Patent Publication Number: US-11665248-B2

Title: Graphical user interface and system for viewing landing page content

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This Application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/283,432, filed Oct. 2, 2016, entitled “GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE AND SYSTEM FOR VIEWING LANDING PAGE CONTENT”, which is a Non-Provisional of Provisional (35 USC 119(e)) of U.S. Application Ser. No. 62/362,413, filed Jul. 14, 2016, entitled “GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE AND SYSTEM FOR VIEWING LANDING PAGE CONTENT”. Application Ser. No. 15/283,432 is a Non-Provisional of Provisional (35 USC 119(e)) of U.S. Application Ser. No. 62/362,428, filed Jul. 14, 2016, entitled “GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE AND SYSTEM FOR VIEWING LANDING PAGE CONTENT”. The entire contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     1. Field of Invention 
     The present disclosure relates generally to Internet technologies, specifically content distribution. 
     2. Discussion of Related Art 
     Internet publishers distribute a variety of content according to business models that range from free, public access to subscription services. Often, in return for displaying free content, Internet publishers will display advertising to web site visitors. Third-party publishers commonly pay publishers for the opportunity to display advertising content to drive user traffic to third-party publisher websites. One approach used to display Internet advertising includes the use of landing page content. Conventional approaches to providing landing page content have included linking, such as with a text or image-based display advertisement, to a landing page. The landing page may be hosted on a publisher&#39;s website, an intermediary website, a mobile application, or a third-party publisher&#39;s application or website. If a landing page is displayed, it may appear in a separate web browser window, as a new tab in an open web browser window, or as a window in a software application. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The inventors have recognized that a limitation of Internet content distribution includes the realization once a landing page is displayed to a user, the user may navigate away from the site that originally displayed the link to the landing page. Generally, the publisher of this first web site retains little control over the user experience on the landing page associated with a second web site. Also, while the conventional model may lead to the display of multiple landing pages, only one landing page may appear at a time. Furthermore, web browser interfaces and tools (e.g., mouse, cursor, and keystrokes) may limit users and their ability to navigate from one landing page to another. 
     Historically, Internet content publishers, including publishers of media, commerce, gaming, and other types of sites, have sought to retain user attention and to discourage users from visiting sites hosted by competing publishers. For example, the New York Times has not historically encouraged site visitors to click through to content hosted by the Washington Post. This has led to an arm&#39;s length relationship between publishers in similar categories, and as a result, content targeting networks have emerged to enable publishers in a category to compete for user attention when those users are visiting other websites. Following the above example, suppose a newspaper has published a series of articles on an upcoming presidential election—in traditional content targeting, the newspaper could bid to display an advertisement to attract the attention of a user engaging in any of the following behaviors: searching for information about presidential candidates on a search engine, visiting a political party website, posting comments to a website, and even while visiting the newspaper&#39;s own website. In content retargeting, a site publisher relies on networks to deliver advertising and other forms of content to site visitors who subsequently visit other sites. 
     Historically, targeted and retargeted network content delivery has been limited to hyperlinked text, Flash animations, and other types of images (e.g. GIF, JPEG, TIF). Also, the targeting and retargeting model has traditionally been focused on retaining users and site visitors. When delivering users and site visitors to landing page content, two models exist: “click-in” and “click-out.” A “click-in” landing page is interactive content that links the user to a landing page within the publisher&#39;s website, for example, where a third-party publisher pays for placing an ad on the publisher&#39;s website. Meanwhile, a “click-out” landing page is a landing page link that links the user to a landing page specified by a third-party publisher (e.g., a web page on an third-party publisher&#39;s website). In low conversion environments, such as where users comparison shop between multiple sites, publishers face challenges in adapting to changing landing page content (e.g. product, pricing, and inventory searches) while preserving a “click-in” experience for the user. 
     Improved methods and systems for Internet content distribution are described herein. According to one aspect the inventors have appreciated that on a typical e-commerce website operated by a publisher, where certain goods and/or services are sold, a vast majority of visitors to the first website do not complete a sales transaction, which is referred to in the art as a “conversion.” In fact, it is realized that a typical e-commerce website has a conversion rate of 3%-5%. Thus, it is appreciated that visitors primarily use some e-commerce websites to browse and research products. For instance, visitors may research product features, price, availability, reviews, and comparison information on many such websites without making any purchases. Often, after acquiring the desired information about a particular product from the website, the user will locate and purchase that product from another source, for example on another website operated by a different publisher or complete the transaction using another channel (e.g., telephone order, brick-and-mortar store). 
     In one example, the user may find that the e-commerce website provides a convenient place to research and/or comparison shop, but once a purchasing decision is made, the user exercises his or her preference for purchasing certain products directly from a manufacturer or a trusted retailer rather than from the publisher. Specifically, a user accesses an online travel service, such as Expedia® online travel website available from Expedia, Inc., to shop for airline tickets, but after locating the desired itinerary and fare, the user ultimately purchases the tickets directly from the airline and not from the Expedia website. In another example, the visitor does not find what he or she is looking for on the first website, and leaves the website without completing a transaction. 
     When no transaction occurs on the website, the publisher receives no transaction revenue from the visitor. According to one aspect, it is appreciated that most e-commerce websites monetize their visitors exclusively, or almost exclusively, through transaction (or sales) revenue. In some instances, a publisher receives a stream of advertising (or media) revenue for serving ads on their website for various goods and services sold by others. The media revenue, if any, is generally used to supplement the transaction revenue. Publishers may employ various approaches to determining when, and if, to display third-party publisher content to a given user. Example approaches, such as hurdle rates, are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,527,341 and 8,527,342, both entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC ADVERTISING,” both filed Jun. 4, 2010, which are both incorporated herein by reference. Also, this application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/793,920 filed Jun. 4, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     The sharing of advertising revenue between various publishers of travel and e-commerce sites creates a context for the present disclosure. According to various aspects of the present disclosure, new user interfaces and associated systems are provided that improve how a website publisher displays content from third-party publishers. In one embodiment, this content may extend beyond advertising messages to include landing pages from third-party publishers. In one implementation, a user may request content from a publisher&#39;s website, and the publisher may provide interface components that open additional windows and/or tabs to display landing page content from various third-party publishers. In another implementation, the publisher may provide components used to display third-party landing page content in a separate navigation window. In yet another aspect, the initial search may originate within a mobile application, and the publisher may display third-party landing pages within the mobile application in a variety of ways. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein each of the respective landing page content is arranged in one or more of the formats comprising the group of: horizontal tabs, vertical tabs, carousel, multi-pane, staggered, or stacked. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein, each respective landing page is presented in one or more of the formats comprising the group of: landing page thumbnail, loaded landing page, landing page icon, or image representing the landing page. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request, and the method further comprises acts of: receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request, and the method further comprises acts of: receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the first content display area is a web page. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area, and wherein the first content display area is a web page. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content; receiving a second content request; identifying, responsive to the second content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the second content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request, and the method further comprises acts of: receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; displaying, within the first content display area, the content; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the second content request, content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; identifying, responsive to the second content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the second content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the second content request, content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; displaying, within the first content display area, the content; identifying, responsive to the second content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the second content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area, wherein a landing page displayed in the second content display area includes at least one initial control capable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a user interacting with an initial control area of a landing page in the second content display area, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the second content request, landing page content from the third-party publisher associated with the landing page; receiving the landing page content from the third-party publisher; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area, wherein the second content display area includes at least one initial control capable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the second content display area, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the second content request, content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area, wherein the second content display area includes at least one initial control capable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the second content display area, a second content request; identifying, responsive to the second content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the second content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; requesting, responsive to the first content request, content from a publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and displaying, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays the respective landing page content from each of the one or more third-party publishers in a second content display area, wherein the second content display area includes at least one initial control capable of accepting a second content request; receiving, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the second content display area, a second content request; requesting, responsive to the second content request, content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; receiving content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; displaying, within the first content display area, the content; identifying, responsive to the second content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the second content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content; observing user interactions in a distributed computer system; deciding, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the first content request and the observed user interactions, to update the presentation interface; identifying, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the first content request and the observed user interactions, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the first content request and the observed user interactions, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content; storing the first content request as a stored content request; terminating a session of the presentation interface displayed within the at least one graphical user interface; deciding to initiate a new session of the presentation interface; identifying, responsive to the stored content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the first content request and the observed user interactions, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method for displaying third-party landing page content includes receiving a first content request; identifying, responsive to the first content request, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to the first content request, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content; observing user interactions in a distributed computer system; storing the first content request as a stored content request; deciding, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the stored content request and the observed user interactions, to update the presentation interface; identifying, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the stored content request and the observed user interactions, one or more third-party publishers from which to request landing page content; requesting, responsive to at least one of the group comprising: the stored content request and the observed user interactions, respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; receiving the respective landing page content from each of the identified one or more third-party publishers; and displaying within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the respective landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprising a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the landing page content is arranged in one or more of the formats comprising the group of: horizontal tabs, vertical tabs, carousel, multi-pane, staggered, or stacked. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the landing page content is arranged in one or more of the formats comprising the group of: landing page thumbnail, loaded landing page, landing page icon, or image representing the landing page. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and display, within the first content display area, the content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; and display, within the second content display area, the landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the first content display area is a web page. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and display, within the first content display area, the content, wherein the first content display area is a web page. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the second content request; and display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and display, within the first content display area, the content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; display, within the second content display area, the landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the second content request; and display, within the second display area, the landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; display, within the second content display area, the landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; receive landing page content responsive to the second content request; and display, within the second display area, the landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; display, within the second content display area, the landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; receive landing page content responsive to the second content request; and display, within the second display area, the landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; display, within the second content display area, the landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with an initial control area of a landing page in the second content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; and display, within the first content display area, the content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; display, within the second content display area, the landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with an initial control area of a landing page in the second content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the second content request; and display, within the second display area, the landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises a first content display area having an initial control that accepts the first content request and a second content display area; accept, from a user interacting with the initial control area of the first content display area, the first content request; transmit the first content request to a publisher associated with the first content display area; receive the content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; display, within the second content display area, the landing page content; accept, from a user interacting with an initial control area of a landing page in the second content display area, a second content request; transmit the second content request to a publishing platform; receive content from the publisher associated with the first content display area; display, within the first content display area, the content; receive landing page content responsive to the second content request; and display, within the second display area, the landing page content. 
     According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a distributed computer system comprises a client component configured to accept a first content request; transmit the first content request to a publishing platform; receive landing page content responsive to the first content request; display within a portion of at least one graphical user interface a presentation interface comprising a representation of the received landing page content; and observe user interactions in a distributed computer system. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings are not drawn to scale. In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. In the drawings: 
         FIG.  1 A  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  1 B  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  1 C  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    is an exemplary system diagram in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  3    is an exemplary system architecture diagram in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  4    illustrates an exemplary process for delivering landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5 A  illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5 B  illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5 C  illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5 D  illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5 E  illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  6 A  illustrates an exemplary interface for depicting landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  6 B  illustrates an exemplary interface for depicting landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  6 C  illustrates an exemplary interface for depicting landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  7    illustrates an exemplary interface for displaying an initial control in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  8    illustrates an exemplary process for delivering landing page content in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG.  9    is an exemplary system diagram in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION 
     Embodiments of this invention are not limited in their application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. Embodiments of the invention are capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. 
     As discussed herein, a “content request” may include user-driven searches for content (e.g. by a user interacting with a search box, controls, sliders, buttons, and other tools within a user interface), user actions (e.g. clicking on links, tags, and other interactive material), saved search for content from prior sessions, a prior search refreshed after a specified time, searches driven by applications and rules (e.g. behavioral, contextual, or other targeting software), searches driven by predictions or predictive software algorithms, or any other command or action by a person or a machine intended to retrieve content from an interactive site. In some embodiments, a content request may take the form of a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) request to a web server. 
     As discussed herein, a “landing page presentation interface” displays representations of one or more landing pages from various websites. The landing pages may be requested with custom Uniform Resource Locator (URL) information communicated over HTTP that passes a content request to a website publishing platform. The landing page may be presented in a variety of manners, including but not limited to: as a web page employing Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), as a display rendered in a user interface, and as an application on a mobile computing device. 
     As discussed herein, a “publisher” may publish a website (e.g. a travel or e-commerce website), a mobile application environment, or any other interactive content available over a network. The publisher may sell advertising or may employ content delivery networks (e.g. advertising networks) in order to deliver website and other interactive content to users. A publisher may offer to sell content delivery services, such as advertising. Interactive and web content may be delivered as a landing page. As it relates to the publisher of a website, the term “third-party publisher” may include other websites, other mobile applications, other gaming sites, and other interactive publishers that may barter for, trade, share, or purchase content delivery services (e.g. advertising, landing pages, and the like) from the publisher. 
     As discussed herein, a “website” may include any number of interactive content sites available on the Internet or other electronic network. Websites may be constructed using a variety of languages and protocols, including HTML, the JavaScript programming language, extensible markup language (XML), asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), JavaScript Object Notation with padding (JSONP), and others. Users may interact with websites with a web browser or a dedicated software application (e.g. a mobile application). 
     As discussed herein the terms “publishing platform” and “publishing system” refer broadly to interactive online platforms for content management, decision processes, and delivery. A “publishing platform” or “publishing system” may include web servers, content servers, caching systems, advertising servers, advertising networks, content delivery networks, and so forth as operated by a variety of parties. The terms “publishing platform” and “publishing system” are not intended to be limiting or to refer to operation by a single entity, such as a publisher, and more than one entity (e.g. multiple publishers) may operate within a single “publishing platform” or “publishing system.” 
     Landing Pages 
     According to an aspect, various embodiments of systems and methods disclosed herein address a variety of “landing page” models. A landing page is a web page that is displayed as the result of a content request, such as when a user selects (e.g., by “clicking on” with a pointing device such as a mouse) a content link displayed within the webpage. According to another aspect, the content request may result from an application or software running within a distributed computing system. 
     A “click-in” landing page includes content that links the user to a landing page within the publisher&#39;s website, for example, where a third party (e.g. a third-party publisher wishing to drive user traffic to a website) pays for placing content on the publisher&#39;s website. A publisher and/or a third-party publisher may provide the content (or creative content) of the click-in landing page. For example, if a user clicks on the linked content for flat screen TVs, the user may be presented with a new web page within the publisher&#39;s website listing flat screen TVs from a specific manufacturer for sale. In this case the manufacturer (i.e., third-party publisher) may be considered a paid sponsor of the landing page. 
     A “click-out” landing page includes interactive content that links the user to a landing page specified by a third-party publisher (e.g., a web page on an third-party publisher&#39;s website). For example, a user may search for “red shoes” on a shopping website and may see an ad for red shoes at Zappos.com—if the user clicks on the Zappos interactive content, he or she may be redirected to a landing page at Zappos.com responsive to the search for “red shoes.” 
     A landing page may be “pre loaded” in that a publisher, an intermediary network, or another party may load a landing page into a display for presentation instead of a traditional text or image link. For example, instead of a text link indicating “Search for red shoes at Zappos” or an image link showing a red shoe above the Zappos logo, with both links pointing to a landing page at the Zappos site, according to one aspect of the present disclosure, a pre-loaded landing page may include an icon representing the landing page, a thumbnail image of the landing page as delivered, or a full version of the landing page presented in either the same or a separate display area. Conventionally, this type of landing page content has been displayed either in a separate tab or a popout window within a web browser. 
     The inventors have recognized, among other things, that a key challenge for content publishers may include presenting “click-out” landing pages in a “click-in” model. The technical challenge is for publishers to retain control over user attention in an interactive (e.g. web or Internet) computing environment as the publisher displays content, such as landing pages, from competing third-party publishers. As with traditional “click-in” approaches, the landing pages may be displayed by the publisher or by an intermediary network, such as a content delivery network or an advertising network. The “click-in” landing pages may be presented in formats that enable a publisher to offer additional features and capabilities, potentially at a premium, to third parties. A publisher may be able to charge third-party publishers more for a “click-in” landing page displayed in a custom navigation window or interface. 
     According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a new user interface is provided that permits more efficient user interaction with third-party provided content. For instance, the interface may provide a control that permits the user to more efficiently navigate through landing page content from multiple third-party publishers. Such content may be loaded responsive to a single action (e.g., a search on the publisher&#39;s website or an action taken by a user within the user interface). Further, the landing page content may be periodically updated based on a single user action performed in association with anyone of the landing page content sets. For instance, a user action in one landing page content window may cause the others to be updated (e.g., in the case of travel search, search parameters may be used to generate updated landing page content within each of the landing page content sets). Because less user interaction is required to update content, the interface is easier and more efficient for a user to operate. 
     System Overview 
     According to one aspect of the present invention, a system and method enables a publisher to display landing pages, from third-party publishers, in a display area. As discussed above, a problem unique to Internet publishers is that low conversion rates (e.g., in the 3%-5% range) and other user valuation metrics lead many publishers to display content from third-party publishers (e.g., links to landing pages and other forms of landing page content as discussed herein) to generate additional revenue. 
     According to one embodiment, the presented landing pages may include, among other things, depictions of landing pages, thumbnails, icons, and fully-loaded landing page content. According to one embodiment, the landing pages may be presented in a variety of formats, including: horizontal tabs, vertical tabs, carousel, multi-pane, staggered, stacked, and so forth as well as any combination thereof. In various embodiments, improved interfaces are provided for presenting and updating landing page content. 
     According to one embodiment, a user may specifically request content from a publisher. In other embodiments, the system and method may enable a publisher to display content and/or third-party landing pages without requiring a user to directly request content, such as in publishing systems employing behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, retargeting, and other approaches. In yet other embodiments, an earlier content search may be coupled with other content targeting approaches to load landing pages. 
     In various embodiments, landing page content may be refreshed under a variety of circumstances. For example, if a user is inactive or is visiting other sites for a period of time, a publisher may refresh the third-party landing pages to accommodate for the user&#39;s activities or to simply provide updated content, pricing information, and the like. Thus, according to various embodiments, the refreshing of third party landing pages may allow the interface to be more user-friendly and operate more efficiently requiring less user input. In some embodiments, a second content request on the publisher&#39;s site may lead to updates on the third-party landing pages. In yet other embodiments, a user may request new content on one of the third-party landing pages, and a publisher or a user may elect to update the displayed landing pages from the other third-party sites. In embodiments, with each new content request, a publisher decision engine may elect which third-party landing pages, if any, to update and display. In some further embodiments a publisher or a user may opt to close landing pages from previously-presented third-party publishers and may select different third-party publishers from which to request landing page content. 
     According to one embodiment, a publisher may observe or track user behavior. The tracked user behavior may include: interactions in a distributed computing environment, interactions with controls and links within a graphical user interface, alphanumeric inputs, spoken inputs, user activity and timeouts, and so forth. In a further embodiment, a user may specify the behavior of a landing page display, including the layout of the landing pages, the mode of user interaction (e.g. tabs, carousel, stacked, and so forth), timeouts, refreshes, preferred third-party publishers, and so forth. 
       FIGS.  1 A,  1 B and  1 C  illustrate a schematic overview of exemplary systems according to embodiments of the disclosure. Shown is an interface of a client computer  101 A,  101 B or  101 C, such as a web browser, a publisher  103 A,  103 B or  103 C of a travel website, a publishing platform  105 A,  105 B or  105 C, and a third-party publisher  107 A,  107 B or  107 C, such as another travel website. Publishing platform  105 A,  105 B or  105 C may be a computer server or a distributed computer system on which various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented, including, but not limited to, presenting display areas and control interfaces to users, processing content requests, deciding which third-party publishers from which to request content, requesting third-party content, assembling landing pages from one or more third-party publishers, and presenting landing pages to a user in a display area. In some embodiments, based upon an interaction with a publishing platform  105 A,  105 B or  105 C the interface  101 A,  101 B or  101 C may request landing page content directly from one or more third-party publishers, open a display interface, assemble landing pages from one or more third-party publishers, and/or present the landing pages to a user in a display area. 
     There may be more than one interface  101 A,  101 B or  101 C, associated with a publisher  103 A-C, and one or more third-party publishers  107 A-C. Publisher  103 A,  103 B or  103 C provides one or more web pages (not shown) to a user through interface  101 A,  101 B or  101 C. For example, the user interacts with the publisher&#39;s  103 A,  103 B or  103 C travel website through the user interface to make a content request, such as for information about airline schedules, ticket prices, hotel room availability, or other item, by providing search terms  110 A,  110 B or  110 C. The publisher  103 A,  103 B or  103 C may also, or alternatively, collect other information about or from the user. This information may be used to determine potential content requests with or without the user entering search terms  110 A,  110 B or  110 C. Such information may relate to the user&#39;s intent to purchase airline tickets on a specific day, or to a specific city, or other similar travel-related details. For example, user information may also be based on user entry onto a site a specific time, or user information may be derived from a user&#39;s prior behavior or other predictive criteria associated with a user. It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to travel products but may include any products sold, advertised, or distributed through electronic commerce or other electronic sites. 
     Requesting Content from a Publisher 
     According to one embodiment as shown in  FIG.  1 A , a user may rely on an interface  101 A to interact with a publisher  103 A website that may incorporate a publishing platform  105 A. The website may be hosted by the publisher  103 A or may be resident within the publishing platform  105 A. The publishing platform addresses many of the higher-level functions associated with serving content and advertising, as well as deciding which content to display. The website may be built using a variety of technologies, including, but not limited to, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax and others. The website may comprise a variety of components hosted by numerous parties, such as web servers, ad servers, advertising networks, content delivery networks, distributed web services platforms (e.g. Amazon Web Services), and so forth. In some embodiments, the publisher  103 A and the publishing platform  105 A are one and the same. In other embodiments, the publisher  103 A and the publishing platform  105 A are distinct, may be operated by different parties, and may be in different physical locations. In yet other embodiments, the publishing platform  105 A may include web hosting and cloud computing resources, and the publishing platform  105 A may include a variety of content services from publishers as well as third-party publishers. 
     The user may request content—usually in the form of an HTTP or HTTPS request—such as by entering search terms  110 A or other information. The publisher  103 A sends the content request  112 A to publishing platform  105 A, which uses the content request  112 A to find the relevant content  114 A on the publishing platform. The interface  101 A may also request the content directly from the publishing platform  105 A. 
     The publishing platform  105 A then displays the requested content in a web page  116 A within the user interface  101 A. According to one embodiment, the publisher  103 A may generate a content request  112 A based upon a number of criteria, including, but not limited to, user behavior and actions on the publisher&#39;s website. According to another embodiment, the user may not enter search terms  110 A and the search terms may populate automatically. For example, if a user purchases an airline ticket on the publisher&#39;s website, the content request  112 A may include a search for hotel rooms in the destination city on the days the user expects to travel to that city. 
       FIGS.  1 B and  1 C  also demonstrate similar content requests  112 B or  112 C based upon entering search terms  110 B or  110 C in a user interface  101 B or  101 C such as a web browser. The publishing platform  105 B or  105 C locates and presents content results  114 B or  114 C and displays the publisher&#39;s content to the user  116 B or  116 C, in the interface  101 B or  101 C. 
     Requesting Content from Third-Party Publishers 
     Various client-based and server-based approaches exist for requesting content from third-party publishers. Therefore, according to various embodiments, various aspects of the invention may operate using different architecture. An embodiment employing a server architecture is shown in  FIG.  1 A ; embodiments employing client-based architectures are illustrated in  FIGS.  1 B and  1 C . 
     For example, in  FIG.  1 A , given the content request  112 A, the publishing platform may determine  118 A from which, if any, third-party publishers to request landing page content. This decision  118 A may incorporate a variety of inputs, including but not limited to: preferences and bids from third-party publishers  107 A, advertising tags, adservers, and so forth. 
     If the publishing platform  105 A determines  118 A to request third-party landing pages, the publishing platform  105 A then requests content from the selected third-party publishers  120 A. In order to process the content request, the publishing platform  105 A may determine an appropriate Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a given content request from a given third-party publisher  107 A. The third-party publisher  107 A, processes the request, locates third-party landing page content  122 A, and presents the content to the publishing platform  105 A, which then assembles the respective third-party landing page content  124 A in a format for delivery to the user in a navigation window of the interface  101 A. The publishing platform  105 A may control the assembly and delivery of landing pages  124 A, or this function may occur within the browser  126 B, with reference to  FIG.  1 B  to be discussed below. 
       FIG.  1 B  illustrates a schematic overview of an exemplary system according to embodiments of the disclosure. The publisher content request  112 B is displayed to a user  116 B based upon search terms  110 B entered by a user or another party as discussed above.  FIG.  1 B  differs from  FIGS.  1 A &amp;  1 C  in that the interface  101 B is directly involved in requesting landing page content. At some point in time, before, after, or during the content request  112 B from the publisher, the interface  101 B may also communicate directly with the publishing platform  105 B, which may be operated by the publisher, an intermediary content delivery or advertising network, third-party publishers, or combinations of entities, to decide which third-party publishers to request landing page content from  118 B. 
     In one embodiment, when the publisher content is displayed to the user  116 B, that content may include a tag (e.g. a content delivery or an advertising tag) in the HTML and JavaScript content delivered to the interface  101 B (e.g. a web browser). In other embodiments, the tag may originate in the direct communication between the interface  101 B and the publishing platform  105 B. The content delivery or advertising tag may then be triggered by an event (e.g. an end user action, an action by an application, and so forth) to invoke, instantiate, or open a window within the interface  101 B. In some embodiments, the window may be opened within an already-open first display window. In other embodiments, the window may be opened in a second display window. 
     The interface  101 B may then load necessary code (e.g. HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, etc.) to display in the manners discussed herein as referenced in  FIGS.  5 A-E ,  FIGS.  6 A-C , and  FIG.  7   , below. For example, a user may perform a search in a website, and a publisher may present content in a new page within the browser window. The publisher may also display an additional navigation window for presenting landing pages from third-party publishers. The third-party landing page navigation window may include landing pages, or it may include an interface (e.g. check boxes) so that the user may request landing pages from specific third-party publishers. 
     The interface  101 B may request landing page content, for example by using JavaScript to construct an HTTP or HTTPS request for third-party landing page content. Within the publishing platform  105 B, an aspect may include a content delivery network or an advertising network that may receive the request for third-party landing page content  120 B, and after performing business logic to determine which third-party publishers to request content from  118 B, the content delivery or advertising network may format the request  120 B for landing page content by determining appropriate URL formats for specific third-party publishers. In  FIG.  1 B , the publishing platform  105 B may (e.g. using HTML, JSON, and JSONP) pass formatted URLs to the interface  101 A which then requests the landing page content from third-party publishers  120 B.  FIG.  1 B  shows an embodiment in which the request  120 B is contained within the publishing platform  105 B; in other embodiments, the publishing platform  105 B may include webserving capabilities for a third-party publisher; and in other embodiments, the request  120 B may occur outside the publishing platform  105 B and may instead be a direct communication between the interface  101 B and a third-party publisher  107 B. 
     The third-party publisher  107 B may then locate and present landing page content  122 B and communicate directly with the interface  101 B and display third-party landing pages to the user  126 B. There may be any number of third party publishers  107 B. 
       FIG.  1 C  illustrates a schematic overview of an exemplary system according to embodiments of the disclosure. The functions of the publishing platform  105 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A , above, is split between a publishing platform  105 C and a content delivery platform  109 C, such as a content delivery server or an advertising server. The publishing platform  105 C may communicate with the content delivery platform  109 C through an application programming interface (API) in addition to HTTP, HTTPS, JavaScript, Ajax and other protocols. The user may enter search terms  110 C, which are either communicated to the content delivery platform  109 C directly by the interface  101 C or through the API from the publishing platform  105 C. At  118 C, the content delivery platform  109 C decides which third-party publishers to request landing page content from. At  120 C, the content delivery platform  109 C requests landing page content from third-party publishers  107 C. The content delivery platform  109 C may request the landing page content from the third-party publisher  107 C by rendering the request in a custom URL format tailored to pass the search terms to the publisher in a format that the third-party publisher&#39;s  107 C platform will recognize. In other embodiments, the interface  101 C may, directly request landing page content  120 C from third-party publisher as shown by  120 B as discussed in reference to  FIG.  1 B  above. 
     Once the third-party publisher  107 C has located the landing page content, it may present  122 C the landing page content directly to the interface  101 C where the third-party landing pages are displayed  126 C to the user. 
       FIG.  2    illustrates various interactions of an exemplary system according to various embodiments of the disclosure. In comparison to the embodiments shown in  FIG.  1   ,  FIG.  2    further demonstrates a system including multiple third-party publishers  206  that may deliver landing page content as presented to a user by a display  200 . Display  200 , publishing platform  204 , and third-party publisher  206  may each include, respectively, display  101 A,  101 B or  101 C, publisher  103 A,  103 B or  103 C publishing platform  105 A,  105 B or  105 C, content delivery platform  109 C, and third-party publisher  107 A,  107 B or  107 C as referenced in  FIGS.  1 A-C , above. 
     As shown, the display  200  presents one or more display areas. First, display  200  provides publisher content  201 , for example, one or more web pages, which may be viewed within a web browser operating on a client computer of a user (not shown). Second, display  200  also provides third-party landing pages  203 , which may be viewed within a web browser operating on client computer of a user (not shown). The third-party landing pages  203  may also be viewed in another display area. Publisher content  201  and third-party landing pages  203  may be presented in a display  200  that may include interface  101 A-C as referenced in  FIGS.  1 A-C , above. 
     Also, as discussed with reference to  FIGS.  1 A-C  above, those skilled in the art will recognize that the interaction between the display  200 , publishing platform  204 , and third-party publishers  206  is not fixed, and the display  200  may communicate directly with a third-party publisher  206  to request and receive landing page content. In some embodiments, the request by the display  200  may be informed by an interaction with the publishing platform  204 . 
     A publishing platform  204  includes a system  205  for delivering content in an online environment. System  205  may include, but is not limited to, an online auction for providing access to display  200  from one or more third-party publishers  206 . System  205  may also include one or more components adapted to identify and serve content including landing pages  207  to display  200  to be displayed to a visitor viewing the web pages. Third-party publishers  206  provide one or more landing pages  207  to system  205  for display to a user within a device display. Also, the system  205  may include a publishing platform  105 C and a content delivery platform  109 C as referenced in  FIG.  1 C  above. 
     In one embodiment, system  205  determines and serves, based on criteria that may include, but is not limited to: a content request, observed user behavior, or user-generated information from display  200 , appropriate third-party publishers  206  from which to request respective third-party landing pages  207  to be displayed in addition to publisher content  201 . 
     Exemplary System Architecture 
       FIG.  3    shows an architecture diagram of an example system  300  according to one embodiment of the invention. System  300  may, for instance, be one implementation of the system discussed above with reference to  FIG.  2   . It should be appreciated that  FIG.  3    is used for illustration purposes only, and that other architectures may also be used to facilitate one or more aspects of the present invention. 
     As shown in  FIG.  3   , a distributed system  300  may be used to display one or more web pages and landing pages to a user within a travel site. According to one embodiment, system  300  may include one or more components that operate in cooperation with the travel site. The components may include one or more client systems  302  and a publishing system  304 . For example, these components may execute on one or more computer systems associated with or interconnected to a publisher of a travel site. System  300  may include one or more processes that respond to requests from one or more client programs, such as a web browser or a mobile application. Process may include, for example, an HTTP server or other server-based process (e.g., a database server process, XML server, peer-to-peer process) that interfaces to one or more client programs distributed among one or more client systems. One or more third-party publishers  306  may interact with publishing system  304  to present landing page content to a display on a client system  302 . 
     According to one embodiment, one or more client systems  302  may be capable of displaying web browsers and landing pages to users. The client systems  302  may include, for example, any type of operating system and/or application program capable of communicating with other computer systems through a communication network, such as the Internet. In one particular instance, the client system  302  may include a browser application program that communicates with one or more server processes using one or more communication protocols (e.g., HTTP over a TCP/IP-based network, XML requests using HTTP through an Ajax client process, distributed objects, etc.). 
     The client system  302  may include one or more interfaces  310  through which web pages may be presented to the user. In one example, web pages may be presented in an interface of a browser program executing on a client computer system. The client system  302  may also include a navigator interface  312  for displaying multiple landing pages from third-party publishers. In one embodiment, the navigator interface  312  may be displayed in an interface associated with a publisher web site within an interface  310  of the browser program. 
     According to another embodiment, the publishing system  304  receives one or more content requests  314  from a publisher through the client system  302 , and one or more landing pages  318  from one or more third-party publishers  306 . The publishing system  304  serves requested content to a publisher, which in turn displays the requested content to user through, for example, interface  310 . The publishing system  304  also serves third-party landing pages to the publisher, which in turn displays the third-party landing pages to a user through, for example, navigator interface  312 . The publishing system  304  may include the following components: a web engine  320 , a content management engine  322 , a decision engine  324 , and a landing page presentation engine  326 . The publishing system  304  also includes, a web publishing database  330 , a content management database  332 , and a decision database  334 . 
     In various embodiments, different structures, may perform the role of a state machine, monitoring application state as it relates to user activity, inputs and so forth with respect to the display interfaces. In some embodiments, this also relates to re-displaying searches, and updating search information from one landing page to another. In some embodiments, the publishing system  304  may include the publishing platform  105 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A  above. Because the publishing platform  105 A presents landing page content to the user, the publishing platform  105 A may monitor user behavior on specific landing pages and provide updates to other landing pages from third-party publishers as well as the first display window associated with a publisher. 
     In some embodiments, the task of maintaining application state may fall to the client system  302 , the publishing system  304 , or a combination of the two. For example, the publishing system  304  may include the publishing platform  105 B as referenced in  FIG.  1 B  above. While third-party publishers  107 B display respective landing pages to user  126 B, the interface  101 B receives communication, from the publishing platform  105 B, that may include instructions to open a display interface for landing page content. The publishing platform  105 B decides which third-party publishers to request content from  118 B, and then establishes communication with the interface  101 B, which may include sending landing page URLs to use when the interface  101 B directly requests landing page content from third-party publishers  120 B. 
     In yet other embodiments, the publishing system  304  may include the publishing platform  105 C and content delivery platform  109 C as referenced in  FIG.  1 C , above. Here, the content delivery platform  109 C may play as similar role to the publishing platform  105 B as referenced in  FIG.  1 B , above, and the content delivery platform  109 C may monitor application state, the client system  302  may monitor application state, or the two structure may share various aspects of this task. 
     As will be described in greater detail below, the web engine  320  processes content requests  314  and searches the web publishing database  330  for the requested content and presents it to the publisher, which presents the requested content to the client system  302  for display in the interface  310 . The web engine  320  also translates the content request  314  and passes the request to the content management engine  322 , which searches the content management database  332  to determine what information to present to the user through the interface  310  and what types of landing page content to request, if any, from a third-party publisher  306 . According to one embodiment, the content management engine  322  may incorporate or respond to content management or advertising serving (adserving) code resident on the web page or the web site as referenced in the web engine  320 . Possible methods for incorporating adserving code include tag managers, ad servers, or other content management systems. According to one embodiment, the web engine  320  may observe various user behaviors, as a user interacts with the publisher&#39;s site and may pass that information to the content management engine  322 , which the content management engine  322  may then store in the content management database  332 . 
     According to one embodiment, the content management engine  322  and content management database  332  may incorporate observed user behaviors, user preferences, prior user content requests, as well as targeting and retargeting capabilities. In one example, a user may specify which third-party publishers he or she prefers to visit. In another example, the content management database  332  may contain information about users and their activities, including content requests, and the content management engine  322  may pass a saved content request to the web engine  320  so that a returning user may see an interface  310  displaying the results of an earlier content request. According to one embodiment, the content management engine  322  may connect to a retargeting platform or an advertising network. 
     The content management engine  322  translates requests and passes them to the decision engine  324 , which determines from which third-party publishers  306  to request landing page content  316 . At the publisher&#39;s option, the decision engine  324  is also capable of dynamically suppressing landing page content for any particular page view, such as when a user is forecasted as highly likely to purchase on the current site. In one embodiment, when the user is determined likely to purchase an item, the system is adapted to suppress competing landing page content from any third-party publisher. 
     The decision engine  324  operates in conjunction with the decision engine database  334  to employ predictive models to compute the expected transaction value associated with a current page view, factoring a number of runtime attributes, including a calculation of user intent, landing page bids, other preferences shared by third-party publishers  306 , and other factors. The decision engine  324  may include one or more of the following sub-systems: a proprietary adserver (or equivalent) built by the publisher; a 3rd party adserver (or equivalent) that a publisher is licensing for their own use; an adserver (or equivalent) offered by an advertising network or advertising platform; or an adserver (or equivalent) offered by an ad exchange; or some other equivalent component. Ultimately, the decision engine  324  is responsible for making sure third-party publishers  306  are matched to landing page content requests  314  and  316  according to all the constraints of the publishing system  304 , making sure that users receive optimal landing page content, based on system optimization functions. The decision engine  324  may also use an auction, or another algorithm, to determine which landing page content to request. 
     The decision database  334  may include information about third-party publishers, landing page inventory, potential bids for landing page displays, and so forth. The decision engine  324  may incorporate this information, among other things, in determining from which third-party publisher  306  to request  316  landing page content  318 . The request may take the form of a custom URL that passes content request data to a third-party publisher  306 . 
     The publishing system  304  receives landing page content  318  from a third-party publisher  306  and assembles, within the landing page presentation engine  326 , landing page content for presentation to the publisher. The publisher then passes the formatted landing page content to the client system  302  for presentation in the navigator interface  312 . The landing page presentation engine  326  may include various web servers, content delivery servers, advertising servers, and so forth, and various parties may control various aspects of the landing page presentation engine  326 . In some embodiments, such as those illustrated in  FIG.  1 A , above, the landing page presentation engine  326  may be within the control of a publisher. In other embodiments, such as those illustrated in  FIGS.  1 B and  1 C , above, the landing page presentation engine  326  may include a web server operated by a third-party publisher, with each landing page presented to the client system  302  and rendered as a web page within the presentation interface such as a web browser. 
     Exemplary Method 
       FIG.  4    shows one embodiment of a process for delivering landing pages  400 . Process  400  may be, for instance, one implementation of system  300  as discussed above with reference to  FIG.  3   . Process  400  begins at start block  402 . At block  404  the publisher of a travel website receives a content request. According to one embodiment, the content request may come from a user interacting with a browser  310  on a client system  302  as referenced in  FIG.  3   , above. According to another embodiment, the content request may come from a content management engine  322 , also referenced in  FIG.  3    above, responding to a set of rules defined by a publisher. For example, a publisher may determine a set of behaviors suggesting an intent to purchase a hotel room—the publisher may implement a rule at that decision point to request content related to rental cars and to display that content along with the hotel reservation information. For instance, the content may be displayed in a separate window, below the content, or in any other window and/or orientation with the display. Block  404  initiates two steps indicated by block  406  and block  412 . 
     At block  406 , the publishing system accepts the content request and searches for content on, for example, the web engine  320  and web publishing database  330  as referenced in  FIG.  3   , above. At block  408 , the publishing system determines which, of the requested and retrieved content, to present to the user. The decision at block  408  may incorporate intelligence, such as behavioral and contextual inputs, targeting, retargeting, and network information available from the content management engine  322  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. At block  410 , the publishing system presents content to a user in a display, such as a web page as shown in browser  310  on a client system  302  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. 
     At block  412 , as initiated by block  406 , the publishing system determines whether to request landing page content from one or more of a number of third-party publishers. According to one embodiment, the third-party publishers may be travel websites on which a user may be comparison shopping for an airline ticket. The step at block  412  may be performed by decision engine  324  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. Once the publishing system has determined from which third-party publishers to request landing page content, at block  414 , that request is passed to each of the respective third-party publishers, either: (a) directly, by contacting each third-party publisher, (b) indirectly, by contacting an intermediary network, such as an advertising network; or (c) directly by processing HTTP requests from a client, such as a client system  302  or a browser  310  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. 
     At block  416 , the publishing system receives landing page content from third-party publishers. At block  418 , the publishing system assembles landing page content for presentation in a display area, such as navigator interface  312  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. At block  420 , the publishing system passes the landing page content to the publisher, which presents the landing page content, such as that contained within navigator interface  312 , to the user. The steps at  416 ,  418 , and  420  may each be performed by a structure such as landing page presentation engine  326  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. 
     At block  422 , process  400  ends. 
     It is worth noting that, as discussed with reference to  FIGS.  1 A-C  and  FIG.  3   , above, other structures, including client software, web browsers and the like may also perform steps of process  400  as described in  FIG.  4   . 
     Presentation of Landing Pages 
     The inventors have recognized that the presentation of landing page content is important in comparison shopping, because only 3-5% of users buy in a given session, and even minor improvements in shopper conversion can lead to tremendous benefits for publishers. In comparison to conventional approaches (e.g. browser windows and tabs), the inventors have recognized an opportunity to make it easier for users to view and navigate multiple landing pages at once. 
     According to one embodiment, landing page content from one or more third-party publishers may be rendered in a browser window, such as the browser window from which a user makes a content request. According to another embodiment, landing page content may be rendered as an overlay or a lightbox display. According to one embodiment, landing page content may be displayed in a second display area, and in embodiments, the display area may be presented in front of or behind the first display area (e.g. the window from which the user made the original content request). In another embodiment, landing page content may be displayed in a new browser tab or window. In yet another embodiment, when user focus is on a publisher web page, landing page content may be displayed separately in focus or out of focus with respect to a user, and the landing page presentation interface may receive user input (e.g. selection with a cursor, keyboard input, or text entry). In a further embodiment, when user focus is on a landing page provided by a third-party content provider, landing page content from other third-party content providers may be displayed as a representation of a landing page within the presentation interface. In one embodiment, landing page content may be displayed as one or more fully-loaded landing pages. 
     According to one embodiment, a user may specify how third-party landing page content displays. According to another embodiment, a user may specify from which third-party publishers a publisher should request landing page content. According to another embodiment, various third-party publishers may specify how (e.g. in a popover or popunder browser window) landing page content is displayed. 
     According to one embodiment, a user may interact with a landing page in a display, and as a result of that interaction, the landing page may subsequently display in a dedicated display area, such as a browser tab or a dedicated browser window (e.g., a popout window). 
     Additional embodiments addressing the presentation and display of landing page content are discussed below. 
       FIGS.  5 A- 5 E  show various embodiments of landing pages arrayed in a display area.  FIGS.  5 A,  5 B,  5 D and  5 E  show three landing pages, and  FIG.  5 C  shows four landing pages; however any number of landing pages is possible in any of the display areas shown in FIGS. SA- 5 E. According to one embodiment, a user makes a first content request in a first display window (e.g. a web browser) associated with a publisher (e.g. a publisher of a web site). Upon receiving this content request, the publisher decides, as discussed in the exemplary method as referenced in  FIG.  4   , above, whether to display landing page content from third-party publishers. The publisher, the publishing platform, an intermediary network (e.g. a content delivery network or an advertising network), or a user then selects the third-party publishers from which to request landing page content. Upon receipt of landing page content, the publisher, or an intermediary such as a network (e.g. a content delivery network, an advertising network) arranges the landing pages for presentation in a variety of array formats. Landing page content may be displayed in the first display area or a second display area as described above. Notably, the landing page content is derived from multiple third-party publishers is presented within a navigation area that makes it easier for users to view alternate content that is updated in real-time. 
       FIG.  5 A  depicts an embodiment of a display area  500 A with landing pages arrayed in a carousel format in which a user may rotate through the available landing pages  501 A,  502 A, and  503 A by gesturing with a mouse, finger, or other element. In comparison to conventional approaches, which often limit display to a single browser or tab, the carousel display offers the benefit of allowing a user to see multiple landing pages while focusing on a specific one. The user may also rotate through the landing pages by selecting an arrow button  510 A at either side of the display. As shown in  FIG.  5 A , landing page  502 A is displayed in the center of the carousel and is the current focus of the user&#39;s attention. 
       FIG.  5 B  depicts an embodiment of a display area  500 B with landing pages arrayed in a tiled or multi-pane format in which a user sees one or more landing pages  501 B,  502 B, and  503 B in a set of vertical or horizontal panes inside the browser window. In comparison to conventional approaches, which often limit display to a single browser or tab, the tiled or multi-pane display offers the benefit of allowing a user to see multiple landing pages while focusing on a specific one. Upon selecting a landing page, the selected landing page may be enlarged, presented in front of the other landing pages, popped out, or otherwise displayed to the user. 
       FIG.  5 C  depicts an embodiment of a display area  500 C with landing pages arrayed in a horizontal tab format in which a user may select a tab (e.g. by clicking on the tab) to view the available landing pages  501 C,  502 C, and  503 C. In comparison to conventional approaches, which limit the available display options for information within a given tab, the tab format offers publishers the ability to display images as well as text in the displayed tab of an unfocused window. Upon selecting a landing page, the selected landing page may be presented in front of the other landing pages. As shown in  FIG.  5 C , landing page  501 C is displayed on top of the tab display and is the current focus of the user&#39;s attention. One or more of the landing pages  502 C,  503 C, or  504 C as represented by the tabs may be preloaded when the display area is first instantiated or may optionally be loaded only once the user selects the corresponding tab. 
       FIG.  5 D  depicts an embodiment of a display area  500 D with landing pages arrayed in a stacked or staggered format in which a user sees the landing pages staggered or stacked on top of each other. The user may select (e.g. by clicking on) one of the available landing pages  501 D,  502 D, and  503 D. In comparison to conventional approaches, which often limit display to a single browser or tab, the stacked or staggered display offers the benefit of allowing a user to see multiple landing pages while focusing on a specific one. Upon selecting a landing page, the selected landing page may be presented in front of the other landing pages. As shown in  FIG.  5 D , landing page  501 D is displayed on top of the stack or staggered display and is the current focus of the user&#39;s attention. 
       FIG.  5 E  depicts an embodiment of a display area  500 E with landing pages arrayed in a vertical tab format in which a user may select a tab (e.g. by clicking on the tab) to view the available landing pages  501 E,  502 E, and  503 E. In comparison to conventional approaches, which limit the available display options for information within a given tab, the tab format offers publishers the ability to display images as well as text in the displayed tab of an unfocused window. Upon selecting a landing page, the selected landing page may be presented in front of the other landing pages. As shown in  FIG.  5 E , landing page  501 E is displayed on top of the tab display and is the current focus of the user&#39;s attention. As with  FIG.  5 C , the landing page for each tab may be pre-loaded upon display instantiation, or loading may be deferred until user selects any such tab. In one embodiment, the multiple sets of landing page content, may be updated in real time, and may be responsive to additional user input, changes in parameters, historical data and/or other third party data sources, or other criteria. 
     According to one embodiment, the display area may incorporate visual cues to indicate to the user that the system is loading landing page content. According to one embodiment, a user may select a control within the interface to enlarge a specific display area. In another embodiment, a user may see a swipe prompt at the top of a display area, with the swipe prompt encouraging the user to view additional landing pages by swiping an interactive gesture across the display interface. 
     According to one embodiment, the display area incorporating multiple landing pages may include multiple distinct display areas, arranged so as to give the perception to the end user of a fully-integrated landing page navigation display. For example, in certain web browsers, such as Apple&#39;s Safari browser, iFrame security rules embedded within the browser prevent a publisher from displaying landing page content in the methods described above. In one embodiment, a publishing platform  105 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A , above, may render a display area so that it appears that each landing page is displayed in the same window (including positioning and sizing all relevant windows correctly) even though the publishing platform  105 A actually renders the landing page content as separate windows. 
       FIGS.  6 A- 6 C  shows various embodiments of landing page depictions in a display area.  FIG.  6 A  shows an embodiment of a pre-loaded landing page in a carousel array within display area  600 A. The center pre-loaded landing page  601 A is in focus and is presented to the user. The other two landing pages  602 A and  603 A are also pre-loaded with the landing page content and are displayed behind the center pre-loaded landing page  601 A and may be darkened or displayed in a manner so as to convey that these pages are not the focus page. Control buttons  610 A are visible in front of landing pages  602 A and  603 A. 
       FIG.  6 B  shows an embodiment of a pre-loaded landing page in a tile or multi-pane array with a display area  600 B. The primary pre-loaded landing page  601 B is the focus of the user&#39;s attention and is displayed in a larger tile or pane. The secondary landing page  602 B is also pre-loaded with landing page content but is displayed in a smaller tile or pane. A user may direct his or her attention to the secondary landing page  602 B by selecting the “expand” button  610 B within the display. Alternatively, a user may further select landing page  601 B by selecting the “expand” button  610 B, which may cause the landing page  601 B to pop out or to display in a separate window. 
       FIG.  6 C  shows an embodiment of a pre-loaded landing page in a horizontal tab array within a display area  600 C. The primary pre-loaded landing page  601 C contains a landing page comprising a search window displaying a banner advertisement  608 C. Other tabs  602 C,  603 C,  604 C,  605 C,  606 C, and  607 C contain logos representing additional third-party publisher landing pages. These third-party publisher landing pages may already be loaded by the publishing platform  105 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A  (e.g., they may be preloaded), above, or the landing pages may load when a user clicks on the tab. 
     According to one embodiment, landing page content may be displayed as an image in various forms including, but not limited to: an icon or logo representing a third-party publisher, an icon or logo representing the publisher of the initial page from which the content request was made, a “wait screen” indicating that the landing page has not yet loaded, and so on and so forth. 
       FIG.  7    shows an embodiment of an initial control  701  within a display area  700 . Controls may include a text box  702  for text entry, a date selector  703 , and a drop-down list  704 . Additional controls are possible, including sliders, buttons, numeric value inputs, check boxes, user-selectable tags, and so forth. In one embodiment, an initial control may be found in first display area, such as a web page. In another embodiment, an initial control may be found in a landing page which may, or may not, be in the first display area. In some embodiments, landing pages may be presented in a second display area, and initial controls may be presented within the landing pages. 
     While not shown in  FIG.  7   , in one embodiment, the initial control  701  may include a series of checkboxes for identifying third-party publishers from which to request landing page content. In another embodiment, the initial control  701  may include a series of boxes, tabs or other graphical elements that may also include third-party publisher logos to allow a user to select a third-party content provider site to highlight in the display area  700 . In yet another embodiment, the initial control  701  may appear in a display area  700  presented in popover format in front of open windows and display areas. 
     Content Requests 
     Content requests, such as content request  112 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A  above, may originate in a variety of manners. As discussed above, according to one embodiment, a user may request content from a publisher. According to other embodiments, a content request may originate within a publishing platform  105 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A  above. 
     According to one embodiment, a request for content, such as the request for content received in block  404  as referenced in  FIG.  4    above, may initiate a number of steps to display publisher content and/or landing pages from third-party publishers. 
     According to another embodiment, a publisher may store or save a request for content. This request for content may be associated with a user as identified in any number of ways, including: browser cookie, browser pixel, media access control (MAC) sublayer address, device identifier, user ID, mobile device identifier, login information, and so forth. In subsequent user sessions, a publisher, or a third-party publisher, may desire to display content or landing page content responsive to that content request. For example, a publisher may wish to display airline ticket information for flights to Los Angeles, Calif. to a user who searched for hotels in Los Angeles, Calif. in a prior session. Alternatively, a publisher may wish to display the same hotel search to the user if the prior session terminated recently. Similarly, these options may extend to landing pages presented by third-party publishers, and a publisher may present pre-loaded landing pages responsive to saved searches from prior sessions. 
     Content Refresh 
     According to one embodiment, a publisher may observe user activity within a distributed computing system and may configure a structure, such as a publishing system  304  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above, or a publishing platform  105 A as referenced in  FIG.  1 A  above, to refresh content automatically in order to ensure that publisher and third-party landing page content is accurate and up to date. The publisher may select one of any number of events to trigger a content request (and ultimately an update of publisher and/or third-party landing page content), including but not limited to: time (e.g. automatically refreshing after an elapsed period of time); user actions (e.g. demonstrating an intent to purchase or closing or minimizing a display area); a request from a third-party publisher to refresh a landing page; and so forth. 
     Search Update 
     According to one embodiment, once a display area has been populated with content responsive to a content request, a user, publisher, or third-party publisher, may make a second content request. This second content request may form the basis for an update of the publisher content and/or the third-party landing page content. For example, after requesting new content (e.g. searching) on the initial publisher display area (e.g. browser window), a user may be prompted (e.g. with an interactive interface in the display area incorporating the text “Compare All Prices”) to update the search within the third-party landing pages. 
       FIG.  8    shows one embodiment of a process for updating a search and delivering landing pages  800 . Process  800  may, for instance, be one implementation of system  300  as discussed above with reference to  FIG.  3   . Process  800  begins at start block  802 . At block  804  the publisher of a travel website receives a second content request. According to one embodiment, the content request may come from a user interacting with a browser  310  on a client system  302  as referenced in  FIG.  3   , above. According to another embodiment, the content request may come from a content management engine  322 , also referenced in  FIG.  3    above, responding to a set of rules defined by a publisher. For example, a publisher may determine a set of behaviors suggesting an intent to purchase a hotel room—the publisher may implement a rule at that decision point to request content related to rental cars and to display that content alongside the hotel reservation information. Block  804  initiates two steps indicated by block  806  and block  814 . 
     At block  806  the publishing system decides whether or not to update the publisher&#39;s display area associated with the second content request. If not, the process terminates at block  826 . If the publishing system decides to update the publisher&#39;s display area, the process proceeds to block  808 . 
     At block  808 , the publishing system accepts the content request and searches for content on, for example, the web engine  320  and web publishing database  330  as referenced in  FIG.  3   , above. At block  810 , the publishing system determines which, of the requested and retrieved content, to present to the user. The decision at block  810  may incorporate intelligence, such as behavioral and contextual inputs, targeting, retargeting, and network information available from the content management engine  322  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. At block  812 , the publishing system presents content to a user in a display, such as a web page as shown in browser  310  on a client system  302  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. 
     At block  814  the publishing system decides whether or not to update the landing page content area associated with the second content request. If not, the process terminates at block  826 . If the publishing system decided to update the publisher&#39;s display area, the process proceeds to block  816 . 
     At block  816 , the publishing system decides from which third-party publishers to request landing page content. According to one embodiment, the third-party publishers may be travel websites on which a user may be comparison shopping for an airline ticket. The step at block  816  may be performed by decision engine  324  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. Once the publishing system has determined from which third-party publishers to request landing page content, at block  818 , that request is passed to each of the respective third-party publishers, either directly, by contacting each third-party publisher, or indirectly, by contacting an intermediary network, such as an advertising network. 
     At block  820 , the publishing system receives landing page content from third-party publishers. At block  822 , the publishing system assembles landing page content for presentation in a display area, such as navigator interface  312  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. At block  824 , the publishing system passes the landing page content to the publisher, which presents the landing page content, such as that contained within navigator interface  312 , to the user. The steps at  820 ,  822 , and  824  may each be performed by a structure such as landing page presentation engine  326  as referenced in  FIG.  3    above. 
     At block  826 , process  800  ends. 
     It is worth noting that, as discussed with reference to  FIGS.  1 A-C ,  FIG.  3    and  FIG.  4   , above, other structures, including client software, web browsers and the like may also perform steps of process  800  as described in  FIG.  8   . 
     According to one embodiment, a user may make a first content request by searching on fly.com for flights from NYC to SFO. The publishing system displays landing page content in a popunder window displayed behind the fly.com display area, and loads content for NYC-SFO for selected third-party publishers. The user then changes the search on fly.com from SFO to LAX, and the publishing platform automatically refreshes third-party landing page content to reflect LAX as the destination airport. According to one embodiment, this search may propagate from the fly.com display area to the third-party landing pages through a number of methods including: direct message from fly.com, a mutually-readable local or server-side cookie, or another storage and communication technique. 
     According to one embodiment, a user may make a first content request by searching on fly.com for flights from NYC to SFO. The publishing system displays landing page content in a popunder window displayed behind the fly.com display area, and loads content for NYC-SFO for selected third-party publishers. The user may then, in a third display area, visit Orbitz.com (which belongs to the same content delivery or advertising network as fly.com) and may make a second content request by performing a search for NYC to SEA there. Because the two publishers share an intermediary network, fly.com may update the search on the fly.com display area and/or update the search in the third-party landing page content displayed as a popunder window in a second display area. 
     Exemplary General Purpose Computer System 
     Various embodiments according to the present invention may be implemented on one or more computer systems. These computer systems may be, for example, general-purpose computers such as those based on the Intel Core® processor, Apple “A” Series processors, AMD Athlon and A-Series processors, Qualcommm Snapdragon, processors, or any other type of processor. It should be appreciated that one or more of any type computer system may be used to determine ad placement according to various embodiments of the invention. Further, the system may be located on a single computer or may be distributed among a plurality of computers attached by a communications network. 
     A general-purpose computer system according to one embodiment of the invention is configured to perform any of the described functions, including but not limited to, observing user interactions within a distributed computer system, displaying a graphical user interface to the user of a distributed computer system, presenting web pages to visitors of a publisher or third-party publisher website, receiving content requests, receiving controls from user interactions with a graphical user interface, searching for content, deciding whether to request landing page content, selecting third-parties from which to request landing page content, receiving landing page content, assembling landing page content, and presenting landing page content to an interface. It should be appreciated that the system may perform other functions, including, but not limited to, storing and/or managing the historical behavior of users, monitoring the conversion of return users, maintaining a database of third-party publishers, maintaining a database of landing page inventors, maintaining a database of landing page bid requests, etc., and it should also be appreciated that the invention is not limited to having any particular function or set of functions. 
       FIG.  9    shows a block diagram of a general purpose computer and network system  900  in which various aspects of the present invention may be practiced. For example, various aspects of the invention may be implemented as specialized software executing in one or more computer systems including general-purpose computer system  901  shown in  FIG.  9   . Computer system  901  may include a processor  904  connected to one or more memory devices  905 , such as a disk drive, memory, or other device for storing data. Memory  905  is typically used for storing programs and data during operation of the computer system  901 . Components of computer system  901  may be coupled by an interconnection mechanism such as network  910 , which may include one or more busses (e.g., between components that are integrated within a same machine) and/or a network (e.g., between components that reside on separate discrete machines). The interconnection mechanism enables communications (e.g., data, instructions) to be exchanged between system components of system  901 . 
     Computer system  901  also includes one or more input/output (I/O) devices  906 , for example, a keyboard, mouse, trackball, microphone, touch screen, a printing device, display screen, speaker, etc. In addition, computer system  901  may contain one or more interfaces (e.g., network communication device  908 ) that connect computer system  901  to a communication network (in addition or as an alternative to the network  910 ). 
     Storage system  909  typically includes a computer readable and writeable nonvolatile recording medium in which signals are stored that define a program to be executed by the processor or information stored on or in the medium to be processed by the program. The medium may, for example, be a disk or flash memory. Typically, in operation, the processor causes data to be read from the nonvolatile recording medium into another memory that allows for faster access to the information by the processor than does the medium. This memory is typically a volatile, random access memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or static memory (SRAM). The memory may be located in storage system  909 , as shown, or in memory system  905 . The processor  904  generally manipulates the data within the integrated circuit memory  904 , and then copies the data to the medium associated with storage  909  after processing is completed. A variety of mechanisms are known for managing data movement between the medium and integrated circuit memory element and the invention is not limited thereto. The invention is not limited to a particular memory system or storage system. 
     The computer system may include specially-programmed, special-purpose hardware, for example, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Aspects of the invention may be implemented in software, hardware or firmware, or any combination thereof. Further, such methods, acts, systems, system elements and components thereof may be implemented as part of the computer system described above or as an independent component. 
     Although computer system  901  is shown by way of example as one type of computer system upon which various aspects of the invention may be practiced, it should be appreciated that aspects of the invention are not limited to being implemented on the computer system as shown in  FIG.  9   . Various aspects of the invention may be practiced on one or more computers having a different architectures or components than that shown in  FIG.  9   . 
     Computer system  901  may be a general-purpose computer system that is programmable using a high-level computer programming language. Computer system  901  may be also implemented using specially programmed, special purpose hardware. In computer system  901 , processor  904  is typically a commercially-available processor such as the well-known Core® series processor available from the Intel Corporation, although many other processors are available. Such a processor usually executes an operating system which may be, for example, the Android mobile operating system available from Google, Inc., the iOS mobile operating system available from Apple Computer, various Windows-based operating systems available from the Microsoft Corporation, the MAC OS operating system available from Apple Computer, or one or more of the Linux-based and UNIX-based operating system distributions (e.g., the Enterprise Linux operating system available from Red Hat Inc.) available from various sources. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular operating system. 
     The processor and operating system together define a computer platform for which application programs in high-level programming languages are written. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to a particular computer system platform, processor, operating system, or network. Also, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to a specific programming language or computer system. Further, it should be appreciated that other appropriate programming languages and other appropriate computer systems could also be used. 
     One or more portions of the computer system may be distributed across one or more computer systems coupled to a communications network. These computer systems also may be general-purpose computer systems. For example, various aspects of the invention may be distributed among one or more computer systems (e.g., servers) configured to provide a service to one or more client computers, or to perform an overall task as part of a distributed system. By way of further example, various aspects of the invention may be performed on a client-server or multi-tier system that includes components distributed among one or more server systems that perform various functions according to various embodiments of the invention. These components may be executable, intermediate (e.g., IL) or interpreted (e.g., Java) code which communicate over a communication network (e.g., the Internet) using a communication protocol (e.g., TCP/IP). 
     It should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to executing on any particular system or group of systems. Also, it should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any particular distributed architecture, network, or communication protocol. 
     Various embodiments of the present invention may be programmed using an object-oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, or C# (C-Sharp). Other object-oriented programming languages may also be used. Alternatively, functional, scripting, and/or logical programming languages may be used. Various aspects of the invention may be implemented in a non-programmed environment (e.g., documents created in HTML, XML or other format that, when viewed in a window of a browser program, render aspects of a graphical-user interface (GUI) or perform other functions). Various aspects of the invention may be implemented as programmed or non-programmed elements, or any combination thereof. 
     Various aspects of this system can be implemented by one or more systems within system  900 . For instance, the system may be a distributed system (e.g., client server, multi-tier system). In one example, the system includes software processes executing on a system associated with a user (e.g., a client system). These systems may permit the user to determine a user&#39;s context and/or intent as expressed within an ecommerce site, and to provide advertisements from other ecommerce sites, and to display them to the user. 
     Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of this invention, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only.