US 8,265,997 B2Granted

Method and system for dynamic textual ad distribution via email

AssigneeGoogle Inc.

InventorsKevin R J B Donovan, David Bard Hills, William C. Day, Ron McCoy, Christopher Joseph Murphy, Eimear Kathleen O'Connell

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Abstract

A system and method for providing dynamic pay-for-placement advertisements via graphics-enabled email that generates a display of advertisements when the email newsletter is opened so the advertisements displayed are based on rankings at the time the email is opened instead of when the email was generated and transmitted. In one embodiment, a graphical-content email having one or more embedded advertisement image references is provided to one or more email recipients. The advertisement image reference, in one embodiment, may include query string parameters indicating the context of the image reference and/or portion of the image reference (i.e., identifying the image reference as being part of a particular newsletter email), a position of the image reference in the email display, and the like. A URL reference also may be included with each advertisement image reference (.e.g., one URL for each advertisement portion of the image to be retrieved by the advertising image reference).

Claims24

Dependent claims

A computerized advertisement distribution and delivery system comprising one or more computers, the one or more computers implementing:

an advertisement image identification module for identifying a first advertisement image, for identifying first advertisement rankings for a first plurality of advertisements related to a specific distribution subject, and for storing a plurality of advertisements including highest-ranked advertisements in the first plurality of advertisements where storing includes storing the first advertisement image in association with a network-based locator;
an access indication module for receiving an indication of a user accessing an email, wherein the email includes the network-based locator;
an advertisement relationship determination module for evaluating current advertisement rankings of the first plurality of advertisements in response to the user accessing the email, for determining that the current advertisement rankings upon receiving the indication of the user accessing the email are different than the first advertisement rankings, for initiating the advertisement image identification module to identify a modified advertisement image in response to determining that the current advertisement rankings are different than the first advertisement rankings, wherein the modified advertisement image includes a second plurality of advertisements related to the specific distribution subject including one or more then highest-ranked advertisements, and for storing the modified advertisement image in association with the network-based locator;
and
an advertisement image transmission module for transmitting the modified advertisement image for inclusion in the email when the email is presented to the user.

2 more elements

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying first advertisement rankings for a first plurality of advertisements related to a specific distribution subject;
identifying a first advertisement image including a plurality of advertisements including highest-ranked advertisements in the first plurality of advertisements;
identifying a stored location of the first advertisement image in association with a network-based locator;
providing an email including the network-based locator;
receiving an indication of a user accessing the provided email;
in response to receiving an indication of the user accessing the email, evaluating current advertisement rankings of the first plurality of advertisements;
determining that the current advertisement rankings upon receiving the indication of the user accessing the email are different than the first advertisement rankings;
in response to determining that the current advertisement rankings are different than the first advertisement rankings, identifying a modified advertisement image, wherein the modified advertisement image identifies a second plurality of advertisements related to the specific distribution subject, including one or more current highest-ranked advertisements of the first plurality of advertisements;
storing the modified advertisement image in association with the network-based locator;
and
providing the modified advertisement image for inclusion in the email when the email is presented to the user;
wherein the receiving, evaluating and transmitting are performed by one or more computers.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.