U.S. patent application number 17/707484 was filed with the patent office on 2022-07-14 for system and method for contextual advertising and merchandizing based on user configurable preferences.
This patent application is currently assigned to eBay Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is eBay Inc.. Invention is credited to Aaron K. Forth, Scott Robert Shipman.
Application Number | 20220222707 17/707484 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | |
Filed Date | 2022-07-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20220222707 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Shipman; Scott Robert ; et
al. |
July 14, 2022 |
System and Method For Contextual Advertising and Merchandizing
Based On User Configurable Preferences
Abstract
A computer-implemented system and method for contextual
advertising and merchandizing based on user configurable
preferences is disclosed. The system in an example embodiment
includes an advertising (ad) preferences service to obtain user
preference information related to advertising, enable user
configuration of the user preference information related to
advertising, and modify the presentation of advertising to the user
based upon the user configured preference information.
Inventors: |
Shipman; Scott Robert; (San
Jose, CA) ; Forth; Aaron K.; (San Francisco,
CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
eBay Inc. |
San Jose |
CA |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
eBay Inc.
San Jose
CA
|
Appl. No.: |
17/707484 |
Filed: |
March 29, 2022 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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13974764 |
Aug 23, 2013 |
11341531 |
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17707484 |
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11774671 |
Jul 9, 2007 |
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13974764 |
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International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20060101
G06Q030/02 |
Claims
1. A method, comprising: obtaining behavior information for a user
profile based on monitored interactions of the user profile with
displayed content of one or more webpages; obtaining demographic
information of the user profile from previous user interactions;
automatically classifying the user profile into categories based on
the behavior information and the demographic information;
displaying a user interface that includes indications of the
categories and further includes user interface elements displayed
in association with each indication of a category, the user
interface elements being selectable to deactivate, in connection
with providing targeted content, only a respective category into
which the user profile was classified; responsive to input to
select one of the user interface elements, deactivating, for the
user profile, the respective category, relative to which the
selected user interface element is displayed and keeping activated
other categories; and targeting content to the user profile using
activated categories and not using the deactivated respective
category.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising excluding the targeted
content corresponding to the deactivated respective category from
being presented to the user profile.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving input to
activate a previously deactivated category and using the previously
deactivated category for targeting the content to the user
profile.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the input to activate the
previously deactivated category is received in relation to a
respective user interface element.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective user interface
element indicates that the previously deactivated category is
deactivated before the input to activate the previously deactivated
category is received.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the
targeted content to the user profile in an additional user
interface, the additional user interface including an additional
user interface element displayed in association with the targeted
content, and the additional user interface element being operable
to direct the user profile to information regarding the
categories.
7. The method of claim 6, further comprising displaying the user
interface that includes the indications of the categories and
further includes the user interface elements based on selection of
the additional user interface element.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating
information in the user profile with information in an additional
user profile.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the
categories into which the user profile is classified with an
additional user profile.
10. A system, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory
storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more
processors, perform operations including: obtaining behavior
information for a user profile based on monitored interactions of
the user profile with displayed content of one or more webpages;
obtaining demographic information of the user profile from previous
user interactions; automatically classifying the user profile into
categories based on the behavior information and the demographic
information; displaying a user interface that includes indications
of the categories and further includes user interface elements
displayed in association with each indication of a category, the
user interface elements being selectable to deactivate, in
connection with providing targeted content, only a respective
category into which the user profile was classified; responsive to
input to select one of the user interface elements, deactivating,
for the user profile, the respective category, relative to which
the selected user interface element is displayed and keeping
activated other categories; and targeting content to the user
profile using activated categories and not using the deactivated
respective category.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further include
excluding the targeted content corresponding to the deactivated
respective category from being presented to the user profile.
12. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further include
receiving input to activate a previously deactivated category and
using the previously deactivated category for targeting the content
to the user profile.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the input to activate the
previously deactivated category is received in relation to a
respective user interface element.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the respective user interface
element indicates that the previously deactivated category is
deactivated before the input to activate the previously deactivated
category is received.
15. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further include
displaying the targeted content to the user profile in an
additional user interface, the additional user interface including
an additional user interface element displayed in association with
the targeted content, and the additional user interface element
being operable to direct the user profile to information regarding
the categories.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further include
displaying the user interface that includes the indications of the
categories and further includes the user interface elements based
on selection of the additional user interface element.
17. One or more computer-readable storage media storing
instructions that are executable by one or more processors to
perform operations including: obtaining behavior information for a
user profile based on monitored interactions of the user profile
with displayed content of one or more webpages; obtaining
demographic information of the user profile from previous user
interactions; automatically classifying the user profile into
categories based on the behavior information and the demographic
information; displaying a user interface that includes indications
of the categories and further includes user interface elements
displayed in association with each indication of a category, the
user interface elements being selectable to deactivate, in
connection with providing targeted content, only a respective
category into which the user profile was classified; responsive to
input to select one of the user interface elements, deactivating,
for the user profile, the respective category, relative to which
the selected user interface element is displayed and keeping
activated other categories; and targeting content to the user
profile using activated categories and not using the deactivated
respective category.
18. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 17,
wherein the operations further include excluding the targeted
content corresponding to the deactivated respective category from
being presented to the user profile.
19. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 17,
wherein the operations further include displaying the targeted
content to the user profile in an additional user interface, the
additional user interface including an additional user interface
element displayed in association with the targeted content, and the
additional user interface element being operable to direct the user
profile to information regarding the categories.
20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19,
wherein the operations further include displaying the user
interface that includes the indications of the categories and
further includes the user interface elements based on selection of
the additional user interface element.
Description
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application No.
of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/974,764 filed Aug. 23, 2013, which
is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 11/774,671 filed Jul. 9, 2007, the entire disclosures of
which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their
entirety
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] This disclosure relates to methods and systems supporting
online advertising and online transactions by a user. More
particularly, the present disclosure relates to contextual
advertising and merchandizing based on user configurable
preferences.
RELATED ART
[0003] An increasingly popular way of delivering Internet
advertisements is to tie the presentation of advertisements to
particular user behaviors and/or user profiles, and/or user
demographics. Such user behaviors include user access to a
particular web page, user selection (also called mouse-clicking or
clicking) of a particular location on a web page, user entry of a
particular search string or keyword, and the like. In order to
target advertising accurately, advertisers or vendors pay to have
their advertisements presented in response to certain kinds of
events--that is, their advertisements are presented when particular
user behaviors warrant such presentation. If a particular
advertisement (ad) leads to some user action, an advertiser may
receive remuneration for the ad.
[0004] Using other systems and processes on the Web, users can
search for goods and services via the Internet and shop or make
purchases of goods or services over the Internet. Unfortunately,
conventional systems have not been able to create an effective way
of extracting keywords from web pages and create contextual
advertisements that may lead to a user purchase transaction.
[0005] Some conventional web-based merchants use affiliate
programs. In an affiliate program, the merchant itself must track
purchase transactions and reward 3.sup.rd party affiliates when
purchase transactions are completed. This transaction tracking and
rewarding process imposes a significant administrative burden on
the merchant. Moreover, the tracking/reward functionality must be
replicated for each merchant that chooses to use such a system.
Current technology does not provide a solution for off-loading this
tracking/reward functionality to a 3.sup.rd party without risking
an increase in fraudulent transactions and a decrease in the
time-efficiency of processing purchase transactions.
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,061 discloses methods and apparatuses
for targeting the delivery of advertisements over a network such as
the Internet. Statistics are compiled on individual users and
networks and the use of the advertisements is tracked to permit
targeting of the advertisements of individual users. In response to
requests from affiliated sites, an advertising server transmits to
people accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of the
advertisements based upon profiling of users and networks. However,
the user is not offered the opportunity to opt-out of the
advertising or to configure the preferences or profile that was
automatically created based on user activity.
[0007] Thus, a system and method for contextual advertising and
merchandizing based on user configurable preferences is needed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Embodiments illustrated by way of example and not limitation
in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0009] FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an example advertisement with the
user selectable display object associated with the ad in an example
embodiment.
[0010] FIG. 3 illustrates an example embodiment of a preferences
webpage displayed to a user when the user activates the display
object.
[0011] FIG. 4 illustrates an example embodiment of a webpage used
to configure user advertising preferences.
[0012] FIG. 5 illustrates a system architecture for delivering
advertising to users in a networked system.
[0013] FIG. 6 is a processing flow diagram of an example
embodiment.
[0014] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a network system on which an
embodiment may operate.
[0015] FIGS. 8 and 9 are block diagrams of an example computer
system on which an embodiment may operate.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0016] A computer-implemented system and method for contextual
advertising and merchandizing based on user configurable
preferences is disclosed. In the following description, numerous
specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that
embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In
other instances, well-known processes, structures and techniques
have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the clarity
of this description.
[0017] As described further below, according to various example
embodiments of the disclosed subject matter described and claimed
herein, there is provided a computer-implemented system and method
for contextual advertising and merchandizing based on user
configurable preferences. The system includes an advertising (ad)
preferences service to obtain user preference information related
to advertising and to modify the presentation of advertising to the
user based upon the user preference information. Various
embodiments are described below in connection with the figures
provided herein.
[0018] Typical contextual advertising implementations show
advertisements that are textually related to the content that the
user is browsing or has browsed. In newer systems, behavioral
information and day parting is used to improve upon the contextual
advertising. Other systems enhance contextual advertising with user
demography gleaned from various sources. In these example
embodiments, the advertisements shown are not necessarily related
to the context of the content; rather, the advertisements shown can
be related to a merchandizing opportunity based on a user's
automatically determined demographic profile to create a new
dimension in contextual advertising. Such a new dimension in
contextual advertising leverages user demographic information
obtained in previous user interactions unrelated to the current
user interaction or behavior.
[0019] By observing search, view, bid, buy, payment and other
activities of known user demographies, a host system can use
various heuristics to generate associations between user
demographic profiles and Item Groups, with associated levels of
interest of users of those demographic profiles in that Item Group.
Item Groups may represent Products, Services, or other web items.
Demographic profiles may be aggregated along one or more dimensions
(e.g. age, gender, location, etc.). Item Groups may also be
aggregated along one or more dimensions (e.g. category, price,
vendor, payment method, etc.). The term Item Group may also
represent items for sale as well as web pages/sections, and/or
sites.
[0020] As the description above indicates, targeted advertising has
become more complex. However, even the best algorithms for
targeting ad content to particular users can produce errant or
annoying ad content that may not be considered relevant or useful
to the user. As such, it would be beneficial to enable the user to
configure the advertising-related parameters or profiles that have
been automatically created by various systems that monitor user
behaviors, collect demographic information, or otherwise associate
users with particular types of ads. The various embodiments
described herein enable the user to configure (e.g. edit, modify,
select, de-select, enable, disable, etc.) various
advertising-related parameters or preference information.
[0021] An example embodiment is described in the following section.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an example advertisement 310 is
illustrated. Ad 310 represents a typical ad displayed to an on-line
computer user is conventional systems. Such an ad 310 may have been
automatically selected for display to a particular user (i.e.
targeted) because of the user's previous behavior or demographics.
Conventional systems do not provide a way for the user to opt-out
of the targeted advertising system. Further, conventional systems
do not provide a way for the user to configure advertising
parameters to increase the likelihood that subsequent targeted ads
will be more relevant for the particular user.
[0022] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an example embodiment includes a
display object 320 that enables the user to configure advertising
parameters. In one embodiment, display object 320 is a hyperlink
that re-directs the user to a separate preferences configuration
webpage when the user clicks on the display object 320. In another
embodiment, the display object 320 can activate a preferences
configuration box when the display object 320 is clicked or
activated with a mouseover. In other embodiments, the display
object 320 can cause the activation of a set of preferences
checkboxes when the display object 320 is selected and
right-clicked. Many other alternative implementations can be used
to indicate the selection and/or activation of display object 320
thereby activating the enables the functionality of various
embodiments to enable a user to configure advertising parameters.
In yet other embodiments, the activation of advertising
configuration functionality can be offered as part of a tool bar or
drop-down menu selection associated with the configuration of other
system parameters. In the particular embodiment shown in FIGS. 1
and 2, the display object 320 is a link that redirects the user to
a separate preference configuration webpage when a user clicks on
the display object 320. In addition, the particular embodiment
shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 provides additional information for the user
when a user performs a mouseover on the display object 320. As
shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the user has performed a mouseover of
display object 320 by position cursor 322 in a proximate position
to display object 320. As a result, an information box 324 has been
displayed for the user to explain the purpose of display object
320. If the user clicks on the display object 320 while cursor 322
is in a proximate position to display object 320, the user will be
redirected to a separate webpage, such as the webpage 410 shown in
FIG. 3 and described below.
[0023] FIG. 1 illustrates and embodiment in which the display
object 320 is displayed outside of the borders of the underlying ad
310. In this embodiment, no portion of the ad 310 is obscured by
display object 320. An alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 2.
In FIG. 2, the display object 320 is shown overlaid on a portion of
the underlying ad 310. In this embodiment, the display object 320
can appear as a watermark on the ad 310. It will be apparent to
those of ordinary skill in the art that either of these particular
implementations and equivalent embodiments can be used to enable a
user to configure advertising parameters.
[0024] Referring now to FIG. 3, an example embodiment illustrates a
preferences webpage displayed to a user when the user activates the
display object 320 using any of the various methods described
above. In an example embodiment, preferences page 410 includes a
portion 412 (e.g. a link) that enables a user to link to a separate
page used to configure advertising preferences. If the user clicks
on the portion 412 while the cursor is in a proximate position to
portion 412, the user will be redirected to a separate webpage,
such as the webpage 510 shown in FIG. 4 and described below. In an
alternative embodiment, the user can be linked directly to webpage
510 when the user activates the display object 320 using any of the
various methods described above.
[0025] Referring now to FIG. 4, an example embodiment of a webpage
used to configure user advertising preferences is illustrated. In
one embodiment, the user is presented with a webpage 510 upon
activation of display object 320 as described above. It will be
apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that page 510 may
equivalently be implemented as a dialog box, a pull-down menu, or
other type of user interface for receiving a set of preference
selections. In the example embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the user may
select or de-select (i.e. enable/activate or disable/deactivate) a
set of advertising-related parameters or preferences. These
user-configurable advertising-related parameters or preferences can
include an opt-out selection 512. The opt-out control allows a user
to specify whether or not s/he wants to participate in targeted
advertising. If the user selects "opt-out" at selection 512 by
clicking and marking the associated shaded box, the user's profile
information is not used or provided for use by others for the
purpose of targeted advertising. If the user de-selects "opt-out"
at selection 512 by clicking and un-marking the associated shaded
box, the user's profile information can be used or provided for use
by others for the purpose of targeted advertising.
[0026] In the example embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the user may also
select or de-select (i.e. enable/activate or disable/deactivate) a
set of advertising-related segment parameters or preferences.
Segments can be considered groupings into which a particular user
has been automatically placed based on user behavior or
demographics. For example, one segment may be based on gender; male
users get classified in a male segment and female users get
classified in a female segment. Other examples of segments include,
age ranges, income ranges, location, marital status, parental
status, historical buying habits, etc. It is common in conventional
systems to classify particular users into a plurality of segments
for the purpose of targeted advertising. Given that a plurality of
segments have been created for each particular user, page 510
provides an opportunity for the system to present the pre-defined
user segments to the particular user with whom the segments are
associated. In this manner, the user is given information defining
how the user has been previously classified into a plurality of
segments for the purpose of targeted advertising. These
user-specific segment classifications can be displayed to the user
in page 510 as a list of segments 514. Each segment is configured
with a selectable shaded box with which the user may select or
de-select (i.e. enable/activate or disable/deactivate) each of the
plurality of advertising-related segments previously associated
with the user. If the user selects a particular segment at segment
options 514 by clicking and marking the associated shaded box, the
user's segment classification for that segment can be used or
provided for use by others for the purpose of targeted advertising.
If the user de-selects a particular segment at segment options 514
by clicking and un-marking the associated shaded box, the user's
segment classification for that segment is not used or provided for
use by others for the purpose of targeted advertising. Further, a
user can add or remove particular individual elements or
demographic data to the user's individual profile. For example, a
user could specify that s/he is interested in receiving information
regarding financial offers. A plurality of profile parameters or
preferences can be offered to a user for configuration by the user.
In this manner, a user can configure a set of parameters or
preferences associated with advertising.
[0027] FIG. 5 illustrates a system architecture for delivering
advertising to users in a networked system. Referring to FIG. 1, a
system can provide techniques for manipulating networked content.
For example, a publishing system 610 can be used to insert an
advertisement (ad) 611 obtained from an advertiser 603 into
publisher media 605 at a publisher website 615 (a website is one
type of media or networked content). To accomplish this ad
insertion, the publisher 610 can insert a piece of code provided by
the advertising partner 603 into the publisher website's 615 source
code. This code is then rendered when the page is viewed by a
viewer 618 to display the publisher media with the advertisement in
the location on the page indicated in the inserted code. Should the
publisher 610 want to move or modify the ad, the publisher 610
changes the code at the site 615 to effect the change to the ad.
The advertiser 603 can employ user ad profile information 604 to
target a particular ad for a particular user viewing publisher
media 605 via publisher website 615. User ad profile information
604 can be automatically created and updated with user behavior
information and user demographics. In addition, the user ad profile
information 604 can be used for the storage of the
user-configurable set of parameters or preferences associated with
advertising as described above. These user configurable preferences
can be accessed and used by advertiser 603 when advertiser 603
determines which ad should be served to a particular user fia
publisher 610. For example, if the "opt-out of advertising"
parameter has been previously selected by a user as described
above, the advertiser 603 can offer up an ad to publisher 610 that
is not targeted per the selection request of the user. For another
example, if the "opt-in to segment 1" parameter has been previously
selected by a user as described above, the advertiser 603 can offer
up an ad to publisher 610 that is targeted to individuals of
segment 1 per the selection request of the user. In this manner,
the ads shown to a particular user can be configured by a user by
user manipulation of a set of user-configurable parameters or
preferences associated with advertising as described above.
[0028] In an example embodiment described herein and shown by
example in FIG. 5, the display object 320 used to enable user
configuration of the advertising parameters can be inserted into
the ad 611 by advertiser 603 or inserted into the publisher media
content with inserted ad 612 by the publisher 610. In either case,
the activation of the display object 320 by a user can cause a link
to the appropriate host of the user-configurable parameters or
preferences associated with advertising as described above.
[0029] FIG. 6 illustrates a processing flow for an example
embodiment. The example embodiment includes an advertising (ad)
preferences service to obtain user preference information related
to advertising (processing block 702), enable user configuration of
the user preference information related to advertising (processing
block 704), and modify the presentation of advertising to the user
based upon the user configured preference information (processing
block 706).
[0030] Referring now to FIG. 7, a diagram illustrates a network
environment in which various example embodiments may operate. In
this conventional network architecture, a server computer system
100 is coupled to a wide-area network 110. Wide-area network 110
includes the Internet, or other proprietary networks, which are
well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Wide-area network
110 may include conventional network backbones, long-haul telephone
lines, Internet service providers, various levels of network
routers, and other conventional means for routing data between
computers. Using conventional network protocols, server 100 may
communicate through wide-area network 110 to a plurality of client
computer systems 120, 130, 140 connected through wide-area network
110 in various ways. For example, client 140 is connected directly
to wide-area network 110 through direct or dial-up telephone or
other network transmission line. Alternatively, clients 130 may be
connected through wide-area network 110 using a modem pool 114. A
conventional modem pool 114 allows a plurality of client systems to
connect with a smaller set of modems in modem pool 114 for
connection through wide-area network 110. In another alternative
network topology, wide-area network 110 is connected to a gateway
computer 112. Gateway computer 112 is used to route data to clients
120 through a local area network (LAN) 116. In this manner, clients
120 can communicate with each other through local area network 116
or with server 100 through gateway 112 and wide-area network
110.
[0031] Using one of a variety of network connection means, server
computer 100 can communicate with client computers 150 using
conventional means. In a particular implementation of this network
configuration, a server computer 100 may operate as a web server if
the Internet's World-Wide Web (WWW) is used for wide area network
110. Using the HTTP protocol and the HTML coding language across
wide-area network 110, web server 100 may communicate across the
World-Wide Web with clients 150. In this configuration, clients 150
use a client application program known as a web browser such as the
Internet Explorer.TM. published by Microsoft Corporation of
Redmond, Wash., the user interface of America On-Line.TM., or the
web browser or HTML renderer of any other supplier. Using such
conventional browsers and the World-Wide Web, clients 150 may
access image, graphical, and textual data provided by web server
100 or they may run Web application software. Conventional means
exist by which clients 150 may supply information to web server 100
through the World Wide Web 110 and the web server 100 may return
processed data to clients 150.
[0032] Having briefly described one embodiment of the network
environment in which an example embodiment may operate, FIGS. 8 and
9 show an example of a computer system 200 illustrating an
exemplary client 150 or server 100 computer system in which the
features of an example embodiment may be implemented. Computer
system 200 is comprised of a bus or other communications means 214
and 216 for communicating information, and a processing means such
as processor 220 coupled with bus 214 for processing information.
Computer system 200 further comprises a random access memory (RAM)
or other dynamic storage device 222 (commonly referred to as main
memory), coupled to bus 214 for storing information and
instructions to be executed by processor 220. Main memory 222 also
may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate
information during execution of instructions by processor 220.
Computer system 200 also comprises a read only memory (ROM) and/or
other static storage device 224 coupled to bus 214 for storing
static information and instructions for processor 220.
[0033] An optional data storage device 228 such as a magnetic disk
or optical disk and its corresponding drive may also be coupled to
computer system 200 for storing information and instructions.
Computer system 200 can also be coupled via bus 216 to a display
device 204, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a liquid crystal
display (LCD), for displaying information to a computer user. For
example, image, textual, video, or graphical depictions of
information may be presented to the user on display device 204.
Typically, an alphanumeric input device 208, including alphanumeric
and other keys is coupled to bus 216 for communicating information
and/or command selections to processor 220. Another type of user
input device is cursor control device 206, such as a conventional
mouse, trackball, or other type of cursor direction keys for
communicating direction information and command selection to
processor 220 and for controlling cursor movement on display
204.
[0034] Alternatively, the client 150 can be implemented as a
network computer or thin client device. Client 150 may also be a
laptop or palm-top computing device, such as the Palm Pilot.TM..
Client 150 could also be implemented in a robust cellular
telephone, where such devices are currently being used with
Internet micro-browsers. Such a network computer or thin client
device does not necessarily include all of the devices and features
of the above-described exemplary computer system; however, the
functionality of an example embodiment or a subset thereof may
nevertheless be implemented with such devices.
[0035] A communication device 226 is also coupled to bus 216 for
accessing remote computers or servers, such as web server 100, or
other servers via the Internet, for example. The communication
device 226 may include a modem, a network interface card, or other
well-known interface devices, such as those used for interfacing
with Ethernet, Token-ring, or other types of networks. In any
event, in this manner, the computer system 200 may be coupled to a
number of servers 100 via a conventional network infrastructure
such as the infrastructure illustrated in FIG. 7 and described
above.
[0036] The system of an example embodiment includes software,
information processing hardware, and various processing steps,
which will be described below. The features and process steps of
example embodiments may be embodied in articles of manufacture as
machine or computer executable instructions. The instructions can
be used to cause a general purpose or special purpose processor,
which is programmed with the instructions to perform the steps of
an example embodiment. Alternatively, the features or steps may be
performed by specific hardware components that contain hard-wired
logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed
computer components and custom hardware components. While
embodiments are described with reference to the Internet, the
method and apparatus described herein is equally applicable to
other network infrastructures or other data communications
systems.
[0037] Various embodiments are described herein. In particular, the
use of embodiments with various types and formats of user interface
presentations and/or application programming interfaces may be
described. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the
art that alternative embodiments of the implementations described
herein can be employed and still fall within the scope of the
claimed invention. In the detail herein, various embodiments are
described as implemented in computer-implemented processing logic
denoted sometimes herein as the "Software". As described above,
however, the claimed invention is not limited to a purely software
implementation.
[0038] Thus, a computer-implemented system and method for
contextual advertising and merchandizing based on user configurable
preferences is disclosed. While the present invention has been
described in terms of several example embodiments, those of
ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the present invention
is not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced
with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the
appended claims. The description herein is thus to be regarded as
illustrative instead of limiting.
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