Patent ID: 9286622
Filing Date: 2016-03-15
CPC Classification: G06Q

Claim Text:
1. A press release distribution system configured to deliver advertisements as sponsored news content to multiple web sites that each includes one or more pages containing non-sponsored content, the press release distribution system comprising: one or more server computers configured to receive sponsored news content from one or more advertisers over a communications network and to distribute the sponsored news content to a related one or more of the web sites over the communications network; multiple web server computers coupled to the server computer over the communications network, each web server computer configured to run at one or more of the related one or more of the web sites, wherein the web servers are further configured to receive the sponsored news content from the server computer over the communications network, to post the sponsored news content among the non-sponsored content at the related one or more of the web sites, and to monitor user data or user activity at the related one or more of the web sites, wherein the press release distribution system is further configured to utilize a particular one of the monitored user data or user activity to deliver a specific advertisement in a form of the sponsored news content to a particular user, wherein the one or more web servers are further configured to track one or more of impressions, clicks, click-through rate, or user actions with respect to the sponsored news content, wherein the sponsored news content is not a banner advertisement or a static header, wherein the at least one web server is further configured to display the sponsored news content separately from any banner advertisement or static header on the page, embed the sponsored news content contiguously together with at least some of the non-sponsored content on the page, enable the sponsored content to scroll together with the at least some of the non-sponsored content on the page, and to place the sponsored news content in a fixed position relative to the contiguous non-sponsored news content on the page, wherein a plurality of features of the sponsored news content are substantially the same as a corresponding plurality of features of the contiguous non-sponsored news content, and at least one feature of the sponsored news content differs from or is in addition to the corresponding feature of the non-sponsored news content in order to distinguish the sponsored news content from the non-sponsored news content, and wherein the press release distribution system is further adapted to limit a time period during which the sponsored news content is posted at the related one or more of the web sites, and to limit a frequency at which the sponsored news content is displayed for each user.