Patent Application
20090055857
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Internet web sites. More particularly, the present invention relates to curating video channels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A “blog” is an Internet web log that an author uses to display relevant entries in chronological order and often provides areas for readers to post feedback to the entries. It has become a very popular forum to display news or commentary.
Web sites devoted to displaying video files, such as YouTube™ and Yahoo™ Videos have also gained in popularity. On these sites, content providers post copies of video files and users are able to download these file, typically for free, and play the videos using web browser plug-ins or stand-alone video player software.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a schedule of videos is received from a curator, wherein the curator is involved in displaying videos on a web page and the schedule is a list of videos to be displayed on the web page. One or more advertisements are matched to the schedule of videos, wherein the matching is based at least partially upon the content of videos within the schedule of videos or information about the schedule of videos. Then a video stream containing videos from the schedule of videos is integrated into the web page, along with the one or more advertisements.
Reference will now be made in detail to specific embodiments of the invention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors for carrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention is described in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to the described embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In the following description, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In addition, well known features may not have been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention.
In accordance with the present invention, the components, process steps, and/or data structures may be implemented using various types of operating systems, computing platforms, computer programs, and/or general purpose machines. In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that devices of a less general purpose nature, such as hardwired devices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
According to various embodiments of the present invention, users are able to act as curators for a video “channel” of their own design. The curator, who is involved in the displaying of videos on the page, such as the operator or user of a web site, may select a group of videos he wishes to display to visitors. This video stream may then be integrated into the web page. While web pages may have general advertising accompanying them, and video distribution web sites also have advertising on them, the present invention allows the curator to derive revenue from the compilation of the videos.
The curator may create a schedule of videos selected from one or more content providers. Targeted advertising may then be placed on the web page accompanying the video display. This may include advertising placed next to or on the same page as a video display. Alternatively, the advertising may be in the form of video or audio advertisements placed within the video stream itself (e.g., commercials). This advertising may be targeted based on the content of the video schedule.
It should also be noted that the video stream and advertisements may be integrated into other media in addition to the web pages. For example, the video stream may be downloaded to the user's computer to be played by a stand-alone video player, or may be sent to a portable device such as an MP3 player or mobile phone.
The targeting of the advertising may be accomplished in many ways. One way is for the curator to label the video channel he has created in a certain way. For example, if the curator selects videos depicting clips of baseball games, the curator may label the channel as the “baseball channel.” Advertising may then be targeted based on which advertisers are likely to target consumers interested in baseball. In situations where the channel is not labeled by the curator or is otherwise hard to define, metadata from the video clips or the content provider may be utilized to approximate a genre or other categorization for the videos. Other alternatives for determining the how to match advertising to the videos include crawling the web to search for other places where the videos are embedded, as well as performing various investigations of the audience of the videos (e.g., demographic targeting of viewers of the videos, retrieval of user profiles for users of the video, and behavioral tracking of viewers including, for example, which other videos the viewers have played). For example, if many users who play videos from the schedule of videos have profiles listing baseball as a hobby, there is a reasonable likelihood that the schedule of videos at hand is also related to baseball, or at least to sports in general. Additionally, if many users who play videos from the schedule of videos also play videos from a schedule of videos categorized as “Baseball”, there is a reasonable likelihood that the schedule of videos at hand is also related to baseball, or at least to sports in general.
In addition to focusing on factors involving the videos, the targeting of the advertising may also involve focusing on the advertisements. Metadata from the advertising or the advertising provider may be utilized to aid in the matching of advertising to videos. Other alternatives for aiding in the matching of advertising to videos include crawling the web to search for other places where the advertising has been displayed, as well as performing various investigations of the audience of the advertising (e.g., demographic targeting of viewers of the advertising, retrieval of user profiles for users of the video, and behavioral tracking of viewers, e.g., which other advertisements the viewers have seen).
Revenue from the targeted advertising may be shared between the curator and the content providers of the video in the channel.
At 204, a video stream is integrated within the web page, wherein the video stream comprises videos from the schedule of videos along with the one or more advertisements. The integrating may include embedding a video player within the web page such that the video player is customized for the web page (e.g., has a unique “skin”). It should also be noted that the video stream can be any type of video stream, including a live video stream. This integration also may or may not include embedding the advertising within the video stream. For example, implementations are contemplated wherein the advertising is integrated into the web page without being integrated into the video stream itself (e.g., banner advertising along the top of the video player). For example, ads included elsewhere on the webpage could display a relevant targeted ad and dynamically update as different videos are played within the channel.
As will be understood, each of the processes depicted in
It should also be noted that embodiments of the present invention may be implemented on any computing platform and in any network topology in which presentation of video is a useful functionality. For example and as illustrated in
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of the disclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. In addition, although various advantages, aspects, and objects of the present invention have been discussed herein with reference to various embodiments, it will be understood that the scope of the invention should not be limited by reference to such advantages, aspects, and objects. Rather, the scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims.
