Targeted advertising services method and apparatus

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing an automatically upgradeable software application includes targeted advertising based upon demographics and user interaction with the computer. The software application includes a display region used for banner advertising that is downloaded over a network such as the Internet. The software application is accessible from a server via the network and demographic information on the user is acquired by the server and used for determining what advertising will be sent to the user. The software application further targets the advertisements in response to normal user interaction with the computer. Data associated with each advertisement is used by the software application in determining when a particular advertisement is to be displayed. This includes the specification of certain programs that the user may have so that, when the user runs the program (e.g., a spreadsheet program), a relevant advertisement will be displayed (e.g., an advertisement for a stock brokerage). This provides two-tiered, real-time targeting of advertising—both demographically and reactively. The software application includes programming that accesses the server to determine if one or more components of the application need upgrading. If so, the components can be downloaded and installed without further action by the user. A distribution tool is provided for software distribution and upgrading over the network. Also provided is a user profile that is accessible to any computer on the network. Furthermore, multiple users of the same computer can possess Internet web resources and files that are personalized, maintained and organized.

1 . A method for providing advertising services, comprising the steps of:
 (a) obtaining advertiser registration information;   (b) receiving advertising material associated with the advertiser;   (c) obtaining from the advertiser information used in combination with user demographic data to provide reactive targeting of the advertising material to one or more users over one or more networks;   (d) sending the advertising material over the one or more networks for purposes of presentation to the one or more users;   (e) providing information to the advertiser concerning the sent advertising material; and   (f) carrying out a financial transaction with the advertiser related to the sent advertising material.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertising material comprises a display object. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the display object comprises a banner advertisement. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the receiving step further comprises receiving from the advertiser one or more criteria used in selecting advertising material to be presented to the users; 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (c) further comprises providing a keyword that is associated with the advertising material and is used to provide reactive targeting of the advertising material to one or more users. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the step of selecting the advertising material based on the keyword. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of obtaining in real-time a keyword associated with use of a client computer and selecting the advertising material based on the keywords. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (d) further comprises sending the advertising material from a server to a client computer over a global computer network. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (d) further comprises sending advertising material from a server to selected users over different networks. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , step (d) further comprises sending advertising material to a portable phone over a network. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (f) further comprises billing the advertiser for providing advertising services using the selected advertising material. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein steps (a) through (f) are carried out by one or more servers. 
     
     
         13 . A method for providing advertising services, comprising the steps of:
 registering an advertiser at a server that obtains advertiser information from the advertiser;   storing advertising material that is associated with the advertiser;   sending the advertising material to different client computers for display based on data obtained from a user's search via the user's client computer; and   providing an accounting to the advertiser related to the number of times the advertising material was sent.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the registering step further comprises registering the advertiser using a first program module, and the providing step further comprises providing the accounting using a second program module. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the sending step further comprising sending the advertising material using a third program module. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first and second program modules are both located on the server. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the storing step further comprises storing the advertising material at the server. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising the steps of receiving the obtained data and selecting the advertising material using the obtained data. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the obtained data comprises at least one keyword. 
     
     
         20 . A method for providing advertising services, comprising the steps of:
 obtaining advertising material; and   sending the advertising material to different computers over different networks based on information used to target advertisements to particular users.