Patent Application
20140245340
1. Field
The embodiments described herein relate to Internet advertising, and more particularly to providing, a third-party ad sponsored video rating system that allows the users of video hosting provider(s) to rate their video content.
2. Background
There are currently numerous sites and video hosting providers (i.e., video content websites) on the Internet serving and hosting premium and/or user generated videos such as YOUTUBE™, METACAFE™, GOOGLE VIDEO™, BRIGHTCOVE™, MYSPACE™, ROO NETWORKS™, etc. The most common method for these properties or vendors to monetize the video views, or impressions, is to serve banner ads on the page adjacent to the video or video player. Most of these banner ads are not able to target based on the content of the video, due to the nature of professional and/or user generated content that can cover countless subject or content matter, e.g., wedding videos, stunts, testimonials, personal experiences, independent entertainment movies or shots, etc.
Conventional advertising or monetization methods for these providers include: pre-roll video ads, video commercials that stream before the user-generated and premium content. These methods and other developments to overlay advertisements next to or on top of the video to draw user's attention have also been in use. These methods tend to annoy users and deter them from viewing the requested video they have chosen to view, unless they know exactly what they want to watch and are willing to wait and view the advertisement—with no interaction.
Many major advertisers like to use video advertisement clips to advertise their clients' products and/or services on video content sites. However, it is important to distinguish the difference between premium video content and user generated video content. Premium video content is generally copyrighted content created by a commercial entity. Most premium content is used in traditional media via broadcast television, cable, and/or satellite networks, which monetize the premium content with commercial advertisements. The Internet equivalent of the commercial advertisement is the pre-roll video. Pre-roll videos require the user to view them before the user is actually shown the premium content.
These pre-roll videos are much less effective for user-generated content. Unlike with longer premium content, user generated content is generally shorter and harder to classify. Forcing users to watch a 15-second pre-rolled video ad so that they can watch a short 20-second video clip is unreasonable. These user-generated videos are usually promoted by viral methods (e.g. e-mails, instant messages, homepage links, etc.) or just plain word-of-mouth. Forcing a pe-roll video for user-generated content will greatly diminish the viral and/or word-of-mouth appeal of a clip. However, one thing, users expect on a user generated content site is a rating system. Most video sites current allow users to rate or send videos to a friend. This allows the sites community to filter out good videos from bad. It is a feature that is heavily used and very natural for any user-generated content. However, what has been lacking thus far is a system that can effectively monetize the video rating feature.
Systems and methods for implementing a third-party aggregated video rating system are disclosed.
In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for providing a third-party video content rating unit to a client device is disclosed. A web browser running on the client device requests video content from an affiliate video content server. The media player running on the client device, receives a data stream of the video content from the affiliate video content server, renders the video content and sends a request for the third-party video content rating unit to a third-party ad content server once the video content has been completely rendered. The third-party ad content server receives the request for the third-party video content rating unit, sends the third-party video content rating unit to the client device and streams advertising content to the third-party video content rating unit. The third party video content rating unit is configured to be rendered on top of the media player.
In another aspect, a system for providing third-party aggregated video content ratings is disclosed. The system includes an affiliate video content server, a client device, and a third-party ad server. The affiliate video content device can be configured to store a plurality of video content files and generate a data stream to transmit a requested video content file. The client device can have both a web browser and a media player. The web browser is communicatively connected to the affiliate video content server and can be configured to allow a user to send a request for a video content file to the affiliate video content server. The media player is communicatively connected to the affiliate video content server and can be configured to receive and render the data stream of the requested video content file. The media player can also be further configured to generate a request for a third-party video content rating unit after the requested video content file has been completely rendered.
The third-party ad server is communicatively connected to the client device and can be configured to receive the request for the third-party video content rating unit, send the requested third-party video content rating unit to the client device (wherein, the third-party video content rating unit is configured to be overlaid on top of the media player) and stream advertising content to the third-party video content rating unit.
These and other features, aspects, and embodiments of the invention are described below in the section entitled “Detailed Description.”
Features, aspects, and embodiments of the inventions are described in conjunction with the attached drawings, in which:
Embodiments herein are described and directed for systems and methods for implementing a third party aggregated video rating system. It will be obvious, however, that the embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process operations have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
As used herein, the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW) uses a hypermedia, (i.e., comprising of graphics, audio, video, plain text, hyperlinks, etc.) based system for enabling the browsing of Internet sites. As its name implies, the WWW (i.e., Internet) is comprised of many websites linked together allowing users to travel from one website to another simply by clicking on hyperlinks. To access the web, a user (i.e., client) typically runs a web browser program (e.g., FIREFOX™, NETSCAPE™, INTERNET EXPLORER™, SAFARI™, OPERA™, CAMINO™, etc.) that assists the user in navigating from among the various websites on the WWW and renders the web pages associated with those websites for viewing by the user.
Webpages are typically written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML), or Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML). DHTML denotes a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (i.e., HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JAVASCRIPT™), a presentation definition language (i.e., CSS), and a Document Object Model. DHTML based webpages use client-side scripting to change the variables of the presentation definition language. (i.e., HTML) to affect the look and function of otherwise “static” HTML page content, after the page has been fully loaded and during the rendering process.
The term Internet ad provider (i.e., ad server) can denote any Internet advertisement provider that store Internet advertisements used in online marketing and delivers them to website visitors/users. Ad servers come in two general categories: local ad servers and third party for remote) ad servers. Local ad servers are typically run by a single publisher (i.e., web content provider) and serve ads to that publisher's own domains, allowing fine-grained creative, formatting, and con tent control by that publisher. Third-party ad servers can serve ads across domains owned by multiple publishers (web content providers). They can deliver the ads from one central source (third-party ad server) so that advertisers and publishers can track the distribution of their online advertisements, and have one location for controlling the rotation and distribution of their advertisements across the web.
Internet advertisements can take any form as along as it can be rendered onto a web browser, a software object, or equivalent application. Examples include: static graphical banners, interactive polls, interactive games, animated ads, multimedia clips, streaming video, etc. Rich-media denotes interactive multimedia web content that includes audio, graphics, image, video, and animation in addition to traditional media (text and graphics).
Video hosting providers (i.e., video content, websites) are websites the Internet that host and serve premium and/or user generated video content (e.g., clips, full-length movies/episodes, etc.) for Internet users to stream and download. Examples of video hosting providers include, but are not limited to: YOUTUBE™, METACAFE™, GOOGLE VIDEO™, BRIGHTCOVE™, MYSPACE™, ROO NETWORKS™, etc. A video player is a type of media player for playing back digital video data from files of appropriate formats such as MPEG, AVI, REALVIDEO™, QUICKTIME™, etc. Examples of video players include, but are not limited to: WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER™, QUICKTIME™, VLD MEDIAPLAYER™, REAL PLAYER™, ZOOM PLAYER™, etc. A user will typically need to load a video player onto his/her client device (e.g., personal computer, thin-client terminal, mobile communications device, etc.) in order to view and enjoy the video content posted on video hosting provider websites.
As discussed above, there is a need for new and innovative methods and/or systems to monetize the Internet video rating feature. In view of the foregoing, it should appreciated that there are a number of inherent advantages offered by a third-party aggregated video content rating system that can be used across multiple video content sites and video player platforms to serve a sponsored rating system at the end of user generated videos, which will include a sponsor video and a creative ad placement. By pairing sponsored advertising content with a video content rating unit that is delivered to a user after he/she has finished viewing a video clip, the video rating feature can generate sponsored ad revenue (become monetized).
During an Internet 103 web surfing session, the client 102 can make a request for a web page from the web content server 104, which is configured to send the requested page back to the client 103 in the form of a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or equivalent file type (e.g., Extensible Markup Language (XML), Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), and Extensible Bindings Language (XBL)). In addition to the base markup language and text, the web page can include various types of embedded content such as audio objects files, video objects/files and/or pictures. Once received by the client device 102, the requested web page can be rendered and viewed by a user on the web browser application that runs on the client device 102. When the web page includes embedded content, such as a video object/file, an appropriate media player (i.e. video player) can be launched to open and play (i.e., render) the video object/file. In one embodiment, the video object/file is associated with video content that is stored on the web content server 104. When opened or activated, the video object/file is configured to initiate a data communications channel (i.e., data stream) between the media player and the web content server 104 hosting the video content that is associated with the video object/file, thus allowing a “video stream” of the video content to be displayed on the media player to the user. In another embodiment, the video object/file is configured as a complete video content data file. That is, the video object/file is a complete media file that can be played in its entirety by the media player without the need for a data stream from a web content server.
In one embodiment, the video object/file includes an embedded command (script) that instructs the media player to generate and send a request for a video content rating unit to a third-party ad server 106 when the video content is finished playing. That is, the media player is instructed by the video object/file to generate and send a request for a video content rating unit to the third-party ad server 106 when the user(s) are finished viewing the video object/file (e.g., user generated video, premium video content, etc). In another embodiment, the media player is configured to automatically generate and send a request for a video content rating unit to the third-party ad server 106 when it determines that the video content data stream has ceased or that the data stream channel is disconnected. Once the third-party ad server 106 receives the request, it is configured to send a video content rating unit (i.e., third-party video content rating unit) to the client device 102 hosting the media player.
The video content rating unit can appear as an overlay over the media player and can include one or more frames that can be used to present various types of static or interactive content to a user. For example, in certain embodiments, the video content rating unit can include a first frame which presents a video content rating classification module (using symbols, numbers, or other metrics) for users to rate the video content if they choose, while at the same time a video advertisement clip is streamed to a second frame as users pick their rating (with the sponsor of the video advertisement clip being presented as an ad banner in a third fame). In one embodiment, the video advertisement clip that is streamed by the third-party ad server 106 to the video content rating unit is chosen based on the subject matter of the video content. In another embodiment, the video advertisement clip that this streamed by the third-party ad server 106 to the video content rating unit is chosen based on the target audience for the video content. It should be appreciated, however, that the third-party ad server 106 can be configured to choose the video advertisement clip based on any video content attribute that allows a sponsor to selectively provide the most relevant video advertising to a user.
Once submitted by a user, the response (i.e., video content rating) can be sent back to the third-party ad server 106, which then can post the user response and user information (IP address, date, time, site) to a user information database that can be communicatively connected to the ad content server 106, and send back overall user rating results (accumulated from the other users of the same website) for the video content just viewed by the user along with other related links or viral methods (e.g., instant messaging, e-mails, etc.) to share the video content with other users. Additionally, the third-party ad server 106 can send a cookie to the user's web browser so that a user profile can be generated for that user to track the user response and user information.
In one embodiment, if the same video content (i.e., video clip A) is being streamed or played across multiple affiliate web content sites (or web content servers 104) and/or media players that use the same third-party video content rating unit, the rating totals can be aggregated across all the affiliated web content sites and media players that host or play the video content (i.e., video clip A). That is, the third-party video content rating unit can be used to aggregate user ratings for video clip A across the multiple affiliate websites hosting the video clip A and/or media players (that use the same third-party video content rating unit) that have been used to play video clip A. Providing a third-party rating system that can aggregate ratings across multiple sites and players is unique and provides value to content developers to increase interest and viewership, while adding value to web content sites and media players by increasing views and sharing the ratings and views of users across the Internet, as compared to a single source.
Moving on to step 208, once the video content has been completely rendered (finished playing), the media player is configured to send a request for the third-party video content rating unit to the third-party ad server. It should be appreciated, however, that there can be other triggers for the media player to generate and send the third-party video content rating unit request. In an alternative embodiment, the media player can be configured to automatically generate and send a request for a video content rating unit to the third-party ad server when it determines that the video content data stream has ceased or that the data stream channel is disconnected.
In steps 210 through 214 once the third-party ad server 106 receives the request, it is configured to send a video content rating unit (i.e., third-party video content rating unit) to the client device hosting the media player. The video content rating unit can be overlaid on top of the media player and can include one or more frames that can be used to present various types of static and/or interactive content to a user. For example, in certain embodiments, the video content rating unit can include a first frame which presents a video content rating classification module (using symbols, numbers, or other metrics) for users to rate the video content if they choose, while at the same time a video advertisement clip is streamed to a second frame as users pick their rating (with the sponsor of the video advertisement clip being presented as an ad banner in a third, frame). In one embodiment, the video advertisement clip that is streamed by the third-party ad server to the video content rating unit is chosen based on the subject matter of the video content. In another embodiment, the video advertisement clip that this streamed by the third-party ad server to the video content rating unit is chosen based on the target audience for the video content. It should be appreciated, however, that the third-party ad server can be configured to choose the video advertisement clip based on any video content attribute that allows a sponsor to selectively provide the most relevant video advertising to a user.
As discussed above, once submitted by a user, the response (i.e., video content rating) can be sent back to the third-party ad server, which then can post the user response and user information (IP address, date, time, site) to a user information database that can be communicatively connected to the third-party ad content server, and send back overall user rating results (accumulated from the other users of the same website) for the video content just viewed by the user along with other related links or viral methods (e.g., instant messaging, emails, etc) to share the video content with other users. Additionally, the third-party ad server can send a cookie to the user's web browser so that a user profile can be generated for the user to track the user response and user information.
In one embodiment, if the same video content (i.e., video clip A) is being streamed or played across multiple affiliate web content sites (or web content servers) and/or media players that use the same third-party video content rating unit, the rating totals can be aggregated across all the affiliated web content sites and media players that host or play the video content (i.e., video clip A). That is, the third-party video content rating unit can be used to aggregate user ratings for video clip A across the multiple affiliate websites hosting the video clip A and/or media players (that use the same third-party video content rating unit) that have been used to play video clip A. Providing a third-party rating system that can aggregate ratings across multiple sites and players is unique and provides value to content developers to increase interest and viewership, while adding value to web content sites and media players by increasing views and sharing the ratings and views of users across the Internet, as compared to a single source.
As shown in
Any of the operations that form part of the embodiments described herein are useful machine operations. The invention also relates to a device or an apparatus for performing these operations. The systems and methods described herein can be specially constructed for the required purposes, such as the specialty servers (e.g., ad server, web content servers, etc.) discussed above, or it may be a general-purpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. In particular, various general-purpose machines may be used with computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required operations.
Certain embodiments can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data, which can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable medium include hard drives, network attached storage (NAS), read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over a network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.
While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described above, it will be understood that the embodiments described are by way of example only. Accordingly, the inventions should not be limited based on the described embodiments. Rather, the scope of the inventions described herein should only be limited in light of the claims that follow when taken in conjunction with the above description and accompanying drawings.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60946074 | Jun 2007 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12146246 | Jun 2008 | US |
| Child | 14270340 | US |
