Ulllted States Patent [19]
`Merriman et al.
`
`US005948061A
`[11] Patent Number:
`[45] Date 0f Patent:
`
`5,948,061
`Sep. 7, 1999
`
`[54] METHOD OF DELIVERY, TARGETING, AND
`MEASURING ADVERTISING OVER
`NETWORKS
`
`WO 9721183 6/1997 WIPO .
`
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`
`[75] Inventors: Dwight Allen Merriman; Kevin
`Joseph O’Connor, both of NeW York,
`N.Y.
`
`Booker, Ellis “Seeing a Gap, APalo Alto Startup Will Debut
`Advertising Server for the Net”, Web Week, v.2 iss2. Avail
`abe online at http://WWW.interntWorld.com, Feb. 1996.
`
`.
`_
`.
`[73] Asslgnee' Double Chck’ Inc" New York’ NY'
`
`Metcalfe, Bob “From the Ether”, InfoWorld, v.18 iss 3.
`Available at http://www.infoworldcom, Aug. 1996.
`
`[21] APPL NO; 08/738 634
`'
`’
`[22] Flled:
`Oct' 29’ 1996
`[51]
`Int. Cl.6 ......................... .. G06F 17/30; G06F 151/00
`[52] us. Cl. ........................... .. 709/219; 705/14; 707/501
`[58] Field Of Search ....................... .. 395/20036, 200.33,
`395/200-47, 20048, 20049; 705/26, 10,
`14, 27, 1; 707/10, 501, 513
`
`NetGravity AdSerer 2.0 Annoucement. Available at http://
`WWW.netgravity.com, Oct. 1996.
`“Internet access: Internet marketing revolution begins in the
`US thiSSep.” (Hyper Net offering), EDGE: Work—Group
`Computmg Report, v7 9316,1110 1996
`Kohda Y et a1; Ubiquitous advertising on the WWW: Merg
`ing Advertising on the BroWser, Computer NetWorks and
`ISDN Systems, vol. 28, No. 11, May 1996, pp. 1493—1499.
`
`Primary Examiner—Dung C. Dinh
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Allan Jacobson
`
`[57]
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`56
`[
`1
`
`C't d
`R f
`e erences l e
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`5,692,132 11/1997 Hogan ..................................... .. 705/27
`5,710,887
`1/1998 Chelliah et al. .
`705/26
`5,712,979
`1/1998 Graber et al.
`.. 395/200.47
`5,717,860
`2/1998 Graber et al- -
`-- 395/20057
`577217827
`2/1998 L9gan ct a1~ ~~
`~~ 395/20047
`5,724,424
`3/1998 Gifford ............................. .. 380/24
`5,727,156
`3/1998 Herr-Hoyman et al.
`395/200.49
`
`5,737,619
`
`4/1998 Judson ................... ..
`
`705/14
`5 740 549 4/1998 Reilly et al
`555720033
`577517956
`5/1998 Kirsch ____
`5:757:917
`5/1998 Rose et a1. .............................. .. 380/25
`
`707/500
`
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`Methods and apparatuses for targeting the delivery of adver
`tisements over a netWork such as the Internet are disclosed.
`Statistics are compiled on individual users and netWorks and
`the use of the advertisements is tracked to permit targeting
`-
`-
`-
`-
`of the advertisements of individual users. In response to
`requests from af?hated s1tes, an advertising server transmits
`to people accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of
`the advertisement based upon Pro?ling of users and net
`Works.
`
`.
`
`.
`
`.
`
`.
`
`.
`
`0 749 081 12/1996 European Pat. Off. .
`
`50 Claims, 2 Drawing Sheets
`
`ADVERTISING /19 f 10
`SERVER
`PROCESS
`I
`23\ f24
`
`12\ AFFILIATE WEB SITE
`
`ADVERTISER‘S WEB SITE /1B
`
`25
`
`2B
`
`20
`
`HTTP PROTOCOL
`22
`
`USER'S BROWSER
`
`Google Inc.
`GOOG 1013
`IPR of U.S. Patent No. 6,014,698
`
`Page 1 of 12
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep.7, 1999
`
`Sheet 1 0f 2
`
`5,948,061
`
`FIG. 1
`
`ADVERTI / 19
`SERVE
`PROCESS
`
`I
`
`24
`
`1o
`//
`
`AFFILIATE WEB SITE
`
`ADVERTISER'S WEB SITE / 1B
`
`zs?ga
`‘\
`W %
`
`HTTP PROTOCOL
`
`_/I4
`
`20
`
`1B
`'
`USER'S BROWSER /
`
`FIG. 2
`
`DERIVE PROFILE
`PROCESS
`
`59
`50
`52
`f / REPORT PROCESS /
`
`54
`DATABASE /
`
`AD SERVER
`PROCESSES
`
`/55
`
`MANAGEMENT /58
`PROCESS
`
`Page 2 of 12
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`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep.7, 1999
`
`Sheet 2 of2
`
`5,948,061
`
`mm 6E
`
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`
`
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`
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`Page 3 of 12
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`

`

`1
`METHOD OF DELIVERY, TARGETING, AND
`MEASURING ADVERTISING OVER
`NETWORKS
`
`2
`on Web pages over time. It is a third object of the invention
`to provide the capability to gather information about recipi
`ents of the advertisement.
`
`5,948,061
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`1. Area of the Art
`This invention relates to methods of delivery of adver
`tisements and measuring responses to those delivered adver
`tisements and in particular relates to the targeting of adver
`tisements delivered over netWorks such as the Internet.
`2. Description of the Prior Art
`In advertising, it is considered highly desirable to target
`advertisements to the appropriate potential customer base,
`rather than to broadcast advertisements in general. It has
`long been knoWn that, for example, advertisements for
`computers should generally not appear in magaZines on
`gardening and, conversely, advertisements for gardening
`tools should not appear in magaZines on computers.
`Similarly, advertisers have generally targeted their adver
`tisements on television to programs appropriate for the
`desired customer base.
`It has also long been knoWn that an advertisement that is
`repeated too often Will eventually become ignored by con
`sumers. Therefore, an advertiser typically Wishes to elimi
`nate duplication and reach as many individuals in the
`advertiser’s target group as possible.
`The recent development of on-line netWorks, such as
`America On-Line, Compuserve, and the Internet, has led to
`“on-line” advertising. For example, on the Internet, often
`such on-line advertisements Will appear on a Web page, such
`as a banner on the top or the bottom of the page. When the
`user vieWs a Web page using a broWser such as Internet
`Explorer 3 or Netscape 3, the banner appears at the appro
`priate location and the user may then try to ?nd out more
`information regarding the advertisement by selecting the
`advertisement (clicking through on that banner) through the
`use of the mouse or other pointing device. This Will cause a
`HTTP message to be generated by the broWser using the
`information encapsulated in association With the banner to
`send a request for an object With a given URL address to a
`different appropriate Web site to access, for example, the
`advertiser’s home page.
`Nonetheless, such advertising has had, so far, a poor rate
`of response because it is untargeted advertising. Thus,
`someone Who is totally uninterested in computers other than
`they happen to be on the Internet, may continually see
`advertisements for computers. On the other hand, someone
`Who is interested in computers may continually see adver
`tisements for gardening tools When broWsing through a
`particular Web site. Thus it Would be highly desirable to have
`a method of targeting the advertising to the appropriate user.
`In addition, if a user of such computer netWorks is
`continuously exposed to the same advertisement, the
`response rate to the advertisement Will generally decline.
`Therefore, it is highly desirable to have a system that
`controls the frequency of exposure of advertisements to
`particular users. In addition, it is also important for the
`advertisers to track response to the advertisements and to
`acquire as much information about those people responding
`to the advertisements for targeting those same people at later
`dates.
`Therefore, it is a ?rst object of this invention to provide
`targeting of advertising over netWorks such as the Internet.
`It is a second object of this invention to provide control over
`frequency of exposure to users for advertisements appearing
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`These and other objects of the invention are achieved by
`the disclosed system and methods. Information about net
`Works and subnetWorks is routinely collected. In addition,
`information about individual users is also gathered When
`users select (click on) different advertisements. Also, data is
`tracked on hoW often a given advertisement has been
`displayed, hoW often a given user has seen a given
`advertisement, and other information regarding the user and
`the frequency of the display of the advertisement.
`To effect such a capability, an advertising server process
`is provided as a node on the netWork. The various adver
`tisements are stored on the netWork of the server and
`preferably on the server. When, for example, a user using a
`Web broWser accesses a Web page that is af?liated With the
`advertising server process, the af?liated page’s encoding
`includes an embedded reference to an object provided by the
`advertising server process. That causes the user’s broWser to
`contact the advertising server process to provide the adver
`tising image or information that Will appear on the accessed
`Web page as displayed by the user’s broWser. Using the
`address information and/or other information passed by the
`broWser for the user, including the page being accessed by
`the user, the advertising server process determines an appro
`priate advertisement to select for the particular user. In
`addition, the advertising server process Will use information
`such as the number of times the user has seen various
`advertisements, hoW often the advertisement has been seen
`by any user and the start and stop date for the various
`advertisements to select Which advertisement to transmit to
`the user’s Web page for display.
`If the user decides to respond to the advertisement
`selected by the Web server by clicking on the advertisement,
`the advertising server process logs that fact and to have more
`information about the given user. A derive pro?le process is
`used for compiling information on TCP/IP netWorks for use
`by the advertising server process. By compiling the infor
`mation on netWorks and user selections, the advertising
`server process is able to compile information that can be
`used for targeting advertising.
`
`DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
`
`FIG. 1 is diagram for explaining a ?rst embodiment of the
`invention.
`FIG. 2 is a diagram explaining the processes performed in
`the preferred embodiments.
`FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C are diagrams shoWing the basic
`structure of some of the databases kept by the advertising
`server.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`INVENTION
`
`The basic architecture of the netWork 10 comprises at
`least one af?liate Web site 12, an advertisement (ad) server
`Web site 19 and one or more individual advertiser’s Web sites
`18. Af?liates are one or more entities that generally for a fee
`contract With the entity providing the advertisement server
`permit third party advertisements to be displayed on their
`Web sites. When a user using a broWser accesses or “visits”
`a Web site of an af?liate, an advertisement provided by the
`advertisement server 19 Will be superimposed on the display
`
`Page 4 of 12
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`

`3
`of the af?liate’s Web page displayed by the user’s browser.
`Examples of appropriate affiliates include locator services,
`service providers, and entities that have popular Web sites
`such as museums, movie studios, etc.
`The basic operation of the system is as folloWs in the
`preferred embodiment. When a user broWsing on the Inter
`net accesses an af?liate’s Web site 12, the user’s broWser
`generates an HTTP message 20 to get the information for the
`desired Web page. The af?liate’s Web site in response to the
`message 20 transmits one or more messages back 22 con
`taining the information to be displayed by the user’s
`broWser. In addition, an advertising server process 19 Will
`provide additional information comprising one or more
`objects such as banner advertisements to be displayed With
`the information provided from the af?liate Web site.
`Normally, the computers supporting the broWser, the af?liate
`Web site and the advertising server process Will be at entirely
`different nodes on the Internet. Upon clicking through or
`otherWise selecting the advertisement object, Which may be
`an image such as an advertisement banner, an icon, or a
`video or an audio clip, the broWser ends up being connected
`to the advertiser’s server or Web site 18 for that advertise
`ment object.
`In FIG. 1, a user operates a Web broWser, such as Netscape
`or Microsoft Internet Explorer, on a computer or PDA or
`other Internet capable device 16 to generate through the
`hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) 14 a request 20 to any
`one of preferably a plurality of af?liate Web sites 12. The
`af?liate Web site sends one or more messages back 22 using
`the same protocol. Those messages 22 preferably contain all
`of the information available at the particular Web site 12 for
`the requested page to be displayed by the user’s broWser 16
`except for one or more advertising objects such as banner
`advertisements. These objects preferably do not reside on
`the af?liate’s Web server. Instead, the affiliate’s Web server
`sends back a link including an IP address for a node running
`an advertiser server process 19 as Well as information about
`the page on Which the advertisement Will be displayed. The
`link by Way of example may be a hypertext markup language
`(HTML) <img> tag, referring to, for example, an inline
`image such as a banner. The user’s broWser 16 then transmits
`a message 23 using the received IP address to access such an
`object indicated by the HTML tag from the advertisement
`server 19. Included in each message 23 typically to the
`advertising server 19 are:
`the user’s IP address, (ii) a
`cookie if the broWser 16 is cookie enabled and stores cookie
`information, (iii) a substring key indicating the page in
`Which the advertisement to be provided from the server is to
`be embedded, and (iv) MIME header information indicating
`the broWser type and version, the operating system of the
`computer on Which the broWser is operating and the proxy
`server type. Upon receiving the request in the message 23,
`the advertising server process 19 determines Which adver
`tisement or other object to provide to user’s broWser and
`transmits the messages 24 containing the object such as a
`banner advertisement to the user’s broWser 16 using the
`HTTP protocol. Preferably contained Within the HTTP mes
`sage is a unique identi?er for the advertiser’s Web page
`appropriate for the advertisement. That advertisement object
`is then displayed on the image created by the Web user’s
`broWser as a composite of the received af?liate’s Web page
`plus the object transmitted back by the advertising Web
`server.
`As part of the “click through” process, When the user
`clicks on the banner or other advertising object displayed by
`the user’s broWser 16, the user’s broWser again transmits a
`message to the ad server. The ad server notes the address of
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`5,948,061
`
`4
`the computer of the broWser (or any other identi?er such as
`a cookie or a digital signature) that generated the message 23
`and transmits back the URL of the advertiser’s Web page so
`that the user’s Web broWser 16 generates a message 26 to
`contact the advertiser’s Web site. 18. The ad server process
`19 also notes that a “click through” for an advertisement has
`occurred and updates the various databases in the manner
`described beloW. In the above scenario for the click through
`process, the ad server process must remember Which adver
`tisement Was sent to the user’s broWser in order to knoW
`Where to redirect the user’s broWser.
`While in the above embodiments, the user is a computer
`on an IP netWork using a broWser, the af?liate Web sites are
`Web pages of af?liates located someWhere on the Internet
`and the ad server is a particular node on the Internet, other
`setups are also possible. The af?liates may be ISP’s or may
`be actual dedicated Web servers and the users may be an
`entire netWork instead of an individual broWsing on a single
`computer With a broWser.
`FIG. 2 shoWs the ad server architecture. The ad server,
`Which may comprise one or more servers uses a database 54
`that Will be described beloW and performs reporting pro
`cesses 59, management processes 58, derivation of pro?le
`processes 52 and advertisement processes 19. The derive
`pro?le process 52 is hoW the advertisement server gathers
`information about individual users or TCP/IP netWorks for
`individual users. Advertisements, Which may be advertise
`ment banners are stored Within the ad server process 19 as
`part of the advertising server process 19 and are periodically
`updated and refreshed. The advertisement server process 19
`is used for responding to requests from advertisements
`provided by the user’s as described above. The management
`process 58 is used for updating the various advertisements
`and overall control of the advertising server process 19 and
`also permits the advertisers to interface With the database to
`obtain up to the date reports on the placement of the
`advertisements. The report process 59 is used for generating
`online reports about the success rate of the advertisement
`and statistics on the users that are vieWing and clicking
`through on various advertisements and also updating the
`counters in the database that store hoW often an advertise
`ment has been displayed.
`The basic database structure is shoWn in FIG. 3. For each
`user identi?ed by the system as shoWn in FIG. 3A, a user
`identi?cation, IP address, domain type, time Zone, location
`of the user, standard industrial code for the user’s netWork,
`the particular advertisements seen and the number of times
`each such advertisement is seen, the advertisements that
`Were selected or “clicked on” and the pages on Which the
`various users’ advertisements Were seen is collected. By
`using the information such as Which advertisements a user
`has expressed interest in and Which pages the user Was
`vieWing When the user clicked through along With other
`information, targeted Internet advertising is possible.
`FIG. 3B shoWs a database structure for the advertise
`ments. Included in the information for an advertisement are
`an identi?er for the advertisement, the start date for the
`advertisement being carried, the last date the advertisement
`is to be carried, the total number of people Who have vieWed
`the advertisements, the target or the minimum number of
`times the advertisement is to be vieWed, acceptable vieWers
`by their Web site’s SICS (Standard Industry Codes), clicked
`through and pages that the advertisements are seen on.
`Also, as noted above, to enhance the process of identify
`ing information about various users, information on domains
`or netWorks is also tracked. This information includes the
`
`Page 5 of 12
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`

`5,948,061
`
`5
`domain name and type (e.g., military, government,
`commerce, foreign countries), the IP address, the standard
`industrial code, the time Zone and the address as shoWn in
`FIG. 3C. This information can be used in developing infor
`mation about users. Through the use of these three databases
`and other appropriate databases that may be kept, the various
`processes of the advertising server process 19 are performed.
`
`Advertising Server Processes 19
`
`In response to an incoming message to the advertising
`server process 19, the advertising server processes 19 ?rst
`attempts to identify the user in FIG. 2. This can be accom
`plished by at least one of tWo means. First, any incoming
`request for an image or a multimedia object is examined to
`determined the IP address of the requesting broWser. The
`advertising server then notes Whether a cookie Was received
`in the MIME heading of the request. From these tWo pieces
`of information, a user identi?cation is determined. If a
`cookie Was detected, then the cookie contains the user’s
`identi?cation number that can be accessed in the database.
`If the user’s broWser is cookie enabled but no cookie is
`detected, then the request is from a neW user so a user
`identi?cation must be assigned to the user and that user’s
`neW identi?cation number Will be transmitted back to the
`users broWser along With a Write cookie instruction that
`causes the broWser to Write a cookie containing that unique
`identi?cation number on the user’s local drive for future
`accesses to af?liate sites. The cookie instruction is transmit
`ted back With the advertisement messages 24. Alternatively,
`instead of using cookies, digital signatures or certi?cates or
`log ins uniquely identifying the user accessing the affiliate
`page may be used.
`If the user’s broWser does not support cookies, the adver
`tising server process looks up the user’s IP address in a table
`that stores identi?cation numbers that correspond to IP
`addresses for the users Who have previously contacted the
`advertising server process. If the IP address is not found in
`the table, then the user is a neW user and is assigned an
`unused identi?cation number. Also, for each neW user, that
`user’s identi?cation number Will be marked for further
`processing under the derive pro?le process 52 described
`beloW. Also, if the domain for the neW user has not previ
`ously been processed in the domain pro?le process, it may
`not be possible to target the advertisement for the neW user
`and rather the neW user should be shoWn a generic adver
`tisement. Also, for neW users, a promotional advertisement
`may be shoWn to get the neW user to provide information
`about him or herself and his or her employer.
`If the user is an existing user, the ad server 19 obtains
`from a database all of the information knoWn about the user
`including the user’s geographic location, the domain type
`(commercial educational, governmental, the Internet service
`provided), the organiZation type Where the user Works (for
`example a SIC code), the company siZe, the number of
`employees in that company, the particular types of adver
`tisements that the user has clicked on by SIC or other
`appropriate coding and the number of times that the user has
`been exposed to each advertisement currently in the system
`as described in FIG. 3A. Also, the relative time of day for the
`user is calculated based upon either the user’s country code
`or the user’s IP access provider or the location of their
`domain.
`Each advertisement along With a table of the targeting
`pro?le criteria for the advertisement and other data regard
`ing the advertisement currently available is stored in a
`database such as shoWn in FIG. 3B. The actual advertising
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`object, Which may be a banner image in a GIF or JPEG ?le
`format, an icon for an audio or video clip or some other
`object is kept as part of the advertising server process. This
`information may include targeted consumers by SIC,
`country, organiZation type and type of advertisements pre
`viously selected by the user. For any of the advertisements
`currently provided for Which there is a match (for example
`there may be several advertisements targeted at people
`interested in computers), the next step is to determine Which
`of the advertisements for Which there is a match should be
`selected.
`The preferred embodiment also includes determining
`Which advertising object should be selected if tWo or more
`advertising object have criteria matching the user. selecting
`from the matched advertisements by determining hoW often
`the particular user has been exposed to the given advertise
`ment. For each user, data is kept about the number of times
`that a user has seen a given advertisement based upon the
`user ID. For each advertisement Where the user matches the
`criteria, if the number of times that the user has seen the
`advertisement is less than a predetermined threshold, the
`advertisement is retained as one of the possible matches. If
`the number of times that the user has seen a given adver
`tisement exceeds the threshold, the advertisement is dis
`carded as a possible candidate for transmitting back to the
`user.
`From the advertisements for Which the user matches the
`criteria and for Which the user has seen the advertisement
`less than the threshold, any of number of algorithms may be
`used to select the particular advertisement to transmit back
`to the user. In an embodiment, the formula used is based
`upon a satisfaction index (SI) according to the folloWing
`formula:
`
`n end- start
`S1 = — * i
`N noW- start
`
`Where:
`n: =the number of times the particular advertisement has
`been vieWed by anyone
`N: the number of times the advertisement is to be see by
`anyone
`end-start: the total number of days that the advertisement
`is scheduled to run
`noW-start: the number of days that the advertisement has
`run to date
`The satisfaction index (SI) is 1.0 When the advertisement is
`on schedule. If the advertisement is running behind schedule
`(i.e., the current rate of display means that the advertisement
`Will not be vieWed the targeted number of times by the end
`date so that the SI is less than 1.0) While if the SI is greater
`than 1.0, the advertisement is running ahead of schedule.
`Therefore, the advertisement that is to be selected for
`vieWing is the one that has a matched pro?le and has the
`smallest SI. Upon selecting the advertisement, the selected
`advertisement object is then transmitted to the user’s
`broWser over the Internet by transmitting the GIF stored in
`RAM in one or more messages.
`After delivery of the advertisement to the user, additional
`processing needs to be done both for tracking the exposure
`of the advertisement and for having more information about
`the user. First, the system stores the fact that the advertise
`ment Was sent to the user by storing that information in the
`database based upon the user ID. This information is used
`for processing the user’s response to the advertisement When
`the user “clicks” on the advertisement. Also, the advertising
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`5,948,061
`
`7
`processor updates the advertisements satisfaction index and
`logs the advertisement delivery for providing reports. Also,
`if the advertisement that has been sent has a limit on the
`number of times that the advertisement can be sent, the
`count of the number of times that the advertisement has been
`transmitted is incremented. This limit can be the overall
`limit for the number of times that the advertisement is
`vieWed and/or the limit that any speci?c user can vieW the
`advertisement. If the limit on the number of times the
`advertisement can be sent is reached, then the particular
`advertisement is removed from the list of those that can be
`transmitted. In addition, even if an advertisement has not
`been transmitted recently, the SI is updated to re?ect the
`passage of time.
`If the user then decides that he Wants to respond to the
`advertisement and then clicks on the advertisement, the
`advertisement server 19 receives an HTTP request 23 for a
`click through Which it Will recogniZe by receiving the same
`IP address (and optionally, the user ID speci?ed by the
`cookie, digital signature or certi?cate or log in
`identi?cation) in the request from the same affiliate’s Web
`page Within a predetermined period. Since the advertisement
`server previously recorded Which advertisement Was sent to
`that IP address, it sends the redirect message causing the
`user’s broWser to receive the URL for the advertiser’s Web
`site based upon data stored in the server. In addition, the
`server logs that the advertisement Was clicked through,
`Which user selected the advertisement based upon the IP
`address, and the page on Which the advertisement Was seen
`based upon the click through. This information can then be
`logged in later reporting processes 59.
`As an alternative to using a satisfaction index, the selec
`tion of the particular advertisement object to be sent back to
`the vieWer’s broWser by the advertising server process 19
`can be made by different criteria. For example, models can
`be created to maximiZe the likelihood of a click through.
`Such models for maximiZing the likelihood of a click
`through may be based upon empirically gathered informa
`tion about either types of advertisements or individual
`advertisements actually on the system correlated to the
`compiled information on a user or the user’s netWork and the
`speci?c page through Which the user is accessing the adver
`tising server process 19.
`
`Derivative Pro?le Process 52
`In addition, as part of the pro?ling process for gathering
`information about users and IP addresses needs to be done.
`First, appropriate “netWorks” need to be identi?ed based
`upon the TCP/IP netWork address of the user. Periodically,
`the derive pro?les process searches the user database for the
`address of additional users that have addresses for unknoWn
`netWorks, indicating that they are neW users. Then the server
`does a reverse domain name search to locate the domain
`name of the user. The server also queries Internet Whols
`databases to ?nd information about the netWork, Which Will
`often include the domain name.
`Alternatively, a reverse form of look up can be used
`independent of people accessing the netWork. When a
`domain is discovered, the server Will check common DNS
`names for the name, such as those starting With “WW” and
`“ftp”. These resolve to IP addresses in most cases. From the
`IP addresses, the netWork number can be extracted and if the
`netWork does not yet have a domain name associated With
`the netWork number or address, the neW domain associated
`With the netWork. Areverse domain name look up (A Whois
`lookup) Will then usually provide the name, address and
`phone number of the organiZation, thereby providing the
`
`10
`
`15
`
`25
`
`35
`
`45
`
`55
`
`65
`
`8
`geographic location and the time Zone of the netWork. Once
`the domain name is acquired, the server Will determine
`Whether the domain is an educational, military, governmen
`tal netWork and for non-US. based netWorks What country
`the netWork is located in through the extension.
`HoWever, it should be noted that some netWorks cover
`broad geographic areas and that further checking needs to be
`done to ensure that the data may be inaccurate. This can be
`done by performing a trace route operation to trace the
`netWork topology back to the netWork being examined. If
`the last tWo or three nodes on the trace shoW as being from
`a given region, the chances are high that the speci?c user on
`a netWork is located in that geographic area. Thus, reverse
`traces can be used to con?rm location With a database for
`geographic locations. By checking telephone directories and
`other sources, the speci?c location for such users may be
`found by looking up the locations Where the oWner of the
`domain name has facilities and using the one closest to the
`outcome of the trace back step If the information for a given
`user is different than the location of the domain based upon
`the trace back, it is this address and location information that
`is then used.
`Further for each domain that is found, a determination
`must be made as to Whether the domain is an Internet
`Service Provider (ISP). A list of domains that are ISP’s is
`compiled manually. For any user having a domain name of
`an ISP, the user is presumed to be an individual and so only
`information relating to that individual are used for the
`pro?ling process.
`
`Reporting Process
`The reporting process uses standard database techniques
`for generating any desired reports. For example, reports
`shoWing the number of vieWings and click throughs of
`various advertisements may be generated along With reports
`shoWing the click through rates relative to the matching
`criteria. Also, reports on the SI can be readily generated.
`In addition to using the domain pro?ling process and
`logging advertisement clicked on by individual users and the
`pages being accessed by users of af?liate Web sites, in
`addition surveying may be used. Further, for those survey
`respondents Who are responding for non-ISP users discussed
`above, the results of the survey can be attributed to others on
`the same netWork. This provides further information for
`targeting the display of the advertisements.
`Of course, those of skill in the ?eld Will understand that
`the disclosed techniques need not just be con?ned to Internet
`advertising but Will Work on other communication netWorks
`and private on line services such as CompuServe and
`America On Line. In addition, While speci?c user and
`domain pro?le information and matching criteria are
`discussed, it Will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the
`?eld that the speci?c type of user and domain name infor
`mation pro?led and used as matching criteria may include
`other or different criteria. In addition, While the speci?c
`examples are for IP netWorks, the same concepts can be
`applied to virtual LAN ’s such that a VLAN is the equivalent
`of a domain or on IPX based protocols or other netWork
`protocols.
`Still further, rather than using cookies or IP addresses or
`other netWork addresses to identify the users, digital signa
`tures or certi?cates may be used. In addition, a log in
`technique may be used Whereby When users ?rst access an
`af?liated Web site, the user