Granted Patent B2

US 10,147,121 · App. 15/476,876 · Granted Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

Claims (36)

1. A method of displaying sponsored posts among a plurality of non-sponsored posts on one or more web pages, the method comprising:

electronically receiving one or more sponsored posts over a communications network, wherein the sponsored post is directed to a particular user or user type;

electronically displaying the sponsored post among the non-sponsored posts on the web page;

electronically tracking user data or activity with respect to the sponsored post, the data or activity comprising one or more of impressions, clicks, click-through rate, or user actions;

wherein the sponsored post is not a banner advertisement or a static header,

wherein when the sponsored post is displayed, it is displayed separately from any banner advertisement and contiguously together with at least some of the non-sponsored posts appearing on the web page to scroll together with the at least some of the non-sponsored post such that the sponsored post is in a fixed position relative to at least some of the contiguously displayed non-sponsored posts,

wherein the sponsored post includes at least one of video or image content;

wherein a time period during which the sponsored post is posted is limited,

wherein a frequency at which the sponsored post is displayed for the user or user type is limited, and

wherein a plurality of features of the sponsored post are the same as a corresponding plurality of features of the contiguous non-sponsored posts, and at least one feature of the sponsored post differs from or is in addition to the corresponding feature of the non-sponsored posts in order to distinguish the sponsored posts from the non-sponsored posts.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sponsored post comprises a press release, news, announcement, message, advertisement, or non-press event.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-sponsored post comprises one or more of messages.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communications network is the Internet.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more web pages comprise one or more of forum sites, news sites, fan sites, popular sites, enthusiast sites, message forums, user forums, online communities, or popular forums.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising electronically generating user profiles from the electronically tracked user data or user activity at one or more of each of the web pages.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user activity at one or more of the web pages on which the sponsored posts are placed comprises one or more reads of the sponsored posts or searches at the web pages.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sponsored post is displayed with a background color or another distinguishing feature to denote it as being different from the non-sponsored posts.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising electronically posting the sponsored posts among the non-sponsored posts at each of multiple web pages, and electronically monitoring user data or user activity at each of the multiple web pages.

10. A system configured to distribute advertisements as sponsored posts for display among non-sponsored posts, the distribution system comprising:

one or more servers configured to:

distribute sponsored posts on behalf of one or more advertisers over a communications network to one or more web pages over the communications network;

display the sponsored posts among the non-sponsored posts on the web page;

monitor user data or user activity directed to the sponsored posts; and

utilize a particular one of the monitored user data or user activity to deliver a specific advertisement in a form of the sponsored post to a particular user or user type, and to track one or more of impressions, clicks, click-through rate, or user actions with respect to the sponsored post,

wherein the sponsored post includes image or video content, and

wherein the sponsored post is not a banner advertisement or a static header,

the one or more servers further configured to display the sponsored post separately from any banner advertisement or static header on the page, embed the sponsored post contiguously together with at least some of the non-sponsored posts on the page, enable the sponsored post to scroll together with the at least some of the non-sponsored posts on the page, and place the sponsored post in a fixed position relative to the contiguous non-sponsored posts on the page,

wherein a plurality of features of the sponsored posts are the same as a corresponding plurality of features of the contiguous non-sponsored posts, and at least one feature of the sponsored post differs from or is in addition to the corresponding feature of the non-sponsored posts in order to distinguish the sponsored posts from the non-sponsored posts.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sponsored post comprises a press release, news, announcement, message, news feed, advertisement, or non-“press” event.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the non-sponsored post comprises one or more of messages.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the communications network is the Internet.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein each of the one or more web pages comprise forum sites, fan sites, popular sites, enthusiast sites, online communities, message forums, user forums, or popular forums.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the distribution system is further configured to generate user profiles from the monitored user data or user activity at one or more of the web pages on which the sponsored posts are placed.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user activity at one or more of the web pages comprises one or more of non-sponsored posts, reads of sponsored posts, or searches at one or more of the web pages on which the sponsored posts are placed.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sponsored post further comprises text.

18. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sponsored post is displayed with a background color or another distinguishing feature to denote it as being different from the non-sponsored posts.

Assignments (8)