Computing system for monetizing calendar applications
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsOmar H. Shahine, Niranjan Vasu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is disclosed for advertisers to target specific calendar users with the advertisers' events. When uploading information for an advertisement to a service provider system, the advertiser provides targeting criteria along with advertisement content. The targeting criteria is compared against user data stored about the user within one or more databases in the service provider system to select targeted recipients that meet the targeting criteria. The advertised events are then downloaded for display along side a users' calendar interface, where users may quickly and easily add the event to their calendars.
Claims19
A method of targeted advertising in association with the use of a calendar application program of a user, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a calendar user interface on a display device, the calendar user interface having a first and a second display area;
- (b) outputting a portion of a user's calendar in the first display area of the calendar user interface;
- (c) obtaining a plurality of advertisements having a correlation between targeting criteria and the user's profile information, wherein each of the plurality of advertisements corresponds to a event that may be placed in a calendar;
- and
- (d) displaying the plurality of advertisements in the second display area of the calendar user interface, wherein each of the plurality of advertisements displayed in the second display area of the calendar user interface includes an actionable control for adding the corresponding event to the user's calendar.
A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for programming a processor to perform a method of targeted advertising in association with the use of a calendar application program by a plurality of users, comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving data including ad content and target data;
- (b) selecting one or more users of the plurality of users to receive an advertisement including the ad content based on the target data received in said step (a) and stored data associated with the one or more users;
- (c) displaying the ad content in a first area and calendar interface in a second area over displays for the one or more users selected in said step (b), the ad content displayed in the first area with a graphical object allowing information to be added to the calendar interface relating to the ad content;
- (d) receiving a selection of a graphical object on a display from a user of the one or more users via a user interface to add the information relating to the advertisement to a database of stored calendar events for the user;
- and
- (e) adding the information relating to the advertisement to the database of stored calendar events for the user upon receiving the selection of the graphical object in said step (d).
A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for programming a processor to perform a method of targeted advertising in association with the use of a calendar application program by a plurality of users, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a calendar user interface, for use by one or more users, for display over one or more displays, the calendar user interface including a first area and a second area;
- (b) outputting at least a portion of one or more users' calendars in the first area;
- (c) receiving data including ad content, the ad content including a temporal event that may be placed on the calendar user interface;
- (d) displaying the ad content in the second area over one or more displays, wherein the ad content includes an actionable control for adding the corresponding temporal event to the calendar user interface;
- (e) receiving a selection of the actionable control by a user;
- (f) adding the ad content associated with the actionable control selected in said step (e) to the calendar user interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.