Patent Application
20080004990
The innovation is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It may be evident, however, that the innovation can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof.
The invention comprises online advertising taking on characteristics of commodities, and an eventual commodities market approach to purchasing advertising (or “ad”) space, options for ad space, and even a futures market for online ad space. Available advertising space is identified and aggregated (using a variety of metrics), and subsets of the aggregated ad space are offered for purchase using a commodities market-based approach. Through such approach, convergence toward an efficient online ad market is achieved. The cost and availability for ad space can be a direct function of supply and demand, as well as expected supply and demand.
Corporations no longer need to negotiate with individual websites for ad space, but can purchase bulk ad space within this novel commodities-based ad market. For example, a company can purchase 100,000 options for Class A travel ads (e.g., ads located on top ten travel websites with prime display space positioning and temporal space). Additionally, the architecture facilitates various revenue-sharing paradigms, coupon delivery, targeted advertising, point-of-sale transactions, inventory control, just-in-time delivery of ads, content and product/services, value-based advertising models, and so on.
Referring initially to the drawings,
A transaction component 108 interfaces to the aggregation component 102 to facilitate transacting subsets of the advertisement space 104 (that has been aggregated) to bidders 110 (denoted BIDDER1, . . . BIDDERN, where N is an integer) as a function of supply and demand. The transaction can include offer and acceptance of bids placed on ad space by the bidders 110. The data communications between the aggregation component 102 and the transaction component 108 can include at least price and sale information.
The aggregation component 102 receives the ad space information about online advertising space 104 that is now available, that will become available in the future, and that is predicted by prediction analysis to become available in the future. The subsets of the advertisement space information that is aggregated can be valuated based on supply and demand, for example. Additionally, the transaction component 108 facilitates a purchase of options to buy online advertising space.
The aggregation component 102 can furthered be designed and configured to provide data analysis in the form of clustering ad space information based on related information. For example, ad space suitable for accommodating audio content, as statistically computed, can be clustered for sale. In another example, ad space that tends to generate lower revenues can be clustered for sale in blocks of lower priced ad space. In yet another example, the system 100 can package ad space according to clusters of varying characteristics such as packing ad space that tends to return higher revenues with ad space that tends to generate mediocre or lower revenue. This can be accomplished, in one example, via a classifier, as described in greater detailed infra.
At 200, information is received about online advertising space. The information can be pushed to the aggregation component from remote systems on regular basis. For example, once a week, this ad space information can be communicated to the aggregation component. In an alternative implementation, the ad space information is pushed to the aggregation component asynchronously, that is, anytime it becomes available, will become available, and/or is predicted to come available in the future. In yet another implementation, operating separately or in combination with the aforementioned processes, the aggregation component pulls the ad space information from predetermined (or subscribing) sites or sources, on a regular basis, for example.
At 202, the aggregation component collects the ad space information for transaction processing. Aggregation can be as simple as merely listing the information as it is received or as complex as grouping or clustering the information based on information properties (e.g., ad file size, resolution required, ad real estate dimensions, availability, . . . ), types (e.g., audio versus video), categories (e.g., automobile advertising versus travel advertising, as well as other data related to the ad space (e.g., duration of presentation, rotation, time to be presented, time to be terminated, . . . ), ad source (e.g., vendor supplying the ad space, vendor suggested price for the ad space, vendor network address, . . . ), and ad destination (e.g., site that hosts the ad space, destination network address, . . . ).
The invention also covers the specification of advertisements and/or ad space based on the status of contextual cues that can be sensed in a dynamic manner. For example, advertisements can be sold and priced based on the location of people, such as for drivers or passengers in automobiles at particular locations (e.g., particular stretches of road) as revealed by GPS-centric location sensing. Other attributes can be considered. For example, advertising commodities can be based on a specification of the velocity of drivers, specific routes being traversed based on requests for directions, the time of day, and even the current congestion on the route or routes proximal to the current route of drivers. For example, spot markets for advertisements might specify the pushing of a particular number of impressions to cars likely stuck in traffic at particular locations during particular hours.
Purchase of such context-dependent advertisement commodities can be made in advance based on these attributes. However, the methods also support real-time sales of advertisements with commitments to push impressions based on the purchase of the advertising commodities. Such advertising sales can include real-time auctions with deadlines at different times of day, for example, auctions occurring every 15 minutes on weekdays at rush hour, whereby the auctions are focused on optimizing advertisement revenue at each deadline.
At 204, once the ad space information is aggregated, it can be organized and presented for pricing (e.g., initial pricing) and offers made for purchase. The offers can be determined based on supply and demand, that is, the prevailing market prices. This can be determined by an auction format where the highest bid wins the ad space. Moreover, this can be for a single ad space, for multiple ad spaces, and/or for block or groups of ad space, for example. At 206, offers are received and processed for some or all related ad space. At 208, once the offers are accepted, the transaction is complete. In another implementation, the offer can be withdrawn after the bid has been received and the bid process has closed.
Referring now to
An ad type component 304 includes information related to the format of the advertising data. For example, the advertising can be in the format of a video file, audio file, text file, image file, hyperlinked text, hyperlinked images, animated content file, and so on.
The aggregation component 102 can further include an ad properties component 306 that stores ad information related to page real estate parameters. For example, the ad properties information can include file size, playing time (e.g., for a video or audio file), dimensions of the ad space on the page or document, position of the ad in the page or document (e.g., at center, toward the center, near corners, in scrolling sub-windows, . . . ), a combination of ad types utilized in the same ad space (e.g., animated text with one or more images, audio with a video presentation, . . . ), rotation parameters associated with rotating multiple ads through the same page space (e.g., how often to rotate between multiple ads), temporal information related to the duration that the ad will be presented (e.g., one week, one month, . . . ), such contextual cues as, for example, displaying advertisements only when users stop walking, driving (e.g., stop their car for at least some specified period of time), or talking, and so on.
An options component 308 facilitates the presentation and processing of options to purchase ad space. Options are contracts that give the owner the right to buy or sell the stock at a specific price by a specific date. For example, as indicated supra, a company (or other bidder entity) can place an order for and complete the purchase of options for ad space (e.g., ads located on top ten travel websites, and with prime display space positioning such as at typical eye level across the center and near the top of the page or document). These options can include ad space that will become available in the near future due to, for example, existing ads in available ad space aging out according to contract terms.
The aggregation component 102 can also employ a futures component 310 that receives and stores bids related to futures speculation on ad space. A futures contract is a type of derivative instrument, or financial contract, in which two parties agree to transact a set of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery at a particular price. In the context of advertising space, an entity buying a futures contract is basically agreeing to buy ad space for a set price that a seller has not yet produced. Accordingly, buyers and sellers in the futures market for ad space primarily enter into futures contracts to hedge risk or speculate rather than to exchange physical goods (a primary activity of the cash or spot market). Thus, futures contracts can be used as financial instruments for speculators, as well as by producers and consumers.
A vendor component 312 stores and facilitates the processing of vendor information received and related to entities that are bidding as well as selling ad space. A class component 314 facilitates processing the ad space information in classes (e.g., Class A, Class B, . . . ) according to value and features. For example, Class A ad space can be associated with ad space located on the top five corporate websites and having prime display space positioning.
In another implementation, class ad space may have restrictions related to minimum number of ad spaces that should be purchased (e.g., no less than 2,500) and based on an specific type of entity (e.g., institution versus individual vendor) that can purchase the ad space, while Class C ad space can be purchased with no minimum quantity and with no restrictions on who can make the purchase (e.g., institution and individual purchasers).
A communications component 316 facilitates transmitting offers to sell ad space to vendors and receiving offers to buy the ad space from the vendors. As indicated herein, the transaction information can be also pushed from the communications component 316 to existing subscribers and/or to prospective subscribers.
The system 300 can also employ a machine learning and reasoning (MLR) component 318 which facilitates automating one or more features in accordance with the subject innovation. The subject invention (e.g., in connection with predicting) can employ various MLR-based schemes for carrying out various aspects thereof. For example, a process for determining when to lock in market pricing for ad space can be facilitated via an automatic classifier system and process.
A classifier is a function that maps an input attribute vector, x=(x1, x2, x3, x4, xn), to a class label class(x). The classifier can also output a confidence that the input belongs to a class, that is, f(x)=confidence(class(x)). Such classification can employ a probabilistic and/or other statistical analysis (e.g., one factoring into the analysis utilities and costs to maximize the expected value to one or more people) to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.
As used herein, terms “to infer” and “inference” refer generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic-that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources.
A support vector machine (SVM) is an example of a classifier that can be employed. The SVM operates by finding a hypersurface in the space of possible inputs that splits the triggering input events from the non-triggering events in an optimal way. Intuitively, this makes the classification correct for testing data that is near, but not identical to training data. Other directed and undirected model classification approaches include, e.g., naive Bayes, Bayesian networks, decision trees, neural networks, fuzzy logic models, and probabilistic classification models providing different patterns of independence can be employed. Classification as used herein also is inclusive of statistical regression that is utilized to develop models of ranking or priority.
As will be readily appreciated from the subject specification, the subject invention can employ classifiers that are explicitly trained (e.g., via a generic training data) as well as implicitly trained (e.g., via observing user behavior, receiving extrinsic information). For example, SVM's are configured via a learning or training phase within a classifier constructor and feature selection module. Thus, the classifier(s) can be employed to automatically learn and perform a number of functions according to predetermined criteria.
In one example, based on historical information of bids, offers, sales and buys, and even market dynamics, the MLR component 318 can learn and reason when to prompt an entity for bids on ad space. Moreover, the MLR component 318 can reason based on rising or falling market information as received from major stock market exchange systems such as the New York Stock Exchange®, NASDAQ®, and the like, that it will be beneficial to lock in transactions (or contracts) now, rather than later. This information can be conveyed to a vendor or purchaser, for example, as a service for subscribing to the virtual ad market architecture of the subject invention.
In support of interfacing to the major financial entities mentioned above, the system 300 can further include a market component 320 that can interface to at least the network-based market entities mentioned above to exchange market information via a market interface component 322. For example, daily offer and bid data 324 can be processed for transactions via the transaction component 108.
It is to be understood that any or all of the components (302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, and 316) can be employed separately from the aggregation component 102. Additionally, the MLR component 318 can be included as part of the aggregation component 102. Still further, the components (302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, and 316) can be combined in any manner deemed suitable for providing the functions described herein.
The novel architecture also facilitates various revenue-sharing paradigms, coupon delivery, targeted advertising, point-of-sale transactions, inventory control, just-in-time delivery of ads, content and product/services, value-based advertising models, and so on.
Additionally, the system 600 can include an inventory component 602 that tracks the inventory of ad space information associated with web page ad space currently available for bid, and which is being received for aggregation by the aggregation component 102. Working in combination with a history component 604, trend information related to market swings in what vendors are seeking for ad space and/or placing for sale can be generated and analyzed. For example, market swings in supply and demand for web page ad space can be affected by local, regional, national, and even international events. Supply and demand can also be based on seasonal information, geographic information, and demographic information, as well. Accordingly, such information can be considered when pricing blocks of ad space for “national” or large corporation web pages versus ad space transacted for more localized (or geographically focused) advertising.
The inventory component 602 also facilitates basing ad space value (and pricing) on available inventory of ad space (an inventory-centric approach). Thus, supply and demand is not based on the overall market per se, but on inventory for that particular system. It is to be appreciated that ad space can be grouped based on intended use, and which uses can be relegated to inventory and processing by separate systems. For example, all medical ad space transactions can be inventoried and routed to a first system, while all automotive ad space transactions are inventoried and routed to a second system.
The history component 604 facilitates storing and processing data related to past events and processes. Historical data can be utilized to develop models and/or profiles on usage related to many aspects of the subject architecture. For example, vendor (or bidder) profiles can be developed and stored for entities subscribing to the subject architecture. The MLR component 318 can be used to update profiles as needed. Models can be developed and continually evolved as processes change over time. For example, models related to the ad space content can be generated, as well as models for trends in access to specific web pages and/or websites. The amount and quality of information received and available for analysis and processing has great value in determining purchasing habits of users and businesses, and demographical information obtained, for example, any or all of which can be a factor in the pricing and sale of the ad space.
Profiles can also be generated as to how users interact with the ad space as a means of determining its values in future transactions. Moreover, how users transact purchases with personal account information (e.g., credit card, bank accounts, . . . ) can be monitored and utilized. The profile information can be further employed as a means for personalizing ad content, and perhaps even personalizing the way the ad is presented. For example, given a user name, the ad can be presented as addressed specifically to that user. Accordingly, if a block of 1,000 ad space locations includes such an option or capability, this can add to the value of the ad space for bidding purposes. In another example, if it is determined that a use tends to react more favorably to ad content presented in a certain location on the web page, this can be personalized in the profile information such that ad space for that person can be priced more. Again, this overall personalization capability can add value to the ad space for block sale purposes.
The system 600 can also include a discount (e.g., coupons, rewards, . . . component 606 that processes reduced rates in terms of issuing coupons and processing rebates, for example, that serve as enticements to purchasing blocks of ad space, as well as for discounts for products and/or services associated with the block of ad space. For example, a bidding vendor may initially choose a block of 5,000 web locations for ad space, but be enticed to reconsider a block of 7,000 locations where a reduced price is offered. The term “locations” can be defined to include one individual web page as a location, as well as a single website (that hosts many different web pages) as a location. Accordingly, the purchase of 7,000 ad space locations can include multiple web pages from different sites, as well as multiple different websites each having a single web page or many web pages. Thus, blocks of ad space can be offered for sale based only website locations, web pages, or a combination of both web pages and websites.
The system 600 can also include a revenue-sharing component 608 that facilitates sharing returns on purchased ad space. For example, prime ad space on websites that routinely experience millions of hits per day can be sold in blocks that also require a percentage share of the computed return in revenue associated with the ad and locations. Conventional marketing techniques can be employed to determine if the ads presented in the ad space had a positive impact on sale of the products and/or services.
Although the description has focused primarily on advertising, the “ad space” can be bought and sold based not only for advertising purposes, but also for purely informational purposes. This can be beneficial to governmental entities (or agencies) that want to get information to citizens, for example. In one application, medical information can be broadcast to users who access a web page or website simply to provide information related to new medical processes, medicines, alerts, and so on. Accordingly, a quality component 610 can be employed assess the value of ad space based on the quality of the information to be presented therein.
The quality component 610 can also serve to monitor and filter content quality related to spam. In other words, many online merchants (e.g., computer sales) are so automated that the sale of a miss-priced product can go un-noticed, if alerts are not installed to catch such problems. Similarly, it is appreciated that the subject architecture can be so automated that large blocks of ad space can be sold and content inserted thereinto for presentation so quickly that certain controls should be implemented to prevent unacceptable content from being presented on such a large scale. This can be controlled by the quality component 610, or facilitated by the quality component 610 in combination with other systems to ensure that only the desired content is allowed to be presented.
One way of providing a means to monitor user and/or vendor feedback is to allow an option to opt-in or opt-out receipt of the ads. The fact that users may opt to receive the advertisement can be inferred to provide additional value to the ad space itself, to the ad content, and/or means of presentation, any or all of which can be employed to impact the value of that ad space.
The MLR component 318 functions as before by learning and reasoning about other functions occurring in the system 600 so as to facilitate automation and/or updating of system processes. For example, the MLR component 318 can learn and reason about trends in ad space availability based on inventory as managed by the inventory component 602 and historical information processed in the history component 604. Moreover, the MLR component 318 can reason about aggregation processes such that based on historical information, aggregation can be changed to group ad space differently than has been done in the past to achieve a greater return for investors. These are only but a few of the many aspects that can be learned and reasoned when using the MLR component 318, and should not be construed as limiting in any way.
Referring now to
At 904, the aggregation component receives ad space information based on ad space that is predicted to come available. This can be determined by monitoring trend information which interpolated indicates that certain ad space may become available for any number of reasons. For example, it is within contemplation of the subject invention that ad space can be sold with conditions that allow the space to be returned for immediate sale to subsequent bidders based on performance of the ad space and associated content. Thus, if the ad space is deemed to be “under performing” in terms of click activity and/or computed revenue due to predetermined criteria agreed upon between the web location and the vendor, and based on “hits” as logged by the system, it can be predicted that eventually, the ad space may become available within a certain time.
At 906, the ad space can be bundled or packaged in many different ways for suited purposes. For example, “under-performing” ad space can be bundled with performing ad space. Various metrics can be employed to assign values or some measure of value and/or quality to ad space, web locations (e.g., pages, sites, . . . ) in order to provide some valuation that bidders can utilize in terms of bidding on ad space, whether existing ad space, soon-to-be-available ad space, and predicted-to-be-available ad space.
At 908, sets of ad space are presented for bid and/or purchase. At 910, offers are received and processed for some or all related ad space. At 912, based on the success or failure so sell the sets of bundled ad space, or to receive acceptable bids, the sets can be reconfigured or rebundled into new and what would be considered to be more attractive mixes. This capability further supports the concept of options and futures with respect to advertising space in accordance with the disclosed architecture. In other words, bundling of the ad space information in novel ways can make the ad space more valuable, and hence, more attractive to investors and vendors alike.
At 1102, profiles and/or models are developed and stored. Profiles can be developed for a number of different entities, including, but not limited to, user profiles, system profiles, website profiles, and so on. Similarly, models can be developed, trained, and employed based on historical data, for example, as well as other information described above. Areas where modeling can be beneficial include inventory analysis, and valuations of ad space based on web locations (e.g., web pages and websites), for example.
At 1104, profiles and/or models can be updated based on changes in underlying data. For example, this can include market swings that affect valuations of ad space.
As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive, multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storage medium), an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
Referring now to
Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventive methods can be practiced with other computer system configurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, as well as personal computers, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, and the like, each of which can be operatively coupled to one or more associated devices.
The illustrated aspects of the innovation may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
A computer typically includes a variety of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer and includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media can comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital video disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer.
With reference again to
The system bus 1208 can be any of several types of bus structure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. The system memory 1206 includes read-only memory (ROM) 1210 and random access memory (RAM) 1212. A basic input/output system (BIOS) is stored in a non-volatile memory 1210 such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer 1202, such as during start-up. The RAM 1212 can also include a high-speed RAM such as static RAM for caching data.
The computer 1202 further includes an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 1214 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), which internal hard disk drive 1214 may also be configured for external use in a suitable chassis (not shown), a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 1216, (e.g., to read from or write to a removable diskette 1218) and an optical disk drive 1220, (e.g., reading a CD-ROM disk 1222 or, to read from or write to other high capacity optical media such as the DVD). The hard disk drive 1214, magnetic disk drive 1216 and optical disk drive 1220 can be connected to the system bus 1208 by a hard disk drive interface 1224, a magnetic disk drive interface 1226 and an optical drive interface 1228, respectively. The interface 1224 for external drive implementations includes at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies. Other external drive connection technologies are within contemplation of the subject innovation.
The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, and so forth. For the computer 1202, the drives and media accommodate the storage of any data in a suitable digital format. Although the description of computer-readable media above refers to a HDD, a removable magnetic diskette, and a removable optical media such as a CD or DVD, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of media which are readable by a computer, such as zip drives, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, cartridges, and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment, and further, that any such media may contain computer-executable instructions for performing the methods of the disclosed innovation.
A number of program modules can be stored in the drives and RAM 1212, including an operating system 1230, one or more application programs 1232, other program modules 1234 and program data 1236. All or portions of the operating system, applications, modules, and/or data can also be cached in the RAM 1212. It is to be appreciated that the innovation can be implemented with various commercially available operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
A user can enter commands and information into the computer 1202 through one or more wired/wireless input devices, e.g., a keyboard 1238 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 1240. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, an IR remote control, a joystick, a game pad, a stylus pen, touch screen, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 1204 through an input device interface 1242 that is coupled to the system bus 1208, but can be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, an IEEE 1394 serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, etc.
A monitor 1244 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 1208 via an interface, such as a video adapter 1246. In addition to the monitor 1244, a computer typically includes other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc.
The computer 1202 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections via wired and/or wireless communications to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 1248. The remote computer(s) 1248 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer 1202, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 1250 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted include wired/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 1252 and/or larger networks, e.g., a wide area network (WAN) 1254. Such LAN and WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network, e.g., the Internet.
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 1202 is connected to the local network 1252 through a wired and/or wireless communication network interface or adapter 1256. The adaptor 1256 may facilitate wired or wireless communication to the LAN 1252, which may also include a wireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with the wireless adaptor 1256.
When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 1202 can include a modem 1258, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 1254, or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 1254, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 1258, which can be internal or external and a wired or wireless device, is connected to the system bus 1208 via the serial port interface 1242. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 1202, or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 1250. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used.
The computer 1202 is operable to communicate with any wireless devices or entities operatively disposed in wireless communication, e.g., a printer, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, portable data assistant, communications satellite, any piece of equipment or location associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk, news stand, restroom), and telephone. This includes at least Wi-Fi and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies. Thus, the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices.
Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, allows connection to the Internet from a couch at home, a bed in a hotel room, or a conference room at work, without wires. Wi-Fi is a wireless technology similar to that used in a cell phone that enables such devices, e.g., computers, to send and receive data indoors and out; anywhere within the range of a base station. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11x (a, b, g, etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet).
Wi-Fi networks can operate in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bands. IEEE 802.11 applies to generally to wireless LANs and provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band using either frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) or direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). IEEE 802.11a is an extension to IEEE 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz band. IEEE 802.11a uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) encoding scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS. IEEE 802.11b (also referred to as 802.11 High Rate DSSS or Wi-Fi) is an extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides 11 Mbps transmission (with a fallback to 5.5, 2 and 1 Mbps) in the 2.4 GHz band. IEEE 802.11g applies to wireless LANs and provides 20+Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. Products can contain more than one band (e.g., dual band), so the networks can provide real-world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networks used in many offices.
Referring now to
The system 1300 also includes one or more server(s) 1304. The server(s) 1304 can also be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). The servers 1304 can house threads to perform transformations by employing the invention, for example. One possible communication between a client 1302 and a server 1304 can be in the form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes. The data packet may include a cookie and/or associated contextual information, for example. The system 1300 includes a communication framework 1306 (e.g., a global communication network such as the Internet) that can be employed to facilitate communications between the client(s) 1302 and the server(s) 1304.
Communications can be facilitated via a wired (including optical fiber) and/or wireless technology. The client(s) 1302 are operatively connected to one or more client data store(s) 1308 that can be employed to store information local to the client(s) 1302 (e.g., cookie(s) and/or associated contextual information). Similarly, the server(s) 1304 are operatively connected to one or more server data store(s) 1310 that can be employed to store information local to the servers 1304.
What has been described above includes examples of the disclosed innovation. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations are possible. Accordingly, the innovation is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.
This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Atty. Dkt. No. MSFTP1422US) entitled “AUCTIONING FOR VIDEO AND AUDIO ADVERTISING” (Flake et al.) filed of even date, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
