US 7,072,849 B1
Method for presenting advertising in an interactive serviceGeneral
US 7,072,849 B1
Method for presenting advertising in an interactive service
Tech Center:
3600 Transportation, Construction, Electronic Commerce, Agriculture, National Security and License and Review
Examiner:
Donald L. Champagne
Art Unit:
3622 Business Methods — Incentive Programs, Coupons; Operations Research; Electronic Shopping; Health Care; Point of Sale, Inventory, Accounting; Cost/Price, Reservations, Shipping and Transportation; Business Processing
Inventors:
ROBERT FILEPP; ALEXANDER BIDWELL; FRANCIS C. YOUNG; ALLAN M. WOLF; DUANE TIEMANN; MEL BELLAR; ROBERT D. COHEN; JAMES A. GALAMBOS; KENNETH H. APPLEMAN; SAM MEO
Priority:
07/15/88
Filed:
11/26/93
Granted:
07/04/06
Expiration:
07/04/26
Abstract
A method for presenting advertising in an interactive service provided on a computer network, the service featuring applications which include pre-created, interactive text/graphic sessions is described. The method features steps for presenting advertising concurrently with service applications at the user terminal configured as a reception system. In accordance with the method, the advertising is structured in a manner comparable to the service applications enabling the applications to be presented at a first portion of a display associated with the reception system and the advertising presented at a second portion. Further, steps are provided for storing and managing advertising at the user reception system so that advertising can be pre-fetched from the network and staged in anticipation of being called for presentation. This minimizes the potential for communication line interference between application and advertising traffic and makes the advertising available at the reception system so as not to delay presentation of the service applications. Yet further the method features steps for individualizing the advertising supplied to enhance potential user interest by providing advertising based on a characterization of the user as defined by the users interaction with the service, user demographics and geographical location. Yet additionally, advertising is provided with transactional facilities so that users can interact with it.