Web Pages and Methods for Displaying Targeted On-Line Advertisements in a Social Networking Media Space
An internet web page and methods for displaying one or more views in a social networking environment is provided. The web page is a graphical user interface that facilitates communication in the social networking environment. The internet web page includes a first region that provides selections for showing a list of friends for a first user. The list of friends is approved by the first user. A second region defines a community media space that including tools for allowing entry of text, images, or videos. A third region presents online advertising targeted based on knowledge about the friends of the first user, who are identified in the list of friends. The online advertising further is identifiable as liked by the first user when displayed in the third region. Further included is a fourth region for displaying an image selected by the first user to represent the first user and a fifth region providing an interface for communication via a chat session. The chat session is a text exchange between the first user and a second user selected from the list of friends.
This application is a continuation application under 35 USC 120, of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/760,584, filed on Jun. 8, 2007, and entitled “Selecting and Displaying Advertisement in a Personal Media Space”, and which is herein incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the displaying of advertisement in a communication personal media space, and more particularly, selecting on-line advertisement by a user to display in the user's communication personal media space for friends and/or acquaintances approved by the user to view.
2. Description of the Related Art
On-line advertising may be used by advertisers to accomplish various business goals, ranging from building brand awareness among potential customers to facilitating on-line purchases of products or services. A number of different kinds of page-based or video-based online advertisements are currently in use, along with various associated distribution requirements, advertising metrics, and pricing mechanisms. Processes associated with technologies such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) enable a page to be configured to contain a location for inclusion of an advertisement. Some Internet technologies enable rich video to be used to create high quality advertisements
One type of on-line advertisement is banner advertisement. A banner advertisement typically features an image (animated or static) and/or text displayed at a predetermined position in a page. The banner advertisement usually takes the form of a horizontal rectangle at the top of the page, but it can also be arranged in a variety of other shapes at any other location on the page. If a user clicks on the banner advertisement's location, image, and/or text, the user is taken to a new page that may provide detailed information regarding the products or services associated with the banner advertisement. Banner advertisements are often provided on a guaranteed number of impressions basis, though they may also be performance-based.
However, most of the on-line advertisements are not effective in reaching the on- line users because the advertisers have no knowledge or only very limited knowledge of the users. The advertisers often can only target the advertisement based on the vague understanding of the demographics of users viewing certain web sites or pages. Therefore, most of on-line advertisement is either not targeted at all, or not targeted effectively. Since the on-line advertisement is presented to the users with little or no knowledge of the on-line users, the chances for the on-line users to be interested in the advertisements are small. And, most users that are on-line simply choose to ignore a majority of on-line advertisements.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods for selecting advertisements to display to users that users would find relevant. When users find the selected advertisements, which are displayed to the users, relevant to the users, the users are more likely to view the advertisement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONBroadly speaking, the present invention fills the need of selecting relevant advertisement to target users by utilizing the knowledge of friends or acquaintance of the target users. The target users and friends or acquaintances of the target users belong to the same on-line communities, groups, or circles. The friends or acquaintance of the target users select the advertisements to be displayed to the target users, or vice versa. Due to the common interests of these on-line communities, groups or circles, and also the trust built amongst these communities, groups or circles, the target users are more likely to view the advertisements. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, a system, or a device. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
In one embodiment, an internet web page and methods for displaying one or more views is provided. The web page is a graphical user interface that facilitates social networking communication. The internet web page includes a first region that provides selections for showing a list of friends for a first user. The list of friends is approved by the first user. A second region defines a community media space that including tools for allowing entry of text, images, or videos. A third region presents online advertising targeted based on knowledge about the friends of the first user, who are identified in the list of friends. The online advertising further is identifiable as liked by the first user when displayed in the third region. Further included is a fourth region for displaying an image selected by the first user to represent the first user and a fifth region for providing an interface for communication via a chat session. The chat session being a text exchange between the first user and a second user selected from the list of friends.
In another embodiment, a method for displaying a view in a graphical user interface associated with an Internet site is provided. The method includes presenting visual media in the view. The view is associated with a first user and the visual media includes a third-party advertisement. The third party advertisement being selected as being liked by the first user. The method further includes displaying in the view a first area which shows text entered by the first user and displaying in the view a second area which shows text entered by a second user. The second user is a member of a list of friends of the first user who are authorized to access the view. Each of the operations is executed by a processor.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.
The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and like reference numerals designate like structural elements.
The various embodiments describe for methods and computer driven operations for selecting relevant advertisement to target users by utilizing the knowledge of friends or acquaintance of the target users. The target users and friends or acquaintances of the target users belong to the same on-line communities, groups, or circles. The friends or acquaintance of the target users select the advertisements to be displayed to the target users, or vice versa. Due to the common interests of these on-line communities, groups or circles, and also the trust built amongst these communities, groups or circles, the target users are more likely to view the advertisements. In return, the friends or acquaintance of the target users that select the advertisement to be displayed to the target users can accumulate award points, which can be redeemed for money or goods at a later time.
There are many Internet networking tools that allow users to communicate and share information with friends or acquaintances belonging to the communities, buddies, groups, or circles or groups. People belonging to the same community, group, or circle have either common interests or goals. The examples of such on-line networking tools include, but not limited to, Yahoo!™ Instant Messaging, Yahoo!™ Groups, Yahoo™ Chats, Yahoo!360°™ Yahoo™ Blog, Yahoo™ Mail, Flickr™ Y!™ Video, Y!™ Personals, Y!™ groups, etc. Users form communities, groups, or circles to communicate, to share knowledge, or to share media, such as photos, with their friends or acquaintances belonging to the same communities, groups, or circles. Companies, other than Yahoo™, also provide similar networking tools for users. The following description will use Instant Messaging (IM) as an example of the networking tools that can be used to select and/or to deliver advertisements to target users. However, other networking tools, by Yahoo™ or by other vendors, can also be used to select and/or deliver advertisement to target users.
IM has become one of the most popular applications on the Internet. IM programs generally allow users to send and receive messages. The messages are generated and displayed by an Instant Messaging client on each end and an Instant
Messaging server may perform various functions to facilitate the transfer of messages for communication or conversation. Users of IM have their own lists of friends (e.g. buddies), which include friends and/or acquaintances, who are approved by the users to communicate with users through IM. We would use to term “friends” to represent the people in the approved IM list. However, Yahoo™ IM also allows users to send messages (or chat) with people not on the IM list. Therefore, users have the option of seeing advertisements in IM from people not on the IM list, who can be called as “non-approved” friends. The term “friends” can be broadly interpreted to include people communicating with IM and include people not on the approved IM list.
A second Instant Messaging client also creates an Instant Messaging window 122 of USER-2 that also includes a history window 124 and a new text window 126. USER-2 enters messages he/she communicates with USER-1 in text window 126. Instant Messaging window 122 displays a message sent from Instant Messaging window 102 via message server 112. The Instant Messaging window 122 of USER-2 can also contains a community personal media space 130 of USER-2 and community personal media space 128 of USER-1, similar to the Instant Messaging window 102 of USER-1. In community personal space 128 of USER-1 in the IM window 122, the same avatar 118 of USER-1 in the community personal media space 108 of IM window 102 is displayed. Similarly, the avatar 120 of USER-2 of community personal media space of IM window 102 is displayed in the community personal media space 130 of USER-2 in IM window 122.
An IM server 112 is also connected to the Internet to interact with the Instant Messaging window 102 of USER-1 and the Instant Messaging widow 122 of USER-2. In various IM systems, the message server may perform different functions such as receiving messages and transferring them, replacing certain text with symbols, or otherwise modifying or relaying messages. In addition, the Instant Messaging client may display various menus and buttons that activate common Instant Messaging functions such as changing font, ringing another user, inserting symbols, etc.
As described above, USER-1 and USER-2, who are engaged in an IM session, can view each other's images in the community personal media spaces on their own IM windows 102, 122. In one embodiment, USER-1 and USER-2 can choose to close the community personal media spaces 110, 108, 128, 130 of their own and/or of their friend's. It should be noted that software intended for implementing an instruction set in an Instant Messaging environment may be generally referred to as an Instant Messenger application or IM application.
Since USER-1 and USER-2 are friends or acquaintances, USER-1 and USER-2 would be interested in viewing each other's images in their own community personal media spaces 108, 110, 128, and 130, during the IM session. However, the images 118, 120 are static, or almost static. For example, some avatars are designed to blink their eyes, and not much else. USER-1 and USER-2 would most likely stop looking at the images after the initial glances in the beginning of the IM session. Users, such as USER-1 and USER-2, focus their attention on the IM windows, such as windows 102, 122. The community personal media spaces on the IM windows would be ideal spaces to display advertisements and/or promotions, for example after a quick display of the image of USER-1 or USER-2. The advertisements and promotions mentioned here can be offered by advertisement companies or directly by vendors selling goods or services. Promotions can include special deals or offers for buyers. In the description below, advertisements also include promotions.
USER-1 knows the people on his/her IM list of friends and has common interests or goals with them. The examples of knowledge that USER-1 has regarding the people on his/her IM list of friends include, but not limited to, age, gender, interests, school(s) attended, wealth level, income, etc. In addition, since the people on USER-1's IM list of friends are approved by USER-1 to engage in IM sessions with USER-1, there is certain amount of trust between USER-1 and each member on USER-1's IM list. If the advertisements displayed in the community personal media space(s) are selected by USER-1 to display for people on USER-1's IM list of friends to view during IM sessions with USER-1, USER-1's knowledge of people on the IM list would make the selected advertisements more to relevant those people. Therefore, the advertisement delivered in this manner would be much more effective than a conventional advertisements-delivering mechanism, which delivers advertisements with limited or no knowledge of the recipients.
In one embodiment, one or more pieces of advertisement selected by USER-1 are rotated in the community personal media space 108, 128 of USER-1, as show in
During the period between time t2 and time t3, a second advertisement (or AD-2) is displayed in the community personal media space 108, 128. During the period between time t3 and time t4, a third advertisement (or AD-3) is displayed in the personal space 108, 128. During the period between time t4 and time t5, USER-1's image 118 is displayed in the personal space 108 again. Afterwards, AD-1, AD-2, and AD-3 are displayed sequentially. The rotating display continues until the IM session between USER-1 and USER-2 is over. The displaying sequence described above is merely an example. Other displaying sequences are also possible.
The advertisements, such as AD-1, AD-2, and AD-3, displayed in the community personal media space 108, 128 are selected by USER-1. USER-1 knows the people in his/her IM list of friends. USER-1 chooses advertisements that USER-1 likes or USER-1 thinks his/her friends would like. As described above, USER-1 and members of USER-1's IM list have something in common For example, they could be in the same age group, go to the same school, work in the same company, be interested in the same sport, etc. USER-1 and member of USER-1's IM list form a networking circle, which can also be called a networking group or a networking community. The types of advertisements USER-1 chooses to display for USER-1's networking circle would interest people in the same networking circle, since they have something in common, have knowledge of one another, and are either friends or acquaintances. There is a certain degree of trust in the networking circle.
In the control panel 202, there is a display 208 of a list of advertisements selected by USER-1 for display in USER-1's community personal media space, such as 108, 128 described above. The list of advertisements includes AD-1, AD-2, and AD-3, etc. In one embodiment, next to the display 208 of the list of advertisements, there is a button 206 for selecting advertisements to add to the list of advertisements. In one embodiment, the advertisements in the list of advertisements, such as AD-1, AD-2, or AD-3 can be deleted by performing a “right” click on the mouse when the cursor is placed over a particular advertisement in the list, such as AD-1, AD-2, or AD-3.
Alternatively, advertisement can also be categorized and be shown under different subjects, such as apparel, sport, and music, etc., as shown in
In another embodiment, the list of advertisements can also be generated by clicking on the “Auto Select” button 209 in
In another embodiment, the system presents advertisements to USER-1 to “approve” or “disapprove” to gain knowledge of whether the advertisement appeals to users, such as USER-1.
AD-X by clicking on the button 297 or 298. In addition, USER-1 can also enter his/her comments by in the comment field 299 to provide feedback to the advertiser. Alternatively, USER-1 can also select a rating over a scale, such as 1 to 5, by pressing a button, such as button 300, which has a rating of 5. By collecting the data of hits on “Approve”, “Disapprove”, rating buttons, and entered comments from USER-1, the system (and the advertisers) gain knowledge on what types of advertisements appeal to USER-1. The comments collected can also be used to improve the designs of the advertisements.
Once the list of advertisement is selected, the list can be displayed in the manner described in
USER-1 can decide the percentage of his/her community personal media spaces 108′, 128′ that would be utilized to show his/her image 118′. The remaining portion is used to show the selected advertisements. For example, USER-1 can choose 50% of his/her community personal media spaces 108′, 128′ to be used to show an advertisement, as shown in
USER-1 may want to select and display advertisements because he/she wants his/her friends to know what types of stores that he/she likes or likes to shop. In addition, the advertisers can provide incentives (or rewards) for USER-1 to carefully select advertisements and displayed the advertisements to USER-1's friends (on the IM list). With the provided incentives to USER-1, USER-1 would be more motivated to spend time to select advertisements and to provide a portion of his/her community personal media space to display these selected advertisements. The incentives can be set up to correlate to the responses from USER-1's friends during the IM sessions. If USER-1's friend, such as USER-2 in an IM session with USER-1, clicks to view one or more advertisements, USER-1 can get a certain amount of reward points, provided by the advertisers. If USER-2 only moves the cursor over the advertisements selected by USER-1, USER-1 can also get a lesser amount of reward points. The reward points can be accumulated to be redeemed at stores, which could be physical stores or on-line stores. Therefore, by selecting and displaying these on-line advertisements, USER-1 not only lets his/her friends know what types of stores or goods USER-1 likes, but also benefits financially or materially, since the advertisers provide rewards based on how many of and how many times USER-1's friends, such as USER-2, view the advertisements.
USER-1 can get a “X” number of points of reward from advertiser of AD-1 if
USER-2 simply “mouses over” advertisement 411, as shown in
The reward points do not need to be linked to a specific advertiser. The reward points can be collected from a different advertiser and be redeemed at one or more stores identified by the advertisers. In a way, it's similar to a credit card user who can accumulate points by using credit card to make purchases. The points accumulated by spending money with the credit card can be used to redeem airline ticket(s) with one or more airlines in agreement with the credit card company. Similarly, USER-1 can accumulate reward points with different advertisers and use the reward points with one or more stores that are in agreement with the advertisers promoting on-line advertisements through IM.
The rewards data or reward points 158 from the advertisement usage processor 153 are sent to the IM server 112, which then passes the rewards data or reward points 158 to IM control panel 202 of USER-1 to let USER-1 know how many rewards and/or reward points he/she has accumulated.
The reward and/or reward points entice users to select and display relevant advertisements to users' circles of friends. The circles of friends of the users based on their trust of users or their interests in getting to know the users better would be more likely to view the advertisement. Therefore, advertisements delivered in this manner become very effective, since the advertisements are “pulled” by users, such as USER-1, and “pushed” by users, such as USER-1, to their friends, whom they have knowledge of In addition, with the enticement of rewards, users, such as USER-1, are more willing to give inputs on the advertisements, for example using the exemplary mechanism shown in
The concept of this invention can be applied to any on-line communication or networking tools that utilizes community personal media space and is not limited to IM.
For example, Yahoo! 360°™ also allows community personal media space. In Yahoo! 360°™, there is also a space for a personally selected picture or avatar. Friends of a user of Yahoo! 360°™ are invited to view the 360° profile of the user. During viewing of the 360° Profile, friends can move cursors over or click through the advertisements presented in the Yahoo! 360°™.
As described above, additional examples of such on-line networking tools include, but are not limited to Yahoo™ Groups, Yahoo!360°™ Yahoo™ Blog, Yahoo™ Mail, Flickr™ Y!™ Video, Y!™ Personals, etc. Networking tools offered by companies, other than Yahoo™, with community personal media space may also use the methods and systems described above to deliver advertisements.
With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that the invention may employ various computer-implemented operations involving data stored in computer systems. These operations are those requiring physical manipulation of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such as producing, identifying, determining, or comparing.
The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data which can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable medium include hard drives, network attached storage (NAS), read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over a network coupled computer system so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.
Any of the operations described herein that form part of the invention are useful machine operations. The invention also relates to a device or an apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may be a general purpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. In particular, various general purpose machines may be used with computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required operations.
The above described invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations including hand-held devices, microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims. In the claims, elements and/or steps do not imply any particular order of operation, unless explicitly stated in the claims.
Claims
1. An internet web page for displaying one or more views, the internet web page being a graphical user interface that facilitates social networking communication, the internet web page including,
- a first region that provides selections for showing a list of friends for a first user, the list of friends being approved by the first user;
- a second region defining a community media space, the community media space including tools for allowing entry of text, images, or videos;
- a third region for presenting online advertising, the online advertising being targeted based on knowledge about the friends of the first user, who are identified in the list of friends, the online advertising further being identifiable as liked by the first user when displayed in the third region, wherein the third region is separate from or integrated within the second region; and
- a fourth region for displaying an image selected by the first user to represent the first user;
- wherein the internet web page is presented on a display of a computing system having a processor;
- wherein the computing system is connected to a server having program instructions for managing interactivity with the internet web page, the server having a processor.
2. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the online advertisement is a picture, an image, a video, a clip, a page, an on-line game, an icon, a graphic, or a combination thereof.
3. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one on-line advertisement is selectable from the third region by the first user and movable into the second region upon selection by the first user.
4. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the online advertising is interactively selectable from the internet web page and provides a link to another page provided by the online advertising.
5. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the internet web page is linked to a server, the server collects usage data related to the online advertising, the usage data being processed by an analyzer of the server to identify effectiveness through metrics, the metrics being used to adjust targeting of the online advertising.
6. The internet web page as recited in claim 5, wherein the metrics include identification of clicks or cursor-over actions associated with the online advertising.
7. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, further comprising a fifth region, the fifth region identifying a profile of the user.
8. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the online advertising identified as liked by the first user is indicative of an opinion of the online advertising, the opinion being collected and analyzed by an advertising analyzer executed on a server that renders the internet web page.
9. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the internet web page is defined by one or more linked pages.
10. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein the online advertising is displayed to one or more of the friends from the list of friends, in either the internet web page or another web page linked to the internet web page.
11. The internet web page as recited in claim 1, wherein some of the list of friends belong to a group.
12. A method for displaying a view in a graphical user interface associated with an Internet site, comprising the operations of:
- presenting visual media in the view, wherein the view is associated with a first user and wherein the visual media includes a third-party advertisement, the third party advertisement selected as being liked by the first user;
- displaying in the view a first area which shows text entered by the first user; and
- displaying in the view a second area which shows text entered by a second user,
- wherein the second user is a member of a list of friends of the first user who are authorized to access the view, wherein each of the operations is executed by a processor.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the visual media comprises an image.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the visual media comprises a video.
15. The method of claim 12, further comprising the operation of displaying in the view an image selected by the first user to represent the first user.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the image selected by the first user to represent the first user is displayed in a primary position.
17. The method of claim 12, further comprising the operation of displaying in the view an image selected by the second user to represent the second user.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the image selected by the second user to represent the second user is displayed in the list of friends.
19. The method of claim 12, wherein the Internet site is a social networking site.
20. The method of claim 12, wherein the third-party advertisement is presented when a profile of the first user is displayed.
21. An internet web page for displaying one or more views, the internet web page being a graphical user interface that facilitates social networking communication, the internet web page including,
- a first region that provides selections for showing a list of friends for a first user, the list of friends being approved by the first user;
- a second region defining a community media space, the community media space including tools for allowing entry of text, images, or videos;
- a third region for presenting online advertising, the online advertising being targeted based on knowledge about the friends of the first user, who are identified in the list of friends, the online advertising further being identifiable as liked by the first user when displayed in the third region;
- a fourth region for displaying an image selected by the first user to represent the first user; and
- a fifth region providing an interface for communication via a chat session, the chat session being a text exchange between the first user and a second user selected from the list of friends;
- wherein the internet web page is presented on a display of a computing system having a processor;
- wherein the computing system is connected to a server having program instructions for managing interactivity with the internet web page, the server having a processor.
22. The internet web page as recited in claim 21, wherein the online advertisement is a picture, an image, a video, a clip, a page, an on-line game, an icon, a graphic, or a combination thereof
23. The internet web page as recited in claim 21, wherein the third region for presenting advertising is defined adjacent to the second region.
24. The internet web page as recited in claim 21, wherein the online advertising is interactively selectable from the internet web page and provides a link to another page provided by the online advertising.
25. The internet web page as recited in claim 21, wherein the internet web page is linked to a server, the server collects usage data related to the online advertising, the usage data being processed by an analyzer of the server to identify effectiveness through metrics, the metrics being used to adjust targeting of the online advertising.
26. An internet web page for displaying one or more views, the internet web page being a graphical user interface that facilitates social networking communication, the internet web page including,
- a first view that provides selections for showing a list of friends for a first user, the list of friends being approved by the first user;
- a second view defining a community media space, the community media space including tools for allowing entry of text, images, or videos;
- a third view for presenting online advertising, the online advertising being targeted based on knowledge about the friends of the first user, who are identified in the list of friends, the online advertising further being identifiable as liked by the first user when displayed in the third view, wherein the third view is separate from or integrated within the second view; and
- a fourth view for displaying an image selected by the first user to represent the first user;
- wherein the internet web page is presented on a display of a computing system having a processor;
- wherein the computing system is connected to a server having program instructions for managing interactivity with the internet web page, the server having a processor.
27. The internet web page as recited in claim 26, wherein the online advertisement is a picture, an image, a video, a clip, a page, an on-line game, an icon, a graphic, or a combination thereof
28. The internet web page as recited in claim 26, wherein the at least one on- line advertisement is selectable from the third view by the first user and movable into the second view upon selection by the first user.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 16, 2010
Publication Date: Apr 14, 2011
Inventors: Gopal Krishnan (San Jose, CA), Raj Vemulpalli (San Jose, CA)
Application Number: 12/970,910
International Classification: G06Q 30/00 (20060101);