JP2002535689A - Method and apparatus for negotiating local advertising terms - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: A method and apparatus for local advertising. Web hosts sell advertising space on their web sites and distribute web pages containing advertisements to Internet users or clients. Advertisements desirably target specific audiences and people who may be interested in the particular goods or services being advertised. One or more embodiments of the present invention provide an advertisement (606) transmitted from a web host to a client. The inserted advertisement may be an advertisement stored in a proxy cache (604) or an advertisement retrieved from a web server for the advertiser. One or more embodiments of the present invention provide a module that is downloaded to a proxy that is responsible for negotiating and inserting advertisements.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(Related Application) The present application filed on November 16, 1998, entitled “Method and App”
No. 09 / 192,874, entitled "Artus for Local Advertising," and "Meth, filed November 16, 1998.
Od and Apparatus for Processing Clie
No. 09/192806, entitled "nt Information,"
Partial continuation application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the field of computer software, and specifically to advertising on the Internet.

[0003] Portions of the disclosure of this patent application include materials that are subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner will not object to any exact copy of the patent document or patent disclosure as it appears in the Office's files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, JavaOS, and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Sun Microsystems in the United States and other countries.
, Inc. Is a trademark or registered trademark of the Company. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are registered in the United States and other countries as SPARC Internet.
ionical, Inc. Is a trademark of the company. Products bearing the SPARC trademark are available from Sun
Microsystems, Inc. It is based on an architecture developed by the company.

2. Background Art In a computer network environment and the Internet, web site owners (referred to as web hosts) generate revenue and advertisers rely on publicity and web site access. In order to gain, advertisements are increasingly used. Web hosts sell advertising space on their web sites and distribute web pages containing advertisements to Internet users or clients. Advertisements desirably target specific audiences and people who may be interested in the particular goods or services being advertised. It is also desirable to insert such advertisements independently of the protocols (eg, standard protocols or security protocols) used by users and web sites (communication methods used to transmit information). Prior art advertising methods are insufficiently targeted at the audience, and when fetching and transmitting advertisements,
Excessive Internet traffic occurs. These issues can be understood by reviewing networks, the Internet, advertising, and how they operate.

Networks In modern computing environments, it is common to use multiple computers or workstations linked together on a network to communicate and share data between network users. A network can also include resources such as printers, modems and file servers, and can also include services such as email.

[0006] Networks can be small systems (local area networks or "LANs") physically connected by cables, and a large number of separate networks connected together. A network (wide area network or “WAN”) can be formed. Other types of networks include the Internet, tel-com networks, the World Wide Web,
Intranets, extranets, wireless networks and electronic data,
Other networks capable of communicating digital and analog data are included.

[0007] Computer systems sometimes rely on server computer systems to provide information to requesting computers on a network. When there are many requesting computers, it may be necessary to have more than one server computer system to process the request.

The Internet The Internet is a worldwide network of interconnected computers. Internet clients access computers on this network via an Internet provider. An Internet provider is an organization that provides clients (eg, individuals or other organizations) with access to the Internet (eg, via analog telephone lines or integrated services digital network lines). A client can use the Internet to read information from another computer / client, download a file, or send an e-mail message, for example.

To retrieve a file or service on the Internet, a client must search for the file or service, connect to the computer where the file or service is stored, and download the file or service. Each of these steps may involve a separate application and access a plurality of different computer systems.
The World Wide Web (WWW) was developed to provide a simpler and more uniform means for accessing information on the Internet.

[0010] Components of the WWW include browser software, network links, servers, and WWW protocols. Browser software or a browser is a user-friendly interface (ie, front end) that simplifies access to the Internet. A browser allows clients to communicate requests without having to learn, for example, complex command syntax. Browsers typically include a graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying information and receiving input. Examples of currently available browsers include Mosaic, Netscape Navigator, Net
scale Communicator, Microsoft Internet
t Explorer and Cello are included.

An information server can maintain information on the WWW and process client requests. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a standard protocol for communicating with information servers over the WWW. HTTP has a communication method that allows a client to request data from a server and send information to the server. HTT
The P protocol can be modified to provide secure transmission (referred to as HTTPS). Or secure sock to create a secure connection
et layer (SSL) can be used. In a secure connection / transmission, all communication between the client and the server can be encrypted. Encryption (also referred to as cryptography) involves a system for sending a message (eg, a client request or server response) from a sender to a receiver over a medium, such that the message is "secured". Ie, only the intended recipient can recover the message. During encryption, the message is converted from a form called "plain text" to an encrypted form called "cipher text".

[0012] To submit a request, a client connects to an HTTP server and sends the request to the HTTP server. The request includes the communication method required for the transaction (eg, GET of an object from a server or POST of data to an object of a server). The HTTP server responds to the client by sending the status of the request and the requested information. afterwards,
The connection between the client and the HTTP server is terminated.

Thus, a client request consists of establishing a connection between the client and the HTTP server, executing the request, and terminating the connection. The HTTP server does not retain any information about the request after the connection is dropped. Therefore, HTTP
Is a stateless protocol. That is, the client can make multiple requests to the HTTP server, but each individual request is treated independently of other requests. The server has no storage of previous requests.

Various security methods can be used to verify that the request and response have been completely transmitted without error. One such method is called a checksum. The checksum is the sum of the data item groups used to check for errors. The checksum is the bit output in the packet data (the minimum unit of information (data) that can be processed by a computer (abbreviation for binary)
) Is calculated by the sending computer based on an algorithm that counts). The number of checks (the calculated value) is then sent to the other end as a tail or trailer of packets. When this packet is received, the receiving computer executes the same algorithm, and if the number of checks found is the same as the one received, everything is ok. Otherwise, the receiver requests that the packet be sent again. Thus, the packets will be intercepted and modified (eg, by hackers and proxies (discussed below)) and the number of checks will be different.

Some systems do not send information from a server that maintains the information, but use what is referred to as a proxy. Referring to FIG. 1, the proxy 102 executes the request sent to it (ie, from the client 100) and keeps a copy of the retrieved document or information for some time, so that they have more It is a server that allows quick access and speeds up access to commonly requested information. The maintenance of this information and retrieved documents by the proxy 102 is called caching, and the information maintained by the proxy 102 is called a cache or proxy cache.

To protect information on the internal computer network from external access,
A firewall is used. A firewall is a mechanism that blocks access between a client and a server. To provide limited access to information, a proxy or proxy server is located above the firewall,
It can act as a conduit and provide a specific connection for each network connection. Proxy software retains the ability to communicate with external sources and is trusted for communication with internal networks. For example, proxy software may require a username and password to access certain sections of the internal network, and completely block other sections from external access.

Certain addressing schemes are used to identify Internet resources (eg, HTTP servers, files, or programs). This addressing scheme is referred to as Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
The URL includes a protocol (for example, HTTP) used when accessing the server.
), The Internet domain name of the site where the server is running, the server's port number, and the location of the resource within the server's file structure.

In the WWW, a concept called hypertext is used. Hypertext provides the ability to create links in documents to go directly to other information. To activate the link, simply click on the hypertext link (eg, a word or phrase). A hypertext link can be a link to information stored at a site other than the site that supplies the current information. U
A link for identifying the position of the additional information is associated with the RL. When the link is activated, the client's browser uses the link to access data at the site specified by the URL.

If the client request is for a file, the HTTP server locates the file and sends it to the client. The HTTP server also has the ability to delegate work to the gateway program. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) specification defines a mechanism by which an HTTP server communicates with a gateway program. Gateway programs are referenced using URLs. The HTTP server activates the program specified by the URL,
The program data sent by the client is passed to the gateway program using the CGI mechanism. The data consists of command line arguments, standard input,
Or passed from the server to the gateway program via environment variables. The gateway program processes the data and sends the response using CGI (
Return to server (e.g., via standard input). The server converts the data to HTTP
To the client using.

Browsers display information to clients / users as pages or documents (referred to as “web pages” or “web sites”). A language is used to define the format for displaying pages on the WWW. This language is called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). WWW page is H
Sent to the client as a TML document. A browser running on the client analyzes this document and displays a page based on information in the HTML document.

HTML is a structured document consisting of HTML elements nested in each other.
An HTML document is a text file in which areas of the document are marked by a string of characters called tags, and to which special meaning is assigned. These areas
Called HTML element. Each element has a name or tag. Elements can have attributes that specify the properties of the element. Blocks or components include, for example, unordered lists, text boxes, check boxes, and radio buttons. Each block has properties such as name, type, and value. An example of the structure of an HTML document is shown below. <HTML><HEAD>. . . Elements valid in the document head </ HEAD><BODY>. . . Valid elements in the document body </ BODY></HTML>

Each HTML element is delimited by a pair of characters “<” and “>”. HTM
The name of the L element is included between the delimiters. The combination of name and delimiter is called a marker or tag. Each element is identified by its marker.
In most cases, each element has a start marker and an end marker. The end marker is identified by including another character "/" following the "<" character.

HTML is a hierarchical language. Except for the HTML element, all other elements are
Included in another element. HTML elements encompass the entire document. The HTML element identifies the text surrounded by it as an HTML document. The HEAD element is contained within an HTML element, which contains information about the HTML document. The BODY element is included in HTML. The BODY element contains all of the text and other information to be displayed. Other HTML elements are described in the HTML Reference Manual.

Advertising In conventional media (eg, television, radio, and newspaper), local advertising is provided by radio stations, television stations, different newspaper editions, and different newspaper outlets. Local advertisers target a often geographically defined subgroup of the audience of their media outlets. For example, a big city newspaper (for example,
Houston Chronicle or Los Angels Time
s) The local newsstand may insert inserts and coupons from local grocery and retailers into the newspaper.

Online advertising on the Internet has followed a traditional media advertising approach. Advertising space on the Internet is sold to third parties (advertisers) by web hosts. In addition, advertising agencies may be hired by advertisers to make Internet advertisements.

Advertising space on the Internet is often displayed as a banner or icon on a web page. The banner has a height of 12.7 to 101.6 mm (1/1).
(2-4 inches) and a width of 101.6-215.9 mm (4-81 / 2 inches). The banner or icon can be an image, text, or an image with text. Additionally, the banner or icon can have a hyperlink to the advertiser's web page. Therefore,
When the user clicks on the advertiser's banner, the user's browser loads the advertiser's web page.

The method of payment for online advertising is different. For example, an advertiser may pay based on the number of times different users have visited a website (referred to as hits or page impressions). Instead, the advertiser may pay (referred to as a click-through) only when the user clicks on the advertiser's banner or icon and views the advertiser's web page. Further, the web host may receive a payment based on completed transactions resulting from the click-through (eg, the web host receives a percentage of the payment that the advertiser has received from the user). Commission).

Advertising schemes attempt to target the audience most likely to be interested in the product or service being advertised. For example, commercials broadcast with television cartoons often relate to children's toys, cereals, or other items that children will use. As a result, the more information known about a person or user viewing a particular web site, the more targeted the advertisement can be.

In existing Internet advertising schemes, web hosts often provide one advertisement that all clients or users see. As a result, there is one global ad that all users of the web site see. Such global advertising assumes the same type of interest by all users and does not provide different advertisements based on different interests or characteristics of the users.

Prior Art Advertising Scheme One of the Internet advertising schemes attempts to target a specific audience based on demographics. For example, a website that provides information about a particular city (eg, San Francisco) may seek to reach a local audience by placing advertisements for companies located in or around San Francisco. Therefore, Yahoo-San Francisco ba
Attempts to target local San Francisco Bay Area audiences with advertisements on the y web site.

Another advertising scheme is based on advertisements for user input. For example,
If the search for childcare books is performed by a search engine such as Yahoo,
May display advertisements for baby products, such as baby carriages and children's dining chairs.

In another advertising scheme, cookies stored in individual browsers are accessed to determine the type of web site accessed. A cookie is a small amount of information that can later be read back from a browser. When accessing a web site, a cookie identifying the web site itself is sent by the web site to the browser. The cookie is stored by the browser and can be read back by any server that wishes to access the cookie at a later date. Based on the information retrieved from the cookie, local advertisements are provided that are targeted to particular user interests (based on web sites accessed by the user or retrieved from the cookie). Instead, HTTP that refers to page information can be evaluated in an advertising manner. To prevent this information from being distributed or used in any other way, users may use HTTP referencing cookie or page information
Software is available to allow the user to strip off. Further, the information collected pertains only to a small set of sites with which the advertiser has a business relationship, either directly or indirectly through an advertising network.

Another advertising scheme uses the client's Internet Protocol (IP)
Attempts to infer the geographic location of the user based on the address. When accessing the Internet, individual clients are distinguished from each other by unique numbers called IP addresses. In this advertising scheme, a database containing a mapping that provides a correspondence between each IP address and a modem telephone number is maintained by the web host. This mapping is obtained by retrieving the modem telephone number and the different IP address to which the modem telephone number corresponds from an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which is a company that provides Internet access to users. Created. By searching this database for IP addresses, a web host or advertising company can infer from which modem telephone number the user has called in. Based on the modem phone number and area code, the web host or advertising company
One can infer where the user is geographically or which telephone exchange is closest to the user. As a result, the user is provided with an advertisement based on the estimated geographic location of the user.

Each of the above advertising schemes relies on the insertion and transmission of advertisements by web hosts. Further, each advertising scheme seeks to rely on information retrieved from the user (which may be changed by the user) or to guess information about the user. As a result, the ads are not precisely targeted and the premium paid for "good demographics" and "accurate targeting" is low.

The above advertising scheme also creates additional processing overhead for the web host (for the implementation of the advertising scheme), requires extra bandwidth to send advertisements to the user over the network, and Inadequate targeting of the audience. In addition, advertisers dislike ads on small web sites due to the increased overhead and low hit counts on small web sites.
In addition, small businesses have no financial power to advertise due to the high advertising costs associated with large and frequently used web sites.

The advertising payment scheme does not provide payment to the ISP. Because ISPs do not benefit from advertisements, software has emerged that strips advertisements from web pages without the ISPs caching the advertisements (resulting in increased transmission time). In addition, since the payment method may be based on the number of hits, hit count and page
You have to determine the number of impressions. Techniques for inspecting and auditing hit counts and page impressions are primitive and based primarily on trusting web hosts that may inflate numbers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Local advertising methods and apparatus. As a source of revenue by the web site owner (referred to as a web host), and by advertisers
Advertising is increasingly being used to gain site access. Web hosts sell advertising space on their web sites and distribute web pages containing advertisements to Internet users or clients. Advertisements desirably target specific audiences and people who may be interested in the particular goods or services being advertised. Prior art advertising schemes have poor audience targeting and excessive Internet traffic when fetching and transmitting advertisements.

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a proxy owned by the ISP inserts advertisements transmitted from a web host to a client. The inserted advertisement may be an advertisement stored in a cache of the proxy or an advertisement retrieved from a web server for the advertiser. By providing the ISP with the ability to insert advertisements, the advertisements are also displayed on small web sites that are usually unattractive to advertisers.
In addition, the number of advertisements placed by the ISP allows small advertisers to display their advertisements in connection with frequently used web sites. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the modules are downloaded to a proxy that is responsible for negotiating and inserting advertisements. By using the module (provided by the server), the proxy cannot "fraud" or go with the ad slot without paying the web server.

One or more embodiments of the present invention provide for negotiations for inserting an advertisement, wherein the proxy determines whether a condition (eg, price) for inserting the advertisement should be -There is no notification about the specific position of the advertisement in the page. In one or more such implementations, the downloadable module may include the advertisement location information, but will not provide information or insert advertisements to the proxy until agreement is reached.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method and apparatus for local advertising. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a more thorough description of embodiments of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known functions have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention.

Embodiments of Computer Execution Environment (Hardware) One embodiment of the present invention is in the form of computer readable code running on a general purpose computer, such as the computer 200 shown in FIG. 2, or running on such a computer. Bytecode executable within the Java ™ runtime environment
As computer software in the form of a class file or bytecode running on a processor (e.g., one or more processors on a network) (or a device capable of processing bytecode) in the distributed environment. Can be implemented. Keyboard 210 and mouse 211 are coupled to system bus 218. The keyboard and mouse are for introducing user input into the computer system and transmitting the user input to the processor 213. Other suitable input devices include a mouse 211 and a keyboard 210
Can be used in addition to or in place of them. System bus 2
An I / O (input / output) unit 219 coupled to 18 represents such I / O elements as printers, A / V (audio / video) I / Os, and the like.

Computer 200 includes a video memory 214, a main memory 215, and a mass storage 212 coupled to a system bus 218 along with a keyboard 210, a mouse 211, and a processor 213. Mass storage device 212
May include both fixed and removable media, such as magnetic storage systems, optical storage systems, magneto-optical storage systems, or other available mass storage technology. Bus 218 may include, for example, 32 address lines for video memory 214 or main memory 215 addresses. System bus 218 also includes a 64-bit data bus for transferring data between components such as, for example, processor 213, main memory 215, video memory 214, and mass storage 212. . Alternatively, multiple data / address lines can be used instead of separate data and address lines.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the processor 213 is installed on a Microsystems, Inc., such as a SPARC ™ microprocessor. A microprocessor manufactured by Motorola, such as a 680X0 processor, a microprocessor manufactured by Intel, such as an 80X86 processor or a Pentium processor. However, any other suitable microprocessor or microcomputer can be used. The main memory 215 comprises a dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The video memory 214 is a dual-port video random access memory. One of the ports of the video memory 214 is coupled to a video amplifier 216. Video amplifier 216 is used to drive a cathode ray tube (CRT) raster monitor 217. Video amplifier 216 is well known in the art and may be implemented by any suitable device. This circuit includes a video memory 214
Is converted into a raster signal suitable for use by the monitor 217. Monitor 217 is a type of monitor suitable for displaying graphic images.

The computer 200 has a communication interface 22 coupled to a bus 218.
Zero can also be included. Communication interface 220 provides a two-way data communication coupling to a local network 222 via a network link 221. For example, communication interface 220 may be an integrated services digital network (
If an ISDN card or modem, communication interface 220 provides a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line, which forms part of network link 221. If the communication interface 220 is a local area network (LAN) card, the communication interface 220 provides a data communication connection to a compatible LAN via the network link 221. Wireless links are also possible. In any such embodiment, communication interface 220 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.

Network link 221 typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices. For example, network link 221 may be connected to local server computer 223 or internet service provider (ISP) 224 via local network 222.
Can be connected to data devices operated by ISP 224 provides data communication services over a worldwide packet data communication network, commonly now referred to as the “Internet” 225. Local network 22
2 and the Internet 225 both use electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams. Signals over various networks, and over network links 221 that carry digital data to and from computer 200 and over communication interface 220, are exemplary forms of carrier waves that transfer information.

Computer 200 can send messages and receive data, including program code, via a network, network link 221, and communication interface 220. In the Internet example, the remote
A server computer 226 can transmit the requested code for the application program via the Internet 225, ISP 224, local network 222, and communication interface 220.

The received code may be executed by processor 213 as it is received, or stored in mass storage 212 or other non-volatile storage for later execution. In this manner, the computer 200 can obtain the application code in the form of a carrier.

The application code can be implemented in any form of computer program product. Computer program products include media configured to store or transfer computer readable code, or media capable of recording computer readable code. Some examples of computer program products are CD-ROM disks, ROM cards, floppy disks, magnetic tape, computer hard drives, servers on networks, and carriers.

The computer systems described above are for illustration purposes only. Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in any type of computer system, programming environment, or processing environment.

Embodiments of Software Devices for Local Advertising One or more embodiments of the present invention provide local advertising. Ad insertion (or replacement of existing ads) can be done by the ISP, by the web host,
Or, by a third party. When advertisement insertion is performed by a web host, the particular advertisement inserted is based on user information, such as demographic information or user preferences. Such user information is
Obtained by P or an intermediate proxy. Thus, local advertisement via information maintained by the ISP or local advertisement insertion by the ISP or intermediate proxy is possible. For local advertising, see “Method and App,” filed Nov. 16, 1998, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
This is described in more detail in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09 / 192,874 entitled "aratus for Local Advertising".

Internet Service Provider (ISP) Most users use an ISP to access the Internet. To use the ISP, an off-line relationship between the user and the ISP is established and the user supplies the user's name, address, and other relevant information (eg, credit card number for payment, credit grade, etc.). By doing
Set up P's account. In exchange, the ISP assigns the user a username, password, and potentially a static IP address (or a dynamic IP address if dial-in access is used). Furthermore, I
The SP can get information about other offline sources.

The proxy (described above) is typically owned and provided by the user's ISP. To access the Internet, a user establishes a connection with an ISP or proxy. The user or client then requests the URL from the web browser. The proxy intercepts the request, searches its cache for the requested information, and returns the information to the client if the information is in the proxy's cache. If not, the proxy communicates with the web server, retrieves the information, and forwards the information to the client.

The ISP or proxy is used to perform all Internet access, so that when a user views a web page or completes a transaction on the Internet, all of the user actions are taken by the ISP or the ISP's proxy. Is processed through As a result, the ISP may provide statistics about the user and the user's Internet perception (referred to as user information or profile information).
Has the ability to remain transparent (not known to the user) to the user. Specifically, the ISP provides the user's age, credit history, income, interests, purchases, sites visited (URLs), time spent on each web site (URL), other user access (email, The ability to maintain a user's profile consisting of demographic information, such as news reading / posting, and information when the user posted data or performed a search (eg, from a query / message from a web server). Have. In addition, privacy issues can be addressed (as compared to no business relationship with others) due to the offline business relationship between the user and the ISP. The collection and processing of user / client information is fully described in co-pending US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 192,806.

Profile Collection Profile information can be collected and maintained in an online profile management system by a proxy. FIG. 3 shows an online profile management system 300, a client 100, a server 104, and a proxy 102.
Shows the relationship. As described above, all URL requests, text, and other information are sent from the client 100 to the proxy 102. Proxy 10
2 copies this information and stores it locally in raw database 302. Thus, each time the client 100 initiates a request for a URL, information about the request is stored in the raw database 302. Further, when a user performs a search on an Internet search engine, the text of the search can be stored in the raw database 302. One unique element that only a proxy or ISP can access is the time a user spends on a particular web site.
Such consumption time information can also be stored in the raw database 302. In addition, the proxy can use the time spent information and other information to filter out search engine robots that repeatedly access web page links to add to the search engine database.

A profile 304 for each client is maintained in the client identification and classification system. Profile 304 includes the user's name, address, phone number,
Includes all information about a particular client or user, including information collected offline, such as occupation, alternate email address, and so on. Information from raw database 302 is transferred and organized in profile 304. After that, the profile 304 is set up for mailing lists, direct marketing,
Can be merged with other information databases, such as lists and subscriptions, the user's credit history, and shopping club information (eg, if the user is a member of a shopping club in a market, then the Can be merged via a contract between the proxy 102 and the marketplace). The profile is time dependent and is created in real time so that when a user performs a search on an Internet search engine, the search text is immediately stored in the profile. Further, if the user is at a non-payment based public terminal (eg, a library), the profile can be limited to the user's recent history and information about the terminal, and the terminal location can be used. In addition, if the user is at a payment-based public terminal, the client's address, credit card information, and recent history as the user browses the Internet can be used.

Profiles are useful in determining the type of advertisement to display to a user. For example, if the profile indicates that the client 100 has performed a search for “flowers,” the advertiser may want to send a local florist advertisement to the client 100. Profiles can also be used to specifically target clients that use the competitor's goods or services. For example, in the profile, if the client has Pizza Hut's web
If knowledge of accessing the site is maintained, the ISP may provide the next Web access to the user, even if the access is to a completely unrelated site, by Round Table Pizza or Domino
s Pizza advertising may be included. Additionally, if the profile indicates that the client has queried for Burger King, Jack in the Box, fast food, hamburgers, etc., the ISP
May include ads from McDonalds or other competitors.

Ad Insertion One or more embodiments of the present invention provide multiple ways to place or insert an advertisement within a web page. Three of these schemes are shown in FIGS.

In FIGS. 4 a-4 c, client 400 requests a URL from web server 404, which is intercepted by proxy 402. Proxy 402
Will request the web server 4 if the information is not in the proxy 402 cache.
04 to request a URL.

Referring to FIG. 4a, the advertisement is transmitted by the web server 404 to the proxy 402.
The information provided by the web server 404, if not included in the information provided by the web server 404, can include additional URL information that specifies the advertisements that the proxy 402 retrieves from the advertiser's web server 406. As a result, the proxy 402 retrieves the required advertisement from the advertiser's web server 406. Thereafter, the proxy 402 transfers the information including the advertisement to the client 400.

Alternatively, the advertiser (or advertiser's web server) 406 can specify the type of customer / client 400 of interest and the amount willing to pay for such information. . For example, the advertiser (or the advertiser's web server 406) may state that he is interested in the age and credit history of the client 400. Specifically, advertiser 406 is (a) included in a group of 18-35 years old (e.g., code = a1835), and (b)
It may be of interest to clients who live in or around Alto City (eg, code = c35), have ordered food online before (eg, code = of), and may be interested in clients 400 Willing to pay 10 cents for everything. When the proxy 402 sends a web request to the web server 404, the preferences of the advertiser (or the advertiser's web server 406) may be forwarded to the web server 404. For example, the proxy 402 can add the following to the URL request: "& proxy: code = a1
835 + c35 + of: age = 23 + val2 = AB "(or the same information could be placed in a properly defined HTTP option). Server 4
04, upon receiving a URL request with additional information, uses the additional information to insert the appropriate stored advertisement, verify customer demographic information, or adjust for demographics. Content or use it for other purposes. The ISP can then be paid based on the demographic information provided.

Referring to the scheme shown in FIG. 4B, the client 400
Requests a URL from the proxy, which is intercepted by the proxy 402.
Proxy 402 retrieves relevant information, except for advertisements, from web server 404. 1
In one or more embodiments, proxy 402 inserts the advertisement and forwards the completed package to client 400. In such an embodiment, the plurality of advertisements may be stored by proxy 402 in a database or cache of proxy 402. These stored advertisements can be retrieved before the URL request from client 400 (eg, from the advertiser's web server) and when the client 402 receives the client URL request. Further, if desired, the advertisement can be purchased from another ISP. Storing the advertisement before receiving the URL request can provide a quicker response to the client 400 (eliminating the step of retrieving the advertisement from the web server 406), resulting in efficient caching.

Instead, the client 400 is provided with an IMG directive (a directive for loading an inline image stored on the server (H of a web page)
Web pages with empty slots due to)) can be served. An ad slot is the location and space within the web page where an ad is or will be placed. Ad slots are
Must already contain ads that can be replaced (called ad blocks)
It can be an empty slot. When an empty slot is transmitted, the client 400 attempts to retrieve the empty slot information. This unload is done by proxy 4
02, and the proxy 402 can insert advertisements.

Referring to FIG. 4c, client 400 sends a URL request to proxy 402, which retrieves the URL request, excluding the ad block, from web server 404. To insert an ad, the proxy 402 stores the ad slot and ad characteristics (supplied by the web server 404), profile, cost, or other information (stored as described above) in the ad Send to main web server 406. For example, the proxy 402 may inform the advertiser's web server 406 that the user requesting the URL has visited a large number of car sites or is about to buy a car.
Instead, the proxy 402 can inform the advertiser's web server 406 that the cost of the advertisement is ten cents. Advertiser Web Server 4
06 determines the ad block to insert and informs the proxy 402 (if multiple ads have been previously provided to the proxy 402 for cache storage) or forwards the advertisement to the proxy 402. Further, in one or more embodiments, multiple advertisements can fit into provided advertisement slots.

If a checksum is used, any modification by the proxy, such as advertisement insertion, will cause a transmission failure. For example, insertion of an advertisement may result in the transmission of additional or fewer bits. A change in the number of bits changes the number of checks, which results in a checksum failure. Further, if SSL is used to transmit information, the proxy will not be able to read the information, including the identity of the advertising information. One solution that allows the proxy to insert advertisements requires the server to make the proxy decryptable before returning all data to the client. Such a solution ignores the purpose of SSL (ie, to provide a secure connection so that only the sender and receiver can read the transmitted information).

One or more embodiments of the present invention provide for the insertion of advertisements by a proxy, regardless of whether checksum or SSL encryption is used. As mentioned above, with reference to the non-SSL and non-checksum embodiments of FIGS. 4a-4c, web server 404 provides client 400 with the requested response (via proxy 402). The web server 404 can provide the client 400 with a URL regarding the advertiser's web server 406 in addition to the response. Upon receiving the URL for advertiser web server 406, client 400 retrieves the relevant advertisement from advertiser web server 406 via proxy 402. However, for local ad insertion, the proxy 402
The advertisement can be inserted in the first response from the web server 404 (or the URL information can be exchanged with the URL for the advertisement in the proxy 402 or the advertiser of the proxy 402). However, as shown above, if checksum or SSL encryption is used, such insertion may fail.

To address checksums and SSL encryption, in one or more embodiments of the present invention, proxy 402 does not modify the initial response provided to client 400 by web server 404. , Provide local advertisement insertion by the proxy 402. In such an embodiment, web server 404
Intercepts the next request from client 400 and provides information to proxy 402 that client 400 can intercept the next HTTP request when selecting / clicking on the advertised image (client 400 Request text / graphics of advertisement at specified URL /
Fetch). Such information can be displayed only by the proxy 402 (
It can also be transmitted (not passed to the client 400). Server 4
04 can provide information to proxy 402 in several ways. In one or more embodiments, server 404 communicates as a small header or trailer (separate from the packet containing the remaining response) during the same connection as the transmission of the remaining packet.
Providing information in data packets. In one or more embodiments, the server 4
04 can provide information in data packets during a connection different from the connection for transmitting the remaining information. By providing the information in a separate packet from the rest of the information (within the same or another connection), it is possible to use a different checksum, so that the confidentiality of the original information communicated is Stay protected.

For example, the web server 404 can communicate the URL (of the advertiser) to the proxy 402, which is sent to the client 400. Such information is intended only for the proxy 402 and can be provided in clear text so that the proxy 402 can read this information. Thus, when client 400 issues a request to an advertiser (of the specified URL), proxy 402 can intercept the request. Once intercepted, the proxy 402 replaces its own advertisement (eg, a cached advertisement) or provides a new URL for another advertisement (eg, an advertisement on the advertiser's web server 406). Can be.
With such an implementation, it is also possible to negotiate for prices and other information as provided above and below (e.g., the web server 404 determines that the proxy 402 costs six cents if it wants to insert an advertisement ( (In the first response) to the proxy 402). Therefore, the proxy 402 needs to read the written response (eg, HTML) from the web server 404 or modify the response from the web server 404 to the client 400 so that the checksum is not modified. There is no.

For example, if the client 400 uses SSL (eg, the URL “www
w. bigbank. Assume that a page is requested from server 404 (by specifying "com"). When server 404 returns the requested page, server 404
Is an advertisement slot in which an advertisement image is set at a specific URL (for example, www
. CREDITCARD. com / NEW-AD. GIF) and specific URLs
(For example, www.CREDITCARD.com/) with an HREF (a hypertext reference used to specify the name or URL of a file to be loaded when the user selects / clicks the link).
PROMOTION) can also be provided. Thus, using the above example, the response header (clear text) of the response sent by server 404 includes: AD-GIF: www.CREDITCARD.com/NEW-AD.GIF AD-URL: www.CREDITCARD.com/PROMOTION The proxy 402 reads the cleartext header and converts the SSL encrypted page or checksum page to whatever It is passed to the client 400 without any change. However, if the client 400 is www.client.com (as specified in the URL of the AD-GIF). CREDITCARD. com / NEW-AD. Upon making a request to the GIF, the proxy 402 intercepts the request and inserts its own advertisement in the answer. For example, proxy 402 may advertise a car (eg, proxy 4
02 stored in the cache or www. CARMANUFACTUR
ER. com / truck / gif) can be answered with the URL or GIF image of the new ad. Further, when the client 400 clicks on the advertisement to get more information, the proxy 4
02 again intercepts the request and responds with a web page fetched from the company placing the ad (eg, www. CARMANUFA).
CTURER. com / car-deals. HTML text from html).

In one or more embodiments of the present invention, web server 404 can create a new unique identifier for the image / URL of the visiting advertisement. For example, web server 404 may provide a unique URL on a proxy-wide or client-wide basis such that each URL is different based on the proxy or client making the URL request (if it can and cannot map to the same advertisement). It is possible to create By providing a unique URL, web server 404 can relatively easily determine how often a particular URL is selected or clicked. By examining the number of times a particular URL is selected, the web server 404 can determine how many times a local advertisement has been used instead of the advertisement specified by the web server 404. For example, web server 404 may generate a URL such as "www.CREDITCARD.proxy1.com/NEW-AD.GIF", "www.CREDITCARD.proxy2.com/NEW-AD.GIF" for each proxy. (Each URL points to the same GIF file). A table can be used to store the various URLs available. When a particular URL is selected by the proxy 402, the advertisement specified by the web server 404 is used. However, if the given URL has not been selected, the web server 40
4 can be assumed that the proxy 402 has replaced the specified advertisement with another advertisement. Thus, the web server 404 can determine how many times the proxy has replaced the advertisement.

In addition to, or in combination with, the options shown in FIGS. 4a, 4b, and 4c, the proxy 402 directs the web server 404 to its own advertisement (
Local advertisements can be initiated by inserting a proxy advertisement (which may or may not be stored in the cache of the proxy) or by expressing an interest in inserting multiple advertisements. For example, the proxy 402 can indicate to the web server 404 an interest in placing the advertisement. In response, the web
The server 404 returns the ad slot along with the price to the proxy 402 (in addition to the requested web page). In another embodiment, proxy 402 may indicate an interest in inserting advertisements with the price they are willing to pay. Thereafter, price negotiations continue as described in more detail below. Ad pricing is based on a number of factors, including the number of ads the proxy has or can display, the number of negotiable ad spots, the history of the current market, and the history of previous pricing agreements with a particular party. It can be. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the price is set to a value equal to the highest advertising price for the demographic. The price can then be adjusted due to the opportunity cost of not being able to see the advertisement (or infrequently displayed) or other factors such as, for example, past history.

After obtaining the set of potential advertisements that can be inserted with the profile information, the proxy must determine which particular advertisement to insert for this particular user. In one or more embodiments, the profile information is accessed using a database that maps a user to the profile / preference.
In one or more embodiments, the database includes a mapping of profiles or preferences to sets of advertisements. In one or more embodiments, a database of advertisements and their prices is maintained.

Once the desired database is established, a policy can be used to select the advertisements to insert. For example, a proxy may implement a policy that displays the most expensive advertisements in a particular slot. In one or more embodiments, multiple advertisements may be rotated for the same user so that the same user is not always displayed with the same advertisement. In one or more embodiments, an advertisement can be selected based on the number of advertisements served by the advertiser. For example, a car manufacturer ("MFG 1") allows 100 ad insertions,
If another car manufacturer ("MFG2") allows 100,000 advertisements to be inserted, MFG2 advertisements may be used more frequently (such as user profiles or other characteristics (e.g., browser functionality limitations). MFG 1 advertisement can be reserved for when MFG 2 advertisement is unavailable.

To insert an advertisement, the proxy 402 needs to know the size and characteristics of the advertisement and the advertisement slot. The proxy 402 may use the information sent from the web server 404 to determine the characteristics of the ad slot (eg, the size of the ad slot).
Can be determined. In one or more embodiments, the characteristics of the advertisement and the advertisement slot are encoded as part of the URL itself or are wrapped around the URL (
(Not encoded as part of the URL). In another embodiment, the characteristics of the advertisements and advertisement slots are specified in HTML tags. In another embodiment, the characteristics of the advertisement and the advertisement slot can be sent as part of the HTTP header (described above). Details of such tags are described in more detail below.
Instead, the type of advertisement to be inserted can be specified by the web server 404 and the type of advertisement that cannot be
4 and the type of advertisement to be inserted can be left to the proxy 402.

In one or more embodiments, the price information for an ad slot consists of a plurality of values, each price depending on the size of the ad and the slot location (eg, top of web page versus end of page). Things. Further, changing the price depending on the number of ad slots purchased by the proxy or web server (eg, discounts for large amounts of ads) and the number of other third party ads that can be present on the page Can be.

FIG. 5 illustrates advertisement insertion according to one or more embodiments of the present invention with respect to FIGS. 4a-4c. At step 500, client 400 communicates with web server 404
Request URL. At step 502, the ISP proxy 402 intercepts the URL request. In step 503, proxy 402 searches its cache for the specified web page. If the specified web page is not in the cache, the proxy 402 sends a web page request to the web page.
Transfer to server 404. At step 504, the web server 404 sends the specified web page to the proxy 402. The transmission by the web server 404 can include a determination as to whether to insert a global advertisement or to transmit a blank advertisement slot for the advertisement inserted by the proxy 402. When inserting a global advertisement, the web server 404 can specify that the proxy 402 cannot strip, remove, or replace a global advertisement with a local advertisement. Further, the transmission of the blank slot may also include a specified price or restriction requirement for advertisement insertion. Thus, the transmitted web page can include a global advertisement inserted by the web host (in such a situation, the web server 404 inserts the global advertisement by the proxy 402). Can be determined to be more cost-effective than relying on advertising). Instead, the transmission by the web server 404 eliminates the global advertisement, or as a result of a previously contracted blank slot for the proxy to insert the advertisement, or between the proxy 402 and the web server 404. As a result of dynamically negotiated contracts in real time, replaceable ad blocks can be provided due to lack of ad contracts (with advertisers).

The dynamic negotiation between the proxy 402 and the web server 404 can be completed in a single message exchange where the initiator indicates its price and the other party accepts / rejects. For example, in one form of negotiation, the web server 404 sends a web page with a blank ad slot (which is
(Which may be passed by P402 to web server 404), ISP 402 may initiate negotiations by offering an amount to web server 404. In return, the web server 404 returns the page with an empty slot to accept the contract or rejects the contract without including an empty slot. In another form of negotiation, web server 404 initiates the negotiation by returning a page with empty ad slots or replaceable ad blocks and offering ISP 402 the option to introduce a local ad at a certain price. (The URL that the proxy 402 must go to to retrieve the actual ad if it does not want to insert a local ad at the price listed is also
Server 404). In return, if the ISP 402 does not accept the offer, the ISP 402 may use the web server 404 (URL
Is supplied to the ISP 402, the advertisement (advertisement block) of the web site is retrieved from the advertiser's web server 406). Alternatively, ISP 402 may specify an amount ISP 402 is willing to pay to web server 404 for use of the advertising slot (where web server 404 accepts, rejects, or substitutes Respond by showing the amount). Thereafter, additional iterations will follow until consent is reached for the amount of the advertisement or until the negotiation is terminated by one party (eg, by sending a page without an empty advertisement slot or removing the offer).

Referring again to FIG. 4, two of the options that can be implemented by one or more embodiments of the present invention to complete the advertisement insertion process are described. In option A, at step 506, the proxy 402 determines whether to insert a local advertisement. This determination may include replacing the ad block transferred from the web server 404 (if such replacement is not restricted by the web server 404). Further, this determination may be based on demographic profile information stored by proxy 402. As described above, the web server 404 can specify the particular advertisement to be inserted or the type of advertisement or advertisement restrictions. Further, Option A allows the proxy 402 to negotiate (in real time) with the web server 404 for insertion of an advertisement upon receipt of a web page without advertisements. Such negotiations may include specifying the amount that the proxy 402 will pay the web server 404 for the advertisement insertion. The proxy 402 can then insert the advertisement cached by the proxy 402 or request the advertiser's web server 406 to send the ad block. However, when inserting an advertisement from the cache, proxy 402 must determine whether such cached advertisement is valid. For example, proxy 402 must not be able to insert cached ads based on pre-existing contracts that only allow ads to be inserted on a per-request basis, and the time limit for certain ads May have expired. Whether a cached ad is valid can be specified in a tag field described in detail below. At step 512, the proxy 402 communicates with the web page
The text and the associated advertisement are sent to the client 400.

In option B, at step 508, proxy 402 forwards demographic information, cost, and other information to advertiser's web server 406. At step 510, the advertiser's web server 406 determines the advertisement to insert. As described above, this determination can include evaluating demographic material by the advertiser's web server 406, so that targeted ads can be inserted. The advertiser's web server 406 can also evaluate the costs associated with the advertisement. At step 510, if there is a selected advertisement,
Web server 406 forwards it to proxy 402. At step 512,
Proxy 402 inserts the advertisement and forwards the web page text and the local advertisement to client 400.

[0079] Alternatively, the URL transmission can be passed through multiple proxies (eg, four or five). In such a situation, in response to the URL request, web server 404 responds with an empty ad slot (as described above),
A payment of 5 cents may be required if the slot is used (it may also provide a URL from which the advertisement must be retrieved if the advertisement is not inserted by proxy 402). Server 404 to client 40
The proxy in the path to 0 can either (a) pass the request to the next proxy, (b) perform a local insert (accept the specified price), or (c) increase the price of the insert and You can choose to change the URL from which it must be fetched (if a subsequent proxy chooses not to perform a local insert). Thus, advertisements and advertisement slots can be sold from one proxy to another or from one entity to another.

For example, the first proxy (on the path from server 404 to client 400) may determine that the slot is worth 6 cents and may increase the price of the ad insertion (first proxy) Can be replaced with an alternative advertising URL).
The second proxy may choose not to perform local advertisement insertion because the price is too high. A third proxy may choose to raise the price to 8 cents and replace it again with an alternative advertising URL. Thereafter, the remaining proxies may stop inserting local ads. In such a situation, the local advertisement is retrieved from the URL specified by the third proxy. Thus, the third proxy gives the first proxy 6 cents, and the first proxy receives 1 cent.
Make the cent yours (6 cents minus 5 cents) and the first proxy pays the web site 5 cents.

By evaluating the demographic and profile information described above,
Direct marketing advertisers and one-on-one advertisers can more accurately target specific individuals. Further, the ISP 402 (and other proxies) may benefit (by selling the advertising space and using the profile information and other information it has collected) and the web server 404
Profit (by selling more advertising space whether web server 404 is small or large) and advertiser 406 can be
Benefit (giving a higher probability of click-through), and the client 400
Benefit by receiving advertisements that the client may be of particular interest to. Further, if client 400 does not wish to publish or collect that information, client 400 may contract with ISP 402 to restrict the use, distribution, or collection of such information, or An ISP 402 that does not maintain a user profile can be used.

In the above embodiment, information stored in the cache of the proxy may or may not be used. For example, a proxy may negotiate a price for a certain number of page uses or ad insertions. Thus, the proxy's cache can be used for a specific number of ads negotiated. Instead, certain advertisements can be identified as displayed to certain end users. If another user requests the same page, the proxy can issue a conditional "get" request from the server. The server may respond with a new price structure for the advertisement or updated values for various parameters. Using this approach, user-specific pricing can be used without repeatedly downloading the same advertisement or web page content. In one or more alternative embodiments, the proxy and the server use a common user identification system to set the selection and price of the advertisement. For example, the server may specify a cookie or set of profile details that are willing to pay a particular price (eg, 5 cents per display of a medium size slot). As a result, whenever the proxy intercepts a request from a user that matches the cookie or profile details, the proxy can choose whether to insert the advertisement at the server's set price.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the proxy is not provided with the location of the ad slot until the proxy agrees on conditions for ad insertion (eg, a price agreement). FIG. 6 illustrates a method for inserting an advertisement according to one or more such embodiments. The diagram shown in FIG. 6 is similar to and operable with one or more embodiments described in FIG. Referring to FIGS. 4 and 6, in step 600, the client 400 requests a URL from the web server 404. In step 602, the ISP proxy 402
Intercept the L request. In step 604, the proxy 402 searches its cache for the specified web page. If the specified web page is not in the cache, proxy 402 forwards the web page request to web server 404. In step 604, the web server 404 transmits the specified web page to the proxy 402. The transmission of the web page in step 604 may include empty advertisement slots and slot details (eg, size, restrictions on the type of advertisement, etc.). However, the web page transmission does not include the position of the advertising slot on the web page. By eliminating the location of the ad slot, the proxy 402 "frauds" and receives payment from the advertiser by inserting and transmitting the ad without telling the web server 404 (or itself). Or promote related companies). Alternatively, instead of transmitting the web page to the proxy 402, the web server 404 can initiate a negotiation to insert the web page.

At step 608, a determination is made as to whether the proxy 402 has agreed upon the conditions for inserting the advertisement. Agreement on the terms of advertisement insertion can be negotiated between web server 404 and proxy 402 in various ways as described above and below. If the proxy 402 and the web server 404 cannot agree on a price or other terms regarding the insertion of the advertisement, then in step 614, the proxy 402 notifies the web server 404 so that the web server 404 can insert the advertisement (so Otherwise it is already in the ad slot) or the proxy 402 can transmit the web page to the client 400 in the format that the proxy 402 currently has. If web server 404 did not communicate any information to proxy 402, web server 404 can then transmit web pages and advertisements to proxy 402.

When the web server 404 and the proxy 402 reach agreement on the conditions for inserting the advertisement in step 608, the web server 404 transmits the position of the advertisement slot to the proxy 402 in step 610. If the web server 404 has not yet transmitted the web page, the transmission of the advertisement slot location can include the web page. In step 612, the proxy 402 inserts the local advertisement into the advertisement slot and sends the web page and the local advertisement to the client 40.
0 can be transmitted. Thus, until the proxy 402 agrees on the terms of the ad insertion and informs the web server 404 of the agreement, the proxy 402 does not know the location of the ad slot and cannot insert the ad. In this manner, proxy 402 is prevented from advertising its own without paying or notifying web server 404.

Embodiments of Local Advertising Method and Apparatus Software One embodiment of the present invention includes a software device configured to insert local advertising. The software can be implemented as an instance of an object class by well-known implementations of object-oriented programming. Further, such embodiments can be implemented in the Java ™ programming language.

To better understand these embodiments, an overview of object-oriented programming and the Java programming language is provided below.

Object-Oriented Programming Object-oriented programming is a method of creating a computer program by combining certain basic constituent units and generating relationships between the constituent units. A structural unit in an object-oriented programming system is called an "object". An object is a programming unit that groups data structures (one or more instance variables) and operations (methods) that can use or affect the data. Thus, an object consists of data and one or more operations or procedures that can be performed on the data. Making data and operation into one unit is called "encapsulation".

When an object receives a “message”, it can instruct the object to perform one of its methods. A message is a command or instruction sent to an object to perform some method.
The message consists of method options (eg, method name) and multiple arguments. The message tells the receiving object which operation to perform.

One advantage of object-oriented programming is the way methods are invoked.
When a message is sent to an object, the message does not need to tell the object how to perform certain methods. You only need to request that the object execute the method. This greatly simplifies program deployment.

The object-oriented programming language is mainly based on the “class” method. For a class-based object-oriented programming approach, see 1986.
"Using Prototypical by Lieberman
Objects to Implemented Shared Behavior
in Object-Oriented Systems ", OOPSLA
86 Proceedings, pages 214-223.

A class typically defines a type of object that includes both variables and methods of the class. Object classes are used to create specific instances of objects. An instance of an object class contains the variables and methods defined for the class. From one object class, multiple instances of the same class can be created. object·
Each instance created from a class is said to be of the same type or class.

For illustrative purposes, the employee object class may include “name” and “salary” instance variables and a “set_salary” method. An instance of the employee object class is
It can be created, or instantiated, for each employee in the organization. Each object instance is said to be of type "employee". Name and Salary for each employee object instance
Includes instance variables and a "set_salary" method. The values associated with the "Name" and "Salary" variables for each employee object instance include the name and salary of the employee within the organization. Sending a message to the employee's employee object instance and invoking the "set_salary" method to modify the employee's salary (ie, the value associated with the "salary" variable in the employee's employee object) Can be.

A hierarchy of classes can be defined such that an object class definition has one or more subclasses. Subclasses inherit the definition of their parents (and their parents). Each subclass in the hierarchy can add or modify the behavior specified by its parent class. Some object-oriented programming languages support multiple inheritance, where subclasses can inherit class definitions from multiple parent classes. Other programming languages only support single inheritance, where subclasses are restricted to inheriting only the class definition of one parent class. The Java programming language also provides a mechanism known as an "interface" that includes a declarative set of constant and abstract methods. Object classes can implement the abstract methods defined in the interface. Both single and multiple inheritance can be used for interfaces. That is, an interface can inherit interface definitions from multiple parent interfaces.

An object is a general term that is also used in the object-oriented programming environment to describe modules that contain related code and variables. Software applications can be written using an object-oriented programming language, whereby the functionality of a program is implemented using objects. As mentioned above, the encapsulation provided by objects in an object-oriented programming environment can be extended to the notion of a component under a component model definition.

Implementation in the Java Programming Language Embodiments of the present invention include FORTRAN, Pascal, assembly language, C,
Any type of (object-oriented or otherwise) programming language can be implemented, including but not limited to programming languages such as C ++, Ada, LISP, Java, or Visual Basic. Although the description, examples, and embodiments described below refer to or use the Java programming language, the present invention provides
It is not limited to the use of a programming language or the use of JavaBeans components, but any type of programming language can be implemented.

[0097] The Java programming language is an object-oriented programming language in which each program contains one or more object classes. Unlike many programming languages, where programs are compiled into machine-dependent executable program code, Java classes are compiled into machine-independent bytecode class files. Each class contains code and data in a platform-independent format called a class file format. The computer system acting as the execution means supports a Java runtime environment. The runtime environment includes a program called a virtual machine that plays a role of executing code in a Java class.

An application can be designed as a standalone Java application, identified by an applet tag in an HTML document and loaded by a browser application, or as a Java “applet”.
The class file associated with the application or applet may be stored on a local computing system or on a server accessible over a network. Each class can be replaced by a class
Loader "loads it into the Java runtime environment.

A Java class is loaded on demand from a network (stored on a server) or from a local file system when first referenced during the execution of an application or applet. The runtime environment finds and loads each class file, parses the class file format, allocates memory for various components of the class, and links the class to other already loaded classes. This process allows the virtual machine to easily execute code in the class.

Embodiments of the software device can be implemented using any programming language, including standard OOP object classes. In the following description, a component reference may represent an instance of the OOP object class.

Advertising Module One or more embodiments of the present invention provide for the use of an advertising module that is downloaded and used by a proxy. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the modules are provided in the form of applets whose code is downloaded and used by the proxy. The module / applet can be downloaded with detailed information about the advertising slot. For example, the module can be downloaded with the size of the ad, any restrictions on the type of ad that can be inserted, the price of the ad, or the price range. Further, the module may be configured with sufficient negotiation information to allow the module to negotiate with proxy 402 for a price for proxy 402 to insert an advertisement. To address these various features, a module may be an object that contains a method of using price range data to negotiate prices.

Once the module has negotiated with the proxy 402 for price and other conditions, it can publish / inform the proxy 402 of the advertisement slot location. In one or more embodiments, the module cannot publish the advertising slot location until it notifies the web server 404 of the price and receives a confirmation / authorization message from the web server 404. Alternatively, web server 404 cannot transmit the ad slot location information using the module, and web server 404 informs web server that the module has reached an agreement on the ad insertion conditions.
Until the server 404 is notified, the slot position information cannot be transmitted.
Thus, depending on the embodiment, the module may or may not be able to load advertising slot location information.

In one or more embodiments, the module may maintain the state of the proxy and maintain information regarding the number and price of various advertisements inserted by proxy 402. Once a predetermined number of advertisement insertions have occurred at a specified time or upon request, the module can transmit the gathered information to the web server 404. Thus, the module maintains the state of the various insertions and transmits the state and data all to the web server 404 at the same time. Gathering information and transmitting it all at the same time reduces network traffic and processing time. In addition, downloading and executing the code on the proxy results in faster transmission and response to the client 400.

Ad Tags Ad tags can be specified in HTML to specify ad characteristics. The server may send a tag or combination of tags (eg, one of the tags described below followed by <
A>. . . </A> block). Instead, the proxy may, for example, use a new tag or <A>. . . <IMG. . . ><//A> Knowledge-based inferences can be made using tag combinations (along with a database of matching subsequences). The different properties can be specified as part of one tag or as multiple tags. The ADSIZE tag may specify the dimensions of a standard predefined size of the banner ad (eg, one or more of half or full size, or the "slot" of the ad banner).

An ADPOSITION / ADLOCATION tag may specify the location of a particular advertisement on a web page (eg, location 8 or web page).
76.2 mm (3 inches) from the top of the page, 25.4 mm (1 inch) from the left)
, This tag can be used with the ADSIZE tag.

An ADPRICE tag can specify the cost of placing an advertisement. The cost may be based on the size of the banner (eg, 5.2 for half, 3.4 for full) and may be based on the previous relationship between the advertising agency and the proxy. Yes (eg, based on demographic information provided by click-throughs, referral commissions, or proxies). further,
The ADPRICE tag can specify a specific currency, specify multiple alternative pricing schemes, or specify additional costs if an advertiser wants to maintain exclusivity for a website (eg, Premiums or additional costs can be imposed if an advertiser wants only ads for a particular car brand (eg, Toyota) to be displayed on a website). Alternatively, the ADPRICE tag can be used by the advertiser to inform the proxy of the amount the advertiser is willing to pay for a particular advertisement.

The category / type of the advertisement to be permitted / denied can be specified by the ADRESTRICT tag. For example, a religious website may want to exclude ads on pornographic websites or allow only ads for books.

The ADDEMOGRAPHIC tag allows for specifying demographic information about the user to whom the advertisement is presented. Such a tag may be used in connection with one or more embodiments described in connection with FIG. 4c above. For example, age, credit history, salary, interest, previous purchases, previously visited websites, web searches performed, shopping information, or time spent on a particular website (only ISPs or proxies know ) Can be specified. Instead, the advertiser uses the ADDEMOGRAPHIC tag with the ADPRICE tag to inform the proxy of the amount the advertiser is willing to pay for a particular ad displayed to a particular user with the specified demographic information. be able to. For example, an advertiser may specify to pay 10 cents for a mortgage advertisement displayed to buyers of a home visiting for the first time and 5 cents for a mortgage advertisement displayed to owners of existing homes.

Additional LOCALAD_NEGO in addition to or with the above tag
A TIATION tag or bit can be used to identify the negotiation process. For example, one part of the LOCALAD_NEGOTIATION tag may specify that the web server 404 accepts negotiations that determine the cost of local advertisement insertion. Another part of the LOCALAD_NEGOTIATION tag may specify the maximum acceptable negotiation (to limit the time to send a web page to a waiting client 400). For example, the maximum negotiation may be in units of time, such as 10 seconds, or may be the number of transmissions that occur between proxy 402 and web server 404, such as four transmissions.

The IMG directive can also be used to specify information about the image to be displayed (which can include advertisements), along with the advertisement slot characteristics.
For example, tag <IMG SRC = ad-image. gif WIDTH = 4
0 HEIGHT = 60 PRICE = 34> is an ad-image. With an additional ad price field of width 40, height 60 and value 34. Provide an image named gif.

Instead, instead of specifying the above information in the form of an HTML tag,
It can be specified as part of the URL request or part of the data stream provided to the advertiser. For example, the server may specify that HTML advertisement slots are transmitted as characters or bytes 55-75 of the data stream.

Audit and Cross-Validation System After the advertisement is displayed to the user, the advertiser pays the contracted amount to an advertising agency, proxy, or web host. Since hit counts and click-throughs can be inflated, a system that audits and verifies that an advertisement was actually displayed to a user is desirable. Further, in situations where the ISP maintains a direct contract with the advertiser (ie, the ISP pays the web host for advertising space (using the money received from the advertiser)), You may want to verify the amount paid to your ISP. Such verification can be performed by a third party, such as an independent auditor.

Referring to FIGS. 4a-4c, logs containing information about all transmissions are maintained by proxy 402, web server 404, and web server 406. Such logs may have to be maintained at the request of the advertiser. For example, in the log, the time, ad inserted (if any), 4-tuple (src
IP address (source IP address), src port (source port number),
A unique connection identifier such as a destination IP address (destination IP address) and a destination port (destination port number) can be maintained. As a result, the web server 404 receives the
Maintain information about the number, type, and timing of URL requests sent to Similarly, proxy 402 determines the number of advertisements it has sent to client 400,
Maintain information about type and timing.

The client 400 can be uniquely identified from other clients at any one time using various methods. For example, the IP address or port number can be a unique number assigned to client 400. However, since a plurality of family members may use the same computer having the same IP address or port number, the login name of the user or the IP
Using the user's login name tied to the address or port number, the client 400 can be uniquely identified from other clients and distinguished among family members (the assigned IP address must be unique Can be mapped to a user identifier). A user can also be identified by a cookie that the user sends to a web site. Instead, a group of users may be identifiable. For example, the ISP may allocate a block of users to use the same proxy and use this proxy to identify a set of users. As a result, based on this information, the advertiser can restrict the proxy to insert advertisements only on pages from the selected web site, if desired.

In order to verify the number of advertisements actually displayed on the client 400, the web
The URL request (and transmission of the result) from a specific client 400 stored in the log of the server 404 at a specific time is transmitted to the specific client at a specific time stored in the log of the proxy 402 ( And a web page from the web server 404). Web server 404
By cross-checking and comparing the information from the log of the proxy with the information from the log of the proxy 402, the advertiser can determine whether the advertisement was actually displayed and the web host 404 receives And the expected amount can be calculated. The advertiser may attempt to determine how many transmissions have occurred for a particular ISP (to determine if the number of advertisements paid equals the number of transmissions) by using a larger web browser. You can also restrict cross-checking on your site. In addition, the advertiser can check and cross-check the amount that the web server receives from the advertisement.

In addition, the advertiser can obtain hit count information from different sets of content providers (web servers) as well as different sets of proxies (each hit is a page to the proxy where the content provider replaces the ad). Equal to the number of times to supply). Then, a cross-reference is performed to ensure that each proxy is served (
Check that all proxies for a particular advertisement (from a particular server or generally from all servers) are behaving within industry norms.
This industry norm can be determined more accurately by using a sampling audit scheme. The sampling scheme may inform the proxy that no ads are available or that the page is not cacheable (for a subset of page views). Then, the ad hit rate (and repetition rate) is obtained. The proxy's hit rate and repetition rate assertions are statistically examined to determine if those rates are appropriate.

The crosschecks shown above can also be located in a spreadsheet or database that maintains information about the number of mismatches. Additional action may be taken by web server 404 or advertiser based on the number or rate of discrepancies (eg, canceling a contract or penalizing a party involved). For example, if web server 404 learns that it has received only a 10% payment for the displayed advertisement, it cancels the contract with the ISP that inserts the advertisement, or Can cancel the contract. Instead, the web
Server 404 provides 10% for all advertisements inserted by ISP 402
Only by increasing the advertising cost can the ISP 402 be punished. Similarly, if the advertiser learns that there is a 5% mismatch, the advertiser can pay the ISP 402 or web server 404 a 5% less amount. As a result of the ability to cross-check information maintained by various entities (eg, client 400, ISP 402, and web server 404), multiple parties conspire to defraud third parties. Need arises. In the prior art, such collusion was unnecessary (i.e., because no cross-validation system was available, one party alone could spoof profits from other parties).

Verification is also needed to determine if the demographics provided by the ISP are accurate. Such verification is particularly useful when the cost of advertising depends on demographics (eg, Mercedes or Jaguar advertisers may pay more if clients live in rich areas). This verification examines, tests, and evaluates the profiles maintained by the demographic system (ie, the computer software used to implement the online profile management system 300 of FIG. 3) and the ISP for determination. To be performed by an independent auditor. An independent auditor evaluates and tests the software to obtain and determine information and to determine whether the method of inserting a particular advertisement is reliable.

Thus, methods and apparatus for local advertising on the Internet have been described with respect to one or more specific embodiments. The invention is defined by the full scope of the appended claims and equivalents.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art method of processing a web page.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer system that can provide an execution environment suitable for one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates the relationship between an online profile management system and clients, servers, and proxies, according to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates multiple schemes for placing or inserting an advertisement into a web page, according to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates advertisement insertion, according to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for inserting an advertisement, according to one or more embodiments of the present invention.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme court ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/30 340 G06F 17/30 340A 17/60 326 17/60 326 504 504 (81) Designated country EP ( AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IT, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE), OA (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, GM, KE, LS, MW, SD, SL, SZ, TZ, UG, ZW), EA (AM) , AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AE, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, A, CH, CN, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM, EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, JP, KE , KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS, LT, LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RU, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM, TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, UZ, VN, YU, ZA, ZW (72) Inventor Gapta, Amit United States 94538 California・ Fremont Walnut Avenue Number Jay 207 ・ 2000 (72) Inventor Behr, Jeffrey United States ・ 94025 ・ Menlo Park Network, California Circle ・ 11 ・ MP21 F-term in Microsystems, Inc. (reference) 5B075 KK03 KK07 KK13 KK33 ND20 ND23 PQ02 PR08 UU08 UU40

Claims (21)

[Claims] Determining whether the proxy agrees with one or more ad insertion conditions; and if the proxy does not agree with one or more ad insertion conditions, one or more. Transmitting the information to be displayed without giving the position of the ad slot to the proxy, and if the proxy agrees with a condition for one or more ad insertions, A method of advertising, comprising: transmitting a location to the proxy; and the proxy transmitting one or more advertisements in the one or more advertisement slots and the displayed information to a client. 2. before providing the position of the ad slot before the proxy determines whether to agree to the condition for the one or more ad insertions,
The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting displayed information to the proxy. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the proxy negotiating a price for inserting one or more advertisements. 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: the proxy obtaining profile information about a client; and the proxy inserting the one or more advertisements based on the profile information. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting an advertisement module to the proxy; the advertisement module determining whether the proxy agrees with a condition for one or more advertisement insertions; A method of advertising, comprising: notifying the proxy of the location of one or more ad slots if the proxy agrees on conditions for inserting multiple ads. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein said module is an applet. 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the module negotiating with the proxy for a price to insert the one or more advertisements. 8. The method of claim 5, further comprising: the module collecting advertisement insertion information; and the module transmitting the collected information to a server in batches. 9. A system comprising a client and a server, wherein the server determines whether the proxy agrees with a condition for one or more advertisement insertions, wherein the proxy determines one or more advertisements. If the terms of insertion are not agreed upon, the information to be displayed is transmitted without giving the position of one or more ad slots to the proxy, and the proxy agrees with the conditions of one or more ad insertions in case of,
Configured to transmit the location of one or more ad slots to the proxy, the proxy negotiating for one or more ad insertions, and one or more in the one or more ad slots And a system configured to transmit the advertisement and the displayed information to the client. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the server does not provide a location of the one or more ad slots before determining whether the proxy agrees with a condition for the one or more ad insertions. The system of claim 9, wherein the system is configured to transmit the information to the proxy. 11. A system comprising: a proxy configured to negotiate for one or more advertisement insertions; and an advertisement module, wherein the advertisement module comprises: a condition for the proxy to include one or more advertisement insertions. And if the proxy agrees with one or more ad insertion conditions,
A system configured to notify the proxy of the location of one or more advertisement slots, and the system further includes a server configured to transmit the advertisement module to a proxy. 12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said advertisement module is an applet. 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the advertisement module is further configured to collect advertisement insertion information and transmit the collected information to a server in batches. 14. A computer readable program configured to advertise.
A computer program product comprising a computer-usable medium having code embedded therein, the computer program product configured to cause a computer to determine whether a proxy agrees with one or more advertising insertion conditions. Computer-readable code, and the information to be displayed without giving the computer the location of one or more ad slots to the computer if the proxy disagrees with one or more ad insertion conditions. If the proxy agrees with one or more terms relating to the insertion of the advertisement,
Causing the computer to transmit the location of one or more advertisement slots to the proxy; and transmitting the one or more advertisements in the one or more advertisement slots and the displayed information to the client. And a computer readable program code configured to cause the computer program product to execute. 15. The computer displays the one or more ad slots without giving the location of the one or more ad slots before the proxy determines whether the one or more ad insertion conditions are agreed upon. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising computer readable program code configured to cause information to be transmitted to the proxy. 16. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising computer readable program code configured to cause a computer to negotiate a price for the proxy to insert one or more advertisements. 17. A computer readable program code configured to cause the proxy to obtain profile information about a client, and configured to cause the proxy to insert the one or more advertisements based on the profile information. 15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising: computer readable program code written. 18. A computer readable program configured to advertise
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having code embedded therein, the computer program product configured to cause a computer to transmit an advertising module to a proxy, and one or more advertisements. Computer-readable code configured to cause the advertising module to determine whether the proxy agrees with the conditions for insertion; and if the proxy agrees with one or more conditions for inserting the advertisement,
And computer readable code configured to cause the advertising module to notify the proxy of the location of one or more advertising slots. 19. The computer program product according to claim 18, wherein the module is an applet. 20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising computer readable code configured to cause the proxy module to negotiate a price for inserting the one or more advertisements with the proxy. 21. A computer readable code configured to cause the advertisement module to collect advertisement insertion information, and a computer readable code configured to cause the advertisement module to transmit the collected information to a server in batches. 19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising: