Method and apparatus for scheduling the presentation of messages to computer users

An advertisement scheduler for presenting a plurality of advertisements on a computer monitor, said advertisement scheduler comprising:

• (a) a communications interface enabling said advertisement scheduler to receive an advertisement transmitted from a remote source over a computer network;
• (b) an advertisement processor for assigning a received advertisement to one of a plurality of prioritized advertisement queues;
• and
• (c) an advertisement display module for designating one of said prioritized advertisement queues as a current advertisement queue and sequentially presenting one or more advertisements in said current advertisement queue on the computer monitor.

A method for displaying a plurality of advertisements on a computer monitor, wherein each of the plurality of advertisements includes a display portion and a control portion, said method comprising:

• (a) assigning each of the plurality of advertisements to one of a plurality of prioritized advertisement queues according to a priority code contained in the control portion of the advertisement, wherein each of said prioritized advertisement queues is associated with a unique priority;
• (b) designating one of said plurality of prioritized advertisement queues having a highest priority as a current advertisement queue;
• (c) sorting the advertisements in said current advertisement queue according to a scheduling code contained in the control portion of the advertisement;
• (d) sequentially displaying each of the advertisements in said current advertisement queue on the computer monitor;
• and
• (e) repeating steps (b) through (d) to sequentially display the advertisements in each of said plurality of prioritized advertisement queues, wherein said prioritized advertisement queues are processed in an order of decreasing priority as determined by said unique priority codes associated therewith.

A method for displaying advertisements to a user of an electronic mail system, the electronic mail system having a user component and a server component capable of communicating over a computer network, said method comprising:

• (a) transmitting a plurality of data packets from the server component of the electronic mail system to the user component, wherein each of said data packets includes an advertisement and associated scheduling information;
• (b) storing each of said data packets in one of a plurality of advertisement queues based on said scheduling information;
• (c) designating one of said advertisement queues as a current advertisement queue;
• (d) sorting said data packets in said current advertisement queue based on said scheduling information;
• (e) sequentially displaying each of said advertisements in said current advertisement queue to the user;
• (f) updating said scheduling information for each of said advertisements displayed;
• and
• (f) repeating steps (c) through (f) to display said advertisements in each of said advertisement queues.

A method for displaying advertisements to a user of an electronic mail system, the electronic mail system having a user component and a server component capable of communicating over a computer network, said method comprising:

• (a) establishing a network connection between the user component and the server component;
• (b) transmitting a plurality of data packets from the server component to the user component, wherein each of said data packets includes an advertisement and associated scheduling information;
• (c) storing each of said data packets in one of a plurality of prioritized advertisement queues based on said scheduling information, wherein said prioritized advertisement queues reside in a local memory coupled to the user component;
• (d) designating one of said prioritized advertisement queues as a current advertisement queue;
• (e) sorting said data packets in said current advertisement queue based on said scheduling information;
• (f) sequentially displaying each of said advertisements in said current advertisement queue to a user when no network connection is established between the user component and the server component;
• and
• (g) repeating steps (c) through (f) to continuously display said advertisements in each of said prioritized advertisement queues.

A method for displaying advertisements to a user of an electronic mail system, the electronic mail system having a user component and a server component capable of communicating over a computer network, said method comprising:

• (a) establishing a network connection between the user component and the server component;
• (b) transmitting a plurality of data packets from the server component to the user component, wherein each of said data packets includes an advertisement, an advertisement type indicator, and associated scheduling information;
• (c) storing each of said data packets in one of a first and second set of queues based on said advertisement type indicator, said first set of queues comprising a plurality of prioritized advertisement queues for data packets having a first advertisement type, wherein said data packet is assigned to one of said plurality of prioritized advertisement queues based on said scheduling information, and said second set of queues comprising one or more advertisement queues for data packets having a second advertisement type;
• (d) designating one of said plurality of prioritized advertisement queues as a current advertisement queue;
• (e) sorting said data packets in said current advertisement queue based on said scheduling information;
• (f) sequentially displaying each of said advertisements in said current advertisement queue to a user;
• and
• (g) repeating steps (c) through (f) to continuously display said advertisements in each of said plurality of prioritized advertisement queues while the user is operating the user component of the electronic mail system.

An advertisement scheduling system to schedule the transfer and output of advertisements in a computer network, the computer network including a server system and a plurality of user computers capable of connecting to and disconnecting from the server system, comprising:

• an advertisement distribution schedule, located at the server system, determining, for each advertisement, which user computers are eligible to receive said advertisement, and thereafter associating said advertisements with each eligible user computer;
• an advertisement download scheduler, located at the server system, determining when to transmit advertisements to eligible user computers;
• a memory device, located at each one of said user computers, to store advertisements transmitted from the server system;
• and
• an advertisement display scheduler, located at each one of said user computers, determining when to output advertisements stored on the memory device of said user computer.

A method for outputting advertisements received from a remote computer at a user computer, comprising the steps of:

• providing a priority queue at the user computer for prioritizing advertisements;
• electronically receiving an advertisement from the remote computer over a communications link;
• storing the received advertisement on a memory device of the user computer;
• at the user computer, allocating the advertisement to the priority queue;
• determining if the received advertisement conflicts with a second advertisement on the priority queue, and if so, deleting the second advertisement from the priority queue;
• and
• outputting the advertisement at the user computer according to said advertisement's position on the priority queue.