Patent Abstract:
There is provided a computer implemented system and method for building a profile of a user associated with a particular IP address. The system and method include establishing a proxy server for a plurality of discrete client IP addresses and providing a connection there from to a wide area network through the proxy server. A list of resources provided to each of the discrete client IP addresses is logged on the proxy server, and a profile is determined for each of the discrete client IP addresses based on a predetermined formula. Advertisements and content are served to each of the discrete client IP addresses corresponding to the user&#39;s profile.

Full Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of and claims priority of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/521,733, filed Oct. 23 2014, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The existing model for online advertising includes stake holders such as advertisers, advertising network/affiliate network, publisher, and users. In the existing model, the advertiser pays advertiser network money e.g.: cost per click (CPC) or cost per mile (CPM). The advertising network goes out to publishers and shares some of the revenue it receives from the advertiser in return for getting traffic from publishers to advertisers. However, this has the drawbacks of the advertisements which are sent to the user having viruses, malware, spyware, corrupt files and other potentially harmful features. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    With the present invention, there is an ability to become an advertising network using a totally new channel for traffic generation, i.e. user owners. Unlike the prior existing model which utilizes publishers for traffic generation, the present invention uses “user owners” for traffic generation. 
         [0004]    The system of the present invention has numerous advantages. In particular, the present system provides more relevant search results as the entire user behavior can be seen, which is unlike other advertiser networks. When coupled with virus free or trusted ads from a trusted ad server, users are motivated to become a traffic generation advertising network. 
         [0005]    Modifying what end users see, as far as ads/links are concerned, require the user&#39;s consent. This could be obtained both at ISP or end user level from the end user because in return, a virus free warranty is provided against infection from ads. This is important as malvertising is a threat. 
         [0006]    The present invention provides a computer implemented system and method for building a profile of a user associated with a particular IP address which includes establishing a proxy server for a plurality of discrete client IP addresses and providing a connection from the discrete client IP addresses to a wide area network through the proxy server. The invention then logs on the proxy server a list of resources provided to each of the discrete client IP addresses and determines a profile of the list of resources provided for each of the discrete client IP addresses based on a predetermined formula. The system of the invention then serves and delivers advertisements (or more generally; “content”) to each of the discrete client IP addresses corresponding to the profile. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of the present invention and system and are a part of the specification. The illustrated invention and system and are a part of the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examples of the present system and invention and do not limit the scope thereof. 
           [0008]      FIG. 1 a    is a schematic of a user accessing a website from a computer or handheld device. 
           [0009]      FIG. 1 b    illustrates a system  50  of a computer or device 
           [0010]      FIG. 1 c    illustrates a website with an advertisement located within a web browser window and the query status bar. 
           [0011]      FIG. 2  is schematic illustration of a known system for serving content. 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  is a schematic illustration of the system of the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of the method of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  is another embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 6 a  and 6 b    illustrate another embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    As shown generally by  FIG. 1   a,  there is a user  2  of a computer  4  or handheld device  5  who accesses an Internet website  6  with network connections to a server  7  and database  8 . The user  2  is potentially exposed to many malicious or unsafe advertisements located on the website  6  due to lack of security and validation with the advertising source, even though the website  6  itself may be known as reliable and trusted. Those of skill in the art would recognize that the computer  4  or hand held devices  5   a  or  5   b  each has a processor and a memory coupled with the processor where the memory is configured to provide the processor with executable instructions. A boot disk  9  is present for initiating an operating system as well for each of the computer  4  or hand held devices  5 . It should also be noted that as used herein, the term handheld device includes phones, smart phones, tablets, personal digital assistants, media and game players and the like. As used throughout, the term “query” or “queries” is used in the broadest manner to include requests, polls, calls, summons, queries, and like terms known to those of skill in the art. 
         [0017]      FIG. 1 b    illustrates a system  50  of a computer or device which includes a microprocessor  52  and a memory  54  which are coupled to a processor bus  56  which is coupled to a peripheral bus  60  by circuitry  58 . The bus  60  is communicatively coupled to a disk  62 . It should be understood that any number of additional peripheral devices are communicatively coupled to the peripheral bus  60  in embodiments of the invention. Further, the processor bus  56 , the circuitry  58  and the peripheral bus  60  compose a bus system for computing system  50  in various embodiments of the invention. The microprocessor  52  starts disk access commands to access the disk  62 . Commands are passed through the processor bus  56  via the circuitry  58  to the peripheral bus  60  which initiates the disk access commands to the disk  62 . In various embodiments of the invention, the present system intercepts the disk access commands which are to be passed to the hard disk. 
         [0018]    In further detail,  FIG. 1 c    illustrates a website  6  with an advertisement  8  to be located at a particular place on the site  6 . There is shown in  FIG. 1 c    a pending query in the status bar  32  located at the bottom of the web browser with a code to query an ad network. In this manner, advertisement(s)  8  for the website  6  are retrieved from the advertising source. Those of skill in the art would recognize that the computer  4  or hand held device  5  each has a processor and a memory coupled with the processor where the memory is configured to provide the processor with executable instructions. Each of the computers  4  or handheld devices  5  have a discreet IP address associated with the device (and hence, the user  2 ) for online searching and website browsing. It should also be noted that as used herein, the term handheld device includes phones, smart phones, tablets, personal digital assistants, media and game players and the like. As used throughout, the term “query” or “queries” is used in the broadest manner to include requests, polls, calls, summons, queries, and like terms known to those of skill in the art. 
         [0019]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , there is shown the present system of online advertising  20 . In this system, the advertiser  22  contacts the ad network  24  which stores the ad  8 . Currently, advertisers  22  pay revenue to the ad networks  24  which then send revenue to publishers  26 . The publisher then sends the ad to the user  28 . 
         [0020]    As shown in  FIG. 3 , the stake holders in the system of the present invention  40  include the advertiser  22 , an advertising network or affiliate network  24 , user owners  42 , and publishers  44 . In the present system  40 , advertisers  22  pay revenue to the ad networks  24  who then pay user owners  42  who can act as distribution channels and generate traffic. The user owners  42  with the present invention include various distribution channels as traffic generators. Distribution channels with respect to the present invention include ISPs, businesses or universities, and end user reach (toolbars/AVs etc). The system of the present invention provides the ability to view all user online behavior, and therefore greatly increase optimization of advertising. Further, the advertisers  22  and ad networks  24  may be limited to trusted advertisements and trusted networks which are known to be safe and free of problems such as viruses, malware, spyware, malicious or malformed code. The methods of implementation of the present invention include: 1.) proxy, 2.) client side code, and 3.) DNS. 
         [0021]    In order to make the user owner into a traffic generation entity, certain items of what the user sees as a display on the web page viewed are modified. The items which are replaced/modified or edited include: 1. ads, 2. existing links, 3. links from words (turning words into links)—depending on the previous user behavior, any future pages the user accesses could be filled with newly created links to represent user behavior, and  4 . replace search results from both search engines, such as Google or Bing, or in affiliate sites (adsense like). It is important to maintain the publishers in the 
         [0022]    It is important to maintain the publishers in the present system as the system is replacing ads and other advertising related stuff, and the publishers create the advertising ecosystem. The system of the present invention  40  provides very relevant advertising, and therefore, publishers  44  provide the system  40  more business than the traffic which may possibly be taken away from them because the system  40  brings more relevant advertising which then results in higher return for the publishers  44 . 
         [0023]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flow diagram corresponding to a method  60  of the present system. First the individual or a user hires and contacts an advertiser (Step  62 ). Then the advertiser contacts an ad network or affiliate (Step  64 ) and the sends ads to the user owners (Step  66 ). Next, with the present system the user owners act as distribution and/or traffic generators  68 . The distribution can include entities such as ISP&#39;s, businesses, and universities. The publishers  44  are kept in the system and method of the present invention. As the advertisements are significantly targeted, the user owners then contact the advertiser (Step  72 ), and therefore generate increase revenue. The method may be repeated with additional advertising purchases from Step  64  again. 
         [0024]    In an embodiment of the present invention, the system turns words on a web page into links as shown by  FIG. 5 . The links which are created by the system of the present invention are user specific, as the newly created links are based on the user&#39;s prior searches. The information contained in the prior searches includes the user&#39;s IP history, information, and data. The links which are created link to a specific advertiser and may be based on a keyword that the user types into a search engine or social media. This may all be accomplished by use of a predetermined formula or specific algorithm. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , there is shown an illustration of the creating links embodiment of the present invention  80 . When the user  2  of  FIG. 1 a    accesses a website  6  with their computer  4  or handheld device  5  in this embodiment, the user  2  views their screen  82  various text and content  84 . Based on the prior search history of the user  2 , the words and content  84  on the page of the website  6  are turned into links. For example, in  FIG. 5  there is shown text stating: “The bicycle was red. The car had a rack for the bicycle.”  84 . As the user  2  has a recent search history of riding cycling sports and riding bicycles, the word “bicycle” in the web page text  84  creates a link  86  to a cycling website, such as the example indicated as http://www.trek/com. The links  86  which are created from words and content  84  are specific for a particular user  2  based on their particular online search history. 
         [0026]    The analysis parameters of this embodiment of the present invention are what the user sees and what the user types for searches. This provides a profile of what content a particular user (or discrete IP address associated with a user) is interested in when surfing the online marketplace, and creating a discrete online profile/history. 
         [0027]    Further, with this embodiment, the system allows for individual letters in the text of a web page to create a link to a word. For example, the system of the present invention may identify that the user  2  searched recently for “watch.” The present invention is then able to locate the individual letters “w”, “a”, “t”, “c”, and “h”, within the text  84  of a current web page to create a new link by highlighting each letter or connecting the individual letters into a link. For example, in  FIG. 5  in the text “The bicycle was red. The car had a rack for the bicycle.”  84 , includes the letters “wa” in the word “was”, the letter “T” in the word “The”, the letter “c” in the word “car”, and the letter “h” in the word “had.” (collectively referenced by  90 ). Together, these individual letters form a new link to a website such as http://www.watchretailer.com  92  which is relevant to the particular word link created by the user&#39;s search history associated with a discrete IP address for their device  5  or computer  4 . The particular website link selected with the created word link may be associated with a trusted ad server/network or verified advertisements to assure that the link is free of viruses, malware, and spyware, malformed or corrupt files. 
         [0028]    This embodiment of the present invention can be accomplished with a plug in on the user&#39;s browser or at the proxy level. This embodiment is included with the present invention as a particular implementation for  FIGS. 3 and 4 . 
         [0029]    IN another embodiment of the present invention, the system replaces the search 
         [0030]    In another embodiment of the present invention, the system replaces the search results provided to a user by a search engine with safe and verified advertisements from a trusted ad server. The system of the present invention may also replace the search results generated by an affiliate site with trusted and verified advertisements from a trusted server. This may be accomplished at the proxy level. This embodiment is illustrated in  FIG. 6 a    and  FIG. 6 b    and may be part of the system and method indicated by  FIGS. 3 and 4 . 
         [0031]    In  FIG. 6 a   , and also referring to  FIG. 1   a,  there is shown a user&#39;s computer or handheld device screen  100  which includes a window  110  displaying results  120  from a search engine corresponding with the user&#39;s most recent search. (More particularly identified in  FIG. 6 a    “Search result  1 ” through “Search result n”). Also shown on the computer or device screen  100  is a list of affiliate ads  130 , more particularly identified as “Ad  1 ” through “Ad n”. In accordance with the present invention and as shown in  FIG. 6 b   , these results  120  and ads  130  are replaced with verified and trusted search results  124  and trusted advertisements  134 . 
         [0032]    The above-described methods according to the present invention can be implemented in hardware, firmware or as software or computer code that can be stored in a recording medium such as a CD ROM, an RAM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magneto-optical disk or computer code downloaded over a network originally stored on a remote recording medium or a non-transitory machine readable medium and to be stored on a local recording medium, so that the methods described herein can be rendered in such software that is stored on the recording medium using a general purpose computer, or a special processor or in programmable or dedicated hardware, such as an ASIC or FPGA. As would be understood in the art, the computer, the processor, microprocessor controller or the programmable hardware include memory components, e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash, etc. that may store or receive software or computer code that when accessed and executed by the computer, processor or hardware implement the processing methods described herein. In addition, it would be recognized that when a general purpose computer accesses code for implementing the processing shown herein, the execution of the code transforms the general purpose computer into a special purpose computer for executing the processing shown herein. 
         [0033]    While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the above-described embodiments but should be determined by not only the appended claims but also the equivalents thereof.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7