U.S. patent application number 13/618518 was filed with the patent office on 2013-01-10 for storage of advertisements in a personal account at an online service.
This patent application is currently assigned to MICROSOFT CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Linda Walmer.
Application Number | 20130013409 13/618518 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41448704 |
Filed Date | 2013-01-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130013409 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Walmer; Linda |
January 10, 2013 |
Storage of Advertisements in a Personal Account at an Online
Service
Abstract
A system for use in storage of advertisements in a personal
account at an online service is provided. The online service may be
configured to serve data to a client device to cause the client
device to display a graphical user interface. The system may
include a search interface to receive a search query input by a
user and to display search results and one or more advertisements
generated from a search engine of the online service in response to
the search query, a selector configured to receive a user command
to save a selected advertisement in the personal account for later
viewing and/or traversal of a hyperlink embedded in the
advertisement, and a personal account interface to display a saved
advertisement in the personal account.
Inventors: |
Walmer; Linda; (Seattle,
WA) |
Assignee: |
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Redmond
WA
|
Family ID: |
41448704 |
Appl. No.: |
13/618518 |
Filed: |
September 14, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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12145520 |
Jun 25, 2008 |
8285717 |
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13618518 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.54 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.54 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20120101
G06Q030/02 |
Claims
1. A system for use in storage of advertisements in a personal
account at an online information service, the system comprising a
server that includes a processor configured to execute instructions
for the online information service held in memory of the server,
the online information service being configured to serve data to a
client device to cause the client device to display a graphical
user interface comprising: a search interface configured to receive
a search query input by a user and to display search results and
one or more advertisements generated from a search engine in
response to the search query; a selector configured to receive a
user command to save a selected advertisement in the personal
account for later viewing of the selected advertisement, the
personal account configured to store the selected advertisement and
metadata linking the stored selected advertisement to one or more
portable personal records for the user; and a personal account
interface configured to display a saved advertisement in the
personal account, wherein the saved advertisement is displayed when
the user views one of the one or more portable personal records
that is linked to the saved advertisement.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the selector is configured to
cause the display of an advertisement addition screen configured to
receive metadata to be saved with the advertisement.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the link from the saved
advertisement to the one or more portable personal records is
established manually by receiving user input from the user to
establish the link via the advertisement addition screen.
4. The system of claim 2, wherein the link from the saved
advertisement to the one or more portable personal records is
established programmatically according to preset logic at the
online service.
5. The system of claim 2, wherein the metadata includes one or more
of a title, a textual description, and keyword tags.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the saved advertisement includes
a hyperlink configured to be traversed by the user.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the saved advertisement includes
an image element and/or a text element.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the saved advertisement is a
sponsored link, text advertisement, or banner advertisement.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the online service is a health
information service configured to provide health related
information via the search engine and to store personal health
information in the personal account.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the personal account interface
is configured to display a list of saved advertisements in a
scrapbook pane, the scrapbook pane including a filter tool
configured to filter the saved advertisements included in the list
based on keyword tags.
11. A method for storing advertisements in a personal account of a
user at an online service executed on a server, the online service
being configured to serve data to a client device to cause the
client device to display a graphical user interface, the method
comprising: receiving a search query input by the user at a search
interface of the graphical user interface; displaying on the search
interface search results and one or more advertisements generated
from a search engine of the online service in response to the
search query; receiving a user command, via a selector on the
search interface, to save a selected advertisement in the personal
account for later viewing of the selected advertisement, the
personal account configured to store the selected advertisement and
metadata linking the selected advertisement to one or more portable
personal records for the user; saving the selected advertisement in
the personal account; and displaying one or more saved
advertisements in a personal account interface of the graphical
user interface, wherein the saved advertisement is displayed when
the user views one of the one or more portable personal records
that is linked to the saved advertisement.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving user input
manually establishing the link from the saved advertisement to the
one or more portable personal records via the advertisement
addition screen.
13. The method of claim 11, further comprising programmatically
establishing the link from the saved advertisement to the one or
more portable personal records according to preset logic at the
online service.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein the saved advertisement
includes a hyperlink configured to be traversed by the user.
15. The method of claim 11, further comprising: in response to
receiving the user command, displaying an advisement addition
screen; and receiving a metadata input by the user via the
advertisement addition screen; and saving the metadata with the
selected advertisement in a database.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the metadata includes one or
more of a title, a textual description, and keyword tags.
17. The method of claim 11, further comprising, sending saved
advertisements to a recipient, via the personal account
interface.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the online service is a health
information service configured to provide health related
information via the search engine and to store personal health
records in the personal account.
19. The method of claim 11, wherein the saved advertisement
includes an image element and/or a test element.
20. A method for storing advertisements into a personal account of
a user at an online health service executed on a server, the online
health service being configured to serve data to a client device to
cause the client device to display a graphical user interface, the
method comprising: receiving a search query input by the user at a
search interface of a graphical interface; displaying on the search
interface search results and one or more advertisements generated
from a search engine of the online service in response to the
search query; receiving a user command, via a selector on the
search interface, to save a selected advertisement in the personal
account for later viewing of the selected advertisement, the
personal account configured to store the selected advertisement and
metadata linking the stored selected advertisement to one or more
portable personal records for the user; in response to the user
command, displaying an advertisement addition screen; receiving
metadata input by the user via the advertisement addition screen;
saving the selected advertisement and metadata in a database of the
personal account; and displaying one or more saved advertisements
in a personal account interface of the graphical user interface,
wherein the saved advertisement is displayed when the user views
one of the one or more portable personal records that is linked to
the saved advertisement.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 12/145,520, filed Jun. 25, 2008, titled
STORAGE OF ADVERTISEMENTS IN A PERSONAL ACCOUNT AT AN ONLINE
SERVICE, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by
reference in its entirety for all purposes.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Advertisements may provide useful information to a user of
an online service. For example, in the healthcare context,
advertisements may be generated along with search results by a
search engine of a health-related online service in response to a
health related search query. Such advertisements may include links
to target information on health related goods and services such as
books, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, medical services which are
related to the health related search query. These advertisements
and their linked target information may complement unsponsored
search results, by providing important information on commercially
available goods and services.
[0003] One drawback with online advertising, however, is that it is
fleeting, disappearing when the user browses to a different
website. Thus, advertisement information may be lost unless the
user selects the advertisement during the search session, by
clicking an embedded hyperlink in the advertisement. Alternatively,
a user may print out the advertisement, write the name of the goods
or services down, or otherwise attempt to manually record
information about the advertisement, but such manual methods suffer
from the drawback that they are time intensive and do not retain a
record of any content that is linked by hyperlink to the
advertisement. The fleeting nature of online advertising is a
barrier to its potential effectiveness as an information source for
users, and as a revenue generation tool for advertisers.
SUMMARY
[0004] A system for use in storage of advertisements in a personal
account at an online service is provided. The online service may be
configured to serve data to a client device to cause the client
device to display a graphical user interface. The system may
include a search interface to receive a search query input by a
user and to display search results and one or more advertisements
generated from a search engine of the online service in response to
the search query, a selector configured to receive a user command
to save a selected advertisement in the personal account for later
viewing and/or traversal of a hyperlink embedded in the
advertisement, and a personal account interface to display a saved
advertisement in the personal account.
[0005] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed
subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not
limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages
noted in any part of this disclosure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of a system for
use in storage of advertisements in a personal account at an online
service.
[0007] FIG. 2 is a schematic view an advertisement addition screen
of a graphical user interface displayed on a client device of the
system of FIG. 1.
[0008] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a scrapbook pane of the
personal account interface of the graphical user interface
displayed on the client device of the system of FIG. 1.
[0009] FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an embodiment of a method for
storing advertisements in a personal account at an online
service.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for use in storage of
advertisements in a personal account 108 at an online service 102
executed on a server 101. The online service 102 may, for example,
be a health information service configured to provide health
related search results and online advertisements to a user in
response to a user search query, and to enable the user to store
the advertisements in the personal account for later viewing and
click-through.
[0011] The online service 102 is configured to serve data to a
client device 104 to cause the client device 104 to display a
graphical user interface (GUI) 106. The GUI 106 may include a
search interface 118 configured to receive a search query input by
a user via a search query input tool 120. The search query may be
transmitted from the search interface to a search engine 112, which
generates and returns search results 122 and one or more
advertisements 124 to the search interface 118. It will be
appreciated that the search engine 112 is configured with a web
search module 112A configured to search hyperlinked web resources
indexed by web crawlers and return search results 122, and also
includes an advertisement matching module 112B configured to search
candidate advertisements 146 and return one or more matching
advertisements 124 for display on the search interface 118. The
search interface 118, in turn, is configured to display the search
results 122 generated by the web search module of the search engine
112 and one or more advertisements 124 generated by the
advertisement matching module of the search engine 112 of the
online service 102 in response to the search query.
[0012] The advertisements 124 displayed on search interface 118 and
may be, for example, banner advertisements 124A that include an
image element and a hyperlink to linked content, or sponsored links
124B, which are text advertisements that include a text element and
a hyperlink to linked content. The advertisements 124 may be served
from a database of candidate advertisements 146 stored within
online service data store 110, or from third party advertising
servers, for example. The linked content may be a web page or other
web resource served by a third party server, which may, for
example, be operated by an advertiser that has placed the
advertisement 124.
[0013] The GUI 106 may further include an advertisement selector
126 corresponding to each of the plurality of advertisements 124,
which may be in the form of a hyperlink, a button, etc. The
selector 126 may be configured to receive a user command to save a
selected advertisement as a saved advertisement 136 in the personal
account 108 for later viewing and/or traversal of the hyperlink
embedded in the saved advertisement 136.
[0014] Selection of the selector 126 may be configured to cause the
display of a personal account interface 132 served by a personal
account management module of the online service 102. To ensure
secure access to the online service 102, a login screen 130 may be
displayed as part of the personal account interface 132. If the
user is not already securely logged into the online service 102,
the selector 126 may be configured to cause the display of the
login screen 130 for the personal account prior to display of an
advertisement addition screen 128, discussed below. The login
screen 130 may be configured to enable the user to securely login,
for example, by inputting a username and password. It will be
appreciated that the login screen 130 may be served by a security
module 116 of the online service 102. The security module 116
further may be configured to display a security alert that warns of
an exit of a privacy secured website hosted by the online service,
for example, when the user selects a hyperlink embedded in a saved
advertisement in the personal account displayed in a scrapbook pane
138 of the personal account interface, as discussed below.
[0015] Once the user has successfully logged in, the personal
account interface 132 is configured to enable the user to save
advertisements in the personal account 108, and to view saved
advertisements 136. The personal account interface 132 may include
an advertisement addition screen 128 for saving a selected
advertisement 124. The advertisement addition screen 128 may be
configured to receive metadata to be saved with the advertisement
in the online service data store 110. An example of an
advertisement addition screen 128 is illustrated in FIG. 2,
discussed below.
[0016] The metadata that may be input into the advertisement
addition screen 128 may include a title, a textual description,
and/or keyword tags associated with the advertisement, for example.
Other metadata such as advertiser name, product name, price,
validity period, etc., may also be gathered by the advertisement
addition screen 128, as appropriate. It will be appreciated that
some metadata may be received as user input into the advertisement
addition screen, and other metadata may be programmatically derived
from embedded sources within the advertisement 124. Another form of
metadata that may be associated with each advertisement is a link
to one or more personal records 144 or other information within the
personal account 108, thereby enabling the saved advertisements 136
to be linked to existing records in the personal account. These
links may be established manually by the user via the advertisement
addition screen, or programmatically according to preset logic at
the online service, and enable the saved advertisement to be
redisplayed to the user when the user views the linked records in
the personal account, for example. It will be appreciated that the
metadata inputted or derived in this manner may be used, for
example to organize, search, and present saved advertisements 136
via the personal account interface 132, as discussed below in
relation to FIG. 2.
[0017] Following entry of the metadata via advertisement addition
screen 128, the advertisement 124 may be saved as a saved
advertisement 136 in a scrapbook database 134 of the personal
account 108 by the personal account management module 114. It will
be appreciated that the saved advertisements 136 may include saved
banner advertisements 140 and saved sponsored links 142, as
appropriate, corresponding to the types of advertisements 124 that
are selected to be saved. Further, in some embodiments, the
personal account interface 132 may also be configured to receive a
user command to save the search results 122 as saved search results
148 in the personal account 108 on the online service data store
110. This user command may be received, for example, via a save
search result selector 125 displayed on the search interface
118.
[0018] To enable a user to view saved advertisements 136, the
personal account interface 132 may include a scrapbook pane 138
configured to display the saved advertisement 136 that are saved in
the scrapbook database 134 of the personal account, including saved
banner advertisements 140 and saved sponsored links 142. The
scrapbook pane 138 may be accessed, for example, by selection of
one of the selectors 126 and negotiating the login screen 130 and
advertisement addition screen 128, for example, or by selecting a
display scrapbook link 121 on the search interface 118, or by other
suitable access mechanism.
[0019] As discussed above, the saved advertisements 136 may be
organized, searched, and presented via the scrapbook pane 138,
based on the metadata stored in the scrapbook database 134 with the
saved advertisements 136. Therefore, it will be appreciated that
searching, sorting, and filtering tools may be included on the
scrapbook pane 138 for selecting the saved advertisements 136 to be
displayed. It will also be appreciated that the scrapbook pane 138
may be configured to selectively display saved search results 148,
if desired by the user. An example scrapbook pane 138 is
illustrated in FIG. 3, discussed below.
[0020] In addition to the saved advertisements 136 and saved search
results 148, the personal account 108 may also be configured to
store a user's personal records 144, which may be portable personal
health records containing data regarding a user's health history,
diagnoses, prescriptions, etc. It will be appreciated that only the
user and other authorized users, such as authorized healthcare
professionals or family members, may have access to the personal
account 108.
[0021] FIG. 2 illustrates an example instance of the advertisement
addition screen 128, configured to be displayed upon selection of
selector 126 and login of a user, and configured to receive
metadata related to the selected advertisement. The advertisement
addition screen 128 may include a title field 152 for receiving
input of a title of the advertisement, and a URL field 154 for
receiving input of a URL of the embedded hyperlink in the
advertisement. The title and URL of the selected advertisement 124
may be programmatically detected when selector 126 is selected
based on metadata embedded in the selected advertisement 124, and
may be displayed in the title field 152 and URL field 154.
Alternatively, the user may input or manually edit the prefilled
title and URL. The advertisement addition screen 128 may further
include a description field 156 configured to receive a textual
description of the advertisement from the user. The advertisement
addition screen may further include a tag input field 160 for
receiving user input of keyword tags to be associated with the
selected advertisement 124. For convenience, a tag menu 158
populated with existing tags that have been used with other saved
advertisements 136 in the scrapbook database 134 of the personal
account 108 may be displayed, and the user may click on an existing
tag in the tag menu 158 to add the tag to the tag input field
160.
[0022] Once the user has input the desired metadata into the
various fields of advertisement addition screen 128, the user can
save the selected advertisement by clicking an OK button 161. This
causes the personal account interface 132 to send the metadata and
advertisement 124 to the personal account management module at
online service 102, which in turn saves the advertisement and
metadata in personal account 108 on online service data store 110.
The scrapbook pane 138 may be displayed following the save
operation, or alternatively, the search interface 118 may be
displayed, if desired.
[0023] FIG. 3 shows an example instance of the scrapbook pane 138.
The scrapbook pane 138 may be configured to present a list 168 of
scrapbook database contents, including one or more saved
advertisements 136 such as saved banner advertisements 140, saved
sponsored links 142, and saved search results 148. The list 168 may
be filtered by tags that have been defined by the user, via tag
input field 160 of FIG. 2, for example. To accomplish this, the
scrapbook pane may include a list filter tool 177, configured to
filter the contents of list 168 to include only saved
advertisements 136 with tags that match user specified tags. It
will be appreciated that the user may select tags for matching by
clicking on the programmatically generated tag list 178 in the list
filter tool 177, thereby toggling on and off tags to be matched.
The specified tags may be underlined in the tag list 178, when
selected for matching. An "ALL TAGS" selector may be included in
the tag list to select all tags for matching. It will be
appreciated that the list filter tool 177 may alternatively or
additionally include selectors for specifying other parameters for
filtering list 168, such as whether to include or exclude saved
banner advertisements 140, saved sponsored links 142, or saved
search results 148 in the list 168. In other embodiments, the list
filter tool 177 may also include a date range selector to further
filter the results by a user specified date.
[0024] The list 168 may be sorted by date 172, embedded hyperlink
174, and/or matching tags 176 of the saved advertisements 136,
which are illustrated as headers in columns of the list 168. It
will be appreciated that these headers are configured to enable a
user to click on a selected header to input an ascending sort or
descending sort command based on the data type featured in the
selected header.
[0025] Regarding the content of list 168, for each saved
advertisement 136 in list 168, a date on which the advertisement
was added to the scrapbook database is listed in the date column.
In the tag column, user specified tags associated with the
advertisement are displayed. In the hyperlink 174 column, for saved
textual advertisements and saved sponsored links, a title with an
embedded hyperlink 174 is listed, along with the textual
description for the saved advertisement, if any has been entered
via description field 156. For saved banner advertisements, an
image with an embedded hyperlink may be displayed. Further, type
and source metadata 170 regarding the item type (e.g. product,
article, web resource, etc.) and source (e.g., retailer, institute,
healthcare provider website, etc.) is displayed, which may be
gathered from metadata embedded in the advertisement itself. For
saved search results, a title and URL may be listed, as shown.
[0026] It will be appreciated that the user may choose to traverse
a hyperlink 174 in a saved advertisement displayed in the list 168,
in order to traverse to linked content to which the hyperlink
points. In this manner, the advertisement may remain effective over
a period of time beyond the initial impression in the search
interface 118, since the advertisement may be saved and later may
be displayed and receive a click-through by the user. Thus, in
addition to offering convenience to a user, such an approach may
contribute to the click through rates and overall effectiveness of
an advertisement.
[0027] The user interface in FIG. 3 may also be configured to
enable the user to take additional actions on the saved
advertisements. For example, the user may edit metadata associated
with a saved advertisement by actuating an edit selector 180 or
delete a saved advertisement by actuating a delete selector 181.
Further, the user may send a saved advertisement out to be shared
with others by actuating a send to selector 182, which may cause a
send interface to be displayed for transmitting one or more of the
saved advertisements to a recipient. The send interface may be
configured to receive a personal message from the user to send to
the recipient along with the saved advertisement. The advertisement
may be sent to the recipient, for example, by transmitting the
advertisement to a secure personal account of the recipient on the
online service. Alternatively, the advertisement may be sent via
secure email to the recipient, for example. A delete all selector
183 may also be provided to enable a user to delete all saved
advertisements 136 and saved search results 148 in the list
168.
[0028] FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of a method 200 for storing
advertisements in a personal account of an online service. The
method may be implemented using the hardware and software
components of the systems described above, or by other suitable
hardware and software. Thus, for example, the method may be
implemented at an online service executed on a server, the online
service being configured to serve data to a client device to cause
the client device to display a graphical user interface. As a more
specific example, the online service may be a health information
service configured to provide health related information via a
search engine and to store personal health records in the personal
account.
[0029] As illustrated at 202, the method may include receiving a
search query input by the user at a search interface of the
graphical user interface. At 204, the method may further include
displaying on the search interface search results and one or more
advertisements generated from a search engine of the online service
in response to the search query. The advertisement may be selected
from among at least two candidate advertisements based on contents
of the personal health account. For example, the advertisement may
be selected based on other saved advertisements or saved search
results in the personal account. It will be appreciated that the
advertisement may be a banner advertisement or a sponsored link,
which is a textual advertisement. Therefore, the advertisement may
include an image element and a hyperlink element, or a text element
and a hyperlink.
[0030] At 206, the method may include receiving a user command, via
a selector on the search interface, to save a selected
advertisement for later viewing of the advertisement and/or
traversal of a hyperlink embedded in the selected advertisement. At
208, if the user is not securely logged into the personal account
at the online service, the method may include displaying a login
screen to allow the user to log into the user's personal account,
prior to display of an advertisement addition screen. At 210, the
method may include, in response to receiving the user command at
206, displaying an advisement addition screen.
[0031] At 212, the method may include receiving metadata input by
the user via the advertisement addition screen. At 214, the method
may include saving the metadata with the selected advertisement in
the scrapbook database. The metadata may include one or more of a
title, a textual description, and keyword tags, or other suitable
metadata as described above, and may be alternatively received via
a suitable interface other than an advertisement addition screen.
At 216, the method may include saving the selected advertisement in
the personal account. The selected advertisement may, for example,
be saved in a scrapbook database of the personal account.
[0032] At 218, the method may include displaying one or more saved
advertisements on a scrapbook pane of a personal account interface
of the graphical user interface. The saved advertisements as
displayed may be, for example, in the form of a banner
advertisement or sponsored link, as described above, and thus may
include an image element and a hyperlink, or a text element and a
hyperlink. The hyperlink in a saved advertisement may point to
linked content specified by the advertiser. Thus, by clicking on a
saved advertisement displayed in the scrapbook pane, a user may
browse to linked content specified by the advertiser.
[0033] At 220, the method may further include sending one or more
saved advertisements to a recipient via the scrapbook pane of the
personal account interface. The advertisement may be sent to the
recipient, for example, by transmitting the advertisement to a
secure personal account of the recipient on the online service.
Alternatively, the advertisement may be sent via secure email to
the recipient, for example.
[0034] The systems and methods described above may be utilized by a
user to store an online advertisement in a personal account of an
online service, for later retrieval. The advertisements may be
viewed, edited, shared, or clicked through at a later time
convenient for the user, thereby providing a convenient manner for
the user to utilize the advertisements and potentially contributing
to the efficacy of the advertisement for the advertiser.
[0035] It will be appreciated that the computing devices described
herein typically include a processor and associated volatile and
non-volatile memory, and are configured to execute programs stored
in non-volatile memory using portions of volatile memory and the
processor. As used herein, the term "program" refers to software or
firmware components that may be executed by, or utilized by, one or
more computing devices described herein, and is meant to encompass
individual or groups of executable files, data files, libraries,
drivers, scripts, database records, etc. It will be appreciated
that computer-readable media may be provided having program
instructions stored thereon, which upon execution by a computing
device, cause the computing device to execute the methods described
above and cause operation of the systems described above. The
methods described herein may be performed in the order described,
but are not so limited, as it will be appreciated by those skilled
in the art that one or more steps of the method may be performed
prior to, or after other steps, in alternative embodiments.
[0036] It will also be appreciated that the various components of
the system provided herein may communicate directly or via a
communication network, which may be or include a wide area network
(WAN), a local area network (LAN), a global network such as the
Internet, a telephone network such as a public switch telephone
network, a wireless communication network, a cellular network, an
intranet, or the like, or any combination thereof.
[0037] Further, although the embodiments illustrated herein have
been described as storing the saved advertisements on the personal
account at the online service data store, it will be appreciated
that in other embodiments, the saved advertisements may be saved in
on the user client device in a manner that is linked to the
personal account. For example, the saved advertisements may be
stored in a cookie stored on the user client device.
[0038] In addition, although the advertisements are described in
the above embodiments as being selected and served in response to a
user search query, it will be also appreciated that the
advertisements may be served based on other models, such as an
advertisement that is served based on the content of a web page
that is viewed, or a non-contextual advertisement, etc. Further,
while the online service is described above as being a health
related information service in one embodiment, it should be
understood that a wide variety other types of online services are
contemplated. For example, the online service may be a television
service configured to broadcast television programs and
advertisements to the user client device, and the television
advertisements may be configured to be saved by the user.
[0039] Finally, although a single user client device is depicted
above, it will be appreciated that multiple user client devices may
be provided, which are linked to the same personal account. Thus,
in one use case scenario, a user may view and save an advertisement
with a first user client device, such as a personal computer, and
then later access the saved advertisement from a second user client
device, such as a web-enabled mobile telephone.
[0040] It should be understood that the embodiments herein are
illustrative and not restrictive, since the scope of the invention
is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description
preceding them, and all changes that fall within metes and bounds
of the claims, or equivalence of such metes and bounds thereof are
therefore intended to be embraced by the claims.
* * * * *