Network advertising

Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus for collecting information about network (internet) users for determining advertising to be presented to the users. In one embodiment, user profiles are determined, and advertising is selectively provided by comparing user personal information in such profiles with a desired demographic profile. User responses to advertising are used for evaluating advertising effectiveness. The invention is useful for test marketing of products, advertisements, and reduces advertising costs.

1 . A method for presenting information on a telecommunications network, comprising:
 collecting, in a computer readable data storage medium, information about network sites visited on the network by a user, wherein the visited network sites are selected by the user from a plurality of network sites that provide user informative presentations of network services to the user, wherein the network sites visited by the user provide their informative presentations independently of one another; and   selecting advertising related data, the selection performed by activating at least one computer module for: (i) accessing the computer readable data storage medium for obtaining data from the collected information, (ii) accessing a computer readable data storage for advertisement selection criteria, and (iii) determining a satisfactory correspondence between the data and the advertisement selection criteria for selecting one or more instances of the advertising related data;   wherein in response to a transmission for the one or more instances on the network, corresponding advertising for the one or more instances is presented as a computer presentation to the user at a user computer, wherein the transmission is provided after a notification of an activation of a network connection session by the user computer is obtained;   wherein the presentation advertises at least one product or service, and the presentation has network link data available for activation when the user selects the presentation for obtaining, via the network, additional information related to the product or service; and   wherein the presentation is presented unrequested to the user during the network connection session.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the presentation is presented without the user providing input to the user computer during the network connection session for causing the presentation to be a response to the input. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein there is no user input to the user computer during the network connection session for notifying a advertising distribution network node of the network connection session. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network sites visited are substantially any publicly available sites on the network. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further including a step of storing information output on the network by the user computer in another network connection session that occurred previous to the network connection session, wherein the stored information is used by a advertising distribution network node for providing the corresponding advertising at the user computer. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further including a step of detecting information provided on the user computer in another network connection session that occurred previous to the network connection session, wherein the detection is used by a advertising distribution network node for providing the corresponding advertising at the user computer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the step of detecting is performed without an input from the user for contacting the advertising distribution network node. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein there is at least a second advertising transmitted to the user computer from a advertising distribution network node, wherein: (i) a second presentation of the second advertising to the user occurs after the presentation, and (ii) there is no user input between the presentation and the second presentation for which a consequence includes the second presentation; and
 wherein the second advertising includes data so that the second presentation advertises at least one product or service, and the second presentation has network link data available for activation when the user selects the second presentation for obtaining, via the network, additional information related to the product or service.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the corresponding advertising is transmitted using TCP/IP. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting includes selecting the advertising related data based on profile data for the user, the profile data including information for a geographic location related to the user. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of determining includes determining a correspondence between: (i) user selection information for an advertiser, user selection information obtained at least in part from the computer readable database for advertisement selection criteria, and (ii) information about the user obtained from the user in a previous network connection session by the user computer. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further including a step of receiving financial information related to the user, wherein the financial information is used in determining whether a subsequent input by the user is acceptable. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the steps of collecting and selecting are performed for each of a plurality of user, and further including obtaining information related to an efficacy of one or more instances of the presentation presented to the users, including determining information related to a number of advertised items that are sold through activating the corresponding network link data for the one or more instances of the presentations. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the steps of collecting and selecting are performed for each of a plurality of user, and further including obtaining information related to an efficacy of one or more instances of the presentation presented to the users, including determining information related to a number of the one or more instance of the presentations whose corresponding network link data is activated for receiving corresponding additional information. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the steps of collecting and selecting are performed for each of a plurality of user, and further including obtaining information related to an efficacy of one or more instances of the presentation presented to the users, including determining information related to a time when the presentation is presented to the user. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1  further including providing the user computer with network access as a result of advertising displayed on the user computer. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1  further including determining whether a predetermined program on the user computer is active for presenting advertising information to the user. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1  further including transmitting to the user computer programmatic information for presenting unrequested advertising to the user via the user computer. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further including a step of communicating with the user computer for detecting an activation of the programmatic information on the user computer without a corresponding input from the user causing the detecting of the activation. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the programmatic information forces a display of the unrequested advertising on front of another display of computer information displayed by the user computer. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of collecting includes monitoring the user's communication on the network for identifying information about network accessible nodes visited by the user. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , further including a step of obtaining information related to network interactions by the user computer, including information related to advertising for which the user requests the additional information, wherein the additional information is obtained in response to a network transmission which has as a terminal network address for a network site, the second network site being different from a network node for providing the corresponding advertising to the user computer. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1  further including:
 combining at least one of the one or Chore instances with data having a content for a service presentation to be presented to the user, wherein the data for the content is determined independently of the one or more instances; and   transmitting the combined at least one instance and the data to the user computer.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 1  further including a step of receiving access information indicative of the presentation being accessed by the user for the additional information. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the access information is used in deriving advertising effectiveness information. 
     
     
         26 . A method for presenting information on a telecommunications network, comprising:
 collecting, in a computer readable medium, information about network sites visited on the network by a user, wherein the visited network sites are selected by the user from a plurality of network sites that provide user informative presentations of network services to the user, wherein the network sites visited by the user provide their informative presentations independently of one another; and   selecting advertising related data, the selection performed by activating at least one computer module for: (i) accessing the computer readable database for obtaining data from the collected information, (ii) accessing a computer readable data storage for advertisement selection criteria, and (iii) determining a satisfactory correspondence between the data and the advertisement selection criteria for selecting one or more instances of the advertising related data;   wherein in response to a transmission for the one or more instances on the network, corresponding advertising for the one or more instances is presented as a computer presentation to the user at a user computer, the corresponding advertising being transmitted to the user computer via a transmission in a network connection session to the user computer;   wherein the presentation advertises at least one of a product and service, and the presentation has network link data available for activation when the user selects the presentation for obtaining, via the network, additional information related to the product or service; and   wherein the presentation is presented to the user without the user providing a prior input, via the network connection session, causing the presentation to be presented to the user.   
     
     
         27 . An apparatus for presenting information on the Internet, comprising:
 a first computer readable data storage for storing user information about Internet sites visited on the Internet by a user, wherein the visited Internet sites are selected by the user from a substantially all publicly available sites on the Internet; and   a second computer readable data storage for storing advertisement selection criteria;   an advertising selection computer module for: (i) accessing the first computer readable data storage for obtaining data related to the user information, (ii) accessing the second computer readable data storage for obtaining at least a portion of the advertising related selection criteria, and (iii) determining whether there is a satisfactory correspondence between the data and the advertisement selection criteria for providing one or more corresponding advertisements to the user computer via the Internet;   wherein after transmission of a selected one of the advertisements via an Internet connection session, the selected advertisement is presented as a presentation to the user via a user computer;   wherein the presentation advertises at least one of a product and service, and the presentation has Internet link data available for activation when the user selects the presentation for obtaining, via the Internet, additional information related to the product or service; and   wherein the presentation is presented to the user without the user providing a prior input, via the Internet connection session, for causing the presentation to be presented to the user.