WO2012012812A2

WO2012012812A2 - Apparatus and methods of advertising on the internet

Info

Publication number: WO2012012812A2
Application number: PCT/ZA2011/000052
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lourence Cornelius Johannes Greyvenstein
Original assignee: Lourence Cornelius Johannes Greyvenstein
Priority date: 2010-07-23
Filing date: 2011-07-22
Publication date: 2012-01-26
Also published as: WO2012012812A3

Abstract

A method of advertising on the internet is described. A viewer selects a web page ("the chosen web page") from the internet. The chosen web page is analyzed by a main computer to detect certain key words to determine the subject matter thereof. Advertisements for certain web pages relating to the subject matter are placed on the chosen web page. A secondary computer detects the subject matter of the chosen web page and places it into a category and then places an image related to that category with descriptive text on to the chosen web page. The main computer scans the text for key words to determine the subject matter of the text and publishes advertisements relating to such subject matter.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHODS OF ADVERTISING ON THE INTERNET

[0001] This invention relates to apparatus and methods of advertising on the

Internet.

Field of the invention.

[0002 j One mode of advertising on the Internet is as follows:

A search engine (hereinafter called "the main search engine") provided by a business or primary provider is interrogated by a member of the advertising audience (hereinafter called a "viewer") for information about particulars published on the Internet. The main search engine selects advertisements for a number of web pages on the internet (hereinafter called "the primary advertisements"). The viewer now selects a particular web page ("the chosen web page") from the selection of primary advertisements made by the main search engine for showing on his screen. When the chosen web page is published on the viewer's screen, the search engine searches the chosen web page for certain key data e.g. key words. It also searches the chosen web page to ascertain where there is some clear space on the publication. The main search engine which has a number of advertisements of the clients of the primary provider (hereinafter called "the advertisers" held in its memory, selects from said advertisements a list of advertisements which it deems relate to the key words and publishes the said list of advertisements on to the clear space on or beside the chosen web page. These advertisements are described herein as the "paid for advertisements" . When the viewer clicks on a selected first advertisement an embedded hypertext link directs the viewer to the advertiser's website. At the same time the main search engine notes the fact that a paid for advertisement has been selected and will bill the advertiser. [0003] The method can also be operated if the viewer selects a chosen web page without the intermediation of the main search engine although the main search engine will be necessary to provide the advertisements mentioned above and to bill the advertiser. [0004] This arrangement which is well known is also described more fully in US

Patent No. US 7, 136,875 and in a variation in US Patent No.7, 668, 823, the contents whereof are incorporated herein by this reference.

[0005] I have found that this system is capable of modification or improvement.

In accordance with the invention, I provide an arrangement wherein a secondary provider provides a secondary engine, normally being a computer, which is connected over the Internet with the main search engine and is programmed to co-operate with the main search engine. The secondary engine is further programmed with a number of web pages of the customers of the secondary provider ("the customers") and advertisements therefor, (each such advertisement page being herein described as "a customer's advertisement"), the said web pages describing a specific piece of information with within broad categories. The broad categories may relate to as few as four categories such as sport, life style, health and medical, and technology. There may of course be more or less categories. The secondary engine is programmed to detect which is the most appropriate category in which the paid for advertisements fall. It, the secondary engine, is programmed to cause a secondary advertisement which comprises text or an image together with text describing the image, and to instruct the main search engine consider the key words in the secondary advertisement to add a list of further additional advertisements related to the description of the image advertisement. The secondary engine is further programmed with a web page describing a specific piece of information within a category (the "category web page"). Placed on this category web page is a data set consisting of (i) a secondary advertisement relating to the category and (ii)additional advertisements relating to the secondary advertisement. The viewer can click on the secondary advertisement or on the additional advertisements that form part of the data set placed on the web page. The viewer is then directed to the specific advertiser's website. The main search engine notes the fact that a further additional advertisement has been selected and will bill the advertiser and credit the secondary provider providing the secondary engine.

[0006] The images may be varied from one period of time to another ^ΛΛ one period may be one day, a week etc to maintain the interest of the viewers. Similarly the further web page may be varied from periods which may be the same or different to the aforesaid for the same purpose.

[0007] The images may be provided on all publications accessed by the viewer or only on to the publications of the customers. [0008] The images may be graphically drawn by hand and provided electronically to the secondary engine.

[0009] An embodiment of the invention will now be described by of example with reference to the following diagrams.

[0010] In the diagrams :- Figure 1 is a diagram of the apparatus used in the invention, and

Figure 2 is a flow chart of the method of the invention. [0011] In this embodiment, there is illustrated diagrammatically the internet, a main search engine of a business or primary provider, a computer of a member of the advertising audience (hereinafter called a "viewer") and a secondary search engine of a secondary provider. The various parts have characteristics and software loaded on to them as will become apparent from the description of the method which follows.

[0012] In this embodiment a web page is selected by a viewer's computer from the World Wide Web. This web page is produced by an entity hereinafter called a "publisher" .

[0013] A business provider has a computer which constitutes a search engine ("the main search engine") connected to the World Wide Web. The search engine scans the matter on the internet and finds advertisements which relate to web pages on the internet (hereinafter called "the primary advertisements"). This computer incorporates software that incorporates a list of advertisements of the clients of the business provider. It is also loaded with software which permits it to analyse a web page to identify certain key words used on the web page and to select from the list of advertisements of its clients that are relevant to the matter on the web page and further to select a number of advertisements from that list. The main search engine further is provided with software to examine the web page to find an area on the web page which would be demarcated to accept additional advertisements. [0014] The main search engine co-acts with the web page and places on the demarcated area selected advertisements for advertisers (being referred to herein as "the paid for advertisements"). In practice these paid for advertisements are all text advertisements. These paid for advertisements are arranged so that when "clicked" they lead to the advertiser's website through a hyperlink.

[0015] A secondary provider provides a computer that constitutes a secondary engine which is able to connect to the main search engine over the internet. The secondary provider enters into agreements with certain publishers which are its customers. The agreement is such that certain web pages that may be selected by a viewer have embedded therein a code that identifies the category of the subject of the web page. As a result the secondary engine can provide an additional advertisement or additional advertisements on to the publisher's web page under certain circumstances as will be described.

[0016] The secondary search engine is programmed to categorise subject matters into a number of categories such as sport, life style, health and medical and technology. The secondary engine is also provided with a number of images relating respectively to the categories together with text descriptions of such images. For example if the page relates to sport, the text description may be a new idea for "a glowing soccerball" . The secondary computer is also loaded with additional advertisements which relate respectively to the aforesaid categories.

[0017] The secondary search engine connects to the main search engine over the internet. It can also connect to the viewer's computer over the internet. When the main search engine has analysed the key words in the web page, it connects to the secondary search engine and informs the secondary engine of the subject matter of the items described in the web page of the publisher. The secondary engine then categorises such subject matter. The main search engine analyses the description and identifies the relevant text advertisements from the selected advertisers held on the main search engine. These advertisements are sent to the secondary engine. The secondary engine now passes the data set consisting of the following to appear on the publisher's web page, namely the advertisements provided by the main search engine plus the image of the new idea which has been described in the text description sent to the main search engine in order for the main search engine to analyze the description and to provide the text advertisements relevant to the image of the new idea. A data set consisting of the image of the new idea and text advertisements related to the new idea may typically be of different formats, e.g. a rectangle with dimensions of 300 by 375 pixels or 728 by 90 pixels, etc. or a square with dimensions of 300 by 300 pixels etc. All the foregoing is herein described as the additional advertisements. This new idea and information about the idea need not relate to the above-mentioned category. It will be understood that the additional advertisements provided by the secondary search engine may replace the paid for advertisements initially provided by the main search engine or may be provided in addition to the paid for advertisements. If the advertisements provided are in addition to those initially provided by the main search engine, the publisher's web page will effectively earn more advertising revenue for the publisher. A viewer will have his attention drawn to the image of the new idea which because it is an image is more likely to catch the eye of the viewer than only a text advertisement. The image will also draw the attention of the viewer to the text advertisements that form part of the data set and which advertisements relate to the image, making such text advertisements more effective. When the image is "clicked" by the viewer, it leads to the content page providing further information about the new idea through a hyperlink. The main search engine may further analyse the content page of the new idea and places thereon a number of additional advertisements. Because of the specific nature of the content page, the additional advertisements can be more precisely related to the subject of the content page. The viewer who selects and "clicks" the additional advertisements on the content page will therefore be more precisely interested in these advertisements. Thus the advertisers will be charged for viewers clicking on their advertisements who are more likely to be relevant to such advertisements. [0018] A non-limiting example will be described to illustrate the above. A viewer interrogates the main engine for an article about a boxing match (say Mohammed Ali v George Foreman). The main search engine finds a huge number of advertisements from which the view selects on which products a web page relating to that match ("the chosen web page"). This web page may or may not have an embedded code therein. The main search engine examines the chosen web page for certain key words and determines the subject matter of the key words. It then selects a list of paid for advertisements which relate to such subject matter. Because of the code which it detects the main search engine notifies the second search engine that now determines in which category the subject relates. This being boxing, it falls within the category of sport. The image selected aat this period of time for the sport category is a particular type of football. The secondary advertisement is now selected comprising this particular type of football and text describing the football. This text can be quite lengthy and detailed as for example the description in a patent specification describing the particular football. The main search engine searches the text of the secondary advertisement for key words and determines that the subject matter is soccer. In this regard the text is much more focused so that the search produces results more relevant to the secondary advertisement that often is possible with the search of the chosen web page. The main search engine then adds a list of additional advertisements being paid for advertisements relating to soccer. It will be understood that all these actions take place virtually simultaneously. If the viewer now has a wider range of advertisement from which to select a web page of interest. If the viewer selects the secondary advertisement the content page is published. If the viewer selects one of the additional advertisements, the publisher will be billed and the second provider will be credited as possibly will the main provider.

[0019] The images may be changed regularly over a specified period of time, e.g. a day, a week, a fortnight etc. Similarly the content page may be changed regularly at the time as the images or at different time periods.

[0020] I have found that only four categories are necessary. But if desired there may be one or more categories. It will be understood that the image need not relate directly to the content of the web page. Thus a web page may relate to cricket and lience be in the sport category whilst the image advertisement of the data set displayed on the web page may be a glowing soccer ball and the text advertisements that relate to the glowing soccer ball, which make up the rest of the data set, may be about other soccer goods, e.g. soccer boots, soccer shirts, etc.

[0021] The invention is not limited to the precise details above described. For example the embedded code is not required. Further it is not necessary for the secondary provider to have customers as it may be paid a proportion of the monies payable to the first provider.

Claims

1 A method of advertising on the internet used where a viewer selects a web page ("the chosen web page") from the internet comprising

by means of a main computer

analysing the content of the chosen web page to detecting certain key data to determine the subject matter of the chosen web page;

placing on the chosen web page advertisements for certain web pages ("the paid for web pages") selected as relating to the subject matter;

detecting if the viewer selects any paid for web page; and

billing the advertiser in respect of the selected paid for web page:

wherein the main computer connects with a secondary computer which is provided by a secondary provider and which is loaded inter alia with software that divides matter into categories,

wherein the main computer informs the secondary computer of subject matter determined by the key data;

wherein the secondary computer places the information from the main computer into a selected category and provides a secondary advertisement to appear on chosen web page;

wherein the main search engine analyses the secondary advertisement to determine the content thereof and then places on the chosen web page an additional list of paid for advertisements selected as relating to the subject matter of the secondary advertisement; and wherein if one of the additional advertisements is selected by the viewer, the main engine will bill the advertiser.

2 A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the key data comprises key words.

3 A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the secondary computer divides matter into only four categories.

4 A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the viewer interrogates the main engine to select the chosen web page.

5 A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the secondary advertisement comprises an image and text and wherein the main search engine analyses the text for key words.

6 A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein when the secondary advertisement is selected these are published together with the additional advertisements a content page including an article relating to the category in which the image falls.

7 A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the seconday advertisement relates to the selected category.