Patent ID: 7769648
Filing Date: 2010-08-03
Classification: G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: identifying target objects on an electronic storefront Web site to which customer traffic is to be targeted, wherein identifying the target objects includes performing a search for the target objects located in an electronic catalog separate from the electronic storefront Web site, wherein identifying the target objects for which keywords are automatically generated is performed periodically by a target discovery process and comprises identifying any new target objects that have been added to the Web site since the last time the target discovery process was performed; automatically generating search keywords for the target objects that are identified and found by the search by determining at least one applicable target type for each of the identified target objects, and generating the search keywords for each of the determined at least one applicable target types; receiving search result data from a search partner identifying search terms used to retrieve search results containing links to target objects on the electronic storefront Web site; including those search terms as part of the search keywords that are purchased from the one or more partner sites; automatically generating formatted search result data corresponding to at least one keyword that is to be purchased; sending the formatted search result data for said at least one keyword to at least one of the one or more search partners; including the formatted search result data are in search results produced by said at least one of the one or more search partners in response to searches corresponding to said at least one keyword; initiating purchase of the search keywords from one or more search partners; receiving billing and keyword clickthrough data from the one or more search partners; automatically determining a cost effectiveness of each of the keywords; wherein the cost effectiveness of each keyword is determined by: identifying target objects that were previously targeted for customer traffic that are related to catalog items that are either discontinued or currently unavailable; and deactivating the purchase of any keywords corresponding to the target objects that are so identified.