KR20130115229A - Joining user lists with external data - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer-implemented method may include receiving a request for content from a user, determining a user list associated with the user, wherein the user list includes a definition that characterizes members of the user list, and a context associated with the user. Determining related additional data, and providing the user list definition data and the additional data with the request to a consumer subscribed to the user list.

Description

Linking user lists with external data {JOINING USER LISTS WITH EXTERNAL DATA}

This application claims priority to US Provisional Application No. 61 / 379,289, filed September 1, 2010. The contents of US Provisional Application No. 61 / 379,289 are incorporated herein by reference, as if all contents were disclosed herein in their entirety.

This disclosure relates to presenting content.

In general, providing relevant advertising content to users is important for advertisers and service providers. However, implementing cost-effective methods for providing such relevant advertising content can be difficult in an ever-changing online market. In addition, one entity may be aware of relevant information for targeting a particular user, but others may not be able to easily access or use such information, for example, when making targeting decisions. .

This specification discusses systems and techniques that allow a user list to be joined with external data.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a request for content from a user, determining a user list associated with the user, the user list defining a characterization of members of the user list. Determining additional data associated with a context associated with the user, and user list definition data and the additional data along with the request to a consumer subscribed to the user list. Providing a step.

Implementations may include some or all of the following features or none. The request is a request for an advertisement to be displayed to the user, and the consumer is an advertiser providing personalized content to the user. The user list comprises the definition and one or more members, each of which is identified by user-specific data. The user list is stored in a table of user lists, and the user specific data identifies the user. The user specific data is a global identifier associated with the user in the advertisement providing system. Determining additional data includes retrieving data based on the information associated with the user. Retrieving data includes retrieving data based on the location of the user. Retrieving the data includes retrieving the data from a third party. Retrieving data includes determining additional information about the user and retrieving additional data based on the additional information. The additional information is location information. The additional data is weather information of a location associated with the user. The additional information relates to ownership of a particular type of account that includes certain assets and the additional data is data held or value change within the account. The context relates to a current condition associated with the environment in which the user operates. Providing the additional data and the user list definition data includes providing data to subscribers of the user list for use in targeting content to the user. Targeting includes adjusting bids in real time. Targeting includes customizing content to be presented to the user.

The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

According to the present invention, a user list and external data can be linked.

1 is a schematic diagram of an example system for providing and using shared data.
2 is a schematic diagram of an example user list.
3 is a flow diagram of an example process of associating user list definition data with additional data in response to receiving a request for content from a user.
4 is a diagram of an exemplary sequence of operations centered around the advertisement server using user list information associated with external data to provide advertisements with customized content.
5 illustrates an example mobile computer device and computer device that can be used to implement the techniques disclosed herein.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

In general, advertisers, publishers and service providers are encouraged to exchange data in order to implement meaningful means of providing information and / or services (eg, advertising content) to online users. You may want If a particular content is determined to be meaningful to a particular user, that user may wish to access, purchase, or interact with that content. This interaction may provide a revenue to the content provider (eg, advertiser, publisher or service provider). If a particular content provider (e.g., an advertiser, publisher or service provider) can collect data about how specific content will mean to users or not (especially in the form of a user list), the collected data will be It can be used by others in various ways. One use involves selecting targeted content. Other uses are also possible, such as adjusting bids based on user lists that indicate that a particular piece of content is of interest to one or more users. User lists may be published, sold, licensed, or accessed to help provide personalized content to specific users and increase revenue for content providers.

The user lists may represent specific user information belonging to pre-specified categories. These categories can be defined by their data owners. For example, a user list may include data about one or more users, for example, characterizing users by category (eg, homeowner, craftsman, DVD lender, etc.) so that publishers or advertisers can target users. It may include. In some implementations, user lists can be used to target relevant advertising content.

User lists can be created and exchanged according to a number of rules, and these rules can be used to market specific user lists to specific consumers. These rules may use methods of assigning users to a special user list. These rules may provide a logical categorization of data, information or services to determine what data content in the user list is specifically related to multiple users.

The methods describe associating user specific information with one or more user lists owned or maintained by the data owner. An association between this user-specific data and the user lists is made. This association may be utilized, for example, for real-time bidding in response to a request for content, or to customize content to be provided to a particular user. Other uses of user list information and associations are possible.

In some implementations, user lists can be combined with other data to find out the "context" of the user to be provided with the content. Examples of "context" include the user's local weather (hot / cold, sunny / rainy / snowy, etc.), the user's stock portfolio status (eg, up / down). Content provided in the context can provide more useful information to the user at a more appropriate time. In addition, contextual information may be useful when selecting, customizing, or bidding on an advertisement.

1 is a schematic diagram of a system 100 for providing and using shared data. This shared data may include, for example, a user list detailing a number of pre-specified categories that are associated with particular users. These categories may include browser history, user preferences, cookie information, user-provided preferences, purchase history, web browsing data or other data (i.e. the user may store and / or store such data). May be defined by or associated with user information, including but not limited to permission to collect). In some implementations, the user list is owned by the data provider and can be collected from the information in the form of each user list. In some implementations, user lists can be shared with other institutions, such as using data exchange. For example, user lists may be shared among advertisers, third party service providers, or third party advertisers, data aggregators and other online users.

User lists may be provided to the data exchange and maintained by the data exchange and / or data owner. The user lists may be updated to suit the users who are members of a given list or to rebalance the categories / categories associated with the user lists. Management of user lists is described in more detail below.

System 100 includes a data exchange engine 102 to provide an interface that allows advertisers and other consumers to browse or license user lists 104. This data exchange engine 102 may be configured to maintain, update, present, license, sell, or otherwise manage one or more user lists based on owned or authorized data. The generated user list may include user-specific associations that characterize specific online user behavior. These associations can be used, for example, to provide personalized content from ad server 106, third party server 108 or other content providers. As described herein, data exchange engine 102 may, for example, parallel the functionality of an online advertising exchange system for active targeted online advertisers.

In some implementations, data exchange engine 102 can create an exchange between an owner of authorized data and consumers of such data. Consumers of the approved data may include advertisers who strive to target a particular category of users. In some implementations, data exchange engine 102 provides a mechanism for enabling buyers of ad space to use additional third party data sources for providers of ad placement services in the targeted online advertising industry. In some implementations, data exchange engine 102 provides user lists to publishers, syndicates, and other data providers for various purposes, including targeting the content to users. Can provide.

The data exchange engine 102 may provide an interface that allows data owners to reliably view and manage their own data (ie, manage user lists). For example, data owners can create and store information in a user list by entering data in both manual and automatic ways. Other agencies may be authorized to enter / maintain information on the user list. Publishers can also extract data for direct sales models or other marketing plans. Although computer hardware is not shown in data exchange engine 102, processors, memory, and other processing components may be included.

The ad server 106 can provide ad content to any number of browsers 110 via the data exchange engine 102 or directly. In addition, the ad server 106 may be configured to receive requests for ad content and to provide ad content to the requesting users. In operation, the ad server 106 may select targeted advertisements based on one or more criteria and the perspective of the data included in the one or more user lists. Ad server 106 may also provide access to other storage elements (eg, repositories), in the example shown as ad repository 112. Ad store 112 may be used to store advertising content associated with particular keywords, bid criteria, advertisers, and targeting criteria. Data storage elements include, but are not limited to, any of the methods for storing data, including but not limited to arrays, hash tables, lists and pairs, and the like. Combinations. The ad server 106 can access other data storage devices (eg, user lists 104) of a similar type. Although a reference is made to the providing advertisement, the ad server 106 may provide other formats of content.

In some implementations, advertisers can work with data providers to purchase or license user lists to target certain categories (eg, demographic categories, interest categories, preference categories). User lists can be analyzed for quality and other considerations. Advertisers can use the user list, for example, to determine targeting criteria or change current bids. In one example use case, an advertiser may subscribe to a user list for a period of time. The user list itself may be defined as being associated with a certain category of users (eg, internet buyers interested in buying a sports car). Requests for advertisements may be received by the advertising system, and data exchange may be used to determine which user lists are subscribed to a given user. In one real-time bidding example, an advertiser subscribing to a user list may also view the request (and necessarily information that the users satisfy the category associated with the user list (s)), and then take that information into account. You can adjust / submit bids. This is just one example of the use of user list data.

Third party servers 108 may provide third party services to any number of browsers 110 via data exchange engine 102. For example, these third party servers 108 may provide web services, advertising services, or external application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect to the third party server. These third party servers 108 may include, for example, one or more servers executing a search engine application program. In some implementations, these third party servers 108 can include an associated information server or an advertisement server. Third party servers 108 may track user activity using cookies 114.

The browser 110 represents a user browsing the Internet. The browser 110 can access any website that is accessible on a network owned by any individual or any other type of institution (eg, company, business entity, etc.). For example, in FIG. 1, the browser 110 can access any service or website. This service or website may be hosted by a third party server 108 or alternatively by another server associated with the system 100. The user can use the browser 110 to browse the Internet for services, information, or goods. The browser 110 may use the cookies 116 to track user activity, for example.

In some implementations, the ad server 106 includes one or more advertisement customizers (not shown) operable to customize the advertisement content according to one or more user lists. In particular, the advertisement customizer can customize display criteria, language, or other content of the advertisement according to the user list information. For example, if a particular list of users includes user-input navigation related to car purchases, the ad server 106 may provide user-input navigation information (e.g., a web search to perform a browser search) to customize the content or display of the advertisement. Stored cookies). Customization may, for example, provide a more appropriate advertisement to the user.

During operation and for each of the created user lists, the system 100 may store a list of user lists to which a particular user belongs, for example in a table-based repository. This table-based storage is described, for example, in a paper entitled "Bigtable: A Distributed Storage System for Structured Data" (Fay Chang, Jeffrey Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat, Wilson C. Hsieh). , A proprietary distributed storage system with a multi-dimensional sorted map as described in Deborah A. Wallach, Mike Burrows, Tushar Chandra, Andrew Fikes, and Robert E. Gruber. Which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This table-based repository represents a distributed storage system for managing structured data that is designed on a very large scale (eg, petabytes of data across thousands of commercial servers). Each user list in the proprietary database is contained within one or more tables with multiple dimensions, one of which may be a field of time to allow versioning and garbage collection. Can be.

System 100 may provide an index to table-based storage. This index can be expressed, for example, as a user cookie. For example, a table-based repository may be a set of rows and columns, where the rows represent cookies corresponding to particular users, and the columns represent characterizations (e.g., associated with a list of users). , Special categories, keywords, websites, or other descriptive data.

At some point, user browser 110 may make a request for advertising content from ad server 106 or third party server 108. Data exchange engine 102 may retrieve a list of user lists from a table-based repository associated with a request received from a given user, and provide the request to identified consumers for that user list. Any subsequent processing for this request may use the list, for example for targeting, ad customization and bid creation. A list of these user lists or a portion of the list may also be sent to the real time bidder to provide the real time bidder with appropriate information about one or more users. Other uses are possible.

2 is an example showing a schematic diagram of the user lists 104 stored in the table 200. In this example, one or more institutions (eg, a web publishing organization that collected user data) provided the user lists 104 to the data exchange engine 102. In some implementations, the user lists 104 in the table 200 are all provided by the same authority. In some implementations, the user lists 104 in the table 200 can include a user list associated / owned with other institutions. In some implementations, users create their own user lists and provide them to the data exchange engine 102. For example, users may exchange user list data with the data exchange engine 102 to format the content in the user list according to personal preferences, and to target, publish, manage, and use the content for users. Can be provided to The data in the user lists 104 are developed, for example, based at least in part on navigation and browser data provided by the user. In this example, data exchange engine 102 may manage user lists 104 listing users 212 A through E in detail. In some implementations, this table 200 can be indexed by a user identifier, such as the users 212 column.

In the example shown, each row represents a single user. A user identifier (not shown) can be used to identify the user. This user identifier may be a user identifier (especially a local identifier) associated with a user in the domain associated with the organization that owns / provides the data. In some implementations, for example, when a plurality of different agencies provide a list of users stored in a single table, the user identifier may be in the form of a global identifier associated with that user, such as an identifier assigned to the user by the advertising system. Can be. Global identifiers may be associated with "local" institution identifiers, and a request including a local authority identifier may be associated with a global identifier, and may be mapped to be associated with a list of users associated with a plurality of institutions. . Because a user can be associated with multiple user lists owned by other data owners, global identifiers can help to tie their lists together for that user.

In the example shown, each column is characterized by, for example, a particular category (s), keyword (s), website (s), demographic (s), interest (s), or other user classification. Represents a list of users, including descriptions (sometimes referred to as definitions). Illustrative feature descriptions within the table 200 include sports cars, washing machines and scuba diving. This feature description includes descriptors (eg, keywords) that describe the given category. Each feature description may implement a combination of a plurality of individual categories or subjects. For example, a characteristic description sports car can embody individuals who have interest in a car and have visited a website, and especially those who have been interested in a sports car (they themselves represent two different categories). In some implementations, logical combinations of categories or subjects can be used to define a feature description for a given user list.

Each of the columns 214-218 of the table 200 can identify at least a high level of other feature descriptions associated with other user lists. For example, column 214 identifies users characterized by "category A sports car." Other examples of feature descriptions and associated user lists are represented by column 216 (ie, “category B washer”) and column 218 (in particular, “category C scuba diving”) and the like, to name just a few. The table 200 may represent hundreds or thousands of feature descriptions and associated user lists.

In some implementations, each entry in the table 200 (ie, the intersection of rows and columns) indicates whether the user is a member of a given user list. For example, entry 210 indicates that user A is associated with or interested in a user list with a characteristic description of 'sports car', and entry 211 indicates that user Don depicts a characteristic of 'washing machine'. Indicates that you are associated with or interested in a list of users with. In some implementations, other data may be included in the entry. Other data may include geo-location data, cookie data, more personal data associated with the user and known by the data owner, example web pages or example content (eg, content surfed by the user), keyword searches, location data , Website data, side vertical data, page vertical data, formatted text strings [data associated with a particular user according to the definition set by the data owner (e.g., , A set of bits that do not depend on each user's data for such things as demographic data, a set of other interests, or a set of other data that may be used to target information to a particular user, although different from the description of its characteristics. Set on an individual user for things or having that individual user Case, which may include emitter), or may include other data. For example, entry 220 may indicate that user C is not only a member of a user list associated with category C (scuba diving), but also that the user lives in a particular location (eg, resides in Portland), and that a demographic group (eg, , Male).

Identifying a privately owned user list may be accomplished by the data exchange engine 102 when a cookie or other user identifiable information is received. In some implementations, data exchange engine 102 uses cookies or user identification information as an index to user lists 104. For example, data exchange engine 102 may cross reference received user identifier data with special user list information to determine an association between user list data and cookie data / user information. As shown in user lists 104, user A has shown an interest in user list A characterized by the keywords "sports car". For example, this user might have provided a request to view a sports car produced at Lexus, such as providing a keyword search for "Lexus sports car" as part of a session with a given data provider. Can be.

3 is a flowchart of an example process 300 for associating user list definition data with additional data in response to receiving a request for content from a user. This process 300 may be executed by the data exchange engine 102 shown in FIG. 1, for example, to associate user data with external data to provide customized content in a particular advertisement. More or fewer participants may be involved.

At stage 302, a request for content is received from a user. In some implementations, the request for content can be a request, for example, to provide an advertisement that the data exchange engine 102 received as a result of a user browsing the Internet (eg, Don). . Prior to the request to provide an advertisement, Don's browser may initially display the search results, which may include its own search query [eg, a query for a local appliance store (eg, the keyword "large appliances). Product ")] in response to Don's browser. Don can create a query to search for a washing machine replacement, for example, even include a "washing machine" within the query. The search result may include several entries for the local appliance store, and Don may select (eg, click) one of these search result entries. For example, an entry could be Gary's Appliances Store, which contains the store's name, address and phone number, maps and driving instructions, and a description of the store. Nippers, clickable links to related web pages, and the like. As a result of clicking on the search result, Don's browser will attempt to navigate to the web page corresponding to the search result (eg, www.garysappliances.com). In this example, the webpage www.garysappliances.com may be designed to include or embed one or more advertisements, each of which is an available impression that may be provided by the advertisement server 106, for example. Thus, in this example, the request for content received from user Don is a request to provide an advertisement on www.garysappliances.com. This request may be received and processed by, for example, data exchange engine 102 and / or another engine (eg, an ad server engine).

At stage 304, a user list associated with that user is determined that includes a definition that characterizes members of the user list. In this example with reference to FIG. 2, data exchange engine 102 may look up user lists 104 associated with Don in table 200. This search may use user-specific data, such as the user's user identifier (eg, “Don” or any other identifier described above) as an index to the row of interest in table 200. have. Furthermore, for example, information from a cookie on a user's computer (or information from a user's search query) may be used to associate a category B washer user list with a user Don, an entry in column 216 ( 211 indicates that Don is a member of the user list. The data exchange engine 102 may associate using a definition for a category B washer that characterizes members in the user list. In this example, the category B washer user list is a determined user list, but other user lists (eg, user lists generally associated with a household appliance) may be determined in addition or in place of. In some implementations, multiple user lists can be determined and the data exchange engine 102 can select a user list that is optimally matched or likely to deliver all matching information to subscribers for each user list. have.

At stage 306, additional data related to the context associated with the user is determined. In some implementations, determining additional data related to the context can begin (or include) by examining information from one or more cookies on the user's (eg, Don's) computer. . For example, the at least one cookie may include an IP address associated with Don's computer. In some implementations, data exchange engine 102 can use an IP address to pinpoint the geographical location of Don (eg, a small town in the Midwestern United States). The data exchange engine 102 may also use this geo-location information to access the current weather for the Don's area, for example from a third party weather server. At the time of Don's query, for example, a third-party weather information server may indicate that Don's small town is in the middle of the heat and the current temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus, in this example, additional data related to the context associated with the user (eg, Don) includes current weather and recent conditions. In this case, the weather is just one example of the current situation associated with the user's environment, but other examples may include other relevant local or current data (eg, concerts or other upcoming local events, recent local news stories, local road construction or Other projects, etc.). In some implementations, the determined additional data can be another user list. For example, if a user's current weather situation includes a high temperature, stage 306 may determine a user list, such as "users in hot weather," which may include users in an area where hot weather is observed. .

In stage 308, user list definition data and additional data are provided with the request for the consumer to which the user list is subscribed. Following this example, the data exchange engine 102 sends an ad request to a washing machine user list definition, current weather conditions, and a special ad server 106 that can provide advertisements for consumers (eg, www.garysappliances.com). Can provide. The combination of information in this manner basically helps to "link" the user list with external data. The ad server 106 selected by the data exchange engine 102 to receive an ad request and associated information may be a consumer (eg, one of several ad servers 106) subscribing to a list of washing machine users. In some implementations, when determining another user list at stage 306, the other user list can include a user list definition and an advertisement request provided to the consumer.

Using the received information, for example, the ad server 106 can create an advertisement with customized content based on that information. For example, in addition to including a variety of washing machine related information that may be of interest to Don in the advertisement, the ad server 106 provides details of an ongoing sale or promotion for the air conditioner. can do. The choice of air conditioner is merely an example customization that can be made based on the weather conditions where Don lives. Other ad customizations may include products or services that may appeal to Don in light of weather conditions. Also, knowing that the small town of Don in the midwestern United States is in the middle of the heat, the ad server 106 may operate efficiently or “cool house” technology (eg, to avoid raising the ambient temperature). The promotion of this adopted special model washing machine can be carried out. Another example context may be time-based. For example, suppose Don is just surfing the internet near dinner time and is a member of a user list characterized by Asian food symbols. In this case, a personalized advertisement that may be provided to Don may provide information about a local Asian restaurant offering discounts on cool drinks (because Don is in hot weather) that may be served with delivery and meals. It may include.

Although the example described used Don's current weather situation and time-of-day as additional data relating to the context associated with the user, other contexts can also be used to target the advertisement. . For example, a combination of information from other sources such as cookies on Don's computer or information obtained from third party sources may be used to determine the context. For example, information indicating that Don's current stock portfolio is in decline may be useful. The ad server 106 may use this information to display other customized advertisements for Don (e.g., when Don visits an investment related website, in the general area of Don). Can be used to create advertisements for financial planners. Another example of customized content may include an up-to-the minute situation where the data is useful, such as an ongoing promotion at a nearby department store or discount store.

In some implementations, for example, at stage 306, local copies of data obtained from external sources can be maintained. In some implementations, data exchange engine 102 can maintain local copies of external data, for example, in one or more tables. In order to keep the information up-to-date, the data exchange engine 102 may query external data sources, for example, every hour or two, according to a regular or schedule. An example type of data that can be obtained every few hours is a set of weather conditions (eg, temperature, precipitation, etc.) that can be obtained from a national weather service website or other weather information sources. In some implementations, this information can include forecasts for all US ZIP codes, can be stored locally in files (or RDBMS tables, etc.) and more recent information is available. When possible and obtained, it can be overwritten. This type of information may be indexed in a variety of ways (eg, state, city, county, latitude / longitude, ZIP code, or some other manner). Similar weather related information may be obtained and stored regularly for non-domestic regions (including countries or regions in Canada, Mexico, North America and other continents). In some implementations, the schedules at which data for a given region is regularly updated may vary depending on the population of the region and / or the number of potential computers from which advertisements can be provided.

In some implementations, the context information can include information previously known. Examples include holidays, election days, and schedules (eg, for schools, cities, etc.). This type of information, combined with information from your cookies, allows you to take vacation or spring break rates for promotions, products, and services, such as "back-to-school" sales. Context based advertisements (eg, matching a user's membership in a particular user list) and the like.

4 is a diagram of an example sequence of operations 400 centered around an ad server 106 that uses user list information associated with external data to provide advertisements with customized content. In step 1, a request for an advertisement may occur based on the user's action on the user's browser 110. For example, this request may be a request received at stage 302 of process 300 (e.g., an advertisement associated with a washing machine or other large household appliances that may occur when a user visits a webpage hosting these advertisements). Request for).

In step 2, data in the cookie store 402 may be retrieved, such as the user's (eg, Don's) IP address. In step 3, information from the cookie can be used to obtain additional information, such as information from third party server 108 or other external data sources. In this example, the additional information may include current weather conditions of the Midwestern town of Don. At this time, the user list associated with the user is also known (eg, provided by the data exchange engine 102). For example, the user list for Don is a category B washer user list. At this time, since there is sufficient information, a targeted advertisement with customized content can be created.

In step 4, which may be optional (eg, as indicated by the dashed line), the information obtained in the previous step, including the user list, is passed to the real time bidder 404. In this case, the bid may involve bids received from one or more consumers, or advertisers, who may, for example, bid on available impressions corresponding to the website the user is about to visit. Using information targeting, for example, bids can be adjusted in real time. For example, bids for available impressions can be significantly higher than others, since the targeted ads are more likely to lead to conversions. In some cases, bidding may take place without the use of additional targeting information, which may be used later when needed (eg, to change the content of the advertisement).

In step 5, a user list and other information may be provided to the ad customizer 406, optionally and regardless of whether a bid occurred using the targeting information. Returning to the example relating to an advertisement provided to user Don, the advertisement customizer 406 customizes the advertisement with available information, including the current weather conditions of the town in which Don lives. can do. This customized advertisement may be provided immediately and / or stored in the ad store 112. In step 6, the user list can be used to access ads in this ad store.

5 shows an example of a generic computer device 500 and a generic mobile computer device 550 that may be used in the techniques described herein. Computing system 500 is used to represent various forms of digital computers, such as laptops, desktops, workstations, personal digital assistants, servers, blade servers, mainframes, and other suitable computers. . The computing device 550 is used to represent various types of mobile devices, such as PDAs, cell phones, smart phones, and other similar computing devices. The components shown herein, their connections and relationships, and their functions are meant to be exemplary only and are not meant to limit implementations of the inventions described and / or claimed herein.

Computing device 500 stores with processor 502, memory 504, storage device 506, high speed interface 508 that connects memory 504 and fast expansion port 510, and low speed bus 514. A low speed interface 512 for connecting to the device 506. Each component 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512 can be connected to each other using a variety of buses, mounted on a common motherboard, or otherwise mounted as appropriate. The processor 502 may process instructions for executing within the computing device 500, which may include graphical information for the GUI on an external input / output device, such as a display 516 connected to the high speed interface 508. For display, instructions stored in memory 504 or storage device 506 are included. In other implementations, multiple processors and / or multiple buses may be used with multiple memories and memory types, where appropriate. In addition, multiple computing devices 500 may be connected in a form (e.g., a server bank, a group of blade servers, or a multiprocessor system) in which each device provides a portion of the required operation.

The memory 504 stores information within the computing device 500. In one implementation, the memory 504 is a volatile memory unit or unit. In another implementation, the memory 504 is a nonvolatile memory unit or units. The memory 504 may also be another type of computer readable medium, such as a magnetic or optical disk.

The storage device 506 may provide mass storage for the computing device 500. In one implementation, storage device 506 includes a floppy disk device, hard disk device, optical disk device, or tape device, flash memory or other similar solid state memory device, or a device present in a storage area network or other configuration. It may be a device array. The computer program product may be tangibly embodied in an information carrier. In addition, the computer program product may include instructions that, when executed, perform one or more methods as described above. The information carrier is a computer or machine readable medium, such as memory 504, storage device 506, or memory on processor 502.

The low speed control unit 512 manages lower bandwidth-intensive operations, while the high speed control unit 508 manages band-intensive operations for the computing device 900. The arrangement of these functions is exemplary only. In one implementation, the high speed controller 508 is connected to a memory 504, a display 516 (eg, via a graphics processor or accelerator), and can accommodate a variety of expansion cards (not shown). Is connected to the expansion port 510. In some implementations, the low speed control unit 512 is connected to the storage device 506 and the low speed expansion port 514. A slow expansion port, which may include various communication ports (e.g., USB, Bluetooth, Ethernet, wireless Ethernet), may be connected to one or more input / output devices such as a keyboard, pointing device, scanner, To a networking device such as a switch or router.

The computing device 500 may be implemented in a plurality of different forms, as shown in the figures. For example, the computing device 500 may be implemented as a standard server 520 or may be implemented multiple times in a group of such servers. In addition, the computing device 500 may be implemented as part of the rack server system 524. In addition, the computing device 500 may be embodied in a personal computer, such as a laptop computer 522. Optionally, components from computing device 500 may be combined with other components in a mobile device (not shown), such as device 550. Each of these devices includes one or more computing devices 500, 550, and the entire system may be comprised of multiple computing devices 500, 550 that communicate with each other.

The computing device 550 includes a processor 552, a memory 564, an input / output device such as a display 554, a communication interface 566, a transceiver 568, among other components. Additionally, a storage device, such as a microdrive or other device, may be provided to the device 550 to provide additional storage. Each of the components 550, 552, 564, 554, 566, and 568 are connected to each other using a variety of buses, some of which may be mounted on a common motherboard or in other suitable ways.

Processor 552 executes instructions within computing device 550, which includes instructions stored in memory 564. The processor may be implemented as a chip set of chips, including individual and multiple analog and digital processors. The processor may provide coordination between other components of the device 550, such as, for example, control of the user interface, an application executed by the device 550, and wireless communication by the computing device 550 have.

The processor 552 may communicate with the user via a control interface 558 and a display interface 556 coupled to the display 554. Display 554 may be, for example, a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT) or organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, or other suitable display technology. Display interface 556 may comprise suitable circuitry for driving display 554 to present graphics and other information to a user. Control interface 558 receives instructions from a user and translates those instructions to submit to processor 552. [ Moreover, the extension interface 562 can be provided for communication with the processor 552 to enable near field communication between the device 550 and other devices. The extension interface 562, for example, provides wired communication in some implementations and wireless communication in other implementations, and multiple interfaces may also be used.

The memory 564 stores information in the computing device 550. The memory 564 may be embodied as one or more of computer readable media or media, volatile memory units or units, or non-volatile memory units or units. In addition, an expansion memory 574 may be provided and connected to the device 550 via an expansion interface 572 including, for example, a Single In Line Memory Module (SIMM) card interface. This expansion memory 574 can provide extra storage space for the device 550 and can also store other information for the application or device 550. In particular, expansion memory 574 includes instructions for executing or assisting the processes described above, and may also include security information. Thus, for example, expansion memory 574 can be provided as a security module for device 550 and can be programmed with instructions that enable secure use of device 550. Moreover, the security application may be provided via a SIMM card with additional information such as placing the identification information on the SIMM card in a non-hackable manner.

The memory may include, for example, flash memory and / or NVRAM memory, as discussed below. In one implementation, the computer program product is tangibly embodied in an information carrier. The computer program product, when executed, includes instructions that perform one or more methods as described above. The information carrier may be a computer- or machine-readable medium such as memory 564, extended memory 574, or memory on processor 552, which may be received, for example, via transceiver 568 or extended interface 562. to be.

Device 550 may communicate wirelessly via communication interface 566, which optionally includes digital signal processing circuitry. Communications interface 566 may provide communication under various modes or protocols such as GSM voice calls, SMS, EMS, or MMS messaging, CDMA, TDMA, PDC, WCDMA, CDMA2000, Such communication may be performed, for example, via a radio-frequency transceiver 568. [ Short range communications may also be performed using, for example, Bluetooth, WiFi, or other such transceivers (not shown). In addition, the Global Position System (GPS) receiver module 570 can provide additional navigation- and location-related wireless data to the device 550, which is appropriate for the application running on the device 550. Can be used.

The device 550 can also communicate audibly with an audio codec 560 that receives spoken information from the user and converts the spoken information into usable digital information . Audio codec 560 also generates voices audible to the user, such as through a speaker in handset of device 550. Such voice may include voice from a voice telephone call, and may include recorded voice (eg, voice message, music file, etc.), and also voice generated by an application running on device 550. It may include.

The computing device 550 may be implemented in a plurality of different forms, as shown in the figures. For example, the computing device 550 may be implemented as a cellular telephone 580. In addition, the computing device 550 may be implemented as part of a smart phone 582, PDA, or other similar mobile device.

Various implementations and techniques of the systems described herein may be realized with digital electronic circuits, integrated circuits, specially designed application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), computer hardware, firmware, software, and / or combinations thereof. These various implementations include implementations in one or more computer programs that are executable and / or interpretable in a programmable system that includes at least one programmable processor. In addition, the programmable processor, which may be a dedicated or general purpose processor, is coupled to a storage system, at least one input device and at least one receiving device to transmit and receive data and instructions.

Computer programs (also known as programs, software, software applications, or code) include machine instructions for programmable processors, and include high level procedures and / or object-oriented programming languages and / or assembly / machines. It can be implemented in a language. As used herein, the terms "machine-readable medium" and "computer-readable medium" are used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor. Any computer program product, apparatus, and / or device (e.g., magnetic disk, optical disk, memory, Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs)), that is machine readable to receive machine instructions, such as machine readable signals. Media. The term "machine-readable signal" refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor.

In order to provide for interaction with a user, the systems and techniques described herein include a display device (eg, a cathode ray tube (CRT) or LCD monitor) for displaying information to a user and input by a user to a computer. It can be implemented on a computer having a keyboard and pointing device (eg, a mouse or trackball) capable of providing a. Other kinds of devices can also be used to provide for interaction with a user; For example, the feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback (eg, visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback), and the input from the user may be acoustic, speech. ) Or any form including tactile input.

The systems and techniques described herein include back end components (e.g., data servers), or middleware components (e.g., application servers), or front end components. (Eg, a client computer having a graphical user interface or web browser that a user can interact with implementations of the systems and techniques described herein), or of such back end, middleware, or front end components It can be implemented with a computing system including any combination. The components of the system may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication (eg, a communication network). Examples of communication networks include local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), and the Internet.

The computing system may include a client and a server. Clients and servers are usually remote from each other and generally interact with each other through a communication network. The relationship between a client and a server is generated by a computer program running on each computer and having a mutual client-server relationship.

Many embodiments have been described in detail above. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. For example, while much of this specification has been described in connection with advertising and not other forms of the future, content delivery may also be provided.

In addition, the logic flow depicted in the figures need not be in the specific order or time series order shown to achieve the desired result. In addition, other steps may be provided, or steps removed therefrom, and other components added or removed from the described system. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

100: system 102: data exchange engine
104: user list (s) 106: ad server
108: third party server (s) 110: browser (s)
112: ad store 114, 116: cookies
200: table

Claims (18)

Receiving a request for content from a user;
Determining a user list associated with the user, wherein the user list includes a definition characterizing members of the user list;
Determining additional data associated with a context associated with the user; And
Providing the user list definition data and the additional data with the request to a consumer subscribing to the user list. The method according to claim 1,
The request is a request for an advertisement to be displayed to the user, and wherein the consumer is an advertiser providing customized content to the user. The method according to claim 1,
And the user list comprises one or more members, each of which is defined by the definition and user-specific data. The method according to claim 3,
The user list is stored in a table of user lists, and the user specific data identifies the user. The method of claim 4,
And the user specific data is a global identifier associated with the user in an advertisement providing system. The method according to claim 1,
And determining the additional data comprises retrieving data based on the information associated with the user. The method of claim 6,
Retrieving the data comprises retrieving data based on the location of the user. The method of claim 6,
Retrieving the data comprises retrieving data from a third party. The method of claim 6,
The step of retrieving the data may include determining additional information about the user and retrieving additional data based on the additional information. The method according to claim 9,
And wherein said additional information is location information. The method of claim 10,
The additional data is weather information of a location associated with the user. The method according to claim 9,
The additional information relates to ownership of a particular type of account that includes a given asset, and wherein the additional data is data maintained in the account or change in value. The method according to claim 1,
And the context relates to a current situation associated with an environment in which the user operates. The method according to claim 1,
Providing the additional data and the user list definition data
Providing data to subscribers of the user list for use in targeting content to the user. The method according to claim 14,
The targeting step includes adjusting bids in real time. The method according to claim 14,
The targeting step includes customizing content to be presented to the user. One or more computer storage devices comprising instructions, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processing devices to execute when executed by the one or more processing devices.
Receiving a request for content from a user;
Determining a user list associated with the user, the user list comprising definitions characterizing members of the user list;
Determining additional data associated with a context associated with the user; And
And provide the user list definition data and the additional data with the request to a consumer who is subscribed to the user list. As a system,
One or more processing devices; And
One or more memory devices containing instructions,
The instruction causes the one or more processing devices to execute when executed by the one or more processing devices.
Receiving a request for content from a user;
Determining a user list associated with the user, the user list comprising definitions characterizing members of the user list;
Determining additional data associated with a context associated with the user; And
And provide the user list definition data and the additional data with the request to a consumer who is subscribed to the user list.

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