Abstract:
In an Internet or similar distributed computer network-based information distribution system, a site host includes a totaling element for totaling ratings for articles and advertisements associated with a particular web page. The ratings are generated by each reader after the reader has read the article or advertisement. The ratings are totaled and used to generate a cumulative rating parameter representative of the popularity of the article. Additionally a predetermined relationship is used to derive from said rating parameters to generate a payment amount to be paid to the author of the article.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A. Field of Invention 
     This invention pertains to a web site host and method of operating the same which provides an automatic rating system for some of its contents. The rating system is used to generate a rating indicium which is sent to the content provider and/or to generate a payment therefor. 
     B. Description of the Prior Art 
     Web sites on the Internet are fast becoming the preferred way of providing information to readers. While in the past, a person looking for information had to subscribe to and read numerous magazines and other printed media to obtain certain information, much of the same information is available now on web sites. More particularly, articles covering virtually every facet of the business world as well as information related to relaxation, personal hobbies, vacations and similar subjects related to our private world are being written and published electronically so that they are readily available to any one in the world with a telephone and a PC or a TV set. A major problem that plagues the publishers of such information is how to get paid for the contents being provided. The problem has been solved by providing simultaneously with the information commercial advertisement, using banners or other advertising devices. However another problems that still remains is that it is difficult if not impossible under present conditions to determine whether or not the articles and/or advertisements being provided are satisfactory to the readers. Therefore there is a need in the field of electronic publishing for web page hosting and technique which can collect data from the readers indicative of the perceived quality of its contents. 
     OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the above, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a system for presenting a web site which automatically collects specific qualitative information regarding the contents of the web site, including information concerning associated advertisement. 
     A further objective is to provide a host and which generates automatically a data base accumulating and compiling said information in an easily readable and informative format. 
     Other objectives and advantages of the invention shall become apparent from the following description. An electronic publishing system constructed in accordance with the present invention is used to display data over a computer based distributed network, said data including at least one article and/or advertisement. The system includes a receiving element receiving ratings from a reader evaluating said article and advertisement to generate said ratings, a data storage element receiving and storing information related to a site including at least one article and a plurality of advertisements, said information including said ratings, and a totaling element arranged to total ratings from a plurality of readers to generate rating indicia. The indicia may include, for example, including a combined article rating parameter for said article and/or a combined advertisement rating for said advertisement based on ratings from a plurality of readers. The indicia may further include data indicative of the number of readers who have provided said ratings and the percentage of readers who have rated the articles or advertisements as being, for instance excellent, good, fair or no value. The system described above is used to generate cumulative rating parameters on a host site of a distributed network based multiple computer information distribution system, said hosting an informational page including a plurality of articles and advertisements, by presenting said articles and advertisements to a plurality of readers, receiving from said readers a rating associated with at least one of said articles and advertisements, accumulating the responses from said readers said ratings, generating a cumulative rating parameter for articles and/or advertisements for which responses have been received; and providing said rating parameters to a requester together with associated statistical information. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a web hosting site in accordance with this invention; 
     FIGS. 2 show a typical web page with rating zones in accordance with this invention; 
     FIG. 3 shows a flow chart for the operation of a system in accordance with this invention; 
     FIGS. 4A-C shows a typical table or data base for organizing the ratings for the articles and advertisements associated with the host site; and 
     FIG. 5 shows a flow chart for processing and delivery of the rating information. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 shows a system  10  constructed in accordance with this invention which is essentially a web site server consisting of a microprocessor  12 , a keyboard  14 , a memory  16 , a display  18  and a content input device  20 . The memory  16  is used to save the data required to define a specific site. Each site is typically formed of a plurality of web pages and is defined using HTML or similar format. New content may be added through the content input device  20  which may be a floppy driver, or other similar data transfer device. The site is published through an ISP interface  22  in the usual manner. 
     Memory  16  includes several files, each file defining a web page of the subject site. For example, FIG. 2 shows how a typical page may look to a reader accessing the site. This particular page may describe to the reader how to install a particular piece of hardware on a PC. The page has two distinct zones. The main zone or portion of the page is the text  100  which provides actual content or information required by a reader. This text may include instructions on a computer-related issue, but of course it may include any kind of information, such as, but not restricted to: 
     Travelogues 
     Recipes; 
     Reviews of a book, play, magazine, musical selection or other literary criticism, 
     Actual literature text. 
     Also provided in zone  100  may be other types of information besides text, such as graphics, audio and visual information, etc. a second zone  102  is also provided which consists of advertisements. In fact, zone  102  may include a number of such advertisements, which can be spread around or even be embedded in zone  100 , as at  102 A. In other words the two zones  100 ,  102  need not be completely separated but may overlap in any fashion desired. Moreover, some of the advertisements such as advertisement  104 B may include a link to a different web page. For example, if the content of zone  100  is a travel-related article describing an exotic location, the advertisements may be for an airline providing service to said location. This type of advertisement, as discussed above, may include a hot link so that ‘clicking’ on the advertisement may connect the reader to a web site providing information about fares, flight schedules and/or any other information, which may or may not be related to the location described in the main article of zone  100 . 
     In accordance with this invention, a third type of zone  104 ,  106  is provided which is associated either with the main text of zone  100  or one of the advertisements of zone  102 . These zones are used to invite the reader to provide rating information about the contents of the associated zone. For instance, in the zone  104  associated with zone  100 , the reader is invited to rate the article as being one of “excellent (E)”, “good (G)”, “fair (F)” or “no value (NV).” Importantly, another field provided in zone  104  is a “comment” field. The reader may select this field, and then write messages describing his opinion. 
     Similarly, rating zone  106  associated with advertisement zone  102  is provided to obtain similar information about the respective advertisement. The reader may also be invited to indicate classification (i.e., consumer or travel professional) in the field, as at  106 A. 
     Once the reader provides a rating, this rating is compiled with previous ratings by other readers in a data base stored in memory  16 . 
     FIG. 3 shows details of operation of the system. The system consists of several sites remote from each, interconnected by a computer network system such as the Internet. Three of the sites of the system includes a reader site, a host site and an advertisement site. 
     Starting in step  202 , a reader requests access information related to a subject of interest using ISP  22 . At the host site, the request is received and, in response, information is retrieved from memory  16  (step  203 ) which is descriptive of the pages of the subject site including zones  100 ,  102 ,  104 ,  106 . This information is returned to the reader site where in responses the zones  100 ,  102 ,  104 ,  106  are displayed in standard manner (Step  204 ). 
     In step  206 , the reader reads the information or otherwise accesses it. In step  208  the reader accesses zone  104  and in step  210  he rates the article by selecting one of the appropriate bullets of zone  104 . He may also add comments by selecting the “comment” field as discussed above. Once the reader has indicated his rating, he can select the ‘submit’ button and the rating is transmitted to the site host. At the site host, in step  212  the result of the rating is stored and an acknowledgment screen or message is returned to the reader. This acknowledgment screen or message is displayed in step  214 . 
     In step  216 , the reader accesses one of the advertisement zones  102  and reads the same. If the zone  102  includes a hot key which is activated by the reader, then in step  216 , a message is sent to the advertising site requesting further information. In step  218  the requested additional information is retrieved and transmitted to the reader site. In step  220  the additional information is displayed. 
     In step  222  the reader accesses the associated rating site  106  and rates the advertisement in a manner similar to the article of zone  100 . The rating is sent to the host site where it is stored in step  224 . The host site then returns an acknowledgment. In step  226  the acknowledgment is displayed, and in step  228  the reader signs off from the site. 
     As previously mentioned, after a rating is received, when a request for a rating summary is received or at regular intervals, cumulative rating parameters are calculated for each article and advertisement. For example, the ratings received may be accumulated as follows. A data base is set up for each article and each advertisement. The data base is accumulated as described in the flow chart of FIG.  5 . In step  300  of the flow chart a rating is received, as described in detail in the flow chart of FIG.  3 . This rating may indicate for example that a current reader found an article (for instance, the ‘test Article 1’) to be excellent. Therefore in step  302  the result of this latest rating is accumulated with previous result, in this case by incrementing the count in the cell under the Excellent column in the row for the first article. As part of step  302 , the total number of ratings for this article is summed. 
     Similar data bases are also generated for each of the advertisements. The purpose of these data bases, just like for the articles, is to record and summarize the responses from consumers and industry professionals. 
     In addition, for each rating, a percentage figure is shown indicating how many readers have voted for an article or advertisement as being excellent, etc. 
     Getting back to FIG. 5, in step  304  a check is performed to determine if a request has been received for a rating summary. When such a request has been received, then in step  306  an overall rating for each of the various articles is calculated if not performed before. 
     For example, in FIG. 4A, the test Article 1 received an overall rating of GOOD from a total of 164 voters. In FIG. 4B, the advertisement ‘YOURS in Travel’ received an overall rating “Fair” from a total of 5 voters, 3 of whom (or 60%) were consumers, and 2 (or 40%) were Industry Professionals. 
     The overall rating for each article or ad is calculated as follows. 
     The value of “OR” (overall rating) is obtained by calculating the number of entries in each rating sub-category (excellent, fair, good, or no value) for each article or ad. The percentage of the total is then calculated, then each percentage is run through a set of rules that determine the rating. 
     The rules basically check for any sub-category with the largest percentage. If one is found, that sub-category value is assigned to “OR.” 
     If not found, “equal” status is checked between any two neighboring sub-categories. The value of the higher of the two categories is assigned to “OR.” 
     If not found, either “good” or “fair” is assigned to “OR”, depending on which specific sub categories are found to be “equal.” 
     In step  308  a payment amount is generated for each article. This payment amount may be equal to a preselected base fee multiplied by a special rating parameter R of the corresponding article. 
     For example if the ratings in the respective columns for the subject article are E, G, F, NV then R may be expressed as: 
     
       
         R=W1*E+W2*G+W3*F+W4*NV 
       
     
     where W1, W2, W3 and W4 are preselected weighing factors. Typical values for these parameters may be 1.5, 1, 0, and 0. 
     In step  310  the data bases are sent to the requester, or alternatively, only the total columns and the rating parameters are sent. FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate data collected and tabulated by rating, as well as the background (i.e., consumer/industry pro) of the various readers. 
     In step  312  a check is performed to determine if the data bases are to be reset or edited. If not, normal processing continues. Otherwise in step  314 , a password is requested, (see bottom of FIG. 4C) and if a correct password is entered, the data and/or the format of the data bases can be edited. 
     Although the communication between the requester for the rating data and the host site may be performed in any secure manner, preferably a secure, password enabled Internet access means may be used, in which case, the data bases can be presented in the form of web pages. 
     Moreover, the various page components discussed may be presented to the reader in various forms. For example, instead of being presented co-extensively with zones  100 ,  102 , rating zones  104 ,  106  may be presented pop-up menus. 
     Numerous modifications may be made to this invention without departing from its scope as defined in the appended claims.