U.S. patent application number 16/387287 was filed with the patent office on 2019-08-08 for personalized landing pages.
The applicant listed for this patent is Amazon Technologies, Inc.. Invention is credited to Paul Kotas.
Application Number | 20190243860 16/387287 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 56129946 |
Filed Date | 2019-08-08 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190243860 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kotas; Paul |
August 8, 2019 |
PERSONALIZED LANDING PAGES
Abstract
Personalized landing pages can be generated for users based at
least in part upon information about the individual users who are
viewing the landing pages. Such information may include, for
example, the consumer segments to which the individual user belongs
as well as the individual users' browsing and purchasing histories
and personal preferences and attributes. The landing pages are
personalized to include, for example, content that may be of
particular interest to the user and arranged in a manner that may
appeal to the user.
Inventors: |
Kotas; Paul; (Seattle,
WA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Amazon Technologies, Inc. |
Reno |
NV |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
56129946 |
Appl. No.: |
16/387287 |
Filed: |
April 17, 2019 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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15057932 |
Mar 1, 2016 |
10303728 |
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16387287 |
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13157248 |
Jun 9, 2011 |
9390181 |
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15057932 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0255 20130101;
G06F 16/954 20190101; G06Q 30/0256 20130101; G06Q 30/0277 20130101;
G06Q 50/01 20130101; G06Q 30/0269 20130101; G06F 16/9535 20190101;
G06F 16/958 20190101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 16/9535 20060101
G06F016/9535; G06F 16/958 20060101 G06F016/958; G06F 16/954
20060101 G06F016/954; G06Q 30/02 20060101 G06Q030/02; G06Q 50/00
20060101 G06Q050/00 |
Claims
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving a request
to access a landing page, the landing page being associated with a
template, the template being personalized based at least in part on
at least first user data, the request being generated in response
to an indication of the first user interacting with particular
content that is separate from the landing page; determining a first
content portion for the landing page based on information
associated with the request; determining a second content portion
for the landing page using a relevance of the second content to at
least one of the first user or the first content portion;
determining a third content portion for the landing page using
identified information associated with an entity, the identified
information corresponding to historical analytics of supplemental
content associated with the entity; and providing the landing page
for display, the landing page including the first content portion,
the second content portion, and the third content portion.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining a ranking order for the first content portion, the
second content portion, and the third content portion, the ranking
order based at least on a determined relevance of each of the first
content portion, the second content portion, and the third content
portion to an item associated with the particular content; and
determining a display location in the landing page for each of the
first content portion, the second content portion, and the third
content portion based at least on the ranking order.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one
of the first content portion, the second content portion, or the
third content portion includes at least one of advertising content,
images associated with a brand, text, or rich media.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
accessing a template data store, in response to receive the
request; and selecting the template from a plurality of templates
stored in the template data store.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
identifying at least three impressions in the template, the
impressions corresponding to locations within the template for the
first content portion, the second content portion, and the third
content portion.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the
particular content comprises a display advertisement featuring an
item, and wherein determining the first content portion further
comprises: determining an attribute associated with the item
featured in the display advertisement; and determining content
indicated as being associated with the attribute.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
personalizing at least a portion of the template, based at least in
part on the first user data.
8. A system, comprising: a processor; and a memory device including
instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the
processor to: receive a request to access a landing page, the
landing page being associated with a template, the template being
personalized based at least in part on at least first user data,
the request being generated in response to an indication of the
first user interacting with particular content that is separate
from the landing page; determine a first content portion for the
landing page based on information associated with the request;
determine a second content portion for the landing page using a
relevance of the second content to at least one of the first user
or the first content portion; determine a third content portion for
the landing page using identified information associated with an
entity, the identified information corresponding to historical
analytics of supplemental content associated with the entity; and
provide the landing page for display, the landing page including
the first content portion, the second content portion, and the
third content portion.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein instructions further cause the
processor to: determine a ranking order for the first content
portion, the second content portion, and the third content portion,
the ranking order based at least on a determined relevance of each
of the first content portion, the second content portion, and the
third content portion to an item associated with the particular
content; and determine a display location in the landing page for
each of the first content portion, the second content portion, and
the third content portion based at least on the ranking order.
10. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first
content portion, the second content portion, or the third content
portion includes at least one of advertising content, images
associated with a brand, text, or rich media.
11. The system of claim 8, wherein instructions further cause the
processor to: access a template data store, in response to receive
the request; and select the template from a plurality of templates
stored in the template data store.
12. The system of claim 8, wherein instructions further cause the
processor to: identify at least three impressions in the template,
the impressions corresponding to locations within the template for
the first content portion, the second content portion, and the
third content portion.
13. The system of claim 8, wherein the particular content comprises
a display advertisement featuring an item, and wherein determining
the first content portion further comprises: determine an attribute
associated with the item featured in the display advertisement; and
determine content indicated as being associated with the
attribute.
14. The system of claim 8, wherein instructions further cause the
processor to: personalize at least a portion of the template, based
at least in part on the first user data.
15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including
instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a
computing system, cause the computing system to: receive a request
to access a landing page, the landing page being associated with a
template, the template being personalized based at least in part on
at least first user data, the request being generated in response
to an indication of the first user interacting with particular
content that is separate from the landing page; determine a first
content portion for the landing page based on information
associated with the request; determine a second content portion for
the landing page using a relevance of the second content to at
least one of the first user or the first content portion; determine
a third content portion for the landing page using identified
information associated with an entity, the identified information
corresponding to historical analytics of supplemental content
associated with the entity; and provide the landing page for
display, the landing page including the first content portion, the
second content portion, and the third content portion.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim
15, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the
computing system to: determine a ranking order for the first
content portion, the second content portion, and the third content
portion, the ranking order based at least on a determined relevance
of each of the first content portion, the second content portion,
and the third content portion to an item associated with the
particular content; and determine a display location in the landing
page for each of the first content portion, the second content
portion, and the third content portion based at least on the
ranking order.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim
15, wherein at least one of the first content portion, the second
content portion, or the third content portion includes at least one
of advertising content, images associated with a brand, text, or
rich media.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim
15, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the
computing system to: access a template data store, in response to
receive the request; and select the template from a plurality of
templates stored in the template data store.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim
15, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the
computing system to: identify at least three impressions in the
template, the impressions corresponding to locations within the
template for the first content portion, the second content portion,
and the third content portion.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim
15, wherein the particular content comprises a display
advertisement featuring an item, and wherein the instructions when
executed further cause the computing system to: determine an
attribute associated with the item featured in the display
advertisement; and determine content indicated as being associated
with the attribute.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of allowed U.S.
application Ser. No. 15/057,932, entitled "PERSONALIZED LANDING
PAGES", filed Mar. 1, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 13/157,248, entitled "PERSONALIZED LANDING
PAGES", filed Jun. 9, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,390,181, the full
disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference for all
purposes.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Advertisers and other such entities can spend a significant
amount of resources in efforts to effectively target online
advertisements and other supplemental content to specific users.
Textual advertising is a commonly used type of online advertising.
For example, textual advertising includes the practice of placing
"sponsored links" on search result pages provided by web search
engines. These sponsored links are typically based on search query
terms provided by the user. Contextual advertising is another
commonly used type of online advertising. For example, contextual
advertising includes the practice of placing advertisements on web
pages, where the subject matter of the advertisements is typically
relevant to at least some portion of the content presented on the
web page. Retargeting advertising is yet another commonly used type
of online advertising where, for example, a user is presented with
an advertisement based on the user's browsing and/or purchasing
history. For example, if, when browsing an online retailer web
site, a user navigates to a detail web page for a particular item
but does not actually purchase the item, the user may later be
presented with an advertisement for that item.
[0003] Oftentimes sponsored links and advertisements, regardless of
whether they are placed via textual, contextual, retargeting, or
other types of advertising techniques, include a title and a few
lines of text describing the product or service being advertised.
Further, in some cases, sponsored links and advertisements include
hyperlinks to a webpage where the user may purchase the product
and/or obtain more information about the advertised products or
services. These web pages that the user is navigated to in response
to selecting the sponsored link or advertisement are commonly
referred to as "landing pages." For example, if a sponsored
advertisement is for a product, the landing page may be a web page
sponsored by the product manufacturer or be an online store where
the user can purchase the product or obtain more information about
the product. If, after selecting the sponsored advertisement and
clicking through to the associated landing page, the user purchases
the product, the sponsored advertisement is said to have resulted
in a "conversion." The substance and arrangement of the content
presented on the landing page may influence whether a conversion
occurs. For example, conversions are less likely to occur if the
landing page fails to present content that is meaningful to the
user than if the landing page presents meaningful content that
engages the user.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] Various embodiments in accordance with the present
disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings, in
which:
[0005] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example
environment for implementing aspects, in accordance with at least
one embodiment;
[0006] FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting aspects of an example
system, in accordance with at least one embodiment;
[0007] FIGS. 3a-c are schematic diagrams illustrating an example
landing page template, in accordance with at least one
embodiment;
[0008] FIG. 4 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example
process whereby the example system of FIG. 2 is used for generating
personalized landing pages, in accordance with at least one
embodiment;
[0009] FIG. 5 provides a flow diagram illustrating another example
process whereby the example system of FIG. 2 is used for generating
personalized landing pages, in accordance with at least one
embodiment; and
[0010] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example
landing page template, in accordance with at least one
embodiment.
[0011] Same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and figures
to reference like components and features, but such repetition of
number is for purposes of simplicity of explanation and
understanding, and should not be viewed as a limitation on the
various embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0012] In the following description, various embodiments will be
described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and
details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding
of the embodiments. However, it will also be apparent to one
skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without
the specific details, and that variations and other aspects not
explicitly disclosed herein are contemplated within the scope of
the various embodiments. Furthermore, well-known features may be
omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the embodiment being
described.
[0013] Various embodiments are described for generating
personalized landing pages based on a combination of information
known about the individual user viewing the landing page and the
entity sponsoring the landing page. Information known about a user
may include, for example, browsing history, purchasing history,
personal preferences, interests, attributes and other demographic
data. Personalizing a landing page may include, for example,
providing the landing page with content (e.g., advertisement, ad
tag, reference, etc.) that may be of particular interest to the
user in combination with arranging the content in a manner
appealing to the user to optimize engagement with the user.
[0014] It will be helpful to have a brief example of generating a
personalized landing page based on information known about the user
viewing the landing page. In one example, a user selects a
sponsored link or advertisement presented on a search results page
that identifies a particular product. Upon selecting the sponsored
ad/link, the user is navigated to a landing page for the product
identified in the link/ad. To personalize the landing page,
information about the user is obtained (if possible), such as the
user's browsing and/or purchasing history, preferences and
attributes. Information is also obtained about the product
presented in the selected sponsored link or advertisement as well
as information about the advertiser associated with the sponsored
ad/link (e.g., top-selling products, related products, promotional
products, etc.). Based on this information, advertiser products
that are relevant (or likely of interest) to the user are
identified and displayed in a personalized landing page. The layout
of the landing page may also be personalized for the user so that
the personalized landing page is aesthetically appealing to the
user.
[0015] Various approaches may be implemented in various
environments for various applications. For example, FIG. 1
illustrates an example of an environment 100 for implementing
aspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will be
appreciated, although a Web-based environment may be utilized for
purposes of explanation, different environments may be utilized, as
appropriate, to implement various embodiments. The environment 100
shown includes both a testing or a development portion (or side)
and a production portion. The production portion includes an
electronic client device 102, which may include any appropriate
device operable to send and receive requests, messages, or
information over an appropriate network 104 and convey information
back to a user of the device 102. Examples of such client devices
include personal computers, cell phones, handheld messaging
devices, laptop computers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants,
electronic book readers, and the like.
[0016] The network 104 may include any appropriate network,
including an intranet, the Internet, a cellular network, a local
area network, a wide area network, a wireless data network, or any
other such network or combination thereof. Components utilized for
such a system may depend at least in part upon the type of network
and/or environment selected. Protocols and components for
communicating via such a network are well known and will not be
discussed herein in detail. Communication over the network may be
enabled by wired or wireless connections, and combinations thereof.
In this example, the network 104 includes the Internet, as the
environment includes a Web server 106 for receiving requests and
serving content in response thereto, although for other networks an
alternative device serving a similar purpose could be utilized as
would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.
[0017] The illustrative environment 100 includes at least one
application server 108 and a data store 110. It should be
understood that there may be several application servers, layers,
or other elements, processes, or components, which may be chained
or otherwise configured, which may interact to perform tasks such
as obtaining data from an appropriate data store. As used herein
the term "data store" refers to any device or combination of
devices capable of storing, accessing, and/or retrieving data,
which may include any combination and number of data servers,
databases, data storage devices, and data storage media, in any
standard, distributed, or clustered environment.
[0018] The application server 108 may include any appropriate
hardware and software for integrating with the data store as needed
to execute aspects of one or more applications for the client
device 102, and may even handle a majority of the data access and
business logic for an application. The application server 108
provides access control services in cooperation with the data store
110, and is able to generate content such as text, graphics, audio,
and/or video to be transferred to the user, which may be served to
the user by the Web server 106 in the form of HTML, XML, or another
appropriate structured language in this example.
[0019] The handling of all requests and responses, as well as the
delivery of content between the client device 102 and the
application server 108, may be handled by the Web server 106. It
should be understood that the Web and application servers 106, 108
are not required and are merely example components, as structured
code discussed herein may be executed on any appropriate device or
host machine as discussed elsewhere herein. Further, the
environment 100 may be architected in such a way that a test
automation framework may be provided as a service to which a user
or application may subscribe. A test automation framework may be
provided as an implementation of any of the various testing
patterns discussed herein, although various other implementations
may be utilized as well, as discussed or suggested herein.
[0020] The environment 100 may also include a development and/or
testing side, which includes a user device 118 allowing a user such
as a developer, data administrator, or tester to access the system.
The user device 118 may be any appropriate device or machine, such
as is described above with respect to the client device 102. The
environment 100 may also include a development server 120, which
functions similar to the application server 108 but typically runs
code during development and testing before the code is deployed and
executed on the production side and becomes accessible to outside
users, for example. In some embodiments, an application server may
function as a development server, and separate production and
testing storage may not be utilized.
[0021] The data store 110 may include several separate data tables,
databases, or other data storage mechanisms and media for storing
data relating to a particular aspect. For example, the data store
110 illustrated includes mechanisms for storing production data 112
and user information 116, which may be utilized to serve content
for the production side. The data store 110 also is shown to
include a mechanism for storing testing data 114, which may be
utilized with the user information for the testing side. It should
be understood that there may be many other aspects that are stored
in the data store 110, such as for page image information and
access right information, which may be stored in any of the above
listed mechanisms as appropriate or in additional mechanisms in the
data store 110.
[0022] The data store 110 is operable, through logic associated
therewith, to receive instructions from the application server 108
or development server 120, and obtain, update, or otherwise process
data in response thereto. In one example, a user might submit a
search request for a certain type of item. In this case, the data
store 110 might access the user information 116 to verify the
identity of the user, and may access the catalog detail information
to obtain information about items of that type. The information
then may be returned to the user, such as in a results listing on a
Web page that the user is able to view via a browser on the user
device 102. Information for a particular item of interest may be
viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser.
[0023] Each server typically will include an operating system that
provides executable program instructions for the general
administration and operation of that server, and typically will
include a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when
executed by a processor of the server, allow the server to perform
its intended functions. Suitable implementations for the operating
system and general functionality of the servers are known or
commercially available, and are readily implemented by persons
having ordinary skill in the art, particularly in light of the
disclosure herein.
[0024] The environment 100 in one embodiment is a distributed
computing environment utilizing several computer systems and
components that are interconnected via communication links, using
one or more computer networks or direct connections. However, it
will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that such
a system could operate equally well in a system having fewer or a
greater number of components than are illustrated in FIG. 1. Thus,
the depiction of the environment 100 in FIG. 1 should be taken as
being illustrative in nature, and not limiting to the scope of the
disclosure.
[0025] The environment 100 of FIG. 1 may include additional
components and/or other arrangements, such as those illustrated in
system 200 of FIG. 2. In this example, the system 200 includes a
landing page manager 210 that responds to landing page requests
that are generated when users select or otherwise access
navigational elements such as sponsored links and advertisements
presented in electronic interfaces such as web sites, search
engines, applications, etc. The landing page manager 210, for
example, responds to landing page requests by accessing information
about the user that selected the sponsored ad/link as well as the
advertiser(s) associated with that selected link or advertisement.
Further, for example, the landing page manager 210 of the system
200 manages components for applying the information obtained about
the user and the advertiser to generate personalized landing pages.
According to some embodiments, such personalized landing pages
present content related to the products and services associated
with the selected sponsored links and advertisements as well as
content related to other products and services provided by the
advertisers that may be of interest to the users.
[0026] According to the illustrated embodiment, the advertisement
manager 210 includes a user information module 212, an advertiser
information module 214, an advertisement component module 216, a
template management module 218, and a landing page personalization
module 222. The advertisement manager 210 reads and/or writes data
to a templates data store 220, an advertisement component data
store 230, a user information data store 240, an advertiser
information data store 250, and a product information data store
260. The data stores 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260 may, in some
embodiments, be implemented as part of the advertisement manager
210 while in other embodiments of the present invention, the data
stores 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260 are implemented separately from
the advertisement manager 210.
[0027] According to an embodiment, the user information module 212
obtains user information and then optionally adds the obtained user
information to the user information data store 240. User
information may be obtained using various techniques. For example,
user information may be obtained from a log or database of recorded
browsing and/or purchasing history. Such a log or database may be
created by recording the products the user has purchased online,
products for which the user has viewed the detailed page, products
that the user has added to an online shopping cart, products that
the user has searched for, products for which the user has read
consumer reviews and ratings, and the like. Further, for example,
information about a user may be inferred by recording the sponsored
links and advertisements for which the user has selected or
otherwise accessed navigational elements, such as by clicking on
the link or advertisement in a web browser. The sponsored links and
advertisements that the user has selected can then be analyzed to
identify common attributes of these links/ads and these attributes
can be associated with the user in the user information data store
240. For example, attributes such as the color of the
advertisement, the content type (e.g., video, image), size of the
advertisement, placement of the advertisement, and/or other
attributes might be analyzed to identify common attributes of
advertisements that have successfully drawn the interest of the
user in the past.
[0028] According to some embodiments, user information may be
expressly provided by users. For example, some web sites provide
users with configurable experiences where the users can customize
at least some aspects of their experiences. For example, a web site
may enable a user to create a user profile that allows the user to
enter certain information and preferences. Such information and
preferences may be incorporated into the user information data
store 240. Inputted user information may include, for example,
demographic information, such as age, gender, or income. In an
embodiment, the user information module 212 may provide an
interface for adding user preference information to the user
information data store 240. In an embodiment, the interface may
include a user interface, such as web page, that allows user
information to be manually entered by a user or by an operator. In
an embodiment, the interface may comprise an electronic interface,
such as an application programming interface, for electronically
interfacing with the user information data store 240 from an
executable program to add information to the user information data
store 240 or access information stored in the user information data
store 240.
[0029] Further, according to some embodiments, user information
includes a list of consumer segments to which a user belongs. For
example, the user information module 212 may be configured to
categorize users into consumer segments, and store that information
in the user information data store 240. Consumer segments may be,
for example, used to categorize users based on age, gender,
geographic location, browsing and purchasing histories and
tendencies, etc. These consumer segments may be used to select
content for a landing page or a personalized web page, as will be
described in more detail later.
[0030] The advertiser information module 214 obtains advertiser
information and product information, and adds the obtained
advertiser and product information to the advertiser information
and product data stores 250, 260, respectively. Advertiser
information may be obtained using various techniques. For example,
advertiser and product information may be obtained by tracking the
products and services that the advertiser promotes and sells
online. For example, when an advertiser sponsors an advertisement
or a link for a product or service, the advertiser information
module 214 stores information about the product or service in the
advertiser and product information data stores 250, 260. As such,
the advertiser information module 214 fills the advertiser and
product information data stores 250, 260 with information about
advertisers' products and services. In addition to providing the
advertiser and product information data stores 250, 260 with
information about advertisers' products and services, the
advertiser information module 214 provides the advertiser and
product information data stores 250, 260 with analytics that
indicate the relative success of the sponsored links and
advertisements that the advertiser has sponsored in the past.
[0031] According to some embodiments, advertiser information may be
expressly provided by the advertiser. In an embodiment, the
advertiser may provide information indicating which products the
advertiser wants presented on personalized landing pages. For
example, the advertiser may provide information about its
top-selling products, newest products, and products within a
certain price range. Further, advertisers may provide information
that indicates which of its products complement each other. Thus,
when a product is featured in a sponsored link or advertisement,
complementing products can be presented on the landing page in
addition to the product referenced in the sponsored link or
advertisement. For example, if the sponsored link or advertisement
is directed to a particular digital camera, the landing page may
present advertisement components directed to camera cases,
batteries, external flashes, a different digital camera and the
like.
[0032] According to an embodiment, the advertiser information
module 214 may provide an interface for adding advertiser and
product information to the advertiser information data stores 250,
260. In an embodiment, the interface may include a user interface,
such as web page, that allows advertiser information to be manually
entered by an advertiser or by an operator. In an embodiment, the
interface may comprise an electronic interface, such as an
application programming interface, for electronically interfacing
with the advertiser and product information data stores 250, 260
from an executable program to add information to the advertiser and
product information data stores 250, 260 or access information
stored in the advertiser and product information data stores 250,
260.
[0033] The advertisement component module 216 obtains advertisement
components and corresponding attribute information. Further, the
advertisement component module 216 categorizes and stores the
advertisement components and corresponding attribute information in
the advertisement component data store 230. For example, the
advertisement component module 216 may categorize advertisement
components as being components that appeal to certain segments of
users. Advertisement components and, thus, the advertisement
component data store 230 may include advertising content such as
text, images, video content, animated content such as flash and/or
other advertising content. The advertisement component module 216
may obtain advertising components from third parties, such as
advertisers of products and services, and may contain "house" or
stock content used to supplement or enhance advertising content
provided by the advertisement provider.
[0034] According to an embodiment, advertisement components stored
in the advertisement component data store 230 may be categorized
based on the attributes of the individual advertisement components.
These attributes may include, but are not limited to, the product
type or service type for advertisement components that are directed
to specific products or services, the predominant colors featured
in the advertising components, the size of the advertisement
components, and the media type of the advertisement component.
These attributes may be used to select advertisement components for
personalizing landing pages for users.
[0035] The template module 218 creates and/or obtains landing page
templates used for personalizing landing pages and stores the
landing page templates in the templates data store 220. According
to an embodiment, each of the landing page templates includes at
least one impression that is filled with advertising content to
create a personalized landing page for the user. An example landing
page template 300 is illustrated in FIG. 3a.
[0036] With reference to FIG. 3a, the example landing page template
300 includes a background 304, an impression 308, a first set of
impressions 312 and a second set of impressions 316. It should be
appreciated that the configuration of impressions shown in FIG. 3a
is exemplary only and is not intended to limit the scope of the
technology described herein. The background 304 may have a
customizable theme that includes color schemes, font sizes and
styles, icons, graphics, etc. In an embodiment, the landing page
personalization module 222 selects a background 304 based on the
user's attributes and preferences. The template 300 may designate
the type of content to fill each of the impressions. As one
example, the template 300 may designate that the impression 308 be
filled with an advertisement (or information) directed to the
product or service identified in the sponsored link or
advertisement that was selected by the user. The impressions 312
may be populated with various advertisements that are directed to
other products and services offered by the advertiser. For example,
impressions 312 may be populated with the advertiser's products
that are similar to, or that complement, the product(s) presented
in the impression 308, the advertiser's top selling products, the
advertiser's newest products, etc. According to an embodiment, the
advertiser specifies the advertising content of impressions 312.
For example, instructions that indicate which advertisement
components are directed to which products may be located in the
advertiser and product information data stores 250, 260. However,
it should be appreciated that the landing page personalization
module 218 could select the advertising content for impressions
312. Impressions 316 may be populated with advertisements that may
be of interest to the user based on available user information. In
an embodiment, the landing page personalization module 222 may
access the user information data store 240 to determine which
advertisements of the advertisement component data store 230 may
appeal to the user or to a segment of users who have similar traits
or behaviors. For example, the landing page personalization module
222 may identify the consumer segments to which the user belongs,
and then access the advertisement component data store 230 to
identify advertisements that may appeal to users of those consumer
segments.
[0037] FIG. 3b illustrates an example landing page that may be
presented in response to a user selecting a sponsored advertisment
a laptop computer. Although this example will be described with
reference to a user selecting a sponsored advertisement, this
example may be equally described with reference to a sponsored link
or other reference as well. Throughout this application, the terms
"advertisement," "ad," "link," "content" and the like may be used
interchangeably. In the FIG. 3b example, the impression 308
displays an advertisement directed to the laptop computer
associated with the selected sponsored ad. The impressions 312
display various advertisements directed to other laptops offered by
the same or different advertiser (associated with the sponsored
ad). For example, the laptops displayed in impressions 312 may be
the advertiser's top selling laptops. The specific laptops
displayed in impressions 312 may be further refined by a price
range that the user is likely to find acceptable based on data
contained in the user information store 240 (or other sources). It
should be appreciated that the advertisements may be selected by
the entity providing the landing page or by the advertiser.
[0038] The impressions 316 shown in FIG. 3b may, in this example,
display advertisements directed to other items that are provided by
the advertiser and/or a strategic partner of the advertiser. For
example, the products illustrated in the impressions 316 of FIG. 3b
include toy computers, digital cameras, desktop computers, and
printers. Each of the items displayed in one of the impressions 316
may be selected, in part, based on information known about the
user. For example, the toy computer may have been selected for
display based in part on the user's purchase history indicating
that the user has recently purchased a children's toy. The digital
camera may have been selected for display based in part on the
user's browsing history indicating that the user recently viewed a
digital camera online. The desktop computer and the printer may
have been selected for display based on knowledge that consumers
categorized in a consumer segment similar to the user (e.g., small
business owner) often buy desktop computers and printers at the
same time. Other types of information may be used to personalize
the displayed items. For example, to identify the other similar
items, a search query may be created based on the features of the
item that was the subject of the sponsored link or advertisement
and then used to identify the other similar items.
[0039] According to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3c, the item
that was the subject of the sponsored link or advertisement may be
presented in a first set of impressions 308 along with other,
similar items so as to give the user additional items to choose
from. According to an embodiment, the other items presented in
impressions 308 may be identified based in part on the query terms
that triggered the sponsored ad. For example, in the event the
landing page is hosted by an online retailer, the query terms that
triggered the sponsored ad may be used to search across the
retailer's inventory to identify the other similar items that are
relevant to the query terms. Also, for example, the other items
presented in impressions 308 may be other items that are provided
by the advertiser and that are in the same category of items as the
item that was the subject or the sponsored link or advertisement.
In the illustrated example, laptop computer 326, which was the
subject of the sponsored advertisement, is displayed in impression
308a and laptops 330a-c are displayed in impressions 308b-380d. As
illustrated, the item that was the subject of the sponsored link or
advertisement may be highlighted to distinguish it from the other
items. Such highlighting may include enclosing the item in a box or
using bold, large or uniquely colored font, etc. According to the
illustrated embodiment, impressions 312 and 316 of FIG. 3c display
content similar to that shown in FIG. 3b. As such, in addition to
displaying items selected based on the user's information
(impressions 316), items designated by the advertiser (impressions
312), and the item that was the subject of the sponsored link
(impressions 308a), the landing page template 300 of FIG. 3c also
displays search-result items (computers 330a-c). It should be
appreciated that in some embodiments the search-result items shown
in impressions 308b-d consist only of the advertiser's items (i.e.,
items provided by the advertiser that sponsored the link), whereas
in other embodiments, such as the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6,
the search-result items consist of items from multiple
advertisers.
[0040] It should be appreciated that the landing page template 300
shown in FIGS. 3a-c is merely an example and that any landing page
template having any number and configuration of impressions may be
provided. Further, it should be appreciated that the landing page
template may only include one or two of the three sets of
impressions 308, 312, 316. For example, if user information is not
available, then the landing page template may only include one set
of impressions for advertisement components directed to the subject
of a sponsored link or advertisement and another set of impressions
for advertisement components selected by the advertiser and
directed to items other than those that are the subject of the
sponsored link or advertisement. Further for example, if the
advertiser has not provided advertising content for other items
that it would like to promote, the landing page template may only
include one set of impressions for advertisement components
directed to the subject of a sponsored link or advertisement and
another set of impressions for advertisement components selected
based in part on users' user information.
[0041] For illustrative purposes, consider an example where a user
selects a sponsored link displayed along with search results
returned in response to a query for a particular brand and model of
digital camera (e.g., Canon.RTM. D60). In this scenario, suppose
the advertiser that sponsored the link is the manufacturer of the
camera (e.g., Canon.RTM.). In response to selection of the
sponsored link, the user is navigated to a Canon.RTM. landing page
displaying advertisements and promotions for the Canon.RTM. D60
camera as well as advertisements and promotions directed to other
Canon.RTM. cameras, accessories and/or other products (e.g.,
Canon.RTM. printer).
[0042] Using the landing page template 300 shown in FIG. 3a,
impression 308, which is the most prominent in the UI, may display
advertising related to the particular model of camera mentioned in
the selected sponsored link (Canon.RTM. D60). The impressions 312
may display advertising components related to other popular camera
models provided by the advertiser (Canon.RTM.). Presenting the user
with other Canon.RTM. camera models may have many advantages. For
example, at least one of the other camera models may present an
upsell opportunity (e.g., one of the cameras displayed in
impression 312 is more expensive than the camera displayed in
impression 308). Displaying more than one camera model may also
illustrate to the user that other models are available from the
same manufacturer in the event the user decides the camera
displayed in impression 308 is not what they were looking for. It
is within the scope of the technology described herein to vary the
size of each impression 308 (e.g., each impression 308 does not
have to be the same size, shape, etc.). In one embodiment, the
cameras displayed in impressions 308 are selected by the
advertiser. In other embodiments, one or more of the camera models
displayed in impressions 308 may be selected by a third party such
as, but not limited to, a merchant and the like.
[0043] Continuing with this example, impressions 316 may display
other products offered by the advertiser (Canon.RTM.). These
products may be directly related to the camera displayed in
impression 308 (e.g., camera bag, camera lens, etc.), related to
another product, not related directly to the camera, that may be of
interest of the user (e.g., Canon.RTM. printer) and the like. The
landing page personalization module 222 may also select a
background 304 for the landing page based on the user's preferences
or more general target segments that they may belong to.
[0044] It should be appreciated that, although the landing page
template 300 includes three sets of impressions, landing page
templates considered herein may include any number, or arrangement
of, impressions. It should be further appreciated that content
displayed in any of the impressions of a landing page may be any
type of advertising content directed to any subject for any reason,
and that the advertising components may be selected by the
advertiser, the landing page personalization module 222, and/or any
other entity.
[0045] The landing page personalization module 222, according to
this embodiment, is configured to personalize landing pages using
advertisement components from advertisement components data store
230 based on information obtained from the user information data
store 240 and the advertiser and product information data stores
250, 260, further in view of the subject matter of the selected
sponsored link or advertisement. For example, the landing page
personalization module 222 processes requests for landing pages
received by the advertisement manager 210 from a client, such as a
web server requesting a landing page in response to a user
selecting a sponsored link or advertisement. The landing page
personalization module 222, among other things, obtains landing
page templates from the templates data store 220, selects from the
advertisement component data store 230 advertisement components
related to products and/or services of interest (e.g., the products
promoted in relevant sponsored links and advertisements selected by
users), and provides the advertisement components for display in
the impressions of the selected template. It should be appreciated
that in some embodiments the advertisement components are selected
and provided by the advertisers. For example, the landing page
personalization module 222 can request advertisement tags from the
advertiser and then add those ad tags to impression 308, 312, 316.
When the landing page personalization module 222 is rendering a
landing page, the advertisement tags call the advertiser's ad
server to retrieve the actual advertisements that are to be
presented on the landing page. Further, the landing page
personalization module 222 may access user information (of the user
that selected the sponsored ad, if the user can be identified) and
the advertiser's information (of advertiser(s) associated with the
landing page), and select advertisement components based on the
user and advertiser information. According to some embodiments, the
landing page personalization module 222 accesses the user
information in the user information data store 240 via the user
information module 212. In other embodiments, the landing page
personalization module 222 may access user information data store
240 directly to retrieve user information. Further, according to
some embodiments, the landing page personalization module 222 may
access the advertiser information in the advertiser information
data store 250 via the advertiser information module 214, while in
other embodiments, the landing page personalization module 222 may
access advertiser information data store 250 directly to retrieve
advertiser information.
[0046] According to an embodiment, the landing page personalization
module 222 is further configured to optimize landing pages based on
user responses. For example, when optimizing the landing pages, the
landing page personalization module 222 may utilize user
information contained in the user information data store 240. Such
user information may be obtained by tracking users' browsing and/or
purchasing histories, such as by tracking the advertisements that
have been presented to users and users' responses to such
advertisements. Such responses include whether users purchased the
advertised products, viewed detailed pages about the products,
added the products to online shopping carts, read or provided
consumer reviews about the products. Such optimization includes,
for example, determining how to best present various types of
advertisements. For example, by reviewing user information across a
plurality of users, the landing page personalization module 222 can
learn how to best present advertisements for consumer electronics
makers, consumer package goods providers, payment providers,
automobile makers, etc. Further, the landing page personalization
module 222 can learn how to best present advertisements in a manner
that drives the greatest interaction with the advertisements.
[0047] FIG. 4 illustrates example steps of a process 400 for
generating personalized landing pages in accordance with one
embodiment. As indicated at block 410, a request for a landing page
is received. For example, a request to view a landing page may be
received in response to a user selecting or otherwise accessing an
element of a sponsored link or advertisement. The request may
include, for example, identification of the product featured in the
sponsored ad, the identification of the advertisement to be
presented, etc.
[0048] At 416, the user information associated with the user that
selected the sponsored ad (if identifiable) and the advertiser's
information (of advertiser associated with the sponsored ad/link)
is obtained. In an embodiment, each user and advertiser may be
assigned a unique identifier and information related to the users
and advertisers may be located and obtained using the unique
identifiers. It should be appreciated that users may also be
identified by using various methods, such as using the Internet
Protocol (IP) address of the user's computer system or via a login
identifier that the user has used to access content on a content
provider's website or an http cookie. Further, it should be
appreciated that advertisers may also be identified by using
various other methods, such as using the hyperlink of the sponsored
link or advertisement that was selected by the user to request a
landing page.
[0049] According to an embodiment, user information may be obtained
from third parties, such as social networks, that can provide
additional information about the user as well as information about
others that are connected to the user in some manner (e.g., friends
of a user, users in the same community, etc.). For example, social
networks may provide information about brands and products that are
of interest to the user or the user's friends. If the user or the
user's friends self-identity with or express an interest in a
particular brand or product, then a landing page for that user may
be personalized with advertising content for that brand or product.
The landing page may be personalized with advertising content for
products that the user's friends have purchased or products for
which the user's friends have written favorable reviews. For
example, if five of the user's friends have purchased a particular
product, then a landing page for that user may be personalized with
information about that product and an indication that five of the
user's friends have purchased that product. The landing page may
include the names of the user's friends that have purchased the
product and comments those friends have made about the product.
According to an embodiment, if the landing page is sponsored by a
particular advertiser, then brands and/or products that are
suggested by the user's friends are filtered to only include brands
and/or products that are provided or approved by the sponsoring
advertiser.
[0050] It should also be appreciated that, if the user information
data store 240 does not contain any information for a particular
user (or the user cannot be identified), user information for other
users having similar attributes might be accessed and used to help
select content to display on the landing page. For example, the
user information of users located in the same or similar geographic
location as the unknown user may be used. In this case, an IP
address may be used to determine geographic location. Also for
example, the user information of other users may be used, where the
other users have similar demographic information, such as age,
gender, or income. Such demographic information may inferred by
identifying common attributes in users' browsing habits and the
content that users have viewed. Further, for example, such
demographic information may be inferred based on products for which
the user has viewed the detailed page, products that the user has
added to an online shopping cart, products that the user has
searched for, products for which the user has read consumer reviews
and ratings, and the like It is also within the scope of the
technology described herein to select content for display on the
landing page based on information provided by the advertiser or
another entity without any knowledge of user information. For
example, the advertiser may designate one or more default
advertisements to be presented in the in event no information is
available for the user.
[0051] At 420, content designated by the advertiser to promote the
product or service associated with the sponsored link (or other
source document) is identified. In some instances, the landing page
personalization module 222 obtains the content from the
advertisement components data store 230 for display in the landing
page based on the sponsored link or advertisement selected by the
user. In other instances, the landing page personalization module
222 receives the content from the advertiser.
[0052] At block 426, supplemental advertising content designated by
the advertiser is identified. For example, supplemental advertising
content may be any content promoting a product or service other
than the item associated with the sponsored link, advertisement,
and the like selected by the user. By way of example only,
supplemental content may include the advertiser's most popular
products or services, the advertiser's products or services that
are within a certain price range, the advertiser's newest products
or services, the advertiser's products or services that complement
or are related to the "primary" product(s) displayed on the landing
page or the advertiser's products or services that are most
relevant to the user. According to an embodiment, the advertiser
designates the supplement advertising content that is to be
presented on the landing page along with the advertising content
designed to promote the products or services that were the subject
of the user-selected sponsored link or advertisement. It should be
appreciated, however, that the landing page manager 210 could
designate the supplemental advertising content on behalf of the
advertiser. Further, it should be appreciated that the step
indicated at block 426 is optional and that supplement advertising
content may be omitted from the landing page.
[0053] In addition to identifying advertiser-designated
supplemental advertising content, advertising content that is
targeted to the user's information is identified, according to
block 432. For example, the advertising content displayed to a user
could be selected based on the user's membership in a targeted
segment (e.g., new parent). As another example, the advertising
content displayed to a user could be personalized based on
information known about the user (e.g., purchase history). In
operation, for example, the landing page personalization manager
222 may access the user's information in the user information data
store 240 as well as advertisement components in the advertisement
components data store 230 and then identify advertisement
components that correspond to the user's information and/or the
segments to which the user belongs. For example, advertisement
components having content that corresponds the user's information
may be identified by comparing the segments to which the user is
assigned to the segments to which attributes the advertisement
components appeal, as indicated by the attributes of the
advertising content. Further, for example, advertisement components
having content that corresponds to the user's information may be
identified by comparing the attributes of the user's information to
the attributes of the advertisement components to identify matches.
In an embodiment, advertisement components having targeted content
are identified based on the attributes of the content, such as the
products and services featured in the advertisements, the
manufactures and providers of the products and services featured in
the advertisements, types of advertisements, colors schemes of
advertisements, sizes of advertisements, types of images, and
gender of featured models. For example, a particular user may have
an interest in music, so supplemental advertising content related
to music-related products may be selected over other advertisements
having attributes less relevant to the user's preferences and
attributes as indicated by the user's information.
[0054] As indicated at block 438 a landing page template is
selected. Features of the landing page template (e.g., background,
font size, etc.) may also be personalized for the user. For
example, using information known about the user, the color of the
background of a landing page, font sizes and styles and the like
may be customized to appeal to the user.
[0055] At block 444, the landing page is generated by rendering
content in each of the impressions of the selected landing page
template. For example, advertising content directly related to the
subject of the selected link or advertisement may be rendered in a
first set of impressions of the template. Advertising content
directed to products or services offered by the advertiser that are
related to the subject matter may be rendered in a second set of
impressions of the template. As discussed above, this type of
content may be directed to, by way of example only: (1) products
offered by the advertiser that are similar, or complementary to,
the "primary" product displayed in the landing page; (2) the
advertiser's top selling products; (3) the advertiser's newest
products; and/or (4) products offered by the advertiser that are
within a particular price range. Content selected based in part on
information known about the user may be rendered in a third set of
impressions of the template. According to an embodiment, the
advertising content rendered in the various impressions may be
rank-ordered based on relevance to the item that is the subject of
the sponsored link or advertisement, based on relevance to user's
user information, etc. Further, for example, if the landing page
template cannot accommodate all of the relevant advertising content
(e.g., ten relevant advertisements were identified, but the
template contains only three available impressions), then the
landing page personalization manager 222 may rank advertising
content based on relevance to the users' user information,
relevance to the item(s) that is the subject of the sponsored link,
priority rules established by the advertiser, etc. and select the
advertisements for the landing page based on the ranked order. Also
for example, the advertiser can select the advertising content on
the fly. For example, when the landing page personalization module
222 is rendering a landing page, the advertisement tags that have
been applied to the impressions of the landing page template "call"
the advertiser's ad server to retrieve to the actual advertisements
that are presented on the landing page. When the call is made, the
advertiser can use the user information (e.g, IP address, purchase
history, etc.) to select the advertisement.
[0056] At 450, the personalized landing page is presented for
display to the user. It is not required that each set of
impressions in the template are limited to a certain type of
content. For example, the impressions 316 shown in FIG. 3a may
display any combination of the "primary" advertiser content,
related advertiser content or content selected based on information
known about the user.
[0057] FIG. 5 illustrates a process 500 for personalizing web pages
with advertising content provided by multiple, different vendors
(i.e., advertisers). For example, upon a user selecting a link
presented by a search engine on a search result page that displays
a set of search results for a search query submitted by the user,
the process 500 generally proceeds by receiving referral
information from the search engine, identifying keywords of the
user's search query in the referral information, searching across
the items of multiple vendors to identify items that are relevant
to the keywords, and personalizing the web page associated with the
selected link with advertising content from multiple vendors
directed to the relevant items.
[0058] At block 510, referral information is received. The referral
information may be received in any number of ways. By way of
example only, referral information may be received from a search
engine being utilized by a user in response to selecting a
particular search result. In this instance, the search engine has
provided search results to the user based on a search query
submitted by the user. Upon selecting the search result, the user
was navigated away from the search results page to the web page
associated with the search result. Following this example, the
search engine may provide the landing page manager 210 with the URL
encoded with the referral information.
[0059] At block 516, keywords are identified in the referral
information. Many search engines, for example, use URLs to encode
the keywords contained in a query. In these instances, identifying
keywords in the referral information may include identifying a
domain of a referring URL and applying a set of rules applicable to
the domain to identify the keywords. While the present disclosure
discloses identifying keywords, it should be understood that at
times a single keyword may be identified, such as when a user
submits a search query consisting of a single word. At block 520,
these keywords may be used to identify relevant vendor items. For
example, in the event the entity that is personalizing the web page
is an online retailer, the online retailer may use the keywords
extracted from the referring URL to identify items in its inventory
that are relevant to the keywords.
[0060] At block 524, the process 500 involves selecting advertising
content for at least some of the items that were identified as
being relevant to the keywords. According to an embodiment, the
step indicated at block 524 involves selecting advertising content
for particularly relevant items, thereby filtering the advertising
content to only include advertising content for the most relevant
items. By way of example only, the step indicated at block 524 may
include selecting advertising content for the five most relevant
items. Further, according to an embodiment, the step indicated by
block 524 may include identifying advertising content associated
with the highest bid amounts from among the advertising content
available for the relevant items.
[0061] It should be appreciated that the step of identifying items
that are relevant to the keywords as indicated at block 520 may be
optional. For example, instead of or in addition to identifying
items that are relevant to the keywords and then selecting
advertising content for the identified items, the process 500 could
involve selecting advertising content for the keywords that were
extracted from the referral information, thereby omitting the step
of identifying items that are relevant to the keywords. According
to an embodiment, the advertising content selected according to
block 524 is selected regardless of the vendor/advertiser
associated with the advertising content.
[0062] At block 532, advertising content is selected based in part
on information known about the user. This could be accomplished
according to one or more of the examples provided above with
reference to block 432 of FIG. 4. For example, the landing page
personalization manager 222 may access the user's information in
the user information data store 240 as well as advertisement
components in the advertisement components data store 230 and then
select advertisement components that correspond to the user's
information and/or the consumer segments to which the user belongs.
According to this example, advertisement components having content
that corresponds the user's information may be identified and
selected by comparing the attributes of the user's information to
the attributes of the advertisement components to identify matches.
It should be appreciated that, when identifying advertising content
according to block 532, relevance to the keywords extracted from
the user's search query may also be considered. Accordingly,
advertising content that may not have been selected according to
block 524 because it is not as relevant to the keywords as other
advertising content may nonetheless be selected according to block
532 as being relevant to the user's information and relevant to the
keywords of the user's search query. According to an embodiment,
the advertising content selected according to block 532 is selected
regardless of the vendor/advertiser associated with the advertising
content.
[0063] At block 540, the web page associated with the selected
search result is personalized with relevant advertising content and
presented to the user. According to an embodiment, the web page is
personalized by populating at least a portion of the web page with
at least some of the advertising content selected according to
blocks 524 and 532.
[0064] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a personalized landing page
600 that displays search results based on the subject matter of a
sponsored ad plus additional content from multiple
vendors/advertisers based on one or more of the query terms that
triggered, in part, the sponsored ad. According to an embodiment,
the personalized landing page 600 presents items offered for sale
by multiple vendors, suppliers, etc., instead of items associated
with a single vendor. For example, the sponsored ad may be
associated with an online retailer and the subject matter of the
sponsored ad may be directed to categories of items, such as items
that are on sale, items that are subject to special promotions,
etc. instead of a single item.
[0065] For example, suppose the sponsored ad was from "Electronics
Warehouse" and advertised "Top Laptops at a Discount!". Upon the
user selecting the sponsored ad, laptops provided by multiple
laptop manufacturers are presented in the personalized landing page
600. Impression 608 may display the top discounted laptops
(regardless of vendor) that are for sale at "Electronics
Warehouse." Impressions 612 and 616 may display other items from
other vendors based on query terms provided by the user,
information known about the user, such as the customer segments to
which the user belongs as well as the user's purchase history,
browser history, demographic information, etc. For example,
impressions 612 may display advertising content directed to items
that are offered for sale by "Electronics Warehouse" and that are
relevant to the search query terms provided by the user (e.g., the
search terms provided by the user that generated the search results
page with the sponsored ad). This could be accomplished according
to one or more of the examples provided above with reference to
blocks 520 and 524 of FIG. 5. Also for example, impressions 616 may
display advertising content selected based in part on information
known about the user. This could be accomplished according to one
or more of the examples provided above with reference to block 432
of FIG. 4 and/or block 532 of FIG. 5. It should be appreciated that
the search-result items and the advertising content selected for
presentation in the landing page 600 may be selected regardless of
vendor. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the displayed search-result items
and advertising content are associated with seven different vendors
(e.g., Vendor 1, Vendor 2, etc.).
[0066] The various embodiments described herein may be implemented
in a wide variety of operating environments, which in some cases
may include one or more user computers, computing devices, or
processing devices which may be utilized to operate any of a number
of applications. User or client devices may include any of a number
of general purpose personal computers, such as desktop or laptop
computers running a standard operating system, as well as cellular,
wireless, and handheld devices running mobile software and capable
of supporting a number of networking and messaging protocols. Such
a system also may include a number of workstations running any of a
variety of commercially-available operating systems and other known
applications for purposes such as development and database
management. These devices also may include other electronic
devices, such as dummy terminals, thin-clients, gaming systems, and
other devices capable of communicating via a network.
[0067] Most embodiments utilize at least one network that would be
familiar to those skilled in the art for supporting communications
using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, such as
TCP/IP, OSI, FTP, UPnP, NFS, CIFS, and AppleTalk. Such a network
may include, for example, a local area network, a wide-area
network, a virtual private network, the Internet, an intranet, an
extranet, a public switched telephone network, an infrared network,
a wireless network, and any combination thereof. The network may,
furthermore, incorporate any suitable network topology. Examples of
suitable network topologies include, but are not limited to, simple
point-to-point, star topology, self organizing peer-to-peer
topologies, and combinations thereof.
[0068] In embodiments utilizing a Web server, the Web server may
run any of a variety of server or mid-tier applications, including
HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, data servers, Java servers,
and business application servers. The server(s) also may be capable
of executing programs or scripts in response requests from user
devices, such as by executing one or more Web applications that may
be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any
programming language, such as Java.RTM., C, C# or C++, or any
scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as
combinations thereof. The server(s) may also include database
servers, including without limitation those commercially available
from Oracle.RTM., Microsoft.RTM., Sybase.RTM., and IBM.RTM..
[0069] The environment may include a variety of data stores and
other memory and storage media as discussed above. These may reside
in a variety of locations, such as on a storage medium local to
(and/or resident in) one or more of the computers or remote from
any or all of the computers across the network. In a particular set
of embodiments, the information may reside in a storage-area
network ("SAN") familiar to those skilled in the art. Similarly,
any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the
computers, servers, or other network devices may be stored locally
and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includes
computerized devices, each such device may include hardware
elements that may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements
including, for example, at least one central processing unit (CPU),
at least one input device (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller,
touch screen, or keypad), and at least one output device (e.g., a
display device, printer, or speaker). Such a system may also
include one or more storage devices, such as disk drives, optical
storage devices, and solid- state storage devices such as random
access memory ("RAM") or read-only memory ("ROM"), as well as
removable media devices, memory cards, flash cards, etc.
[0070] Such devices also may include a computer-readable storage
media reader, a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network
card (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, etc.),
and working memory as described above. The computer-readable
storage media reader may be connected with, or configured to
receive, a computer-readable storage medium, representing remote,
local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices as well as storage
media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing, storing,
transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information. The
system and various devices also typically will include a number of
software applications, modules including program modules, services,
or other elements located within at least one working memory
device, including an operating system and application programs,
such as a client application or Web browser. It should be
appreciated that alternate embodiments may have numerous variations
from that described above. For example, customized hardware might
also be utilized and/or particular elements might be implemented in
hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets),
or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as
network input/output devices may be employed.
[0071] Storage media and computer readable media for containing
code, or portions of code, may include any appropriate media known
or used in the art, including storage media and communication
media, such as but not limited to volatile and non-volatile,
removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or
technology for storage and/or transmission of information such as
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,
or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other
memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other
optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk
storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium
which may be utilized to store the desired information and which
may be accessed by the a system device. Program modules, program
components and/or programmatic objects may include
computer-readable and/or computer-executable instructions of and/or
corresponding to any suitable computer programming language. In at
least one embodiment, each computer-readable medium may be
tangible. In at least one embodiment, each computer-readable medium
may be non-transitory in time. Based on the disclosure and
teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art
will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the various
embodiments.
[0072] The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be
regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It
will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes
may be made thereunto without departing from the broader spirit and
scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.
[0073] The use of the terms "a" and "an" and "the" and similar
referents in the context of describing embodiments (especially in
the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover
both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein
or clearly contradicted by context. The terms "comprising,"
"having," "including," and "containing" are to be construed as
open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including, but not limited to,")
unless otherwise noted. The term "connected" is to be construed as
partly or wholly contained within, attached to, or joined together,
even if there is something intervening. Recitation of ranges of
values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of
referring individually to each separate value falling within the
range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value
is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually
recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in
any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise
clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples,
or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein, is
intended merely to better illuminate embodiments and does not pose
a limitation on the scope unless otherwise claimed. No language in
the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed
element as essential to the practice of at least one
embodiment.
[0074] Preferred embodiments are described herein, including the
best mode known to the inventors. Variations of those preferred
embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the
art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expect
skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the
inventors intend for embodiments to be constructed otherwise than
as specifically described herein. Accordingly, suitable embodiments
include all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter
recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable
law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in
all possible variations thereof is contemplated as being
incorporated into some suitable embodiment unless otherwise
indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
[0075] All references, including publications, patent applications,
and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to
the same extent as if each reference were individually and
specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set
forth in its entirety herein.
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