Method and system for interactive distribution of messages

A method and a communication system for interactive distribution of information such as advertising over a computer network is described. The system includes a first computer, an information server, containing the information to be distributed, and any number of second computers arranged to display said information as well as transmitting information such as requests for further information back to the information server. All the computers are preferably connected to the same computer network. The information in the Information server is arranged according to an information tree structure, such that when a first message is displayed on the information client, the user will be able to choose from a number of requests for further information, and when these further messages are presented, the user is again given such a choice, thus creating a dialogue involving the user. In a particular embodiment of the system, the messages are multimedia messages such as images, animated computer graphics and sound. In a preferred embodiment of this multimedia version, the text message from the information server is sent through a text to speech converter which converts the text to a string of phonemes, diphones or some other representation of speech and forwards this to the information client which in this particular embodiment includes a speech synthesizer and possibly a computer graphics program generating a “talking head”.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a system for interactive distribution of information on a computer network such as the Internet. These messages can in principle be of any nature, commercial or non-commercial. In the following description, however, the information will be referred to as advertisements or messages and the information providers will be referred to as advertisers. This is for convenience only, and must not be interpreted as limiting to the invention, which can also cover information from non-profit organizations, political campaign information, entertainment or any other kind of information from any kind of information provider. Further, the system will be described as running on one information server, but it will be obvious to one skilled in the art that different functions of the system according to the invention can run on several computers connected to the computer network. Referring now to FIG. 1 , the present invention allows any number of advertisers 1 to present their messages to a number of users 2 that are connected to a computer network 3 . The messages are preferably stored as information trees on an information server 4 that delivers the messages to the users' computers 2 . The particular message selected for presentation to a particular user may be chosen based on the user's profile as stored in a user database and referenced to by a user ID, as well as the preferred demographic group targeted by the advertiser, but it may also simply be linked to other information available on the network, such as Web pages, entertainment such as audio or video and the like. When a user 2 connects to the network 3 and requests information, the message from the information server 4 will be transferred to the users' computer 2 . If the message is linked to other information content on the network, such as a Web page, it is possible simply to embed the information in the information sought by the user and display it in the form of e.g. a banner on the Web page displayed by the users browser. When the message is detached from the information sought by the user, however, the message will preferably be presented in a separate window ( 10 , FIG. 2 ) on the display of the users computer 2 . Reffering to FIG. 2 , in addition to the actual information content of the message, the user will be presented with one or more choices for feed back to the system. These choices preferably include a request for additional information 11 , 12 , 13 , a link to a web page 14 , as well as an indication that the information content is of no interest to the user 15 . When the user selects one of these options, a message will be sent back to the information server. If the user's response is a link to a web page, the users browser will retrieve this web page from the network, while a message is sent to the information server indicating the users choice. If the selected option is that the user is not interested in this information, this information is transmitted to the information server. In either of these cases the server records the users response and preferably a new message is selected and sent to the user. On the other hand, if the response is a request for further information, this is recorded by the server and the requested information is transmitted to the user. In principle, there are no limits to the number of options given to a user, but normally the user will be presented with one or just a few different requests for additional information. E.g. in the case where the message is an advertisement for a car, the user will be given the options to ask for more information about the particular model, about what other models are available, about down payment plans, etc. as well as an option to go to a particular web page or to indicate that he is not interested. Referring to FIG. 3 , in the information server 4 the messages are arranged in an information tree. This means that preferably each first message Msg. 1 stored on the information server is linked to one or more additional messages Msg. 2 a , Msg. 2 b , Msg. 2 c , and that these additional messages again are linked to additional messages Msg. 3 a , Msg. 3 b , Msg. 3 d , and so on until the end of the tree is reached in each case. The user is given the opportunity to access the additional messages through the feed back choices presented when messages are displayed on the user's computer 2 . Preferably the information server 4 records each time a particular message is displayed and generates reports based on these statistics. As an alternative to the above, the entire information tree defined by an advertiser can be transmitted at once, only to be displayed by the user's computer in accordance with the choices made by the user. In this case, the program that handles the presentation at the user's computer 2 , the client, records the choices made by the user and sends this recorded information back to the information server 4 . This information can be transmitted either every time the user makes a choice or after the user has made a choice that indicates that he is abandoning this particular information tree. In order for advertisers to target users efficiently, the information server will preferably include a database containing user profiles. This database can in principle be generated in a number of ways, but in a preferred embodiment of the invention, first time users receive a user name when they register and enter their profile into the database. FIG. 4 shows an example of what such a registration form might look like. The profile will typically consist of such information as age, gender, educational level, occupation, yearly income, interests and hobbies, favorite magazines etc. The user profile will normally not include the users name in order to protect the privacy of the user. When the user connects to the network he or she will be identified by a user ID that is transferred to the information server 4 when the user logs on to the system with a user name, by way of a “cookie” stored on the user's computer or by other means that will associate the user with a stored user profile without revealing the users identity. One way of accomplishing this is for the user's browser or a plug-in to the user's browser to establish the connection with the information server 4 in the background when the user connects to the network 3 . In this manner the browser, preferably in a separate window or as a pop-up, will retrieve messages or information trees from the information server 4 without interfering unduly with the user's activities on the network. Advertisers will now be able to specify what user groups they want to target with their advertisements. A particular message or information tree can be so defined as to only be displayed to, say, men between 18 and 35 years old with an annual income between USD 20,000 and 30,000 and with a special interest in cars. Another message might on the other hand be so defined as to be displayed to several different demographic groups, such as men between 18 and 35 years old (group A), men between 35 and 50 years old (group B) and women between 18 and 50 years old (group C). Whenever either of these criteria are fulfilled, the corresponding message might be selected for display. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the advertisers have on-line access to the information server where they can review the presentation statistics generated as well as change the content of their messages or the targeted user profiles. Referring to the example above where an advertiser has decided that he wants to target the groups A, B and C. By accessing the information server 3 the advertiser will be able to bring up on the display of his computer 1 a presentation of the report generated by the information server 3 . An example of such a report is shown in FIG. 5 a . Such a report might e.g. show the advertiser that group B, men between 35 and 50 years old, hardly ever reach beyond level 2 in the information tree. In other words, when users whose user profile satisfies criteria B are exposed to the first level message, they either indicate no interest at that point or they proceed to one of the level two messages only to indicate their lack of interest at that point. In contrast, in this example users satisfying criteria A or criteria C tend to proceed much further in the message tree, e.g. 34% of group A and 28% of group C proceeds beyond level 6 . In this case, the advertiser might decide that he will no longer pay for having his messages displayed to users belonging to group B since they do not seem to be effective, and consequently he removes group B from his list of targeted groups. As a result of this change, the advertiser might also choose to redesign his messages. If some of the options or messages were in whole or part designed primarily with the now removed group B in mind, the advertiser might choose to remove this content and possibly replace it with alternative content. This gives the advertiser a unique way of reacting immediately to user response to his advertising and change his marketing strategy in real time. The price for delivery of messages may be fixed, or based on the size of the presentation. In other words, the advertiser pays the owner or operator of the system according to the present invention a certain amount for each delivery of a message. But according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the price for the first presentation, i.e. the price for having the first message in the information tree transferred, is variable. One alternative is to let the advertisers set the price themselves, above a certain minimum. The messages will then be queued according to this pricing, with advertisers who bid the highest having their messages presented first. In this way, a user whose user profile satisfies the criteria of more than one advertisement or information tree will first be exposed to the first message in the information tree of the advertiser that has made the highest bid in order to reach this user. The bid need not be the same for the different groups specified by the advertiser. Referring back to the previous example this means that the advertiser need not bid the same amount for messages delivered to group A, group B, and group C. Only after the user has indicated that he is no longer interested in receiving messages from this information tree or he has reached the end of the information tree will he receive messages from the next advertiser. Instead of ordering the advertisements in a queue the different information trees can be given different likelihood of being selected based on how high they bid. In the case where a large number of advertisers compete for the attention of the users who might not be on-line for a very long time this might be preferable, because it will make the system interesting also to advertisers that do not have the resources to place their messages at the head of the queue. It will be a matter of choice for the operator of the system to determine what pricing strategy he finds most beneficial. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the user, when presented with the different response alternatives, will be given the choice of being connected to a live operator. If this alternative is chosen, the user will be connected, directly or through the information server, to an operator representing the advertiser. This connection can be in the form of IRC (Internet Relay Chat), or through some other communication means over the network, such as voice or video conference. Referring now to FIG. 6, a preferred embodiment involving computer graphics and/or text to speech technology will be described. According to this embodiment, the text part of the messages in the information tree are run through a text to speech converter that converts the text to a string of phonemes, diphones or some other representation of speech, and this string is forwarded to a speech synthesizer running on the user's computer 2 . Preferably this input is also forwarded to a graphics animation program that presents an animated “talking head”. In this way, in addition to be presented with any graphics or audio information that is part of the message or messages from the advertiser, the text part of the message will be spoken by an animated figure in a particular window on the user's display. In the case where the user has chosen to connect to a live operator through a chat connection, the talking head will speak whatever the operator types in at his computer 1 . The text to speech converter can be running on the user's computer 2 , on the information server 4 or on any other computer connected to the network 3 . In the latter case, the text part of the message is routed by way of the computer running the text to speech converter and then redirected to the user's computer 2 . As already mentioned, the connection from the user's computer to the information server 4 over the network 3 can be handled in the background of whatever session the user is involved in on the network 3 by the user's browser or a plug-in to the user's browser. In a preferred embodiment this browser or plug-in provides additional functionality for communication with the information server 4 . This additional functionality can include access to statistics generated by the information server 4 , the ability to upload, to the information server 4 , information trees and any additional files (graphics, audio, video etc.) that are to be appended to the messages, as well as the ability to enter and change bids regarding how much one is willing to pay for the display of a message. In this way any user 2 who is connected to the network and who is authorized to upload information to the information server 4 can also act as an advertiser 1 . Preferably a chat client is included in this software so that a chat connection between any two users of the system can be established if one of the users has included such an alternative as one of the responses to any of the messages in the information tree that constitutes his advertisement. The present invention has been described by way of an example including a number of advertisers, a number of users and one information server. It will be obvious to one of ordinary skill, however, that a number of variations are possible. The different functions of the information server could for instance be run on different computers, such as one for the database containing the information in the advertisments, one being the communications server connected to the computer network and one handling the statistics and the price information regarding displays of messages. It would furthermore be possible to realize a system wherein the information service provider and the advertiser, or information provider, was one and the same. In other words, it would be possible for the operator who is running the information server to deny access to any external advertisers and only present his own messages, or possibly only present messages he has installed on the information server himself on behalf of other advertisers. It is also possible to combine the presentation of advertisements with other presentations such as news and entertainment.