the type of content the user is accessing on the network-accessible service, the user's content viewing history, or the like.
In some embodiments, the advertising provider may pay for the opportunity to include its advertising content to users. For example, the advertising provider may “bid” (indicate an amount it is willing to pay) for an impression. The decision of whether to pay for an advertising impression and/or the amount to bid for an impression may be based upon the degree to which the advertising provider can tailor content to the user. For instance, the advertising provider may be unwilling to purchase and/or pay for an advertising impression unless a local dealer of the user can be identified.
The advertising provider may wish to provide advertising content that provides specific information about a product or service, such as dealer locations, current inventory, and so on (e.g., local advertising). However, contractual obligations (or other restrictions) may preclude the use of local advertising. For example, an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or franchisor business entity may advertise products or services that are provided by subordinate entities (e.g., dealers or franchises), each of which may be assigned its own “area of responsibility” (AOR). The top-level business entity (e.g., the OEM or franchisor) may be obligated to deliver potential customers to the correct business entity in accordance with the subordinate entity AORs. However, advertising content that is accessible via a network may be accessed by users in many different AORs, and as such, local advertising content may be precluded.
As used herein, an “OEM” or “franchisor” refers to a business entity that produces a product and/or offers services that may be offered, sold, serviced, and/or maintained by one or more subordinate business entities (e.g., “dealers” or “franchises”). As used herein, a “dealer” or “franchise” refers to a business entity that offers services, sells products, provides services and/or maintenance under an upper-level business entity, such as an OEM or franchisor. Moreover, although the terms “OEM,” “franchisor,” “dealer,” and/or “franchise” are used herein, the disclosure is not limited in this regard and could be adapted for use with any business organization and/or structure known in the art.
The OEM 110 may represent the top-level business entity in the organization 100. The OEM 110 may be an OEM who manufacturers products (e.g., vehicles) that are sold and/or serviced through a dealer network. Accordingly, the subordinate business entities 120 and 130 may represent franchise groups 120 (e.g., dealer groups) and individual franchises 130 (e.g., dealers), which sell and/or service the franchisor's products. In other embodiments, the OEM 110 may be a service provider, such as an accounting services provider, or the like, and the subordinate business entities 120 and/or 130 may be franchises that provide the services under the direction and/or supervision of the OEM 110.
The business organization 100 may comprise a plurality of franchises 130A-G, which may sell, support, and/or provide services under the OEM 110. The business organization 100 may comprise one or more franchise groups 120A-B, which may be business entities that represent regional associations and/or groups of franchises 130A-G (e.g., the franchises 130 under a particular group 120 may be commonly owned and/or controlled).
Each of the dealers 130 and/or dealer groups 120 may be assigned a respective AOR, and the OEM 110 may be obligated to configure advertising to deliver potential customers to the appropriate dealer 130 and/or dealer group 120. Similarly, a dealer group (e.g., group 120A) may be obligated to configure its advertising to deliver potential customers to the appropriate group dealer 130A, 130B, or 130C (per the dealer AORs or other contractual arrangements). Accordingly, the OEM 110 may be obligated to ensure that its advertising content that includes dealer-specific content (e.g., dealer name, contact information, etc.) and is provided to users in the correct AOR; users in the AOR of dealer 130A should not be provided with dealer-specific advertising content of dealer 130D.
In the Seattle market 101, the area 131A may be the AOR of the dealer 130A, the area 131B may be the AOR of the dealer 130B, the area 131E may be the AOR of the dealer 130E, the area 131F may be the AOR of the dealer 130F, and the area 131G may be the AOR of the dealer 130G. In some embodiments, the AORs 131A, 131B, 131E, 131F, and 131G may correspond to predefined regions, such as zip codes regions, postal codes, counties, neighborhoods, proper names, or the like. Accordingly, the AORs 131 may be more finely grained than state, city, and/or country location information. Although not shown in
As discussed above, a top-level business entity (e.g. OEM 110) may be obligated to confirm advertising content to the AOR boundaries of its subordinate entities (e.g., dealers 130). Accordingly, the OEM 110 may be obligated to configure its advertising to direct users in the market 101 to the appropriate dealer (per the dealer AORs depicted in
As illustrated in
As such, techniques for estimating the location of a user based upon the user's network address (e.g. Internet Protocol (IP) address) may not be viable. Such techniques may have limited accuracy (e.g., may not provide location information with sufficient specificity to determine the appropriate dealer AOR), may be easily (or unintentionally) spoofed (e.g., by the use of a proxy, remote ISP, etc.), and/or may not provide location information on a “real-time” basis. Moreover, a user may move from place to place, whereas his true “home” location remains the same; therefore, location-identifying information derived from a network address may not truly reflect the user's home location.
In some embodiments, user location may be determined using information provided by the user himself and/or through other user activity. As will be described below, location-identifying information, may be acquired using a number of different techniques including, but not limited to: accessing location information provided by the user; accessing location information provided by the user to a different network-accessible service (e.g., in a previous session); obtaining location information from an advertising network; obtaining location information from a third-party service, obtaining location information from a user device (e.g., a location-aware smart phone having GPS functionality), obtaining location information from a network service (e.g., Internet Service Provider, wireless network node, cell tower, IP-address lookup, etc.), or the like. As used herein, location-identifying information refers to any information used to determine a location of a user. Accordingly, location-identifying information may include, but is not limited to: location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude, GPS coordinates, etc.), a postal code, a zip code, a proper name, a country code, a state identifier, a province identifier, a regional identifier (e.g., county, municipality, etc.), a street address, or the like.
When the location of the user is determined, the advertising provider may identify the business entity (e.g., dealer) that is “assigned” to the user per the dealer or franchise agreement(s). The identification may comprise comparing the user's location to an AOR datastructure, such as a map datastructure as illustrated in
The network-accessible service 220 may be configured to receive requests for content from users 240 via a network 245, and to respond by providing the requested content using any communication and/or content presentation mechanism in the art. The content 224 provided to a user 240A (responsive to a content request 242 from the user 240A) may comprise advertising content 225. The advertising content 225 may be provided by the network-accessible service 220, an advertising network 254, and/or an advertising provider 210.
The advertising provider 210 may be configured to generate dealer-targeted advertising content for the network-accessible service 220 (e.g., to be used as advertising content 225 provided to the users 240). The advertising provider 210 may be implemented using a computing device, which may comprise a processor 211, memory 213, and so on. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the advertising provider 210 may be implemented using the processor 211 and memory 213, and as such, may comprise one or more software modules embodied as machine-readable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a disc, non-volatile memory, or the like. The advertising provider 210 may further comprise and/or be coupled to communication interfaces (not shown), input-output devices (not shown), and the like.
In some embodiments, the advertising provider may comprise a datastore 212 comprising advertising templates (e.g., advertising template 214), and a datastore 216 comprising dealer-specific advertising content (dealer-specific content records 218). An advertising template 214 may comprise generic advertising assets promoting a particular product or service of the OEM (or franchisor), into which dealer-specific advertising content may be included. The template 214 may include tags or call-outs (or other template entry fields) identifying locations in the template that are configured to receive dealer-specific content (from the datastore 216). The datastores 212 and/or 216 may comprise a database, disc, non-volatile memory, or the like. In some embodiments, a dealer specific content may comprise an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file comprising and/or referencing generic advertising assets. XML elements within the template may indicate where dealer-specific content may be included. The XML elements may further specify the type(s), sizing, and other parameters of the dealer-specific content (e.g., may specify the inclusion of a “small” logo, inventory data (text), and so on). The advertising provider 210 may be configured to interpret the XML elements and associated directives when combining an advertising template with dealer-specific content.
The datastore 216 may comprise dealer-specific advertising content 218, which may be combined with the advertising templates of the datastore 212 to generate dealer-targeted advertising content. The dealer-specific advertising content may include, but is not limited to: dealer branding assets (e.g., dealer logo and other graphics), dealer contact information (e.g., street address, phone, email, etc.), dealer inventory status (e.g. real-time inventory), dealer-specific offers, services provided at the dealer, wait times, personnel availability, any/or any other dealer-specific content. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the contents of the datastore 216 may be acquired from the dealers 230A-230G (e.g., the datastore 216 may be communicatively coupled to inventory and/or service management systems (not shown) of the dealers 230A-230G). Alternatively, or in addition, the advertising provider 110 may bypass the datastore 216 to access dealer-specific information directly from the dealers 230A-230G.
The advertising provider 210 may be configured to generate dealer-targeted advertising content, which may be returned with content 224 provided by the network-accessible service 220 in response to a user request, such as the content request 242. When the content request 242 is received, the advertising provider 210 may attempt to access location-identifying information corresponding to the content request 242 (and/or user 240A associated therewith). As described above, the location-identifying information may be sufficiently specific (e.g., a zip code or street address) to allow the advertising provider 210 to identify an AOR. In some embodiments, the advertising provider 210 may pay the network-accessible service 220 (or advertising network 254, etc.) for the opportunity to provide advertising content to the users 240. The advertising provider 210 may determine whether to pay for an advertising impression (or determine the price to pay for the impression) based upon whether location-identifying information is available. If location-identifying information sufficient to generate dealer-targeted advertising is available and/or user profile information indicates that the user is “in-market,” the advertising provider 210 may pay for an advertising impression (or be willing to “bid” more for the impression), whereas if no location-identifying information is available, the advertising provider 210 may forego the advertising impression or bid a lesser amount.
The advertising provider 210 may access the location-identifying information using a number of techniques including, but not limited to: accessing location-identifying information provided by the user 240A, accessing location-identifying information provided by the user 240A to a different network-accessible service (e.g., in a previous session), obtaining location-identifying information from an advertising network 254, obtaining location-identifying information from a third-party service 250, or the like.
In some embodiments, users 240 accessing the network-accessible service 220 may be prompted to provide registration and/or profile information. This information may be provided when a user 240 first accesses the service 220 and/or may be updated on an ongoing basis (e.g., by prompting the users 240 and/or observing activity on the service 220). For example, the network-accessible service 220 may provide location-targeted content, which may be accessible only when users 240 provide location-identifying information. The location-identifying information may be received in a number of different ways including, but not limited to: the user entering location-identifying information, the user interacting with a map or other interface element, the user accessing the network-accessible service 220 using a location-aware device (e.g., a mobile communication device having GPS functionality), the user accessing other, location-aware network accessible services, or the like.
The location-identifying information provided by a user 240 may be stored in a browser “cookie” or other datastore 223 maintained by the network-accessible service 220. The cookie and/or profile datastore 223 may be accessible by the advertising provider 210. Alternatively, or in addition, the content request 242 may include a session identifier (or persistent session identifier header, an authentication header, a cookie, or the like), which may be used to access a user profiling maintained by the network-accessible service 220 (e.g., in the profile datastore 223). Other persistent user profile datastores may be queried, such an ADOBE FLASH® local shared object, cross-domain cookies, browser session data, a user identifier (e.g., user name, email address, etc.), or the like.
In some embodiments, the advertising provider 210 may access location-identifying information that was provided by the user 240A to a different network-accessible service, such as a portal website 252. The portal website 252 may be a product research website (e.g., an automotive research website, such as AUTOTRADER®, EDMUNDS®, or the like). The portal website 252 may request location-identifying information from users 240 to better provide location-targeted research information. The portal 252 may be configured to provide such information to the advertising provider 210 (subject to certain privacy restrictions). The location-identifying information may be provided using HTTP headers (e.g., in an HTTP forward or other referral mechanism), using cross-domain cookies, by back-channel communication between the advertising provider 210 and portal 252, using a profile aggregation service (not shown), or the like.
The advertising provider 210 may participate and/or be a member of an advertising network 254, which may maintain user profile data for members of the network. The user profile data maintained by the advertising network 256 may comprise location-identifying information entered at other network-accessible service(s) associated with the advertising network 254 (e.g., in previous sessions). As will be described below, the advertising network 254 may also be leveraged to identify users that are “in-market” (e.g., preparing to purchase a product advertised by the advertising provider 210), determine product preferences of the users (e.g., identify the type(s) of products and/or product features in which the user may be interested), and the like.
In some embodiments, the advertising provider 210 may be communicatively coupled to a third-party location-identification service 250, which may be configured to provide location-identification information regarding the users 240 using one or more of the techniques described above. The location-identification service 250 may comprise and/or be communicatively coupled to a plurality of different network-accessible services (not shown), each of which may use the service 250 to aggregate and/or access user profile information, including, but not limited to user location-identifying information. For example, when one of the network-accessible services (e.g., service 220) receives location-identifying information from a user 240, the information may be provided to the third-party service 250 (along with a key or other user identifier). Other network-accessible services (not shown) may be given access to the location-identifying information for use with certain restrictions (e.g., per a privacy policy of the advertising provider 210 and/or location-identification service 250).
Once location-identifying information regarding the content request 242 is obtained (using one or more of the techniques described above), the advertising provider 210 may determine the dealer 230 (and/or dealer group) that is assigned to the user 240A (e.g., identify the dealer 230 that is assigned the AOR in which the user 240A is located). In some embodiments, the advertising provider 210 may compare the location-identifying information to a dealer-to-AOR datastructure 219, which may comprise a datastructure as depicted in
If one or more dealers are identified, these dealers may be stored in a user profile (e.g., cookie) of the user 240A. Accordingly, future adverting for the user 240A may be targeted to the proper dealer without re-accessing the location-identifying information, AOR datastore 219, and the like.
The advertising provider 210 may generate dealer-targeted advertising content by combining an advertising template (e.g., template 214) from the datastore 212 with dealer-specific content obtained from the datastore 216. The resulting dealer-targeted advertising content may comprise a combination of generic advertising assets provided by the OEM (or franchisor) and dealer-specific content pertaining to the identified dealer 230. The dealer-targeted advertising generated by the advertising provider 210 may be provided to the network-accessible service 220, which may transmit the dealer-specific advertising content 225 to the user 240A. As discussed above, the dealer-specific advertising content 225 may be included with the content 224, presented to the user 240A interstitially, or the like.
In some embodiments, the datastore 212 may comprise a plurality of different advertising templates, each promoting a different type of product and/or targeted to a different “type” of customer (e.g., “in-market,” “casual,” “green,” and so on). The advertising provider 210 may be configured to select from the different advertising templates based upon user profile information. User profile information may be determined based upon the content 224 requested by the user 240A, by the user's 240A behavior on the network-accessible service 220 (e.g., past browsing history, etc.), by the user's 240A behavior on other network-accessible services (not shown), user profile information shared by other network-accessible services (e.g., product research portals, etc.), or the like. Alternatively, or in addition, the advertising provider 210 may access a user profile datastore 223 maintained by the network-accessible service 220, advertising network 254, location-identifying service 250, or the like.
For example, the datastore 212 of an advertising provider 210 for a vehicle manufacturer may include advertising templates related to “work” vehicles (e.g., trucks), “family” vehicles (e.g., mini vans, sport utility vehicles, etc.), “green” vehicles (e.g., hybrids, etc.), and so on. The advertising provider 210 may be configured to select a template from the datastore 212 based upon the user profile information accessed as described above. For instance, if the user profile information indicates that the content request 224 pertains to environmental issues, the user 240A has accessed content related to the environment in previous sessions, or the like, the advertising provider 210 may select an advertising template promoting “green” vehicles. The selected advertising template may be used to generate dealer-targeted advertising using dealer-specific content from the datastore 216 as described above.
The dealer-targeted advertising may be generated upon request (e.g., in response to the content request 242) and/or may be pre-generated and stored in a datastore 212 or 216. The advertising provider 210 may pre-generate advertising content for a user (e.g., user 240A) as soon as location-identifying information about the user is available. An indicator referencing the pre-generated advertising content may be stored in a user profile for the user (e.g., cookie or the like). The pre-generated advertising content may be provided when a content request from the user is received.
If the advertising provider 210 is unable to access location-identifying information for the user 240A, the advertising provider 210 may generate “generic” advertising content. The generic advertising content may not include dealer-specific advertising content. In some embodiments, generic advertising content may comprise a prompt requesting location-identifying information from the user 240A (e.g., “enter your zip code”). Alternatively, the prompt may comprise a request for user approval to access location-identifying information stored on the user's computing device, from a location-aware computing device, or the like. When the user 240A provides location-identifying information, the advertising provider 210 may generate updated, location-targeted, advertising content as described above.
At step 310, the method 300 may start and be initialized, which may comprise loading one or more machine-readable instructions from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, initializing hardware resources (e.g., datastores, communication interfaces, etc.), and so on.
At step 320, the method 300 may be prompted to generate dealer-targeted advertising content to be displayed in connection with content provided by a network-accessible service may be received. In some embodiments, the prompt may be received in response to a user content request (e.g., HTTP request). The content request may be received over a network (e.g., the Internet), and may comprise an HTTP request (e.g., HTTP GET), or other request type. The content request may comprise source-identifying information, such as a source IP address, request headers (e.g., HTTP headers), session identifiers, user credentials, and so on. In some embodiments, the prompt may comprise an offer to purchase an advertising impression and/or to bid on the impression.
At step 330, location-identifying information regarding the request may be accessed. The location-identifying information accessed at step 330 may be of sufficient specificity to allow the method 300 to assign a dealer to the request. Accordingly, the location-identifying information may comprise a dealer identifier (stored in a previous iteration of the method 300), an indicator identifying pre-generated advertising content, a postal code, a zip code, proper name, a street address, or the like. As described above, accessing location-identifying information at step 330 may comprise: accessing location-identifying information provided by the requester (and maintained by the method 300 or network-accessible service using a cookie or another storage technique), accessing location-identifying information provided to another network-accessible service (e.g., in a previous session), accessing location-identifying information from an advertising network, obtaining location-identifying information from a third-party location service, or the like. Accordingly, in some embodiments, step 330 may comprise extracting a key (or other identifier) from the request, and using the key to query a datastore (or other network-accessible service, advertising network, or the like) for location-identifying information.
Step 330 may further comprise accessing user-profile information, which, as described above, may be used to select an advertising template that is tailored to the “interests” of the user and/or may identify products and/or services that are likely to be of interest to the user.
In some embodiments, step 330 may comprise determining whether to purchase the advertising impression and/or calculating an amount to bid on the impression. If location-identifying information is not available, the method 300 may determine that it is not worthwhile to purchase the impression; and as such, may forego providing the advertising content and/or may bid a reduced amount for the impression. Conversely, if location-identifying information is available, the method 300 may purchase the impression and/or may bid a higher amount. The determination may be based not only on the availability of location-identifying information, but also on user profile information, such as whether the user is “in-market,” or the like. If the method 300 determines to forego the impression and/or the bid for the impression is not accepted, the flow may terminate at step 390 until a next prompt is received at step 320; otherwise, the flow may continue to step 340.
At step 340, one of a plurality of advertising templates stored in a template datastore may be selected. The selection may be based upon the type and/or nature of the content with which the advertising content is to be displayed. For instance, if the advertising content is to be displayed in connection with an article on farming, the method 300 may select an advertising template promoting a vehicle manufacturer's work truck line. Alternatively, or in addition, the selection may be based upon the user-file information (if available) accessed at step 330. As described above, user-profile information may be indicative of the user's interests and/or “in-market” status, which may be taken into consideration when selecting an advertising template at step 340.
At step 350, if the method 300 was able to access location-identifying information at step 330, the flow may continue to step 360; otherwise, the flow may continue to step 370.
At step 360, the method 300 may determine which of a plurality of dealers is associated with the request. Accordingly, step 360 may comprise determining in which dealer AORs the location-identifying information falls. The determining may comprise accessing an AOR datastructure (e.g., map datastructure) or the like. Once the AOR is determined, the corresponding dealer or dealer group may be identified.
At step 362, the method may access dealer-specific advertising content of the identified dealer or dealer group. The dealer-specific advertising content may be stored in a datastore of the method 300 and/or may be accessed directly from the identified dealer. The dealer-specific advertising content may comprise dealer location information (e.g., address, directions, etc.), contact information, branding assets (e.g., logo, color scheme, etc.), offers available at the dealer, dealer inventory information (e.g., real-time inventory available at the dealer), products or services offered at the dealer, coupons, etc.
At step 364, the method 300 may generate dealer-targeted advertising content by combining the advertising template selected at step 340 with the dealer-specific content accessed at step 362. The combining may comprise identifying tags or other “call-outs” in the advertising template specifying where dealer-specific content may be inserted. The method 300 may identify and/or interpret the tags, obtain the requested content (from a datastore and/or directly from a dealer), and insert the content into the template. For example, an advertising template may include a tag specifying the placement of dealer branding information (e.g., a logo image). At step 364, the method 300 may identify the tag(s) or call-out(s) in the advertising template, access dealer-specific content corresponding to the tag(s) or call-out(s), and insert appropriate dealer-specific content to generate dealer-targeted advertising content. In another example, a tag or callout may call for “real-time” information from a dealer, such as a service wait time, inventory status, or the like. The method 300 may query the dealer for the requested information (e.g., via a communication link, database query, or the like) and may populate the template accordingly. In some embodiments, the method 300 may include a refresh process during which each dealer and/or dealer group is queried for updated dealer-specific content. These queries may be configured to occur during “off-peak” times to prevent interference with the dealers' normal operations. The updated information accessed during the refresh may be stored (e.g., in a datastore, such as the datastore 216 of
At step 370, if no location-identifying information is found (or if the location is not sufficiently specific to identify a dealer AOR), the method 300 may generate “generic” advertising content. The generic advertising content may not include dealer-specific content. The generic advertising content may include a prompt for location-specific information (e.g., a zip code entry field). When location-identifying information is provided via the entry field, the flow may continue at step 360, where updated, dealer-specific advertising content may be generated as described above.
At step 380, the method 300 may provide the advertising content generated at steps 360-364 and/or 370 to the requester of step 320. At step 390, the method 300 may end until another prompt to generate dealer-specific advertising content is received.
The above description provides numerous specific details for a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that one or more of the specific details may be omitted, or other methods, components, or materials may be used. In some cases, operations are not shown or described in detail.
Furthermore, the described features, operations, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It will also be readily understood that the order of the steps or actions of the methods described in connection with the embodiments disclosed may be changed as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, any order in the Drawings or Detailed Description is for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to imply a required order, unless specified to require an order.
Embodiments may include various steps, which may be embodied in machine-executable instructions to be executed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer (or other electronic device). Alternatively, the steps may be performed by hardware components that include specific logic for performing the steps, or by a combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware.
Embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored instructions thereon that may be used to program a computer (or other electronic device) to perform processes described herein. The non-transitory computer-readable medium may include, but is not limited to: hard drives, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, solid-state memory devices, or other types of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.
As used herein, a software module or component may include any type of computer instruction or computer executable code located within a memory and/or other data storage device. A software module may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which may be organized as a routine, program, object, component, data structure, etc., that perform one or more tasks or implements particular abstract data types. The instructions may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and may be loaded into a memory when needed.
In certain embodiments, a particular software module may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations of a memory device, which together implement the described functionality of the module. Indeed, a module may comprise a single instruction or many instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Some embodiments may be practiced in a distributed computing environment where tasks are performed by a remote processing device linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, software modules may be located in local and/or remote memory storage devices. In addition, data being tied or rendered together in a database record may be resident in the same memory device, or across several memory devices, and may be linked together in fields of a record in a database across a network.
It will be understood by those having skill in the art that many changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3792445 | Bucks et al. | Feb 1974 | A |
4258421 | Juhasz et al. | Mar 1981 | A |
4992940 | Dworkin | Feb 1991 | A |
5003476 | Abe | Mar 1991 | A |
5034889 | Abe | Jul 1991 | A |
5058044 | Stewart et al. | Oct 1991 | A |
5421015 | Khoyi et al. | May 1995 | A |
5442553 | Parrillo | Aug 1995 | A |
5452446 | Johnson | Sep 1995 | A |
5521815 | Rose, Jr. | May 1996 | A |
5649186 | Ferguson | Jul 1997 | A |
5694595 | Jacobs et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
5729452 | Smith et al. | Mar 1998 | A |
5787177 | Leppek | Jul 1998 | A |
5790785 | Klug et al. | Aug 1998 | A |
5835712 | DuFresne | Nov 1998 | A |
5845299 | Arora et al. | Dec 1998 | A |
5862346 | Kley et al. | Jan 1999 | A |
5911145 | Arora et al. | Jun 1999 | A |
5956720 | Fernandez et al. | Sep 1999 | A |
5974149 | Leppek | Oct 1999 | A |
5974418 | Blinn et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
5974428 | Gerard et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
5978776 | Seretti et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
5987506 | Carter et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
6003635 | Bantz et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
6006201 | Berent et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
6009410 | LeMole et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
6018748 | Smith | Jan 2000 | A |
6021416 | Dauerer et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
6021426 | Douglis et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
6026433 | D'Arlach et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
6041310 | Green et al. | Mar 2000 | A |
6041344 | Bodamer et al. | Mar 2000 | A |
6055541 | Solecki et al. | Apr 2000 | A |
6061698 | Chadha et al. | May 2000 | A |
6067559 | Allard et al. | May 2000 | A |
6070164 | Vagnozzi | May 2000 | A |
6134532 | Lazarus et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
6151609 | Truong | Nov 2000 | A |
6178432 | Cook et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
6181994 | Colson et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
6185614 | Cuomo et al. | Feb 2001 | B1 |
6189104 | Leppek | Feb 2001 | B1 |
6219667 | Lu et al. | Apr 2001 | B1 |
6236994 | Schwartz et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
6263268 | Nathanson | Jul 2001 | B1 |
6289382 | Bowman-Amuah | Sep 2001 | B1 |
6295061 | Park et al. | Sep 2001 | B1 |
6330499 | Chou et al. | Dec 2001 | B1 |
6343302 | Graham | Jan 2002 | B1 |
6353824 | Boguraev et al. | Mar 2002 | B1 |
6374241 | Lamburt et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
6397226 | Sage | May 2002 | B1 |
6397336 | Leppek | May 2002 | B2 |
6401103 | Ho et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
6421733 | Tso et al. | Jul 2002 | B1 |
6473849 | Keller et al. | Oct 2002 | B1 |
6496855 | Hunt et al. | Dec 2002 | B1 |
6505106 | Lawrence et al. | Jan 2003 | B1 |
6505205 | Kothuri et al. | Jan 2003 | B1 |
6519617 | Wanderski et al. | Feb 2003 | B1 |
6535879 | Behera | Mar 2003 | B1 |
6539370 | Chang et al. | Mar 2003 | B1 |
6546216 | Mizoguchi et al. | Apr 2003 | B2 |
6553373 | Boguraev et al. | Apr 2003 | B2 |
6556904 | Larson et al. | Apr 2003 | B1 |
6564216 | Waters | May 2003 | B2 |
6571253 | Thompson et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
6581061 | Graham | Jun 2003 | B2 |
6583794 | Wattenberg | Jun 2003 | B1 |
6594664 | Estrada et al. | Jul 2003 | B1 |
6606525 | Muthuswamy et al. | Aug 2003 | B1 |
6629148 | Ahmed et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
6643663 | Dabney et al. | Nov 2003 | B1 |
6654726 | Hanzek | Nov 2003 | B1 |
6678706 | Fishel | Jan 2004 | B1 |
6697825 | Underwood et al. | Feb 2004 | B1 |
6721747 | Lipkin | Apr 2004 | B2 |
6728685 | Ahluwalia | Apr 2004 | B1 |
6738750 | Stone et al. | May 2004 | B2 |
6744735 | Nakaguro | Jun 2004 | B1 |
6748305 | Klausner et al. | Jun 2004 | B1 |
6785864 | Te et al. | Aug 2004 | B1 |
6795819 | Wheeler et al. | Sep 2004 | B2 |
6823258 | Ukai et al. | Nov 2004 | B2 |
6823359 | Heidingsfeld | Nov 2004 | B1 |
6826594 | Pettersen | Nov 2004 | B1 |
6847988 | Toyouchi et al. | Jan 2005 | B2 |
6850823 | Eun et al. | Feb 2005 | B2 |
6871216 | Miller et al. | Mar 2005 | B2 |
6894601 | Grunden et al. | May 2005 | B1 |
6901430 | Smith | May 2005 | B1 |
6917941 | Wight et al. | Jul 2005 | B2 |
6922674 | Nelson | Jul 2005 | B1 |
6944677 | Zhao | Sep 2005 | B1 |
6963854 | Boyd et al. | Nov 2005 | B1 |
6965968 | Touboul | Nov 2005 | B1 |
6978273 | Bonneau et al. | Dec 2005 | B1 |
6981028 | Rawat et al. | Dec 2005 | B1 |
6990629 | Heaney et al. | Jan 2006 | B1 |
7000184 | Matveyenko et al. | Feb 2006 | B2 |
7028072 | Kliger et al. | Apr 2006 | B1 |
7031554 | Iwane | Apr 2006 | B2 |
7039704 | Davis et al. | May 2006 | B2 |
7047318 | Svedloff | May 2006 | B1 |
7062506 | Taylor et al. | Jun 2006 | B2 |
7072943 | Landesmann | Jul 2006 | B2 |
7107268 | Zawadzki et al. | Sep 2006 | B1 |
7152207 | Underwood et al. | Dec 2006 | B1 |
7155491 | Schultz et al. | Dec 2006 | B1 |
7171418 | Blessin | Jan 2007 | B2 |
7197764 | Cichowlas | Mar 2007 | B2 |
7219234 | Ashland et al. | May 2007 | B1 |
7240125 | Fleming | Jul 2007 | B2 |
7246263 | Skingle | Jul 2007 | B2 |
7281029 | Rawat | Oct 2007 | B2 |
7322007 | Schowtka et al. | Jan 2008 | B2 |
7386786 | Davis et al. | Jun 2008 | B2 |
7401289 | Lachhwani et al. | Jul 2008 | B2 |
7433891 | Haber et al. | Oct 2008 | B2 |
7496543 | Bamford et al. | Feb 2009 | B1 |
7502672 | Kolls | Mar 2009 | B1 |
7536641 | Rosenstein et al. | May 2009 | B2 |
7548985 | Guigui | Jun 2009 | B2 |
7587504 | Adams et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
7593925 | Cadiz et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
7593999 | Nathanson | Sep 2009 | B2 |
7620484 | Chen | Nov 2009 | B1 |
7624342 | Matveyenko et al. | Nov 2009 | B2 |
7657594 | Banga et al. | Feb 2010 | B2 |
7739007 | Logsdon | Jun 2010 | B2 |
7747680 | Ravikumar et al. | Jun 2010 | B2 |
7778841 | Bayer et al. | Aug 2010 | B1 |
7801945 | Geddes et al. | Sep 2010 | B1 |
7861309 | Spearman et al. | Dec 2010 | B2 |
7865409 | Monaghan | Jan 2011 | B1 |
7870253 | Muilenburg et al. | Jan 2011 | B2 |
8019501 | Breed | Sep 2011 | B2 |
8036788 | Breed | Oct 2011 | B2 |
8051159 | Muilenburg et al. | Nov 2011 | B2 |
8055544 | Ullman et al. | Nov 2011 | B2 |
8209259 | Graham, Jr. et al. | Jun 2012 | B2 |
8212667 | Petite et al. | Jul 2012 | B2 |
8271473 | Berg | Sep 2012 | B2 |
8271547 | Taylor et al. | Sep 2012 | B2 |
8275717 | Ullman et al. | Sep 2012 | B2 |
8355950 | Colson et al. | Jan 2013 | B2 |
8438310 | Muilenburg et al. | May 2013 | B2 |
8521654 | Ford et al. | Aug 2013 | B2 |
8538894 | Ullman et al. | Sep 2013 | B2 |
8645193 | Swinson et al. | Feb 2014 | B2 |
8725341 | Ogasawara | May 2014 | B2 |
8849689 | Jagannathan et al. | Sep 2014 | B1 |
8886389 | Edwards et al. | Nov 2014 | B2 |
9165413 | Jones et al. | Oct 2015 | B2 |
9325650 | Yalavarty et al. | Apr 2016 | B2 |
9577866 | Rogers et al. | Feb 2017 | B2 |
9619945 | Adderly et al. | Apr 2017 | B2 |
9754304 | Taira et al. | Sep 2017 | B2 |
10032139 | Adderly et al. | Jul 2018 | B2 |
10083411 | Kinsey et al. | Sep 2018 | B2 |
20010005831 | Lewin et al. | Jun 2001 | A1 |
20010037332 | Miller et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
20010039594 | Park et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
20010054049 | Maeda et al. | Dec 2001 | A1 |
20020023111 | Arora et al. | Feb 2002 | A1 |
20020024537 | Jones et al. | Feb 2002 | A1 |
20020026359 | Long | Feb 2002 | A1 |
20020032626 | DeWolf et al. | Mar 2002 | A1 |
20020032701 | Gao et al. | Mar 2002 | A1 |
20020042738 | Srinivasan et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
20020046245 | Hillar et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
20020049831 | Platner et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
20020059260 | Jas | May 2002 | A1 |
20020065698 | Schick et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
20020065739 | Florance et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
20020069110 | Sonnenberg | Jun 2002 | A1 |
20020073080 | Lipkin | Jun 2002 | A1 |
20020082978 | Ghouri et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
20020091755 | Narin | Jul 2002 | A1 |
20020107739 | Schlee | Aug 2002 | A1 |
20020111727 | Vanstory et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
20020111844 | Vanstory et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
20020116418 | Lachhwani et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
20020123359 | Wei et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
20020124053 | Adams et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
20020129054 | Ferguson et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
20020138331 | Hosea et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
20020143646 | Boyden et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
20020154146 | Rodriquez et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
20020169851 | Weathersby et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
20020196273 | Krause | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20020198761 | Ryan et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20020198878 | Baxter et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20030014443 | Bernstein et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
20030023632 | Ries et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
20030033378 | Needham et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
20030036832 | Kokes et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
20030036964 | Boyden et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
20030037263 | Kamat et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
20030046179 | Anabtawi et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
20030051022 | Sogabe et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
20030061263 | Riddle | Mar 2003 | A1 |
20030065532 | Takaoka | Apr 2003 | A1 |
20030069785 | Lohse | Apr 2003 | A1 |
20030069790 | Kane | Apr 2003 | A1 |
20030074392 | Campbell et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
20030115292 | Griffin et al. | Jun 2003 | A1 |
20030120502 | Robb et al. | Jun 2003 | A1 |
20030145310 | Thames et al. | Jul 2003 | A1 |
20030177050 | Crampton et al. | Sep 2003 | A1 |
20030177175 | Worley et al. | Sep 2003 | A1 |
20030225853 | Wang et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
20030229623 | Chang et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
20030233246 | Snapp et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
20040012631 | Skorski | Jan 2004 | A1 |
20040039646 | Hacker | Feb 2004 | A1 |
20040041818 | White et al. | Mar 2004 | A1 |
20040073546 | Forster et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
20040073564 | Haber et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
20040088228 | Mercer et al. | May 2004 | A1 |
20040117046 | Colle et al. | Jun 2004 | A1 |
20040128320 | Grove et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
20040139203 | Graham, Jr. et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
20040148342 | Cotte | Jul 2004 | A1 |
20040156020 | Edwards | Aug 2004 | A1 |
20040163047 | Nagahara et al. | Aug 2004 | A1 |
20040181464 | Vanker et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
20040199413 | Hauser et al. | Oct 2004 | A1 |
20040220863 | Porter et al. | Nov 2004 | A1 |
20040225664 | Casement | Nov 2004 | A1 |
20040230897 | Latzel | Nov 2004 | A1 |
20040255233 | Croney et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
20040267263 | May | Dec 2004 | A1 |
20040268225 | Walsh et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
20040268232 | Tunning | Dec 2004 | A1 |
20050015491 | Koeppel | Jan 2005 | A1 |
20050065804 | Worsham et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
20050108112 | Ellenson et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
20050114270 | Hind et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
20050114764 | Gudenkauf et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
20050108637 | Sahota et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
20050171836 | Leacy | Aug 2005 | A1 |
20050187834 | Painter et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
20050228736 | Norman | Oct 2005 | A1 |
20050268282 | Laird | Dec 2005 | A1 |
20050289020 | Bruns et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
20050289599 | Matsuura et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
20060031811 | Ernst et al. | Feb 2006 | A1 |
20060059253 | Goodman et al. | Mar 2006 | A1 |
20060064637 | Rechterman et al. | Mar 2006 | A1 |
20060123330 | Horiuchi et al. | Jun 2006 | A1 |
20060129423 | Sheinson et al. | Jun 2006 | A1 |
20060129982 | Doyle | Jun 2006 | A1 |
20060136105 | Larson | Jun 2006 | A1 |
20060161841 | Horiuchi et al. | Jul 2006 | A1 |
20060200751 | Underwood et al. | Sep 2006 | A1 |
20060248442 | Rosenstein et al. | Nov 2006 | A1 |
20060265355 | Taylor | Nov 2006 | A1 |
20060271844 | Suklikar | Nov 2006 | A1 |
20060277588 | Harrington et al. | Dec 2006 | A1 |
20070005446 | Fusz et al. | Jan 2007 | A1 |
20070016486 | Stone et al. | Jan 2007 | A1 |
20070033520 | Kimzey et al. | Feb 2007 | A1 |
20070053513 | Hoffberg | Mar 2007 | A1 |
20070100519 | Engel | May 2007 | A1 |
20070150368 | Arora et al. | Jun 2007 | A1 |
20070209011 | Padmanabhuni et al. | Sep 2007 | A1 |
20070250327 | Hedy | Oct 2007 | A1 |
20070271154 | Broudy et al. | Nov 2007 | A1 |
20070271330 | Mattox et al. | Nov 2007 | A1 |
20070271389 | Joshi et al. | Nov 2007 | A1 |
20070282711 | Ullman et al. | Dec 2007 | A1 |
20070282712 | Ullman et al. | Dec 2007 | A1 |
20070282713 | Ullman et al. | Dec 2007 | A1 |
20070288413 | Mizuno et al. | Dec 2007 | A1 |
20080015929 | Koeppel et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
20080027827 | Eglen et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
20080172632 | Stambaugh | Jul 2008 | A1 |
20080189143 | Wurster | Aug 2008 | A1 |
20080195435 | Bentley et al. | Aug 2008 | A1 |
20080195932 | Oikawa et al. | Aug 2008 | A1 |
20080201163 | Barker et al. | Aug 2008 | A1 |
20090012887 | Taub et al. | Jan 2009 | A1 |
20090024918 | Silverbrook et al. | Jan 2009 | A1 |
20090043780 | Hentrich, Jr. et al. | Feb 2009 | A1 |
20090070435 | Abhyanker | Mar 2009 | A1 |
20090089134 | Uyeki | Apr 2009 | A1 |
20090106036 | Tamura et al. | Apr 2009 | A1 |
20090112687 | Blair et al. | Apr 2009 | A1 |
20090182232 | Zhang et al. | Jul 2009 | A1 |
20090204454 | Lagudi | Aug 2009 | A1 |
20090222532 | Finlaw | Sep 2009 | A1 |
20090265607 | Raz et al. | Oct 2009 | A1 |
20090313035 | Esser et al. | Dec 2009 | A1 |
20100082778 | Muilenburg et al. | Apr 2010 | A1 |
20100082780 | Muilenburg et al. | Apr 2010 | A1 |
20100088158 | Pollack | Apr 2010 | A1 |
20100100506 | Marot | Apr 2010 | A1 |
20100293030 | Wu | Nov 2010 | A1 |
20100312608 | Shan et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
20100324777 | Tominaga et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
20110010432 | Uyeki | Jan 2011 | A1 |
20110022525 | Swinson et al. | Jan 2011 | A1 |
20110145064 | Anderson et al. | Jun 2011 | A1 |
20110161167 | Jallapuram | Jun 2011 | A1 |
20110191264 | Inghelbrecht et al. | Aug 2011 | A1 |
20110224864 | Gellatly et al. | Sep 2011 | A1 |
20120089474 | Xiao et al. | Apr 2012 | A1 |
20120209714 | Douglas et al. | Aug 2012 | A1 |
20120221125 | Bell | Aug 2012 | A1 |
20120278886 | Luna | Nov 2012 | A1 |
20130046432 | Edwards et al. | Feb 2013 | A1 |
20130080196 | Schroeder et al. | Mar 2013 | A1 |
20130204484 | Ricci | Aug 2013 | A1 |
20130325541 | Capriotti et al. | Dec 2013 | A1 |
20130332023 | Bertosa et al. | Dec 2013 | A1 |
20140026037 | Garb et al. | Jan 2014 | A1 |
20140088866 | Knapp et al. | Mar 2014 | A1 |
20140229391 | East et al. | Aug 2014 | A1 |
20140278805 | Thompson | Sep 2014 | A1 |
20140324275 | Stanek et al. | Oct 2014 | A1 |
20140379530 | Kim et al. | Dec 2014 | A1 |
20150057875 | McGinnis et al. | Feb 2015 | A1 |
20150066781 | Johnson et al. | Mar 2015 | A1 |
20150100199 | Kurnik et al. | Apr 2015 | A1 |
20150278886 | Fusz | Oct 2015 | A1 |
20150286979 | Ming et al. | Oct 2015 | A1 |
20160071054 | Kakarala et al. | Mar 2016 | A1 |
20160140622 | Wang et al. | May 2016 | A1 |
20160148439 | Akselrod et al. | May 2016 | A1 |
20170124525 | Johnson et al. | May 2017 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2494350 | May 2004 | CA |
0461888 | Mar 1995 | EP |
Entry |
---|
Final Office Action dated Jul. 6, 2011, in U.S. Appl. No. 11/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, 26 pgs. |
Understanding X.500—The Directory. Chadwick, D.W. Available at http://sec.cs.kent.ac.uk/x500book/. 1996. Entire work cited. |
Internet Archive Wayback Machine, archive of LDAP Browser.com—FAQ. Archived Dec. 11, 2000. Available at http://web.archive.org/web/200012110152/http://www.ldapbrowser.com/faq/faq.php3?sID=fe4ae66f2f023d86909f35e974f3a1ce. |
Internet Archive Wayback Machine, archive of LDAP Browser.com—Product Info. Archived Dec. 11, 2000. Available at http://web.archive.org/web/200012110541/http:www.ldapbrowser.com/prodinfo/prodinfo.php3?sID=fe4ae66f2f023d86909f35e974f3a1ce. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Dec. 6, 2016, 26 pgs. |
“NetFormx Offers Advanced Network Discovery Software”. PR Newswire. Mar. 15, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54102907.html>. |
Aloisio, Giovanni et al., “Web-based access to the Grid using the Grid Resource Broker portal,” Google 2002, pp. 1145-1160. |
Anonymous, “Software ready for prime time.” Automotive News. Detroit, Nov. 5, 2001. vol. 76, Issue 5996, p. 28. |
Chen, Deren, “Business to Business Standard and Supply Chain System Framework in Virtual Enterprises,” Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, The Sixth International Conference on, 2001; Publication Year: 2001, pp. 472-476. |
CNY Business Journal, “Frank La Voila named Southern Tier Small-Business Person of 1999”. Jun. 11, 1999. 2 pgs. |
Dallas Morning News, “I know someone who knows Kevin Bacon”. Oct. 27, 1998. 4 pgs. |
Davis, Peter T. et al., “Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows NT Server 4 in 21 Days,” Sams® Publishing, © 1999. ISBN: 0-672-31555-6, 15 pgs., printed Dec. 21, 2008. |
Derfler, Frank J. et al., “How Networks Work: Millennium Edition,” Que, A Division of Macmillan Computer Publishing, © 2000. ISBN: 0-7897-2445-6, 9 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Mar. 3, 2010, 24 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Apr. 5, 2005, 12 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated May 18, 2006, 15 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Nov. 14, 2007, 13 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,465, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated May 5, 2005, 8 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/149,909, filed Jun. 10, 2005, and dated Feb. 4, 2009, 14 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated Apr. 7, 2009, 19 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated May 21, 2010, 28 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated Nov. 29, 2011, 26 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/524,602, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Jul. 27, 2010, 11 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/524,602, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Jun. 26, 2012, 11 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,852, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Oct. 24, 2011, 13 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,861, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Jun. 22, 2011, 5 pgs. |
Hogue et al., “Thresher: Automating the Unwrapping of Semantic Content from the World Wide Web,” ACM 2005, pp. 86-95. |
Housel, Barron C. et al., “WebExpress: A client/intercept based system for optimizing Web browsing in a wireless environment,” Google 1998, pp. 419-431. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20010718130244/http://chromedata.com/maing2/about/index.asp, 1 pg. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20050305055408/http://www.dealerclick.com/, 1 pg. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20050528073821/http://www.kbb.com/, 1 pg. |
http://web.archive.org/web/20050531000823/http://www.carfax.com/, 1 pg. |
IBM Tivoli Access Manager Base Administration Guide, Version 5.1. 2003, International Business Machines Corporation. Entire book enclosed and cited. 402 pgs. |
Interconnection. (2003). In Roget's II The New Thesaurus. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved Jul. 16, 2009, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/hmrogets/interconnection, 1 pg. |
Internet Archive: Audio Archive, http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-searchresults.php?search=@start=0&limit=100&sort=ad, printed May 12, 2004, 12 pgs. |
Internet Archive: Democracy Now, http://www.archive.org/audio/collection.php?collection=democracy_now, printed May 12, 2004, 2 pgs. |
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Overview, printed Mar. 6, 2010, 3 pgs. |
Java version history—Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, printed Mar. 6, 2010, 9 pgs. |
Michener, J.R., et al., “Managing System and Active-Content Integrity,” Computer; vol. 33, Issue: 7; Publication Year: 2000, pp. 108-110. |
Milic-Frayling, Natasa, et al., “SmartView: Enhanced Document Viewer for Mobile Devices,” Google Nov. 15, 2002, 11 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Dec. 26, 2008, 13 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Feb. 6, 2006, 11 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Jul. 22, 2009, 22 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Jun. 29, 2006, 11 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Mar. 12, 2007, 10 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated May 29, 2008, 10 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Nov. 1, 2010, 19 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,796, filed Jan. 24, 2003 and dated May 19, 2005, 7 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Apr. 17, 2007, 12 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Dec. 9, 2005, 14 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Sep. 22, 2004, 10 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,465, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Jul. 27, 2004, 9 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,606, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Dec. 19, 2005, 8 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,606, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated May 17, 2004, 6 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/149,909, filed Jun. 10, 2005, and dated May 13, 2008, 14 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/149,909, filed Jun. 10, 2005, and dated May 6, 2009, 6 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/414,939, filed May 1, 2006, and dated Jul. 19, 2010, 7 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/414,939, filed May 1, 2006, and dated Mar. 9, 2010, 11 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated Jun. 1, 2011, 23 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated Nov. 12, 2009, 19 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated Sep. 3, 2008, 14 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/524,602, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Nov. 14, 2011, 19 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/525,009, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Aug. 10, 2011, 18 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/525,009, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Dec. 16, 2009, 20 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,852, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Jan. 16, 2013, 5 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Jun. 30, 2016, 23 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,795, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated May 7, 2012, 15 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,796, filed Jan. 24, 2003 and dated Feb. 1, 2006, 5 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Apr. 14, 2008, 6 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,465, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Sep. 21, 2005, 4 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,606, filed Jan. 24, 2003 and dated Apr. 4, 2006, 8 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 10/351,606, filed Jan. 24, 2003, and dated Apr. 4, 2006, 12 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 11/149,909, filed Jun. 10, 2005, and dated Sep. 16, 2009, 7 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 11/414,939, filed May 1, 2006, and dated Nov. 2, 2010, pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 11/442,821, filed May 30, 2006, and dated Jul. 30, 2012, 6 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 11/446,011, filed Jun. 2, 2006, and dated Aug. 9, 2011, 10 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 11/524,602, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Aug. 6, 2013, 22 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 11/525,009, filed Sep. 21, 2006, and dated Jul. 23, 2012, 19 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,852, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Feb. 27, 2013, 6 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,855, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Oct. 28, 2010, 5 pgs. |
Notice of Allowance and Fee(s) Due for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,861, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Sep. 6, 2011, 10 pgs. |
Notice of Non-compliant Amendment dated Dec. 12, 2006 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/350,810. |
Permissions in the Java™ 2 SDK, printed Mar. 6, 2010, 45 pgs. |
Restriction Requirement for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,852, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Dec. 7, 2010. |
Strebe, Matthew et al. MCSE: NT Server 4 Study Guide, Third Edition. 2000, SYBEX Inc. Front matter, pp. 284-293, and 308-347 are included. Entire book cited, 36 pgs. |
Supplemental Notice of Allowability for U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,852, filed Oct. 1, 2008, and dated Mar. 19, 2013, 3 pgs. |
Trademark Electronic Search System record for Serial No. 76375405, Word Mark “NITRA”. |
Lee, Adam J. et al., “Searching for Open Windows and Unlocked Doors: Port Scanning in Large-Scale Commodity Clusters,” Cluster Computing and the Grid, 2005. CCGrid 2005. IEEE International Symposium on vol. 1; Publication Year: 2005,, pp. 146-151 vol. 1. |
Advisory Action for U.S. Appl. No. 15/602,999, filed May 23, 2017, and dated Jan. 31, 2019, 3 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,779, filed Apr. 21, 2016, and dated Jan. 30, 2019, 26 pgs. |
Non-Final Office Action received in U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,793, filed Apr. 21, 2016, dated Jan. 30, 2019, 26 pgs. |
“An Appointment with Destiny—The Time for Web-Enabled Scheduling has Arrived”, Link Fall, 2007, 2 pages. |
“How a Solution found a Problem of Scheduling Service Appointments”, Automotive News, 2016, 4 pages. |
“Service Advisor”, Automotive Dealership Institute, 2007, 26 pages. |
“XTime.com Web Pages”, Jan. 8, 2015, 1 page. |
“XTimes Newsletter”, vol. 7, 2013, 4 pages. |
U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,820, Notice of Allowance, dated Jan. 28, 2019, 7 pages. |
Croswell, “Service Shop Optimiztion”, Modern Tire Retailer, May 21, 2013, 7 pages. |
Emmanuel, “Basics to Creating an Appointment System for Automotive Service Customers”, Automotiveservicemanagement.com, 2006, 9 pages. |
U.S. Appl. No. 15/602,999, Notice of Allowance, dated Apr. 18, 2019, 6 pages. |
Office Action dated Sep. 17, 2007 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Jul. 7, 2008 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Nov. 13, 2008 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated May 11, 2009 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Sep. 14, 2009 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Nov. 27, 2009 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/446,011, filed Jun. 2, 2006. |
Office Action dated Dec. 11, 2009 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/524,602, filed Sep. 21, 2006. |
Office Action dated Dec. 16, 2009 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/525,009, filed Sep. 21, 2006. |
Office Action dated Feb. 24, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Jun. 8, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/446,011, filed Jun. 2, 2006. |
Office Action dated Jul. 27, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/524,602, filed Sep. 21, 2006. |
Office Action dated Aug. 4, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/525,009, filed Sep. 21, 2006. |
Office Action dated Aug. 30, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Oct. 14, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,855, filed Oct. 1, 2008. |
Office Action dated Nov. 8, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,861, filed Oct. 1, 2008. |
Notice of Allowance dated Nov. 22, 2010 in U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,855, filed Oct. 1, 2008. |
Office Action dated Mar. 1, 2011 in U.S. Appl. No. 11/446,011, filed Jun. 2, 2006. |
Office Action dated Mar. 8, 2011 in U.S. Appl. No. 10/665,899, filed Sep. 18, 2003. |
Office Action dated Mar. 17, 2011 in U.S. Appl. No. 12/243,852, filed Oct. 1, 2008. |
U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,779, Advisory Action, dated Jul. 29, 2019, 6 pages. |
U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,793, Advisory Action, dated Jul. 29, 2019, 6 pages. |
Advisory Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Jul. 12, 2018. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Jan. 11, 2019 , 16 pgs. |
Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Apr. 16, 2018. |
Trademark Application, Serial No. 76375405. 13 pages of advertising material and other application papers enclosed. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Sep. 20, 2017. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 14/208,042, filed Mar. 13, 2014, and dated Sep. 21, 2018. |
Non-Final Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 15/602,999, filed May 23, 2017, and dated May 3, 2018. |
Non-Final Office Action dated Oct. 6, 2017 in U.S. Appl. No. 13/025,019. |
Internet Archive Dan Gillmor Sep. 1, 1996. |
“Openbay Announces First-of-its-Kind Connected Car Repair Service”, openbay.com, Mar. 31, 2015, 14 pages. |
U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,779, Final Office Action, dated May 17, 2019, 25 pages. |
Chatterjee, et al., “On-board diagnostics not just for racing anymore”, EDN.com, May 6, 2013, 7 pages. |
Drawbaugh, “Automatic Link Review: an expensive way to learn better driving habits”, Endgadget.com, Nov. 26, 2013, 14 pages. |
Jenkins, “Real-time vehicle performance monitoring with data intergrity”, A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University, Oct. 2006, 57 pages. |
Lavrinc, “First Android-powered infotainment system coming to 2012 Saab 9-3”, Autoblog.com, Mar. 2, 2011, 8 pages. |
Needham, “Google Now Taking Appointments for Auto Repair Shops”, Autoshopsolutions.com, Aug. 25, 2015, 6 pages. |
openbay.com Web Pages, Openbay.com, retrieved from archive.org May 14, 2019, Apr. 2015, 6 pages. |
openbay.com Web Pages, Openbay.com, retrieved from archive.org on May 14, 2019, Feb. 2014, 2 pages. |
openbay.com Web Pages, Openbay.com, retrieved from archive.org, May 14, 2019, Mar. 2015, 11 pages. |
Phelan, “Smart phone app aims to automate car repairs”, Detroit Free Press Auto Critic, Mar. 31, 2015, 2 pages. |
Pubnub Staff, “Streaming Vehicle Data in Realtime with Automatic (Pt 1)”, Pubnub.com, Aug. 17, 2015, 13 pages. |
Warren, “This Device Determines What Ails Your Car and Finds a Repair Shop—Automatically”, CarAndDriver.com, Apr. 8, 2015, 7 pages. |
You, et al., “Overview of Remote Diagnosis and Maintenance for Automotive Systems”, 2005 SAE World Congress, Apr. 11-14, 2015, 10 pages. |
U.S. Appl. No. 15/134,793, Final Office Action, dated May 13, 2019, 26 pages. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20120209714 A1 | Aug 2012 | US |