Patent Application

App. No. 11/236,460

Abstract

Claims (51)

1 . An advertising system for providing content relevant advertisements to a client system for rendering in association with an instance of distributed content and directing the client system to an advertiser's landing document, the system comprising:

a web server receiving connection requests from client systems, the connection requests being content requests and redirect requests;

each content request comprising: i) a unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content; ii) a template identifier identifying predetermined image map attributes of a predetermined image map defined within the distributed content; and ii) a search parameter;

each redirect request comprising i) the unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content; and ii) an identification of a zone of the image map defined within the distributed content that is selected by a user;

an advertisement content rendering object receiving each content request and in response thereto:

passing the search parameter to a placement object and receiving a plurality of instances of advertising content associated with the search parameter;

returning a rendering of each instance of the plurality of instances of advertising content in accordance the image map attributes associated with the template identifier to the client system;

a redirect database maintaining, in association with those unique identifiers received in a content request, redirect data associated with each instance of advertising content and an indication of the one or more zones of the image map which is associated with the instance of advertising content; and

a redirect object receiving each redirect request and in response thereto:

looking up the redirect data associated with both the unique identifier and the identified zone of the image map and directing the client system to a URL associated with the redirect data.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the search parameter is a search parameter selected from a group consisting of: i) a search word related to the distributed content; and ii) a search category representing at least two search words related to the distributed content.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein one instance of the advertising content is associated with multiple zones of the image map; and

the redirect data that is associated with such instance of advertising content is associated, in the redirect database, with each zone in which such instance of advertising content is positioned.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content comprises an affiliate identifier unique to an affiliate generating each instance of the distributed content and an affiliate generated instance identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content generated by the affiliate.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:

redirect database only maintains redirect data in association with those unique identifiers received in a content request; and

the advertisement content rendering object writes, data to the redirect database comprising:

i) the unique identifier received in a content request; and

ii) the redirect data associated with the unique identifier.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein

each instance of advertising content is rendered as an instance of text advertising within one or more zones of the image map;

the template identifier further identifies rendering attributes including at least one of text font, font size, font color, and background color; and

the advertisement content rendering object renders each instance of the text advertising in accordance with the attributes in a portion of a single image corresponding to one or more active zones of the image map.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the search parameter is a search parameter selected from a group consisting of: i) a search word related to the distributed content; and ii) a search category representing at least two search words related to the distributed content.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein one instance of the advertising content is associated with multiple zones of the image map; and

the redirect data that is associated with such instance of advertising content is associated, in the redirect database, with each zone in which such instance of advertising content is positioned.

9 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content comprises an affiliate identifier unique to an affiliate generating each instance of the distributed content and an affiliate generated instance identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content generated by the affiliate.

10 . The system of claim 6 , wherein

redirect database only maintains redirect data in association with those unique identifiers received in a content request; and

the advertisement content rendering object writes, data to the redirect database comprising:

i) the unique identifier received in a content request; and

ii) the redirect data associated with the unique identifier.

11 . A method for providing content relevant advertisements to a client system for rendering in association with an instance of distributed content and directing the client computer system to an advertiser's landing document, the method comprising:

receiving a content request from the client computer system, the content request comprising: i) a unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of the distributed content; ii) a template identifier identifying predetermined image map attributes of a predetermined image map defined within the distributed content; and ii) a search parameter;

passing the search parameter to a placement object and receiving, in response thereto, a plurality of instances of advertising content associated with the search parameter;

returning a rendering of each instance of the plurality of instances of advertising content in accordance with the image map attributes associated with the template identifier the client system;

writing, to a redirect database, association between the unique identifier and redirect data associated with each instance of advertising content and an indication of the one or more zones of the image in which each instance of advertising content is associated;

receiving a redirect request from the client system, the redirect request comprising i) the unique identifier; and ii) an identification of a zone of the image map; and

looking up the redirect data associated with both the unique identifier and the identified zone of the image map and directing the client system to a URL associated with the redirect data.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the search parameter is a search parameter selected from a group consisting of: i) a search word related to the distributed content; and ii) a search category representing at least two search words related to the distributed content.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein one instance of the advertising content is associated with multiple zones of the image map; and

the redirect data that is associated with such instance of advertising content is associated, in the redirect database, with each zone in which such instance of advertising content is positioned.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content comprises an affiliate identifier unique to an affiliate generating each instance of the distributed content and an affiliate generated instance identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content generated by the affiliate.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein

each instance of advertising content is rendered as an instance of text advertising within one or more zones of the image map;

the template identifier further identifies rendering attributes including at least one of text font, font size, font color, and background color; and

each instance of the text advertising is rendered in accordance with the attributes in a portion of a single image corresponding to one or more active zones of the image map.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the search parameter is a search parameter selected from a group consisting of: i) a search word related to the distributed content; and ii) a search category representing at least two search words related to the distributed content.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein one instance of the advertising content is associated with multiple zones of the image map; and

the redirect data that is associated with such instance of advertising content is associated, in the redirect database, with each zone in which such instance of advertising content is positioned.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the unique identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content comprises an affiliate identifier unique to an affiliate generating each instance of the distributed content and an affiliate generated instance identifier distinguishing the instance of distributed content from other instances of distributed content generated by the affiliate.

Assignments (10)