U.S. patent application number 11/125199 was filed with the patent office on 2005-09-29 for system for delivery of dynamic content to a client device.
This patent application is currently assigned to Intel Corporation. Invention is credited to Bakshi, Bikram Singh, Romrell, David Alfred, Tso, Michael Man-Hak.
Application Number | 20050216572 11/125199 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34576100 |
Filed Date | 2005-09-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050216572 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Tso, Michael Man-Hak ; et
al. |
September 29, 2005 |
System for delivery of dynamic content to a client device
Abstract
A system for presenting dynamic content to a user of a client
device is implemented in a method including the steps of presenting
a requested data object to the user; and automatically presenting
dynamic content to the user in addition to the presentation of the
requested data object, wherein the dynamic content includes
information provided by a dynamic executable module running on the
client device.
Inventors: |
Tso, Michael Man-Hak;
(Hillsboro, OR) ; Romrell, David Alfred;
(Hillsboro, OR) ; Bakshi, Bikram Singh;
(Hillsboro, OR) |
Correspondence
Address: |
KENYON & KENYON
1500 K STREET NW
SUITE 700
WASHINGTON
DC
20005
US
|
Assignee: |
Intel Corporation
|
Family ID: |
34576100 |
Appl. No.: |
11/125199 |
Filed: |
May 10, 2005 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11125199 |
May 10, 2005 |
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09000709 |
Dec 30, 1997 |
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6892226 |
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60041001 |
Mar 27, 1997 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/218 ;
705/14.1; 705/14.49; 705/14.73 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 69/329 20130101;
H04L 67/306 20130101; H04L 67/2804 20130101; G06Q 30/0207 20130101;
G06Q 30/0277 20130101; H04L 67/02 20130101; G06Q 30/0251
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
709/218 ;
705/014 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60; G06F
015/16 |
Claims
1-8. (canceled)
9. A client device to present dynamic content to a user, said
client device comprising a computer including: a browser programmed
to present a requested data object to the user; and a dynamic
executable module programmed to automatically present dynamic
content to the user in conjunction with the presentation of the
requested data object.
10. The client device of claim 9, wherein said dynamic executable
module is integrated with said browser.
11. The client device of claim 9, wherein said dynamic executable
module further comprises a graphical user interface programmed to
present dynamic content having a datatype not supported by said
browser.
12. The client device of claim 9, wherein the client device is
coupled to a network device by a communications link, said dynamic
executable module being further programmed to retrieve dynamic
content from the network device.
13. The client device of claim 12, wherein the network device
comprises a network proxy arranged between the client device and a
network.
14. The client device of claim 12, wherein the network device
comprises a content server.
15. The client device of claim 9, wherein said dynamic content
comprises advertising information.
16-28. (canceled)
Description
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional
Application No. 60/041,001 titled "System for Targeted Delivery of
Networked Content, filed Mar. 27, 1997 by Michael M. Tso et al. and
assigned to Intel Corporation, the disclosure of which is expressly
incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates generally to the field of data
communications for personal computers (PCs), and in particular to a
system for delivering content, such as targeted on-line
advertising, to a client device, where such delivery is not in
response to a specific request for such content.
[0004] 2. Related Art
[0005] The Internet is quickly becoming the preferred data
communications medium for a broad class of computer users ranging
from private individuals to large multi-national corporations. Such
users now routinely employ the Internet to access information,
distribute information, correspond electronically, and even conduct
personal conferencing. An ever-growing number of individuals,
organizations and businesses have established a presence on the
Internet through "Web pages" on the World-Wide Web ("the Web").
[0006] As the popularity of the Internet has grown, so too have
opportunities for on-line marketing. Advertising through the
Internet has become enormously popular. Indeed, in some cases
on-line services like e-mail are provided free of charge as long as
users are willing to receive on-line advertisements.
[0007] On-line advertisements are typically included as an integral
part of the content on Web pages. This approach suffers from a
variety of limitations. For example, users tend to follow
hyperlinks and move from one Web page to another, much like
"surfing" the channels on a television. Unfortunately, such user
behavior reduces the impact of advertising, as advertisements
generally require captive audiences to be most effective. There is
currently no reliable method for ensuring an Internet user's
attention.
[0008] To illustrate another limitation, advertisers generally must
purchase individual rights on particular Web pages to distribute
their advertisements, since the link to an advertisement is
authored into the content. This makes advertising sales a difficult
proposition given the enormous number of Web pages on the Internet.
Enterprises known as "consolidators," such as Doubleclick, purchase
rights on certain pages and allow many advertisers to share the
same space, but such approaches do not solve the fundamental
problem that advertising space on each Web page must be
individually acquired.
[0009] Yet another limitation of existing approaches to on-line
advertising relates to difficulties in achieving so-called
"targeted advertising," wherein advertisements are specifically
tailored to the recipient's interests and preferences. Targeted
advertising on the Internet has typically been attempted using a
device known as a "cookie," which is a data item used to maintain
client-specific information, such as a marketing profile,
accessible by facilities that do not necessarily communicate with
one another. For example, a cookie stored on a client device may be
accessed by any number of Web sites which that client device
visits, assuming those Web sites are preconfigured to do so.
Unfortunately, propagating this type of functionality to the many
thousands of Web sites on the Internet is impractical.
[0010] Another approach to targeted advertising on the Internet
involves deriving profile information by analyzing the Web sites
that particular users visit, as maintained in a standard logging
device known as a "clickstream." Again, however, there is no one
widely-implemented mechanism for collecting clickstreams. Even for
those Web sites so-equipped, the current state of the art requires
the resource-intensive task of merging logs from all of the sites
visited by a user.
[0011] Still more limitations of existing approaches to on-line
advertising relate to the nature of the on-line advertisements
themselves. On-line advertisements are typically limited in
richness due to unacceptable additional latencies that would be
introduced by large or highly-rich advertisements. Also, since
advertisements must be rendered by a browser installed on the
client device, advertisers are restricted with respect to the use
of more sophisticated, non-standard data formats and compression
techniques. Only those datatypes supported by the browser may be
used.
[0012] In view of the foregoing limitations, there is a need for a
system capable of providing targeted distribution of content to
network users without requiring widespread changes to existing
network infrastructures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0013] An embodiment of the present invention is implemented in a
method for presenting dynamic content to a user of a client device.
According to that embodiment, a requested data object is presented
to a user. Dynamic content is automatically presented to the user
in addition to the presentation of the requested data object. The
dynamic content comprises information provided by a dynamic
executable module running on the client device.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for
dynamic distribution of network content according to an embodiment
of the present invention.
[0015] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for dynamic
distribution of network content according to an embodiment of the
present invention.
[0016] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for
dynamic distribution of network content by a browser according to
an embodiment of the present invention.
[0017] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for
dynamic distribution of network content by an enabled client device
according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0018] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration
in which an embodiment of the present invention may be
implemented.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] Embodiments of the present invention provide a system for
the targeted distribution of dynamic content without the
limitations of existing approaches, such as those described above.
For example, embodiments of the present invention may be applied to
on-line advertising in a manner that significantly improves over
existing technology, particularly with respect to distribution,
targeting, and feedback collection. It should be noted, however,
that the scope of the present invention extends well beyond on-line
advertising. The same mechanisms and methods described herein may
be advantageously applied to applications involving many different
types of dynamic content including, but not limited to,
subscription services (for example, news, weather, stock quotes),
distribution of automatic software updates, or virtually any
so-called "out of band" information (that is, information not
directly associated with a user request which expects an immediate
response, such as a deferred, periodic, or implicit user request).
In other words, "dynamic content" as used herein refers broadly to
content that is not specifically requested by a user. Thus, while
the following detailed description is written in terms of on-line
advertising applications, persons skilled in the art will recognize
that the same or similar embodiments may be readily adapted for
many other types of applications.
[0020] Looking now at a first embodiment of the present invention,
illustrated in FIG. 1, a client device 1 may access a plurality of
content servers 7 through a network device 4. Client device 1
includes a browser 2, such as Netscape.TM., which enables a user of
client device 1 to retrieve and display network data objects, such
as Web pages resident on content server 7. Content server 7 may
reside, for example, on the Internet and be accessible through
standard HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) calls; however, the
present invention is not limited to any particular network or
communications method. In this particular embodiment, network
device 4 is a network proxy through which a plurality of client
devices 1 access network resources such as content servers 7.
Alternatively, network device 4 may itself comprise a network
server, a content server, or some other type of stand-alone
computer or distributed system of computers coupled, for example,
to an ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) network, a corporate
network, or anywhere on the Internet. Although FIG. 1 illustrates
only a single client device 1, network device 4 will typically be
configured to provide multiple client devices with access to
network resources.
[0021] Network device 4 includes an advertising service provider 5
responsible for managing the provision of dynamic content to client
device 1. In this particular embodiment, advertising service
provider 5 distributes advertising content to client device 1 by
embedding a dynamic advertising module (DAM) 9 into one or more Web
pages 8 downloaded to client device 1. Advertising service provider
5 may comprise a software module installed in, or otherwise
executable by, network device 4. Dynamic advertising module 9 may
comprise a dynamic executable module of a type known in the art
implemented, for example, using a Java applet or similar utility,
which automatically executes upon being loaded onto client device
1.
[0022] Dynamic advertising module 9 is programmed to control the
display of advertising content on client device 1. An advantage of
this approach, as opposed to having advertising service module 5
simply embed advertising content into Web page 8, is that most of
today's common browsers will display information from such an
embedded executable module in a window separate from a requested
Web page. This not only eliminates any concerns about disrupting
the layout of the Web page, but also provides a more
aesthetically-appealing presentation. Another significant benefit
provided by the use of dynamic advertising module 9 is that there
is no need for client device 1 to be pre-configured with any
special software to support the presentation of advertisements.
[0023] In possible variations of the embodiment illustrated in FIG.
1, network device 4 may be configured to ensure that only a single
instance of dynamic advertising module 9 is active on client device
1. Moreover, where client device 1 includes a local cache storage
(not shown) accessible by browser 2, network device 4 may be
configured to avoid downloading another instance of dynamic
advertising module 9 if one already resides in the cache.
[0024] The foregoing embodiments may be implemented, for example,
as part of a system for dynamically transcoding network content.
With reference to FIG. 5, network client 12 communicates with an
external network 18 through a transcoding server 34. Network client
12 includes a browser 32, such as the Netscape Navigator v.3.0
browser (although the invention is not limited in this respect),
which manages the presentation of data to a user. In the
illustrated arrangement, network client 12 is "non-enabled,"
meaning no specialized transcoding software is preloaded on network
client 12. Network 18 may comprise, for example, the Internet. In
this particular arrangement, network client 12 communicates
requests for information to, and receives information from,
transcoding server 34 over a client/server communications link 14.
Transcoding server 34 in turn communicates with computers resident
on network 18 through server/network communications link 16. The
respective communications links 14, 16 may comprise any suitable
communications media known in the art.
[0025] Transcoding server 34 may be configured to provide a wide
variety of transcoding services to network client 12 and/or network
devices, such as content servers, with which network client 12
communicates. In this context, the term "transcode" refers to
virtually any type of addition, deletion or modification of data
transmitted to or from network client 12 by or through transcoding
server 34. In addition to the provision of dynamic content such as
advertising, examples of such transcoding services include data
compression, image scaling, and dynamic removal of predetermined
content. In the context of the present invention, the provision of
dynamic content may be the only transcoding service provided to a
particular client device, or may be only one of a variety of
services.
[0026] As illustrated in FIG. 5, transcoding server 34 may include
a transcoder 20 with a parser 22 and a plurality of transcode
service providers 24. Parser 22 is configured to act upon data
received by transcoder 20, such as a request for a network object
generated by client device 12 or a reply to such a request provided
by a content server or other device on network 18. In this
particular example, parser 22 is responsible for selectively
invoking one or more of transcode service providers 24 based upon a
predetermined selection criterion. With reference to FIG. 1,
advertising service provider 5 may be implemented, for example, as
a transcoding service provider 24.
[0027] In the arrangement shown in FIG. 5, transcoding server 34
includes an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) remote proxy 36,
capable of accessing network 18 over server/network communications
link 16. HTTP remote proxy 36 provides functionality different from
known network proxies, which generally are little more than a
conduit for requests to, and replies from, external Internet
resources, in that it is capable not only of examining such
requests and replies, but also of acting upon commands in the
requests by, for example, determining whether or not to transcode
content. Moreover, using transcoder 20, HTTP remote proxy 36 is
capable of changing content received from network 18 prior to
returning it to a requesting network client 12.
[0028] Looking more closely at the arrangement shown in FIG. 5,
transcoder 20 is coupled to HTTP remote proxy 36. Parser 22 manages
the transcoding of data to be transmitted from transcoding server
34 to network client 12. To this end, parser 22 controls transcode
service providers 24 to selectively transcode content based on a
predetermined selection criterion. For example, one or more
transcode service providers 24 may provide the capability to
compress and/or scale different types of data content, such as
image, video, or HTML (HyperText Markup Language), in addition to
providing content blocking functionality as discussed above.
Transcoding server 34 may also include a server-side cache memory
30 managed by a server-side cache interface 28. Server-side cache
memory 30 may be used to store both original and transcoded
versions of content for later transmission to network client 12
without the need to re-retrieve the content from network 18 or to
re-transcode the content.
[0029] Parser 22 may comprise a relatively simple, uniform
interface to HTTP remote proxy 36, and may provide an API
(Application Programming Interface) for transcoding data received
by HTTP remote proxy 36. Parser 22 manages one or more transcode
service providers 24 that are accessed through a common SPI
(Service Provider Interface). In this particular implementation,
parser 22 is designed in compliance with the Windows Open Systems
Architecture (WOSA), and may be implemented as a Win32 DLL (Dynamic
Link Library). The WOSA architecture, described in Readings on
Microsoft Windows and WOSA (Microsoft Corp. 1995), enables
additional transcode service providers 24 to be dynamically added
to the system to provide new features and/or better transcoding
algorithms, while at the same time not requiring changing or
retesting other software components in the system.
[0030] Like parser 22, server-side cache interface 28 may be
modeled after a standard Get/Set interface. Server-side cache
memory 30 essentially "owns" all cached objects, in that it manages
the properties and storage of the objects and may invalidate any
non-locked object at any time; however, the actual format of any
given cached object is known only by parser 22 and its associated
transcode service providers 24. Thus, for data integrity and
transcoding efficiency purposes, all access to server-side cache
memory 30 in this arrangement is through parser 22.
[0031] In operation, transcoder 20 may use a Read( ) call to read
data from a specified cached object data stream. For example,
transcode service provider 24 may invoke this call and tunnel
stream data through HTTP remote proxy 36 directly to network client
12. Similarly, a Write( ) call may be used to cache data from a new
HTTP data stream. This call will append an incoming data stream
received from, for example, a Web server or transcode service
provider 24, to an opened cache stream which may be concurrently
read using the Read( ) call.
[0032] Parser 22 may be configured to include the following
calls:
[0033] GetObject(URL, InParams, &OutParams, &OutStream, . .
. );
[0034] GetScaledObject(URL, InParams, &OutParams,
&OutStream, Stage, . . . );
[0035] PutObject(URL, InParamStruct, &InStream, &OutParams,
&OutStream, . . . ).
[0036] Parser 22 may use such calls to manage the provision of
requested content to network client 12. For example, the GetObject(
) call may be used to service non-enabled client requests, and
returns a non-transcoded version of a specified hypertext object.
In this arrangement, transcoding server 34 assumes that each HTTP
request has a unique thread that may be blocked until the request
is satisfied. Accordingly, the GetObject( ) call will block until
it either returns the requested data stream or indicates failure
with a cause (e.g., object does not exist). This ability to return
a so-called standard hypertext object is advantageous for
compatibility reasons, enabling embodiments of the present
invention to be used with existing browsers that do not include
support for certain transcoding functionality (e.g., advanced data
compression), and enabling users to selectively retrieve
non-transcoded versions.
[0037] The GetScaledObject( ) call is similar to GetObject( ), and
is also used to request an object from server-side cache memory 30;
however, it adds support for requesting a particular version of
that object, such as a high-quality rendition. Unlike traditional
caching proxies, transcode service providers 24 can use server-side
cache memory 30 to store several different versions of an object to
support clients with different communications and/or presentation
capabilities. Thus, an additional "Stage" parameter may be used to
indicate which version of the cached object is to be returned to
network client 12. Where transcode service provider 24 is
configured to scale network content, it may use this parameter to
request a version of a cached object having, for example, a default
scaled quality, a refinement to a better-quality version, or the
original non-scaled version.
[0038] In this particular arrangement, when network client 12
requests a hypertext object, HTTP remote proxy 36 uses either the
GetObject( ) or GetScaledObject( ) call (depending on if network
client 12 is capable of receiving scaled/transcoded datatypes) to
retrieve the hypertext object from parser 22. If the hypertext
object is not found, parser 22 uses the CreateEntry( ) call to
create an entry (in effect, a placeholder) in server-side cache
memory 30 for the new object. The new entry is returned to HTTP
remote proxy 36, which requests the hypertext object from network
18. As a data stream for the hypertext object is returned, HTTP
remote proxy 36 calls parser 22 using the PutObject( ) call,
passing into this call the new entry and the handle to the data
stream to be placed into the entry. Parser 22 selects an
appropriate transcode service provider 24 based, for example, on
the content type of the data stream. In this context, the term
content type encompasses a datatype, an HTTP MIME (Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions) type, a content format, and so on. The
selected transcode service provider 24 uses a separate thread to
read the incoming data stream, transcode it (for example, scan for
predetermined content and delete it if found), and place it within
the entry of server-side cache memory 30. The current thread
immediately returns to HTTP remote proxy 36, which once again calls
GetScaledObject( ) (or GetObject( )). This case will always result
in a cache hit. This thread then works simultaneously with the
separate thread in the PutObject( ) to tunnel data (either original
or transcoded) from transcoding server 34 to network client 12.
[0039] As discussed further herein, the configuration shown in FIG.
5 is just one of many different ways in which embodiments of the
present invention may be implemented. For example, the dynamic
content provisions functionality could be implemented in a
so-called "enabled client" containing specialized software for
performing the functions attributed to dynamic advertising module 9
in FIG. 1. Similar to the configuration of FIG. 5, such specialized
software may be implemented, for example, as a client-side
transcode service provider, as part of a local proxy, as part of
the browser running on the client device, or as an add-in module
running on the client device. The present invention is not limited
in this regard.
[0040] By way of further illustration, FIG. 2 provides a flow
diagram illustrating a method for distributing content using, for
example, a system such as that of FIG. 1 or FIG. 5. According to
this embodiment, processing may begin upon receipt of a data
object, such as a data stream representing a requested Web page, to
be downloaded to client device 1 (Step 15). Prior to downloading
the data object, the device performing the method, such as network
device 4, embeds code into the data object to provide dynamic
advertising content (Step 20). This code may comprise, for example,
dynamic advertising module 9 of the embodiment illustrated in FIG.
1. The data object with the embedded code is then downloaded to
client device 1 (Step 25). In a variation on this embodiment,
network device 4 may be configured to determine whether client
device 1 is to receive dynamic advertising content. Such a
determination may be performed either upon receipt of a request for
a data object from client device 1, or upon receipt of the
beginning of a response to such a request from content server 7.
Such a determination may be based upon, for example, an
authorization table maintained or otherwise accessible by
advertising service provider 5.
[0041] According to another embodiment of the present invention,
illustrated in FIG. 3, browser 2 of client device 1 includes a
dynamic advertising module 9 which essentially integrates into
browser 2 the functionality described above for the dynamic
advertising module 9 of FIG. 1. Dynamic advertising module 9 may be
implemented, for example, as a software routine within browser 2,
or as a separate executable module which browser 2 may invoke. In
this way, browser 2 may be configured to render advertisements as
it displays user-requested content. In addition, dynamic
advertising module 9 may cause browser 2 to fetch advertisements
from one or more network locations.
[0042] According to yet another embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 4,
client device 1 may be a so-called "enabled client," whereby
dynamic advertising functionality such as that described above is
provided through specialized software installed on client device 1.
In this embodiment, client device 1 includes a local proxy 10
coupled to browser 2 which intercepts all network communications to
or from client device 1. Client device 1 also includes a dynamic
advertising module 9 coupled to a graphical user interface (GUI) 11
capable of displaying so-called "rich" advertisements (that is,
high-quality content) represented in datatypes which may not be
supported by browser 2. Local proxy 10 is configured to maintain
contact with network device 4 in the same manner as dynamic
advertising module 9 of the FIG. 1 embodiment; however, since local
proxy 10 intercepts all requests issued by browser 2, a significant
portion of the work that network proxy 4 might otherwise be
required to do, such as recording clickstreams, can be handled at
the client-level by local proxy 10 and/or dynamic advertising
module 9. Such an approach is especially advantageous where overall
system performance may be improved by off-loading work from network
proxy 4, such as where network proxy 4 services a large number of
client devices.
[0043] Among the features which may be provided by particular
embodiments of the present invention, including those illustrated
in FIGS. 1-5, is session-based advertising. The goal of
session-based advertising is to provide an advertiser with a
relatively "captive" viewing audience for advertising content. With
reference to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, session-based
advertising may be implemented by coding advertising service
provider 5 and/or dynamic advertising module 9 to fetch and display
advertisements from one or more predetermined network locations
using, for example, standard HTTP calls. Dynamic advertising module
9 may then control how long an advertisement is displayed,
regardless of which Web page(s) 8 the user visits through browser
2. The fetching and/or display of advertisements may be based upon
an existing user profile maintained, for example, in a user profile
table (not shown) accessible by advertising service provider 5. The
advertiser is thus given the closest thing possible to a captive
audience, since the targeted advertising can be constantly
displayed even when the user rapidly changes the content being
viewed. Moreover, since the content displayed by dynamic
advertising module 9 appears regardless of what Web page 8 the user
is viewing, there is no need for the advertiser to request any
content changes from particular content providers in order to
display their advertisements.
[0044] In possible variations of this embodiment, dynamic
advertising module 9 may be configured to maintain contact with
advertising service provider 5 (for example, through HTTP "POST"
messages) so that the advertisements displayed reflect any changes
in the original user profile resulting from activities during the
current session. In other words, the user profile may be updated as
a result of the user's activities during the current session, and
those updates may be reflected in the dynamic content presented
during that session. Advertising service provider 5 may also set
and/or change configuration information controlling the operation
of dynamic advertising module 9, such as how long to display each
advertisement. It is also possible to integrate existing on-line
advertising techniques into dynamic advertising module 9, such as
the feature of known banner advertisements which enables users to
click on an advertisement to access a location on the network
predetermined by the advertiser, such as the advertiser's corporate
presence server.
[0045] As alluded to above, it may be beneficial to collect and
record clickstreams for individual users for purposes of developing
and/or updating user profiles useful in highly-targeted
advertising. This may be done, for example, by a browser, a local
proxy, a network proxy, or a content server. It may be preferable,
however, to implement such a feature in a network proxy (such as
that shown in FIG. 1) to avoid having to modify existing client- or
server-side devices. Another advantage of the network proxy
approach, at least compared with a server-based approach, is the
elimination of the sometimes difficult task of having a content
server determine which logs correspond to particular users. The
difficulty arises because IP addresses are often dynamically
assigned on a per request basis, meaning a particular user's
requests over the course of a single session may reach a content
server with a number of different IP addresses. By contrast,
according to the proxy-based embodiments discussed herein, a unique
IP address may be assigned and used for all requests during any
particular user session, making the clickstream collection and
recording mechanism straight-forward and accurate.
[0046] As a further refinement providing even greater targeting
capabilities, the clickstream gathering mechanism may be configured
to weight a user's interest in particular Web pages or Web sites
(that is, a group of pages from the same Internet domain). For
example, network device 4 of FIG. 1 may be programmed to measure a
user's interest by how long the user spends looking at a particular
Web page or site. This information may be derived from the HTTP
transactions between client device 1 and content server 7, such as
by timestamping requests received from client device 1 in a log
maintained by network device 4. Such a feature is most
advantageously provided with either a proxy-based or a
browser-based implementation because such implementations enable an
accurate account of every request issued from client device 1. By
contrast, currently-known approaches using server-side logs do not
work as well because server logs cannot easily detect the "click"
by which the user leaves the current server (rather, it will
generally only be detected by the new server to which the user
goes). Similarly, user interest may be measured by how many
hyperlinks the user follows from the same Web page or site, and/or
how frequently the user visits a particular Web page or site over
time. To facilitate such features, network device 4 may be
configured to maintain a user history log including entries for
each user to which dynamic advertising content is provided.
[0047] Where a measurement mechanism is provided for tracking how
long a user spends at a particular Web page or site, the mechanism
may include a timeout facility for ignoring out-of-bounds values
which might otherwise skew results. A suitable timeout period may
be on the order of five minutes for any particular Web page. Such a
timeout feature is beneficial to ensure that the Web page which a
user last looks at before he/she turns off their system (or leaves
for an extended period of time) does not get misinterpreted as the
user having spent an extremely long time looking at that page.
[0048] In one particular implementation of a time-based weighting
feature, network device 4 may be programmed to perform the
following time-stamping algorithm:
[0049] 1. When a requested data object is received for downloading
to client device 1, record the current object ID (for example, a
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)) and the current time.
[0050] 2. Compare the current time with the time recorded for the
previous data object received. If the difference is not greater
than a predetermined timeout value, record the difference with the
previous object ID; else, record "0" with the previous object
ID.
[0051] It will generally be sufficient to limit timestamping
activities to the receipt of ".HTML" files, thereby minimizing the
number of entries caused by multiple objects (for example, images)
that may be part of the same HTML page. For analytical purposes,
the time between "0" and the timeout period may be divided into
several slots (for example, 0-1 minute may be designated "little/no
interest," 1-2 minutes "moderate interest," 2-3 minutes "very
interested," and so on).
[0052] Another advantageous feature which may be provided by
embodiments of the present invention, including those illustrated
in FIGS. 1-5, is the ability to download dynamic content to client
device 1 primarily in a background mode, thereby avoiding the
introduction of excessive latency into downloads of "regular" (that
is, specifically requested) user content as a result of the
addition of advertising information. In essence, the goal is to
prevent competition between advertisements and user-requested
content during data transfers to client device 1. As one example of
how this goal may be achieved, dynamic advertising module 9
(whether resident in browser 2 or elsewhere in client device 1) may
generate requests for advertising content to be displayed using a
distinguishable request (for example, a particular "POST" message,
a regular HTTP "GET" with a particular URL, or any other form of
predetermined inter-device communication). Network device 4 will
then be able to distinguish requests for advertisements (or any
other low-priority content) from user-initiated content requests
(or any other high-priority content), and ensure that
user-initiated content requests always get processing
preference.
[0053] According to a particular implementation of this feature,
network device 4 maintains state information about all of the
advertisement requests being currently processed (for example, a
list of sockets being used for data transfer). This information may
be keyed by a unique identifier for each client device 1, such as
an IP address. Each new connection accepted by network device 4 may
then be categorized either as an advertisement request or as a user
content request. If the former, the request is added to the list
and processed if no other high-priority requests are being
processed; otherwise, the network device 4 may systematically abort
all other low-priority requests and begin processing the
higher-priority request. In such a case, the low-priority requests
will have to be restarted at a later time, either by network device
4 or by dynamic advertising module 9. Alternatively, rather than
aborting the low-priority requests, network device 4 may
temporarily suspend all processing related to low-priority requests
and begin processing the higher-priority content request. The
suspended request may remain unprocessed until all outstanding
high-priority content requests have been satisfied. This
alternative has the advantage of making more efficient use of
network resources by not discarding partially-transferred content
and maintaining the state of the connection (thus saving overhead
required for setting up new connections).
[0054] The just-described approaches for background processing may
be implemented using existing protocol stacks. A possible
alternative approach takes advantage of overlapped input/output
features that are available in some protocol stack implementations,
such as Winsock2. Such an alternative approach provides a more
fine-grained priority than the methods just described by waiting
for the completion of each high-priority send operation instead of
waiting for the end of the high-priority socket. This mechanism
makes use of the feature in such protocol stacks which notifies the
calling application when each send operation completes.
Low-priority (or out of band) send operations can be delayed until
all (or most) previous high-priority send operations are completed.
Thus, both high- and low-priority sockets may be opened
simultaneously, but low-priority data is only sent when the in-band
socket goes idle (for example, due to server or network
congestion). This is especially useful for embedded content streams
such as video or persistent HTTP streams. Other optimizations are
also possible, such as multiple priority levels, or anticipating
socket/send completion based on average data throughput. This
solution increases utilization of the communications link to the
user without increasing user-visible latencies.
[0055] Another benefit provided by embodiments of the present
invention is that it becomes possible to provide richer advertising
content than is practical with existing on-line advertising
methods. Since advertising need not add additional latency to the
user's browsing, it is practical to download dynamic content
including arbitrary complex objects, such as executables, as well
as graphical or other multimedia data. For example, an embodiment
of the present invention may be used to download a demo version of
a software program being advertised, enabling the user to click on
the advertisement and instantly try out the demo without waiting
for the demo to be downloaded. Similarly, a preview clip of a music
CD or movie may be shown to a user after it has been completely
downloaded. Likewise, a "floating" animation (that is, one not
framed in a window) that the user can interact with while browsing
may be provided in the manner of a screen-saver. Thus,
advertisements can be very interactive and very rich, greatly
increasing their effectiveness. Moreover, rich advertisements may
be further improved by installing software, such as an
advertisement player, on a client machine. This would permit
downloading only data (for example, sound, images) and instructions
on how to playback the data. Savings in download time can then be
realized because the player would contain most of the executable
code that would otherwise have to be downloaded with every
advertisement.
[0056] Embodiments of the present invention likewise enable
advertisements to be targeted to a degree not readily achievable
with existing technology. Whether the mechanisms are implemented in
a network device or in client-based software, a wide variety of
targeting criteria are possible. For example, targeting may be
based upon a list of Web pages for which demographic data is
available. To illustrate, it is known that a high percentage of
visitors to the Dilbert.TM. cartoon page are white-collar office
workers, who may be good candidates to receive advertisements for
such items as luxury cars. Targeting may also be based on keywords
in the content page, the request, or the URL accessed. A proxy
(local or network) may scan for predetermined keywords and then
decide which category of advertising to request. For example, if a
user is viewing a Web page containing many occurrences of the words
"stock" and "trade," the user would likely be a good candidate for
a discount brokerage advertisement. Unlike existing mechanisms that
scan requests for keywords, embodiments of the present invention do
not require any special software on the content server.
[0057] Targeting may also be based on user profile information.
Such information may be collected through any of a wide variety of
known methods, such as personal surveys or clickstream analysis,
and then used to match profiles requested by advertisers.
Embodiments of the present invention enable any advertiser to use
this type of targeting capability on any Web page, regardless of
whether the Web page already has a hyperlink to another advertiser
or group of advertisers, since the matching may be done at the
proxy (and possibly completely independent of the content).
Targeting may also be based on recently-installed and/or
frequently-used client-based applications. For example, software on
a client machine can gather information by examining the client
system (for example, the Windows registry and/or file system on
PCs) for the date when applications were installed (or are
frequently run). This enables advertisers to target advertisements
for software add-ons, upgrades, and related products.
[0058] Yet another possibility is targeting based on client
computer capabilities. For example, the client machine may be
queried for its media and processing capabilities (for example, by
looking at which type of software device drivers are
loaded/active). This allows rich content to be customized for each
user's computer capabilities to prevent instances where the client
is unable to consume all of the data transferred due to system
limitations, such as advertisements with audio or those requiring
high-resolution video being downloaded to clients lacking the
capability to render such content. It should be noted that the
foregoing targeting possibilities are presented only by way of
example, and not by way of limitation.
[0059] Embodiments of the present invention may be distributed, for
example, as a set of instructions residing on a storage medium.
Such a storage medium might be a memory of a computer; a piece of
firmware; a portable storage device, such as a diskette or other
magnetic storage device, or a CD-ROM; or any other medium on which
it is known to store executable instructions.
[0060] Although the present invention has been described largely
with reference to embodiments for processing requests for data from
the Internet, persons skilled in the art will recognize that it is
equally applicable to other networking environments. For example,
embodiments of the present invention may be used to distribute
dynamic content to users on an "intranet." An intranet typically is
a secure corporate network modeled after the Internet architecture,
and generally includes mechanisms for communicating with external
networks such as the Internet.
[0061] The foregoing is a detailed description of particular
embodiments of the present invention. The invention embraces all
alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the
letter and spirit of the claims, as well as all equivalents of the
claimed subject matter. For example, the foregoing embodiments need
not be implemented in network devices which communicate using HTTP.
The same methods described herein may be applied to any network
element capable of intercepting network requests, such as protocol
stacks on clients, servers, proxies or routers, or in
specially-configured routers or other specially-built hardware
which can intercept packets transmitted over a network. Likewise,
the gathering of user profile information and demographics (for
example, clickstreams) may also be done at the client using either
local software or an enhanced browser. Persons skilled in the art
will recognize from the foregoing detailed description that many
other alternatives, modifications and variations are possible.
* * * * *