Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US20040059712?dq=patent:6161142
Timestamp: 2017-05-26 10:22:52
Document Index: 792562923

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 0', '§ 119', '§ 120', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 3', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 1', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4']

Patent US20040059712 - Serving advertisements using information associated with e-mail - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsAdvertisers are permitted to put targeted ads on e-mails. The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining information of an e-mail that includes available spots for ads, (ii) determining one or more ads relevant to the e-mail information, and/or (iii) providing the one or more ads for rendering in association...http://www.google.com/patents/US20040059712?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US20040059712 - Serving advertisements using information associated with e-mailAdvanced Patent SearchTry the new Google Patents, with machine-classified Google Scholar results, and Japanese and South Korean patents.Publication numberUS20040059712 A1Publication typeApplicationApplication numberUS 10/452,830Publication dateMar 25, 2004Filing dateJun 2, 2003Priority dateSep 24, 2002Also published asCA2499768A1, EP1573455A2, EP1573455A4, WO2004029759A2, WO2004029759A3Publication number10452830, 452830, US 2004/0059712 A1, US 2004/059712 A1, US 20040059712 A1, US 20040059712A1, US 2004059712 A1, US 2004059712A1, US-A1-20040059712, US-A1-2004059712, US2004/0059712A1, US2004/059712A1, US20040059712 A1, US20040059712A1, US2004059712 A1, US2004059712A1InventorsJeffrey Dean, Georges Harik, Paul BuchheitOriginal AssigneeDean Jeffrey A., Harik Georges R., Paul BuchheitExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (49), Referenced by (288), Classifications (14), Legal Events (1) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetServing advertisements using information associated with e-mail
US 20040059712 A1Abstract
Advertisers are permitted to put targeted ads on e-mails. The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining information of an e-mail that includes available spots for ads, (ii) determining one or more ads relevant to the e-mail information, and/or (iii) providing the one or more ads for rendering in association with the e-mail. Images(9) Claims(51)
What is claimed is: 1. A method comprising: a) accepting ad information associated with a first set of ads; b) accepting e-mail information of an e-mail; c) selecting one or more ads from the first set of ads using, at least, the accepted ad information and the accepted e-mail information. 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing in association with the e-mail, at least some of the one or more ads selected. 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least some of the one or more ads selected are provided in association with the e-mail by inserting them into the e-mail. 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least some of the one or more ads selected are provided in association with the e-mail by providing them in a window associated with the e-mail. 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the e-mail information accepted is exclusively internal e-mail information. 6. The method of claim 5 wherein the internal e-mail information includes at least one of (A) a sender name, (B) a sender e-mail address, (C) a recipient name, (D) a recipient e-mail address, (E) a CC recipient name, (F) a CC recipient e-mail address, (G) a BCC recipient name, (H) a BCC recipient e-mail address, (I) at least a part of text from a subject line, (J) at least a part of text from a body of the e-mail, (K) information embedded in the e-mail, and (L) link information in the e-mail. 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the e-mail information accepted is exclusively external e-mail information. 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the external e-mail information includes at least one of (A) user information about a sender, (B) user information about a recipient, (C) user information about a CC recipient, (D) user information about a BCC recipient, (E) information from a document linked to from the e-mail, and (F) information extracted from search results returned from a search using terms extracted from an e-mail. 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the e-mail information accepted includes both internal e-mail information and external e-mail information. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the accepted ad information includes, for each of the ads in the first set of ads, at least one ad topic, and wherein the act of selecting one or more ads from the first set of ads using, at least, the accepted ad information and the accepted e-mail information includes, i) determining at least one e-mail topic from the accepted e-mail information, ii) comparing the determined at least one e-mail topic with each of the at least one ad topics for each of the ads of the first set to generate comparisons, and iii) selecting one or more ads using the comparisons. 11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from a sender device. 12. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from a recipient device. 13. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from an e-mail server. 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the e-mail server is a Web-based e-mail server. 15. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from both a sender device and an e-mail server. 16. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from both a recipient device and an e-mail server. 17. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from both a sender device and a recipient device. 18. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from an information server. 19. A machine-readable storage device having stored thereon machine-readable information including: i) an e-mail; and ii) at least one e-mail relevant ad. 20. Apparatus comprising: a) an input for accepting ad information associated with a first set of ads, and e-mail information of an e-mail; and b) means for selecting one or more ads from the first set of ads using, at least, the accepted ad information and the accepted e-mail information. 21. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising means for associating at least some of the one or more ads selected with the e-mail. 22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the means for associating inserts the ads into the e-mail. 23. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the means for associating provides the at least some of the one or more ads selected in a window associated with the e-mail. 24. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the e-mail information accepted is exclusively internal e-mail information. 25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the internal e-mail information includes at least one of (A) a sender name, (B) a sender e-mail address, (C) a recipient name, (D) a recipient e-mail address, (E) a CC recipient name, (F) a CC recipient e-mail address, (G) a BCC recipient name, (H) a BCC recipient e-mail address, (I) at least a part of text from a subject line, (J) at least a part of text from a body of the e-mail, (K) information embedded in the e-mail, and (L) link information in the e-mail. 26. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the e-mail information accepted is exclusively external e-mail information. 27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the external e-mail information includes at least one of (A) user information about a sender, (B) user information about a recipient, (C) user information about a CC recipient, (D) user information about a BCC recipient, (E) information from a document linked to from the e-mail, and (F) information extracted from search results returned from a search using terms extracted from an e-mail. 28. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the e-mail information accepted includes both internal e-mail information and external e-mail information. 29. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the accepted ad information includes, for each of the ads in the first set of ads, at least one ad topic, and wherein the means for selecting one or more ads from the first set of ads using, at least, the accepted ad information and the accepted e-mail information includes, i) means for determining at least one e-mail topic from the accepted e-mail information, ii) means for comparing the determined at least one e-mail topic with each of the at least one ad topics for each of the ads of the first set to generate comparisons, and iii) means for selecting one or more ads using the comparisons. 30. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from a sender device. 31. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from a recipient device. 32. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from an e-mail server. 33. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the e-mail server is an Internet-based e-mail server. 34. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from both a sender device and an e-mail server. 35. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from both a recipient device and an e-mail server. 36. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from both a sender device and a recipient device. 37. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least some of the e-mail information is accepted from an information server. 38. A method comprising: a) accepting ad information associated with a first set of ads; b) accepting structured data information of a document; c) selecting one or more ads from the first set of ads using, at least, the accepted ad information and the accepted structured data information. 39. The method of claim 38 further comprising providing in association with the document, at least some of the one or more ads selected. 40. The method of claim 39 wherein the at least some of the one or more ads selected are provided in association with the document by inserting them into the document. 41. The method of claim 39 wherein the at least some of the one or more ads selected are provided in association with the document by providing them in a window associated with the document. 42. The method of claim 38 wherein structured data information is information that indicates a meaning of associated content. 43. The method of claim 42 wherein structured data information is an e-mail field. 44. The method of claim 42 wherein structured data information is an HTML tag. 45. Apparatus comprising: a) an input for accepting ad information associated with a first set of ads, and structured data information of a document; and b) means for selecting one or more ads from the first set of ads using, at least, the accepted ad information and the accepted structured data information. 46. The apparatus of claim 45 further comprising means for providing, in association with the document, at least some of the one or more ads selected. 47. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein means for providing provides the at least some of the one or more ads selected, in association with the document, by inserting them into the document. 48. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the means for providing provides at least some of the one or more ads selected, in association with the document, by providing them in a window associated with the document. 49. The apparatus of claim 45 wherein structured data information is information that indicates a meaning of associated content. 50. The apparatus of claim 49 wherein structured data information is an e-mail field. 51. The method of claim 49 wherein structured data information is an HTML tag.
§ 0. RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of (i) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/314,427, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”, filed on Dec. 6, 2002 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit as inventors; and (ii) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900, entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS BASED ON CONTENT”, filed on Feb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson, Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik, Deepak Jindal and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors, each of which applications claims benefit to the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/413,536, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”, filed on Sep. 24, 2002 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit as inventors. Benefit to these applications is claimed, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e)(1) and 35 U.S.C. § 120. The provisional application and utility applications are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
§ 1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] § 1.1 Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention concerns advertising. In particular, the present invention concerns expanding the opportunities for advertisers to target their ads. [0004] § 1.2 Related Art [0005] Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armed with demographic studies and entirely reasonable assumptions about the typical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize that much of their ad budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is very difficult to identify and eliminate such waste. [0006] Recently, advertising over more interactive media has become popular. For example, as the number of people using the Internet has exploded, advertisers have come to appreciate media and services offered over the Internet as a potentially powerful way to advertise. [0007] Advertisers have developed several strategies in an attempt to maximize the value of such advertising. In one strategy, advertisers use popular presences or means for providing interactive media or services (referred to as “Web sites” in the specification without loss of generality) as conduits to reach a large audience. Using this first approach, an advertiser may place ads on the home page of the New York Times Web site, or the USA Today Web site, for example. In another strategy, an advertiser may attempt to target its ads to more narrow niche audiences, thereby increasing the likelihood of a positive response by the audience. For example, an agency promoting tourism in the Costa Rican rainforest might place ads on the ecotourism-travel subdirectory of the Yahoo Web site. An advertiser will normally determine such targeting manually. [0008] Regardless of the strategy, Web site-based ads (also referred to as “Web ads”) are typically presented to their advertising audience in the form of “banner ads”—i.e., a rectangular box that includes graphic components. When a member of the advertising audience (referred to as a “viewer” or “user” in the Specification without loss of generality) selects one of these banner ads by clicking on it, embedded hypertext links typically direct the viewer to the advertiser's Web site. This process, wherein the viewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to as a “click-through” (“Click-through” is intended to cover any user selection.). The ratio of the number of click-throughs to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as the “click-through rate” of the ad. A “conversion” is said to occur when a user consummates a transaction related to a previously served ad. What constitutes a conversion may vary from case to case and can be determined in a variety of ways. For example, it may be the case that a conversion occurs when a user clicks on an ad, is referred to the advertiser's web page, and consummates a purchase there before leaving that web page. Alternatively, a conversion may be defined as a user being shown an ad, and making a purchase on the advertiser's web page within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). Many other definitions of what constitutes a conversion are possible. The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as the conversion rate. If a conversion is defined to be able to occur within a predetermined time since the serving of an ad, one possible definition of the conversion rate might only consider ads that have been served more than the predetermined time in the past. [0009] Despite the initial promise of Web site-based advertisement, there remain several problems with existing approaches. Although advertisers are able to reach a large audience, they are frequently dissatisfied with the return on their advertisement investment. [0010] Similarly, the hosts of Web sites on which the ads are presented (referred to as “Web site hosts” or “ad consumers”) have the challenge of maximizing ad revenue without impairing their users' experience. Some Web site hosts have chosen to place advertising revenues over the interests of users. One such Web site is “Overture.com”, which hosts a so-called “search engine” service returning advertisements masquerading as “search results” in response to user queries. The Overture.com web site permits advertisers to pay to position an ad for their Web site (or a target Web site) higher up on the list of purported search results. If such schemes where the advertiser only pays if a user clicks on the ad (i.e., cost-per-click) are implemented, the advertiser lacks incentive to target their ads effectively, since a poorly targeted ad will not be clicked and therefore will not require payment. Consequently, high cost-per-click ads show up near or at the top, but do not necessarily translate into real revenue for the ad publisher because viewers don't click on them. Furthermore, ads that viewers would click on are further down the list, or not on the list at all, and so relevancy of ads is compromised. [0011] Search engines, such as Google for example, have enabled advertisers to target their ads so that they will be rendered in conjunction with a search results page responsive to a query that is relevant, presumably, to the ad. Although search result pages afford advertisers a great opportunity to target their ads to a more receptive audience, search result pages are merely a fraction of page views of the World Wide Web, and yet a smaller fraction of advertising opportunities. [0012] Thus, it would be useful to allow advertisers to put targeted ads on, or to serve ads in association with, any content perceived by people. § 2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0013] The present invention allows advertisers to put targeted ads on, or to serve ads in association with, e-mail. The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining information associated with e-mail (“e-mail information”) that includes available spots for ads, and (ii) determining one or more ads relevant to the e-mail information. The determined ad or ads may then be combined with, or otherwise served in association with, the e-mail. Alternatively, the determined ad or ads could be provided to parties to an e-mail (e.g., sender, recipient) later. [0014] In another embodiment, the present invention allows advertisers to put targeted ads on, or to serve ads in association with any document based on structured information. The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining structured data information associated with the document that includes available spots for ads, and (ii) determining one or more relevant ads. The determined ad or ads may then be combined with, or otherwise served in association with, the document. Alternatively, the determined ad or ads could be provided later.
§ 3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] [0015]FIG. 1 is a high-level diagram showing parties or entities that can interact with an advertising system. [0016] [0016]FIG. 2 is a bubble chart of an exemplary advertising environment in which, or with which, the present invention may operate. [0017] [0017]FIG. 3 illustrates an environment in which advertisers can target their ads on search results pages generated by a search engine, documents served by content servers, and/or e-mail. [0018] [0018]FIG. 4 illustrates the use of internal e-mail information and/or external e-mail information to select ads in a manner consistent with the present invention. [0019] [0019]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method that may be used to select one or more ads using, at least, e-mail information and ad information in a manner consistent with the present invention. [0020] [0020]FIG. 6 is a bubble diagram of operations that may be performed, and information that may be generated, used, and/or stored, in a manner consistent with the present invention. [0021] [0021]FIG. 7 is a high-level block diagram of apparatus that may be used to perform at least some of the various operations that may be used and store at least some of the information that may be used and/or generated consistent with the present invention. [0022] FIGS. 8-11 are messaging diagrams illustrating alternative ways to obtain e-mail information used to select one or more ads and to provide the e-mail with one or more ads. § 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0023] The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus, message formats and/or data structures for allowing advertisers to put targeted, e-mail relevant ads on e-mail, or to serve such ads in association with e-mail. The following description is presented to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of particular applications and their requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles set forth below may be applied to other embodiments and applications. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown and the inventors regard their invention as any patentable subject matter described. [0024] In the following, environments in which, or with which, the present invention may operate are described in § 4.1. Then, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in § 4.2. Examples of operations are provided in § 4.3. Finally, some conclusions regarding the present invention are set forth in § 4.4. [0025] § 4.1 Environments in which, or with which, the Present Invention May Operate [0026] § 4.1.1 Exemplary Advertising Environment [0027] [0027]FIG. 1 is a high level diagram of an advertising environment. The environment may include an ad entry, maintenance and delivery system 120. Advertisers 110 may directly, or indirectly, enter, maintain, and track ad information in the system 120. The ads may be in the form of graphical ads such as so-called banner ads, text only ads, image ads, audio ads, video ads, ads combining one of more of any of such components, etc. The ads may also include embedded information, such as a link, and/or machine executable instructions. Ad consumers 130 may submit requests for ads to, accept ads responsive to their request from, and provide usage information to, the system 120. An entity other than an ad consumer 130 may initiate a request for ads. Although not shown, other entities may provide usage information (e.g., whether or not a conversion or click-through related to the ad occurred) to the system 120. This usage information may include measured or observed user behavior related to ads that have been served. [0028] One example of an ad consumer 130 is a general content server that receives requests for documents (e.g., articles, discussion threads, music, video, graphics, search results, Web page listings, etc.), and retrieves the requested document in response to, or otherwise services, the request. The content server may submit a request for ads to the system 120. Such an ad request may include a number of ads desired. The ad request may also include document request information. This information may include the document itself (e.g., page), a category corresponding to the content of the document or the document request (e.g., arts, business, computers, arts-movies, arts-music, etc.), part or all of the document request, content age, content type (e.g., text, graphics, video, audio, mixed media, etc.), geolocation information, etc. [0029] The content server may combine the requested document with one or more of the advertisements provided by the system 120. This combined information including the document content and advertisement(s) is then forwarded towards the end user that requested the document, for presentation to the user. Finally, the content server may transmit information about the ads and how, when, and/or where the ads are to be rendered (e.g., position, click-through or not, impression time, impression date, size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the system 120. Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be provided back to the system 120 by some other means. [0030] Another example of an ad consumer 130 is a search engine. A search engine may receive queries for search results. In response, the search engine may retrieve relevant search results (e.g., from an index of Web pages). An exemplary search engine is described in the article S. Brin and L. Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine,” Seventh International World Wide Web Conference, Brisbane, Australia and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 (both incorporated herein by reference). Such search results may include, for example, lists of Web page titles, snippets of text extracted from those Web pages, and hypertext links to those Web pages, and may be grouped into a predetermined number of (e.g., ten) search results. [0031] The search engine may submit a request for ads to the system 120. The request may include a number of ads desired. This number may depend on the search results, the amount of screen or page space occupied by the search results, the size and shape of the ads, etc. In one embodiment, the number of desired ads will be from one to ten, and preferably from three to five. The request for ads may also include the query (as entered or parsed), information based on the query (such as geolocation information, whether the query came from an affiliate and an identifier of such an affiliate), and/or information associated with, or based on, the search results. Such information may include, for example, identifiers related to the search results (e.g., document identifiers or “docIDs”), scores related to the search results (e.g., information retrieval (“IR”) scores such as dot products of feature vectors corresponding to a query and a document, Page Rank scores, and/or combinations of IR scores and Page Rank scores), snippets of text extracted from identified documents (e.g., Web pages), full text of identified documents, feature vectors of identified documents, etc. [0032] The search engine may combine the search results with one or more of the advertisements provided by the system 120. This combined information including the search results and advertisement(s) is then forwarded towards the user that submitted the search, for presentation to the user. Preferably, the search results are maintained as distinct from the ads, so as not to confuse the user between paid advertisements and presumably neutral search results. [0033] Finally, the search engine may transmit information about the ad and when, where, and/or how the ad was to be rendered (e.g., position, click-through or not, impression time, impression date, size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the system 120. Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be provided back to the system 120 by some other means. [0034] As can be appreciated from the foregoing, an ad entry, maintenance and delivery system(s) 120 may serve ad consumers 130 such as content servers and search engines. As discussed in § 1.2 above, the serving of ads targeted to the search results page generated by a search engine is known. As discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900, entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS BASED ON CONTENT”, filed on Feb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson, Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik, Deepak Jindal and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors, ads targeted to documents served by content servers may also be served. For example, referring to the exemplary environment of FIG. 3, a network or inter-network 360 may include an ad server 320 serving targeted ads in response to requests from a search engine 332 with ad spots for sale. Suppose that the inter-network 350 is the Web. The search engine 332 crawls much or all of the content 350. Some 334 of this content 350 will include ad spots (also referred to as “inventory”) available. More specifically, one or more content servers 336 may include one or more documents 340. Even if the document does not include explicitly defined available ad spots, it may be determined that ads can be served in, or in association with (e.g., in a window in the foreground above the document (referred to as a “pop-up window”), in the background under the document (referred to as a “pop-under window”), etc.) the document. The ad may partly or totally obscure the document, share the screen space with the document, take screen space from the document, be partly or totally obscured by the document, etc. [0035] Still referring to FIG. 3, an e-mail server 392 (such as Microsoft Network (MSN) HotMail, Yahoo Mail, etc., for example) may be thought of, generally, as a content server in which a document served is simply an e-mail 390 a. Further, e-mail applications 394 (such as Microsoft Outlook for example) may be used to send and/or receive e-mail 390 b. Therefore, referring to both FIGS. 1 and 3, an e-mail server 392 or application 394 may be thought of as an ad consumer 130. Consistent with the present invention, e-mails 390 may be thought of as documents, and targeted ads may be served in association with such documents. For example, one or more ads may be served in, under over, or otherwise in association with an e-mail. Although some e-mail servers, such as Yahoo Mail for example, serve ads in e-mails, these ads are not targeted and therefore will not perform as well (e.g., in terms of user selection) as targeted ads. [0036] § 4.1.2 Exemplary Ad Entry, Maintenance and Delivery Environment [0037] [0037]FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary ad system 120′ with which the present invention may be used. The exemplary ad system 120′ may include an inventory system 210 and may store ad information 205 and usage information 245. The exemplary system 120′ may support ad information entry and management operations 215, campaign (e.g., targeting) assistance operations 220, accounting and billing operations 225, ad serving operations 230, relevancy determination operations 235, optimization operations 240, relative presentation attribute assignment (e.g., position ordering) operations 250, fraud detection operations 255, and result interface operations 260. [0038] Advertisers 110 may interface with the system 120′ via the ad information entry and management operations 215 as indicated by interface 216. Ad consumers 130 may interface with the system 120′ via the ad serving operations 230 as indicated by interface 231. Ad consumers 130 and/or other entities (not shown) may also interface with the system 120′ via results interface operations 260 as indicated by interface 261. [0039] An advertising program may include information concerning accounts, campaigns, creatives, targeting, etc. The term “account” relates to information for a given advertiser (e.g., a unique e-mail address, a password, billing information, etc.). A “campaign” or “ad campaign” refers to one or more groups of one or more advertisements, and may include a start date, an end date, budget information, geo-targeting information, syndication information, etc. For example, Honda may have one advertising campaign for its automotive line, and a separate advertising campaign for its motorcycle line. The campaign for its automotive line have one or more ad groups, each containing one or more ads. Each ad group may include a set of keywords, and a maximum cost (cost per click-though, cost per conversion, etc.). Alternatively, or in addition, each ad group may include an average cost (e.g., average cost per click-through, average cost per conversion, etc.). Therefore, a single maximum cost and/or a single average cost may be associated with one or more keywords. As stated, each ad group may have one or more ads or “creatives” (That is, ad content that is ultimately rendered to an end user.). Naturally, the ad information 205 may include more or less information, and may be organized in a number of different ways. [0040] The ad information 205 can be entered and managed via the ad information entry and management operations 215. Campaign (e.g., targeting) assistance operations 220 can be employed to help advertisers 110 generate effective ad campaigns. For example, the campaign assistance operations 220 can use information provided by the inventory system 210, which, in the context of advertising for use with a search engine, may track all possible ad impressions, ad impressions already reserved, and ad impressions available for given keywords. The ad serving operations 230 may service requests for ads from ad consumers 130. The ad serving operations 230 may use relevancy determination operations 235 to determine candidate ads for a given request. The ad serving operations 230 may then use optimization operations 240 to select a final set of one or more of the candidate ads. The ad serving operations 230 may then use relative presentation attribute assignment operations 250 to order the presentation of the ads to be returned. The accounting/billing operations 225 may be used to track charges related to the serving of advertisements and to bill advertisers. The fraud detection operations 255 can be used to reduce fraudulent use of the advertising system (e.g., by advertisers), such as through the use of stolen credit cards. Finally, the results interface operations 260 may be used to accept result information (from the ad consumers 130 or some other entity) about an ad actually served, such as whether or not click-through occurred, whether or not conversion occurred (e.g., whether the sale of an advertised item or service was initiated or consummated within a predetermined time from the rendering of the ad), etc. Such results information may be accepted at interface 261 and may include information to identify the ad and time the ad was served, as well as the associated result. [0041] § 4.1.3 Definitions [0042] Online ads, such as those used in the exemplary systems described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, or any other system, may have various intrinsic features. Such features may be specified by an application and/or an advertiser. These features are referred to as “ad features” below. For example, in the case of a text ad, ad features may include a title line, ad text, and an embedded link. In the case of an image ad, ad features may include images, executable code, and an embedded link. Depending on the type of online ad, ad features may include one or more of the following: text, a link, an audio file, a video file, an image file, executable code, embedded information, etc. [0043] When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be used to describe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These parameters are referred to as “serving parameters” below. Serving parameters may include, for example, one or more of the following: features of (including information on) a page on which the ad was served, a search query or search results associated with the serving of the ad, a user characteristic (e.g., their geographic location, the language used by the user, the type of browser used, previous page views, previous behavior), a host or affiliate site (e.g., America Online, Google, Yahoo) that initiated the request, an absolute position of the ad on the page on which it was served, a position (spatial or temporal) of the ad relative to other ads served, an absolute size of the ad, a size of the ad relative to other ads, a color of the ad, a number of other ads served, types of other ads served, time of day served, time of week served, time of year served, etc. Naturally, there are other serving parameters that may be used in the context of the invention. [0044] Although serving parameters may be extrinsic to ad features, they may be associated with an ad as serving conditions or constraints. When used as serving conditions or constraints, such serving parameters are referred to simply as “serving constraints” (or “targeting criteria”). For example, in some systems, an advertiser may be able to target the serving of its ad by specifying that it is only to be served on weekdays, no lower than a certain position, only to users in a certain location, etc. As another example, in some systems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is to be served only if a page or search query includes certain keywords or phrases. As yet another example, in some systems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is to be served only if a document being served includes certain topics or concepts, or falls under a particular cluster or clusters, or some other classification or classifications. [0045] “Ad information” may include any combination of ad features, ad serving constraints, information derivable from ad features or ad serving constraints (referred to as “ad derived information”), and/or information related to the ad (referred to as “ad related information”), as well as an extensions of such information (e.g., information derived from ad related information). [0046] A “document” is to be broadly interpreted to include any machine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may be a file, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links to other files, etc.; the files may be of any type, such as text, audio, image, video, etc. Parts of a document to be rendered to an end user can be thought of as “content” of the document. A document may include “structured data” containing both content (words, pictures, etc.) and some indication of the meaning of that content (for example, e-mail fields and associated data, HTML tags and associated data, etc.) Ad spots in the document may be defined by embedded information or instructions. In the context of the Internet, a common document is a Web page. Web pages often include content and may include embedded information (such as meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embedded instructions (such as Javascript, etc.). In many cases, a document has a unique, addressable, storage location and can therefore be uniquely identified by this addressable location. A universal resource locator (URL) is a unique address used to access information on the Internet. [0047] “Document information” may include any information included in the document, information derivable from information included in the document (referred to as “document derived information”), and/or information related to the document (referred to as “document related information”), as well as an extensions of such information (e.g., information derived from related information). An example of document derived information is a classification based on textual content of a document. Examples of document related information include document information from other documents with links to the instant document, as well as document information from other documents to which the instant document links. [0048] Content from a document may be rendered on a “content rendering application or device”. Examples of content rendering applications include an Internet browser (e.g., Explorer or Netscape), a media player (e.g., an MP3 player, a Realnetworks streaming audio file player, etc.), a viewer (e.g., an Abobe Acrobat pdf reader), etc. [0049] A “content owner” is a person or entity that has some property right in the content of a document. A content owner may be an author of the content. In addition, or alternatively, a content owner may have rights to reproduce the content, rights to prepare derivative works of the content, rights to display or perform the content publicly, and/or other proscribed rights in the content. Although a content server might be a content owner in the content of the documents it serves, this is not necessary. [0050] “User information” may include user behavior information and/or user profile information, such as that described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/______, entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS USING USER REQUEST INFORMATION AND USER INFORMATION,” filed on the same date as this application, and listing Krishna Bharat, Steve Lawrence, Mehran Sahami and Amit Singhal as inventors. This application is incorporated herein by reference. [0051] “E-mail information” may include any information included in an e-mail (also referred to as “internal e-mail information”), information derivable from information included in the e-mail and/or information related to the e-mail, as well as extensions of such information (e.g., information derived from related information). An example of information derived from e-mail information is information extracted or otherwise derived from search results returned in response to a search query composed of terms extracted from an e-mail subject line. Examples of information related to e-mail information include e-mail information about one or more other e-mails sent by the same sender of a given e-mail, or user information about an e-mail recipient. Information derived from or related to e-mail information may be referred to as “external e-mail information.”
[0052] Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention are now described in § 4.2. [0053] § 4.2 Exemplary Embodiments [0054] [0054]FIG. 4 illustrates using internal e-mail information and/or external e-mail information to select one or more ads in a manner consistent with the present invention. An e-mail document 410 may include internal e-mail information 412. In addition, the e-mail document 410 may be related to external e-mail information 414. The external information 414 may also, or alternatively, include e-mail derived information. E-mail relevant ad selection operations 420 may use e-mail information (e.g., 412 and/or 414) of the e-mail 410 and ad information 430 to select one or more ads from a set of ads 430. The selected one or more ads may be further refined, filtered, ordered, etc. by other operations (not shown). At a recipient e-mail application (such as Outlook from Microsoft for example), an instance 440 of the original e-mail 410 is provided. The instance 440 may include at least some internal e-mail information as content 442, such as a text body from the original e-mail 410, as well as one or more ads 444. Alternatively, or in addition, the one or more ads 444 could be rendered in association with (e.g., in a pop-up window, in a pop-under window, etc.) the e-mail 440. [0055] The internal e-mail information 412 may include, for example, one or more of, or some combination of, the following: [0056] information from a subject line; [0057] information from body text, [0058] a sender name and/or e-mail address; [0059] one or more recipient names and/or e-mail addresses; [0060] recipient type (e.g., direct recipient, cc recipient, bcc recipient, etc.); [0061] text extracted from an e-mail address (people often include text about a favorite hobby or their profession in their e-mail addresses); [0062] embedded information (e.g., a business card file, an image, a directory path or address, structured data (e.g., data indicating the meaning of associated content), etc.); [0063] linked information (e.g., information from a Web page linked to from the e-mail); and [0064] attached information (e.g., Word processor files, images, spreadsheets, etc.). [0065] Other types of internal e-mail information 412 may be used in a manner consistent with the present invention. [0066] The external e-mail information 414 may include, for example, one or more of, or some combination of, the following: [0067] a topic or concept derived using text of the e-mail; [0068] a topic or concept derived using an e-mail attachment, [0069] a topic or concept derived using linked information; [0070] information extracted or otherwise derived from search results returned in response to a search query composed of extracted e-mail information. [0071] information about the sender (for example, derived from previous interactions with the sender); [0072] information about a recipient (for example, derived from the sender (e.g. sender's address book entry or contact information for recipient, etc.); derived from interactions with the sender; or based on a profile or information about the sender who is sending a message to the recipient (e.g. sender is a wine enthusiast and has recently searched for and/or browsed on pages related to wine, suggesting that recipient may also be interested in wine); etc.; [0073] information from other e-mails sent by the sender and/or received by the recipient; [0074] information from other e-mails having the same or similar subject text; [0075] information about a recipient from the sender's contact information; [0076] information from the a common directory to embedded information (e.g., if an e-mail has an attached Word file, information from other files from the same directory (e.g., with the same directory path) as the attached Word file); [0077] information from a common Website as a linked Web page; [0078] a time the e-mail was sent (e.g. e-mails sent close to lunch time may include an advertisement for a local lunch establishment); [0079] a geographic location of the e-mail sender; and [0080] a geographic location of an e-mail recipient. [0081] [0081]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 500 that may be used to select one or more ads using, at least, e-mail information and ad information, in a manner consistent with the present invention. The main portion of the method 500 may be triggered upon receipt of an ad request. (Trigger block 510) The ad request may include a number of ads desired and e-mail information for example. E-mail information is accepted and/or determined. (Block 520) Then, one or more ads are selected from a set of ads using, at least, some or all of the e-mail information and some or all of the ad information. (Block 530) At least some of the one or more ads may be associated with the e-mail so that they can be rendered in association with the e-mail (Block 540), before the method 500 is left (Node 550). This association of one or more ads with an e-mail may be performed by an ad server, an e-mail server, an e-mail sender, and/or an e-mail recipient. [0082] [0082]FIG. 6 is a bubble diagram of operations that may be performed and information that may be used or generated, in a manner consistent with the present invention. In the description of FIG. 6, e-mail and ad relevance information may be thought of as at least some e-mail and ad information put into a form (e.g., a topic, a concept, a cluster, a term vector, a feature vector, etc.) to permit comparisons. Preferably, these comparisons are convenient in terms of storage and/or processing resources. [0083] E-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 may include relevance information extraction/generation operations 612, ad-e-mail relevance information comparison operations 614 and ad(s)-e-mail association operations 616. Responsive to a request 620, or some other trigger event or condition, the e-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 can extract and/or generate e-mail relevance information 634 and ad relevance information 644. (See operations 612.) Alternatively, or in addition, such relevance information may have been extracted and/or generated, or otherwise provided before receipt of the request 620 and/or provided in the request 620. That is, as indicated by the dotted arrows in FIG. 6, ad information and/or at least some e-mail relevance information (e.g., user information related to a sender) may be preprocessed to determine ad relevance information 644 and/or e-mail relevance information 634. Exemplary techniques for extracting and/or generating e-mail relevance information 634 and ad relevance information 644 are described in § 4.2.1 below. Then, the e-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 can compare e-mail relevance information 634 for a given e-mail 632 to ad relevance information 644 for one or more ads 642. (See operations 614.) Exemplary techniques for determining the relevance of ads to a document are described in § 4.2.2 below. As a result of such comparisons, the e-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 can generate associations of an e-mail (e.g., via an e-mail identifier or a request identifier associated with an e-mail) with one or more ads (e.g., via the ad itself or an ad identifier). (See operations 616.) One such association 650 is shown. Exemplary techniques for associating one or more ads with an e-mail are described in § 4.2.3 below. [0084] The e-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 may also use stored data 640 which includes a number of entries, each entry including an ad identifier 642 and ad relevance information 644. As indicated by the arrow 670, ad relevance information 644 may be, or more have been, generated based on ad information. [0085] Ultimately, one or more ads determined to be relevant to a document may be combined with the e-mail. Exemplary techniques for combining the one or more e-mail relevant ads with the e-mail are described below. [0086] § 4.2.1 Exemplary Techniques for Accepting/Determining E-Mail Information [0087] Referring to block 520 of FIG. 5 and operations 612 of FIG. 6, in some embodiments of the invention, e-mail information extraction operations may be provided at the sender device and/or recipient device to extract information from the e-mail for purposes of targeting ads. Alternatively, an e-mail server may extract and/or generate e-mail information. Indeed, e-mail information extraction and/or generation may be distributed over more than one device (e.g., e-mail application, browser, e-mail server, e-mail information server, e-mail relevant ad server, etc.). [0088] § 4.2.2 Exemplary Techniques for Selecting One or More Ads Using E-Mail Information and Ad Information [0089] Referring back to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 6, e-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 may include relevance information extraction and/or generation operations 612. Various way of extracting and/or generating relevance information are described in U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/413,536, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”, filed on Sep. 24, 2002 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit as inventors, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/314,427, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”, filed on Dec. 6, 2002 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit as inventors. Both of these applications are incorporated herein by reference. These applications are referred to collectively as “the relevant ad server applications”) Relevance information may be considered as a topic or cluster to which an ad or document (e.g., e-mail) belongs. U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/416,144, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Probabilistic Hierarchical Inferential Learner” filed on Oct. 3, 2002 (incorporated herein by reference) describes exemplary ways to determine one or more concepts or topics (referred to as “phil clusters”) of information that may be used consistent with the present invention. [0090] In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, off-line (perhaps nightly), a dump of a complete ads database is used to generate an index that maps topics (e.g., a phil cluster identifiers) to a set of matching ad groups. This may be done using one or more of (i) a set of serving constraints (targeting criteria) within the ad group, (ii) text of the ads within the ad group, (iii) content on the advertiser's Web site, etc. [0091] The e-mail relevant ad serving operations 610 may also include ad-e-mail relevance information comparison operations 614 and association operations 616. Various similarity techniques, such as those described in the relevant ad server applications, may be used to determine a degree of similarity between an ad and an e-mail. Such similarly techniques may use the extracted and/or generated e-mail information and/or e-mail relevance information. One or more e-mail relevant ads may then be associated with an e-mail based on the similarity determinations. For example, an ad may be associated with an e-mail if its degree of similarity exceeds some absolute and/or relative threshold. [0092] For example, e-mail information may be processed to generate relevance information, such as a cluster (e.g., a phil cluster), a topic, etc. The matching clusters may then be used as query terms in a large OR query to an index that maps topics (e.g., a phil cluster identifiers) to a set of matching ad groups. The results of this query may then be used as first cut set of candidate targeting criteria. The candidate ad groups may then be sent to the relevance information extraction and/or generation operations (e.g., a phil server) again to determine an actual information retrieval (IR) score for each ad group summarizing how well the criteria information plus the ad text itself matches the e-mail relevance information. Estimated or known performance parameters (e.g., click-through rates, conversion rates, etc.) for the ad group may be considered in helping determine the best scoring ad group. [0093] Once a set of best ad groups have been selected, a final set of one or more ads may be selected using a list of criteria from the best ad group(s). The e-mail relevant an ad server can use this list to request that an ad be sent back if K of the M criteria sent match a single ad group. If so, the ad is provided to the requestor. [0094] Performance information (e.g., a history of selections or conversions per URL or per domain) may be fed back in the system, so that e-mail clusters that tend to get better performance for particular kinds of ads (e.g., ads belonging to a particular cluster or topic) may be determined. This can be used to re-rank e-mail relevant ads such that the ads served are determined using some function of both e-mail-relevance and performance. [0095] Depending on the type and form of e-mail information and ad information, various similarity techniques, heuristics, etc, may be used, exclusively or in concert, to match or associate one or more ads with an e-mail. [0096] § 4.2.3 Exemplary Techniques for Associating Selected One or More Ads with E-Mail [0097] E-mail relevant ads can be combined with, or otherwise associated with, an associated e-mail by (a) the e-mail relevant ad server, (b) an e-mail service provider, (c) the sender's e-mail application, and/or (d) a recipient's e-mail application. [0098] § 4.2.4 Refinements [0099] § 4.2.4.1 Reporting to Advertisers [0100] In one embodiment of the present invention, an advertiser may be provided with a summary including which of its ads were served. Performance measures (e.g., selections, conversions, impressions, etc.) may also be provided to the advertiser. [0101] § 4.2.4.2 Advertiser Control of Serving Ads [0102] In one embodiment of the present invention, advertisers may have no control over where their ads shown—on an Web page, on the search results page generated by a search engine, in an e-mail, etc. In a refined embodiment of the present invention, advertisers can control how their ads are served. Such control may be effected by allowing the advertiser to opt-in, opt-out, manipulate bidding or budgeting controls, etc. For example, a binary opt-in/opt-out choice may be made by the advertiser, or inferred by the advertiser's inaction. Alternatively, advertisers can be provided with the ability to provide additional prices for each ad group that they would be willing to pay for “clicks on content-relevance-based targeted Web pages,” “clicks on content-relevance-based targeted e-mails,” etc. (which could be content-relevance-based ads, or ads on search pages that match the concept of their targeting criteria but not the actual keywords). In this alternative scheme, advertisers could completely opt out by bidding 0 for results (e.g., clicks, conversions, etc.). [0103] § 4.2.4.3 Filtering of Ads [0104] In one embodiment of the invention, it may be desirable to control or filter the rendering of ads shown in conjunction with certain e-mails. For example, ad syndication partners may be provided some control over the ads shown in conjunction with their e-mails or e-mails that they serve. One simple way of providing such control would be to permit the syndication partners to use a blacklist of URLs for advertisers (e.g., competitors, disreputable firms, etc.), or terms of ads (e.g., inappropriate products, services, or terms), that should not be allowed. [0105] § 4.2.4.4 Imposing Serving Limits on Otherwise E-Mail Relevant Ads [0106] In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, showing the same ad to the same e-mail sender and/or recipient more than a predetermined number of times over a predetermined time period (e.g., once per day), or some similar heuristic is avoided. Otherwise, if a reply to an e-mail includes the earlier e-mail or threads of an earlier e-mail, the e-mails are likely to include overlapping information and, consequently, the users (senders/recipients) are likely to see the same ad repeatedly, which may hurt performance of the ad. [0107] § 4.2.4.5 Triggering E-Mail Relevant Ad Serving [0108] Although some embodiments of the present invention will serve ads in an e-mail, or contemporaneously with an ad (e.g., in a pop-up window or pop-under window), e-mail relevant ads may be served later. Indeed, one or more e-mail relevant ads might be provided to the sender and/or a recipient in a separate e-mail (or multiple separate e-mails) or via some other means. This enables ads to be served to the sender of the e-mail. [0109] § 4.2.4.6 Ad Revenue Sharing and Other Forms of Compensation [0110] In one embodiment of the present invention, ad revenue paid by an advertiser to an e-mail relevant ad server may be shared with one or more of (a) an e-mail sender who sends the e-mail with which ads are served, (b) an e-mail server who supports an e-mail sender and/or an e-mail recipient, who serves the e-mail with which ads are served, and (c) an e-mail recipient who receives the e-mail with which ads are served. However, if an advertiser pays based on the performance of ads, it may be advantageous if any payment to an e-mail recipient were independent of whether or not the recipient selects the ad. Otherwise, a recipient might have a monetary incentive to select an ad that they are not particularly interested in. Alternatively, or in addition, one or more of the foregoing parties may be provided with other forms of compensation. These other forms of compensation may be determined independently of ad revenue. [0111] § 4.2.5 Exemplary Apparatus [0112] [0112]FIG. 7 is high-level block diagram of a machine 700 that may effect one or more of the operations discussed above. The machine 700 basically includes one or more processors 710, one or more input/output interface units 730, one or more storage devices 720, and one or more system buses and/or networks 740 for facilitating the communication of information among the coupled elements. One or more input devices 732 and one or more output devices 734 may be coupled with the one or more input/output interfaces 730. [0113] The one or more processors 710 may execute machine-executable instructions (e.g., C or C++ running on the Solaris operating system available from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. or the Linux operating system widely available from a number of vendors such as Red Hat, Inc. of Durham, N.C.) to effect one or more aspects of the present invention. At least a portion of the machine executable instructions may be stored (temporarily or more permanently) on the one or more storage devices 720 and/or may be received from an external source via one or more input interface units 730. [0114] In one embodiment, the machine 700 may be one or more conventional personal computers. In this case, the processing units 710 may be one or more microprocessors. The bus 740 may include a system bus. The storage devices 720 may include system memory, such as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM). The storage devices 720 may also include a hard disk drive for reading from and writing to a hard disk, a magnetic disk drive for reading from or writing to a (e.g., removable) magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable (magneto-) optical disk such as a compact disk or other (magneto-) optical media. [0115] A user may enter commands and information into the personal computer through input devices 732, such as a keyboard and pointing device (e.g., a mouse) for example. Other input devices such as a microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like, may also (or alternatively) be included. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit(s) 710 through an appropriate interface 730 coupled to the system bus 740. The output devices 734 may include a monitor or other type of display device, which may also be connected to the system bus 740 via an appropriate interface. In addition to (or instead of) the monitor, the personal computer may include other (peripheral) output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers for example. [0116] Each of the sender device, recipient device, e-mail server, and e-mail relevant ad server may be one or more machines 700. § 4.3 EXAMPLES OF OPERATIONS [0117] FIGS. 8-11 are messaging diagrams illustrating three alternative schemes for implementing the invention. In each of the schemes, a sender device 810,910,1010,1110 and a recipient device 840,940,1040,1140 may each be an e-mail application such as Microsoft Outlook for example, or a browser application such as Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Navigator effected on a personal computer for example, and the e-mail relevant ad server 830,930,1030,1130 may be one or more server computers on the Internet for example. In the scheme illustrated in FIG. 8, the e-mail server 820 may be an Internet-based, browser accessible e-mail server such as Hot Mail from Microsoft Network, or Yahoo Mail for example. [0118] Referring to the scheme illustrated in FIG. 8, when a sender device 810 (e.g., a browser) submits an e-mail (communication 850) to an e-mail server 820, the e-mail server 820 can extract and/or generate e-mail information and submit an ad request (communication 860) to the e-mail relevant ad server 830. Using at least some of the e-mail information and ad information, the e-mail relevant ad server 830 may select one or more ads from a set of ads. The set of ads may be all available ads, or a previously filtered (e.g., based on price, performance, etc.) set of ads. Alternatively, or in addition, the selected one or more ads may be further reduced or filtered. In any event, the e-mail relevant ad server 830 may then return a reply including one or more ads (or pointers to such ads) (communication 870) to the e-mail ad server 820. The e-mail ad server may then combine or otherwise associate the one or more ads with the e-mail and send them (communication 880) to recipient device 840. At the recipient device 840, when the e-mail is rendered (e.g., displayed), it may include the one ore more ads, or one or more ads may be rendered in association with the e-mail. In this embodiment, the e-mail server 820 may execute special instructions to support the present invention. The e-mail server 820 may be used by the sender device 810, the recipient device 840, or both. [0119] Referring to the scheme illustrated in FIG. 9, when a sender device 910 (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) is to send an e-mail, it does so via the e-mail relevant ad server 930. (Communication 950) The e-mail relevant ad server 930 extracts and/or generates e-mail information. It 930 then uses at least some of the e-mail information and ad information to select one or more ads. The e-mail relevant ad server 930 may then combine or otherwise associate the one or more ads with the e-mail and send them (Communication 960) to the recipient device 940. At the recipient device 940, when the e-mail is rendered (e.g., displayed), it may include the one or more ads, or the one or more ads may be rendered in association with the e-mail. In this embodiment, the sender device 910 may execute special instructions to support the present invention. [0120] Referring to the scheme illustrated in FIG. 10, when a sender device 1010 (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) is to send an e-mail, it first submits an ad request, including at least some e-mail information (communication 1050), to an e-mail relevant ad server 1030. Using at least some of the e-mail information and ad information, the e-mail relevant ad server 1030 may select one or more ads from a set of ads. The set of ads may be all available ads, or a previously filtered (e.g., based on price, performance, etc.) set of ads. Alternatively, or in addition, the selected one or more ads may be further reduced or filtered. In any event, the e-mail relevant ad server 1030 may then return a reply including one or more ads (or pointers to such ads) (communication 1060) to the sender device 1010. The sender device 1010 may then combine or otherwise associate the one or more ads with the e-mail and send them (communication 1070) to recipient device 1040. At the recipient device 1040, when the e-mail is rendered (e.g., displayed), it may include the one ore more ads, or one or more ads may be rendered in association with the e-mail. In this embodiment, the sender device 1010 may execute special instructions to support the present invention. [0121] Referring to the scheme illustrated in FIG. 11, a sender device 1110 (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) sends an e-mail (communication 1150) to the recipient device 1140. The recipient device 1140 can extract and/or generate e-mail information and submit an ad request (communication 1160) to the e-mail relevant ad server 1130. Using at least some of the e-mail information and ad information, the e-mail relevant ad server 1130 may select one or more ads from a set of ads. The set of ads may be all available ads, or a previously filtered (e.g., based on price, performance, etc.) set of ads. Alternatively, or in addition, the selected one or more ads may be further reduced or filtered. In any event, the e-mail relevant ad server 1130 may then return a reply including one or more ads (or pointers to such ads) (communication 1170) to the recipient device 1140. At the recipient device 1140, when the e-mail is rendered (e.g., displayed), it may include the one ore more ads, or one or more ads may be rendered in association with the e-mail. In this embodiment, the recipient device 1140 may execute special instructions to support the present invention. § 4.4 CONCLUSIONS [0122] As can be appreciated from the foregoing disclosure, the invention can be used to expand situations in which targeted can be used. The inventors contemplate that one or more of the foregoing aspects or exemplary embodiments may be used in concert. Patent CitationsCited PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS5724521 *Nov 3, 1994Mar 3, 1998Intel CorporationMethod and apparatus for providing electronic advertisements to end users in a consumer best-fit pricing mannerUS5740549 *Jun 12, 1995Apr 14, 1998Pointcast, Inc.Information and advertising distribution system and methodUS5754938 *Oct 31, 1995May 19, 1998Herz; Frederick S. M.Pseudonymous server for system for customized electronic identification of desirable objectsUS5794050 *Oct 2, 1997Aug 11, 1998Intelligent Text Processing, Inc.Natural language understanding systemUS5809242 *Apr 19, 1996Sep 15, 1998Juno Online Services, L.P.Electronic mail system for displaying advertisement at local computer received from remote system while the local computer is off-line the remote systemUS5815830 *Dec 18, 1995Sep 29, 1998Anthony; Andre CharlesAutomatic generation of hypertext links to multimedia topic objectsUS5848397 *Apr 19, 1996Dec 8, 1998Juno Online Services, L.P.Method and apparatus for scheduling the presentation of messages to computer usersUS5848407 *May 22, 1997Dec 8, 1998Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.Hypertext document retrieving apparatus for retrieving hypertext documents relating to each otherUS5948061 *Oct 29, 1996Sep 7, 1999Double Click, Inc.Method of delivery, targeting, and measuring advertising over networksUS6026368 *Jul 17, 1995Feb 15, 200024/7 Media, Inc.On-line interactive system and method for providing content and advertising information to a targeted set of viewersUS6044376 *Apr 24, 1997Mar 28, 2000Imgis, Inc.Content stream analysisUS6076101 *Aug 14, 1997Jun 13, 2000Fujitsu LimitedElectronic mail processing system with bonus point trackingUS6078914 *Dec 9, 1996Jun 20, 2000Open Text CorporationNatural language meta-search system and methodUS6134532 *Nov 14, 1997Oct 17, 2000Aptex Software, Inc.System and method for optimal adaptive matching of users to most relevant entity and information in real-timeUS6144944 *Apr 22, 1998Nov 7, 2000Imgis, Inc.Computer system for efficiently selecting and providing informationUS6167382 *Jun 1, 1998Dec 26, 2000F.A.C. Services Group, L.P.Design and production of print advertising and commercial display materials over the InternetUS6269361 *May 28, 1999Jul 31, 2001Goto.ComSystem and method for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engineUS6308202 *Sep 8, 1998Oct 23, 2001Webtv Networks, Inc.System for targeting information to specific users on a computer networkUS6327574 *Feb 1, 1999Dec 4, 2001Encirq CorporationHierarchical models of consumer attributes for targeting content in a privacy-preserving mannerUS6356898 *Nov 13, 1998Mar 12, 2002International Business Machines CorporationMethod and system for summarizing topics of documents browsed by a userUS6360221 *Sep 21, 1999Mar 19, 2002Neostar, Inc.Method and apparatus for the production, delivery, and receipt of enhanced e-mailUS6366298 *Jun 3, 1999Apr 2, 2002Netzero, Inc.Monitoring of individual internet usageUS6401075 *Feb 14, 2000Jun 4, 2002Global Network, Inc.Methods of placing, purchasing and monitoring internet advertisingUS6449657 *Aug 6, 1999Sep 10, 2002Namezero.Com, Inc.Internet hosting systemUS6516321 *Aug 13, 1999Feb 4, 2003Carlos De La HuergaMethod for database address specificationUS6584492 *Jan 20, 2000Jun 24, 2003Americom UsaInternet banner advertising process and apparatus having scalabilityUS6658467 *Sep 8, 1999Dec 2, 2003C4Cast.Com, Inc.Provision of informational resources over an electronic networkUS6665656 *Oct 5, 1999Dec 16, 2003Motorola, Inc.Method and apparatus for evaluating documents with correlating informationUS6665838 *Jul 30, 1999Dec 16, 2003International Business Machines CorporationWeb page thumbnails and user configured complementary information provided from a serverUS6681223 *Jul 27, 2000Jan 20, 2004International Business Machines CorporationSystem and method of performing profile matching with a structured documentUS6772200 *Dec 30, 1997Aug 3, 2004Intel CorporationSystem for providing non-intrusive dynamic content to a client deviceUS6804659 *Jan 14, 2000Oct 12, 2004Ricoh Company Ltd.Content based web advertisingUS6892181 *Sep 8, 2000May 10, 2005International Business Machines CorporationSystem and method for improving the effectiveness of web advertisingUS6985882 *Feb 5, 1999Jan 10, 2006Directrep, LlcMethod and system for selling and purchasing media advertising over a distributed communication networkUS7013298 *May 3, 1999Mar 14, 2006Hyperphrase Technologies, LlcMethod and system for automated data storage and retrievalUS7035901 *Dec 20, 1999Apr 25, 2006Global Media Online, Inc.SMTP server, POP server, mail server, mail processing system and web serverUS7039599 *Jun 15, 1998May 2, 2006Doubleclick Inc.Method and apparatus for automatic placement of advertisingUS7136875 *Feb 26, 2003Nov 14, 2006Google, Inc.Serving advertisements based on contentUS7139732 *Jul 24, 2000Nov 21, 2006Roger Marx DesenbergSystems, methods, and computer program products facilitating real-time transactions through the purchase of lead optionsUS7328242 *Sep 17, 2002Feb 5, 2008Mccarthy Software, Inc.Using multiple simultaneous threads of communicationUS7599852 *Sep 4, 2002Oct 6, 2009Sponster LlcMethod and apparatus for adding advertising tag lines to electronic messagesUS20010044830 *May 8, 2001Nov 22, 2001Pioneer Corporation And Increment P CorporationSystem and method for incorporating ad information into an e-mailUS20020026360 *Apr 11, 2001Feb 28, 2002Copient Technologies, LlcSystem for generating revenue using electronic mail and method for its useUS20020087631 *Jan 2, 2002Jul 4, 2002Vikrant SharmaEmail-based advertising systemUS20020120505 *Aug 29, 2001Aug 29, 2002Ezula, Inc.Dynamic document context mark-up technique implemented over a computer networkUS20020123912 *Oct 31, 2001Sep 5, 2002ContextwebInternet contextual communication systemUS20030046161 *Mar 29, 2002Mar 6, 2003Kamangar Salar ArtaMethods and apparatus for ordering advertisements based on performance information and price informationUS20040073485 *Apr 10, 2002Apr 15, 2004Informlink, Inc.Method for an on-line promotion serverUS20040249709 *Aug 25, 2003Dec 9, 2004Donovan Kevin RjbMethod and system for dynamic textual ad distribution via email* Cited by examinerReferenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS7346606 *Jun 30, 2003Mar 18, 2008Google, Inc.Rendering advertisements with documents having one or more topics using user topic interestUS7533090Mar 30, 2004May 12, 2009Google Inc.System and method for rating electronic documentsUS7579358Sep 7, 2004Aug 25, 2009Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbhAerosol formulation for inhalation comprising an anticholinergicUS7599852Sep 4, 2002Oct 6, 2009Sponster LlcMethod and apparatus for adding advertising tag lines to electronic messagesUS7603619Nov 29, 2005Oct 13, 2009Google Inc.Formatting a user network site based on user preferences and format performance dataUS7634467 *Oct 31, 2006Dec 15, 2009Microsoft CorporationImplicit, specialized search of business objects using unstructured textUS7639898May 10, 2004Dec 29, 2009Google Inc.Method and system for approving documents based on image similarityUS7657520Mar 3, 2005Feb 2, 2010Google, Inc.Providing history and transaction volume information of a content source to usersUS7664740Jun 26, 2006Feb 16, 2010Microsoft CorporationAutomatically displaying keywords and other supplemental informationUS7693830Aug 10, 2005Apr 6, 2010Google Inc.Programmable search engineUS7697791May 10, 2004Apr 13, 2010Google Inc.Method and system for providing targeted documents based on concepts automatically identified thereinUS7716199Aug 10, 2005May 11, 2010Google Inc.Aggregating context data for programmable search enginesUS7725502Jun 15, 2005May 25, 2010Google Inc.Time-multiplexing documents based on preferences or relatednessUS7725530Dec 12, 2005May 25, 2010Google Inc.Proxy server collection of data for module incorporation into a container documentUS7730082Dec 12, 2005Jun 1, 2010Google Inc.Remote module incorporation into a container documentUS7730109Jun 6, 2006Jun 1, 2010Google, Inc.Message catalogs for remote modulesUS7743045 *Aug 10, 2005Jun 22, 2010Google Inc.Detecting spam related and biased contexts for programmable search enginesUS7752072Dec 4, 2002Jul 6, 2010Google Inc.Method and system for providing advertising through content specific nodes over the internetUS7752073Oct 19, 2005Jul 6, 2010Google Inc.Method and system for providing advertising through content specific nodes over the internetUS7752074Mar 13, 2008Jul 6, 2010Sponster LlcMethod of enhancing electronic communications with contextually relevant contentUS7757080Mar 11, 2005Jul 13, 2010Google Inc.User validation using cookies and isolated backup validationUS7801738May 10, 2004Sep 21, 2010Google Inc.System and method for rating documents comprising an imageUS7818208Jun 28, 2005Oct 19, 2010Google Inc.Accurately estimating advertisement performanceUS7827060Dec 30, 2005Nov 2, 2010Google Inc.Using estimated ad qualities for ad filtering, ranking and promotionUS7890369Apr 15, 2005Feb 15, 2011The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Relevant online ads for domain name advertiserUS7903099Jun 20, 2005Mar 8, 2011Google Inc.Allocating advertising space in a network of displaysUS7912904Mar 31, 2004Mar 22, 2011Google Inc.Email system with conversation-centric user interfaceUS7917389 *Apr 15, 2005Mar 29, 2011The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Relevant email ads for domain name advertiserUS7921035Apr 15, 2005Apr 5, 2011The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Parked webpage domain name suggestionsUS7921156 *Aug 5, 2010Apr 5, 2011Solariat, Inc.Methods and apparatus for inserting content into conversations in on-line and digital environmentsUS7925786 *Sep 16, 2005Apr 12, 2011Microsoft Corp.Hosting of network-based servicesUS7930206Dec 31, 2003Apr 19, 2011Google Inc.System and method for enabling an advertisement to follow the user to additional web pagesUS7933228Oct 7, 2008Apr 26, 2011Keep In Touch Services, Inc.Time sensitive scheduling data delivery networkUS7949714Dec 5, 2005May 24, 2011Google Inc.System and method for targeting advertisements or other information using user geographical informationUS7971137Dec 14, 2005Jun 28, 2011Google Inc.Detecting and rejecting annoying documentsUS7974874May 12, 2010Jul 5, 2011Consallus Group L.L.C.Method of enhancing email text with hyperlinked word pointing to targeted adUS7979501 *Mar 18, 2005Jul 12, 2011Google Inc.Enhanced message displayUS7987251Sep 16, 2005Jul 26, 2011Microsoft CorporationValidation of domain name controlUS7996753Jun 30, 2004Aug 9, 2011Google Inc.Method and system for automatically creating an image advertisementUS8010599Dec 20, 2007Aug 30, 2011Google Inc.Method, system, and graphical user interface for dynamically updating transmission characteristics in a web mail replyUS8014634Jan 12, 2010Sep 6, 2011Google Inc.Method and system for approving documents based on image similarityUS8023927Jun 29, 2007Sep 20, 2011Google Inc.Abuse-resistant method of registering user accounts with an online serviceUS8050970Mar 14, 2003Nov 1, 2011Google Inc.Method and system for providing filtered and/or masked advertisements over the internetUS8051063Mar 29, 2010Nov 1, 2011Google Inc.Aggregating context data for programmable search enginesUS8064736Apr 13, 2010Nov 22, 2011Google Inc.Method and system for providing targeted documents based on concepts automatically identified thereinUS8065184Dec 30, 2005Nov 22, 2011Google Inc.Estimating ad quality from observed user behaviorUS8065611Jun 30, 2004Nov 22, 2011Google Inc.Method and system for mining image searches to associate images with conceptsUS8087068Mar 8, 2005Dec 27, 2011Google Inc.Verifying access to a network account over multiple user communication portals based on security criteriaUS8150924Aug 6, 2004Apr 3, 2012Google Inc.Associating email messages with conversationsUS8156002 *Oct 10, 2007Apr 10, 2012Yahoo! Inc.Contextual ad matching strategies that incorporate author feedbackUS8166028Sep 15, 2005Apr 24, 2012Google Inc.Method, system, and graphical user interface for improved searching via user-specified annotationsUS8185819Dec 12, 2005May 22, 2012Google Inc.Module specification for a module to be incorporated into a container documentUS8185830Jun 1, 2007May 22, 2012Google Inc.Configuring a content document for users and user groupsUS8209222 *Jun 8, 2006Jun 26, 2012Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for encrypting data delivered over a networkUS8234340Sep 16, 2005Jul 31, 2012Microsoft CorporationOutsourcing of instant messaging hosting servicesUS8244812Sep 16, 2005Aug 14, 2012Microsoft CorporationOutsourcing of email hosting servicesUS8249929Dec 5, 2005Aug 21, 2012Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for generating and distributing electronic communications for maximum revenueUS8254729Sep 2, 2011Aug 28, 2012Google Inc.Method and system for approving documents based on image similarityUS8265997Aug 25, 2003Sep 11, 2012Google Inc.Method and system for dynamic textual ad distribution via emailUS8271583Mar 3, 2011Sep 18, 2012Solariat, Inc.Methods and apparatus for inserting content into conversations in on-line and digital environmentsUS8276057Sep 17, 2009Sep 25, 2012Go Daddy Operating Company, LLCAnnouncing a domain name registration on a social websiteUS8311890Aug 25, 2003Nov 13, 2012Google Inc.Method and system for dynamic textual ad distribution via emailUS8312364Sep 17, 2009Nov 13, 2012Go Daddy Operating Company, LLCSocial website domain registration announcement and search engine feedUS8316040Feb 16, 2010Nov 20, 2012Google Inc.Programmable search engineUS8346608Mar 13, 2008Jan 1, 2013Consallus Group L.L.C.Method of compensating for enhancing emails with targeted adsUS8346859Aug 30, 2011Jan 1, 2013Google Inc.Method, system, and graphical user interface for dynamically updating transmission characteristics in a web mail replyUS8407250Jun 1, 2007Mar 26, 2013Google Inc.Distribution of content document to varying users with security customization and scalabilityUS8413219Jun 6, 2011Apr 2, 2013Google Inc.Verifying access rights to a network account having multiple passwordsUS8429012Sep 24, 2010Apr 23, 2013Google Inc.Using estimated ad qualities for ad filtering, ranking and promotionUS8429014Jun 25, 2010Apr 23, 2013Google Inc.Method and system for providing advertising through content specific nodes over the internetUS8429190Apr 8, 2005Apr 23, 2013Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for generating and distributing electronic communicationsUS8452746Apr 30, 2010May 28, 2013Google Inc.Detecting spam search results for context processed search queriesUS8520982Oct 18, 2011Aug 27, 2013Google Inc.Method and system for providing targeted documents based on concepts automatically identified thereinUS8521818Jun 21, 2012Aug 27, 2013Solariat, Inc.Methods and apparatus for recognizing and acting upon user intentions expressed in on-line conversations and similar environmentsUS8527594Apr 25, 2007Sep 3, 2013Ecairn, Inc.Blog advertisingUS8533274Nov 13, 2009Sep 10, 2013Google Inc.Retrieving and snoozing categorized conversations in a conversation-based email systemUS8549550Oct 14, 2010Oct 1, 2013Tubemogul, Inc.Method and apparatus for passively monitoring online video viewing and viewer behaviorUS8554852Oct 19, 2010Oct 8, 2013Google Inc.System and method for targeting advertisements or other information using user geographical informationUS8560615Jul 12, 2010Oct 15, 2013Google Inc.Displaying conversation views in a conversation-based email systemUS8572096 *Nov 16, 2011Oct 29, 2013Google Inc.Selecting keywords using co-visitation informationUS8577996Sep 17, 2008Nov 5, 2013Tremor Video, Inc.Method and apparatus for tracing users of online video web sitesUS8583654Aug 29, 2011Nov 12, 2013Google Inc.Indexing quoted text in messages in conversations to support advanced conversation-based searchingUS8583747Nov 13, 2009Nov 12, 2013Google Inc.Labeling messages of conversations and snoozing labeled conversations in a conversation-based email systemUS8589391Sep 15, 2005Nov 19, 2013Google Inc.Method and system for generating web site ratings for a userUS8601004 *Dec 6, 2005Dec 3, 2013Google Inc.System and method for targeting information items based on popularities of the information itemsUS8601062Aug 6, 2004Dec 3, 2013Google Inc.Providing snippets relevant to a search query in a conversation-based email systemUS8615430Nov 19, 2010Dec 24, 2013Tremor Video, Inc.Methods and apparatus for optimizing advertisement allocationUS8621022Sep 14, 2012Dec 31, 2013Google, Inc.Primary and secondary recipient indicators for conversationsUS8626845Dec 28, 2009Jan 7, 2014Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for dynamically generating electronic communicationsUS8626851Sep 28, 2010Jan 7, 2014Google Inc.Email conversation management systemUS8655731Jul 17, 2008Feb 18, 2014Consallus Group L.L.C.Method of enhancing emails with targeted adsUS8700717Sep 28, 2010Apr 15, 2014Google Inc.Email conversation management systemUS8756210Oct 5, 2011Jun 17, 2014Google Inc.Aggregating context data for programmable search enginesUS8762280Nov 1, 2010Jun 24, 2014Google Inc.Method and system for using a network analysis system to verify content on a websiteUS8768302Sep 19, 2011Jul 1, 2014Google Inc.Abuse-resistant method of providing invitation codes for registering user accounts with an online serviceUS8782155Aug 29, 2012Jul 15, 2014Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.Methods and apparatus for inserting content into conversations in on-line and digital environmentsUS8782156Sep 14, 2012Jul 15, 2014Google Inc.Enhanced message displayUS8799072Sep 23, 2011Aug 5, 2014Google Inc.Method and system for providing filtered and/or masked advertisements over the internetUS8832151Sep 14, 2012Sep 9, 2014Google Inc.Distribution of content document to varying users with security, customization and scalabilityUS8838479Mar 28, 2011Sep 16, 2014Google Inc.System and method for enabling an advertisement to follow the user to additional web pagesUS8849070Jul 29, 2013Sep 30, 2014Google Inc.Method and system for providing targeted documents based on concepts automatically identified thereinUS8849818Mar 21, 2012Sep 30, 2014Google Inc.Searching via user-specified ratingsUS8862568Sep 8, 2009Oct 14, 2014Google Inc.Time-multiplexing documents based on preferences or relatednessUS8909546 *Jun 26, 2009Dec 9, 2014Microsoft CorporationPrivacy-centric ad models that leverage social graphsUS8918713May 10, 2012Dec 23, 2014Google Inc.Module specification for a module to be incorporated into a container documentUS8924194 *Jun 20, 2006Dec 30, 2014At&T Intellectual Property Ii, L.P.Automatic translation of advertisementsUS8924256Mar 31, 2005Dec 30, 2014Google Inc.System and method for obtaining content based on data from an electronic deviceUS8954861May 8, 2007Feb 10, 2015Google Inc.Administrator configurable gadget directory for personalized start pagesUS8972409Aug 29, 2011Mar 3, 2015Google Inc.Enabling search for conversations with two messages each having a query teamUS8990193Sep 15, 2005Mar 24, 2015Google Inc.Method, system, and graphical user interface for improved search result displays via user-specified annotationsUS9002725Aug 29, 2005Apr 7, 2015Google Inc.System and method for targeting information based on message contentUS9003441Apr 13, 2005Apr 7, 2015Google Inc.Probabilistic inference of demographic information from user selection of contentUS9009142Aug 29, 2011Apr 14, 2015Google Inc.Index entries configured to support both conversation and message based searchingUS9009231 *Jul 1, 2004Apr 14, 2015Nokia CorporationGroup communication in a communication systemUS9015257Sep 14, 2012Apr 21, 2015Google Inc.Labeling messages with conversation labels and message labelsUS9015264Nov 22, 2013Apr 21, 2015Google Inc.Primary and secondary recipient indicators for conversationsUS9031937Sep 14, 2012May 12, 2015Google Inc.Programmable search engineUS9037601Aug 29, 2011May 19, 2015Google Inc.Conversation system and method for performing both conversation-based queries and message-based queriesUS9043313 *Feb 28, 2008May 26, 2015Yahoo! Inc.System and/or method for personalization of searchesUS9053489 *Aug 9, 2012Jun 9, 2015Canyon Ip Holdings LlcFacilitating presentation of ads relating to words of a messageUS9063989May 22, 2013Jun 23, 2015Google Inc.Retrieving and snoozing categorized conversations in a conversation-based email systemUS9063990Dec 2, 2013Jun 23, 2015Google Inc.Providing snippets relevant to a search query in a conversation-based email systemUS9064263Jul 11, 2012Jun 23, 2015Alibaba Group Holding LimitedSystem and method for advertisement placementUS9071566Sep 14, 2012Jun 30, 2015Google Inc.Retrieving conversations that match a search queryUS9124543Sep 14, 2012Sep 1, 2015Google Inc.Compacted mode for displaying messages in a conversationUS9141964Aug 8, 2011Sep 22, 2015Google Inc.Method and system for automatically creating an image advertisementUS9235849Dec 31, 2003Jan 12, 2016Google Inc.Generating user information for use in targeted advertisingUS9262455Oct 30, 2013Feb 16, 2016Google Inc.Indexing quoted text in messages in conversations to support advanced conversation-based searchingUS9281939Jun 21, 2012Mar 8, 2016Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for encrypting data delivered over a networkUS9294334Jul 11, 2006Mar 22, 2016Google Inc.Controlling communication within a container documentUS9313162Dec 13, 2012Apr 12, 2016Microsoft Technology Licensing, LlcTask completion in email using third party appUS9395865Dec 26, 2012Jul 19, 2016Google Inc.Systems, methods, and graphical user interfaces for concurrent display of reply message and multiple response optionsUS9418105Apr 2, 2014Aug 16, 2016Google Inc.Email conversation management systemUS9454607 *Dec 10, 2010Sep 27, 2016A9.Com, Inc.Image as databaseUS9485316Aug 23, 2013Nov 1, 2016Tubemogul, Inc.Method and apparatus for passively monitoring online video viewing and viewer behaviorUS9529861Mar 20, 2015Dec 27, 2016Google Inc.Method, system, and graphical user interface for improved search result displays via user-specified annotationsUS9542944Apr 13, 2015Jan 10, 2017Amazon Technologies, Inc.Hosted voice recognition system for wireless devicesUS9563624Dec 9, 2014Feb 7, 2017AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.L.P.Automatic translation of advertisementsUS9563646Nov 21, 2011Feb 7, 2017Google Inc.Method and system for mining image searches to associate images with conceptsUS9563826Feb 29, 2012Feb 7, 2017Tremor Video, Inc.Techniques for rendering advertisements with rich mediaUS9583107Oct 17, 2014Feb 28, 2017Amazon Technologies, Inc.Continuous speech transcription performance indicationUS9602456Dec 3, 2013Mar 21, 2017Google Inc.Systems and methods for applying user actions to conversation messagesUS9612995May 19, 2011Apr 4, 2017Adobe Systems IncorporatedVideo viewer targeting based on preference similarityUS9621624Jun 24, 2014Apr 11, 2017Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.Methods and apparatus for inserting content into conversations in on-line and digital environmentsUS20030191689 *Sep 4, 2002Oct 9, 2003Jason BosargeMethod and apparatus for adding advertising tag lines to electronic messagesUS20040015397 *Dec 4, 2002Jan 22, 2004Barry Christopher J.Method and system for providing advertising through content specific nodes over the internetUS20040044571 *Mar 5, 2003Mar 4, 2004Bronnimann Eric RobertMethod and system for providing advertising listing variance in distribution feeds over the internet to maximize revenue to the advertising distributorUS20040215479 *Jan 30, 2004Oct 28, 2004Exacttarget, LlcDynamic content electronic mail marketing system and methodUS20040249709Aug 25, 2003Dec 9, 2004Donovan Kevin RjbMethod and system for dynamic textual ad distribution via emailUS20040267723 *Jun 30, 2003Dec 30, 2004Krishna BharatRendering advertisements with documents having one or more topics using user topic interest informationUS20050096979 *Dec 31, 2003May 5, 2005Ross KoningsteinSystem and method for enabling an advertisement to follow the user to additional web pagesUS20050096980 *Dec 31, 2003May 5, 2005Ross KoningsteinSystem and method for delivering internet advertisements that change between textual and graphical ads on demand by a userUS20050101625 *Sep 7, 2004May 12, 2005Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbhAerosol formulation for inhalation comprising an anticholinergicUS20050131762 *Dec 31, 2003Jun 16, 2005Krishna BharatGenerating user information for use in targeted advertisingUS20050144069 *Dec 23, 2003Jun 30, 2005Wiseman Leora R.Method and system for providing targeted graphical advertisementsUS20050165896 *Apr 15, 2005Jul 28, 2005The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Relevant email ads for domain name advertiserUS20050165904 *Apr 15, 2005Jul 28, 2005The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Relevant online ads for domain name advertiserUS20050172031 *Apr 15, 2005Aug 4, 2005The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Parked webpage domain name suggestionsUS20050222900 *Mar 30, 2004Oct 6, 2005Prashant FuloriaSelectively delivering advertisements based at least in part on trademark issuesUS20050222903 *Mar 31, 2004Oct 6, 2005Paul BuchheitRendering content-targeted ads with e-mailUS20050234850 *Aug 6, 2004Oct 20, 2005Buchheit Paul TDisplaying conversations in a conversation-based email sysemUS20050251399 *May 10, 2004Nov 10, 2005Sumit AgarwalSystem and method for rating documents comprising an imageUS20050262203 *Mar 31, 2004Nov 24, 2005Paul BuchheitEmail system with conversation-centric user interfaceUS20050267799 *May 10, 2004Dec 1, 2005Wesley ChanSystem and method for enabling publishers to select preferred types of electronic documentsUS20050267936 *Jul 1, 2004Dec 1, 2005Miikka PoikselkaGroup communication in a communication systemUS20060036608 *Apr 8, 2005Feb 16, 2006Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for generating and distributing electronic communicationsUS20060041472 *Aug 23, 2004Feb 23, 2006Lukose Rajan MSystems and methods of interfacing an advertisement with a message presentation clientUS20060122883 *Dec 5, 2005Jun 8, 2006Lynn Scott WMethod and system for generating and distributing electronic communications for maximum revenueUS20060149624 *Dec 30, 2004Jul 6, 2006Shumeet BalujaGenerating and/or serving local area advertisements, such as advertisements for devices with call functionalityUS20060149677 *Jan 6, 2005Jul 6, 2006Microsoft CorporationContextual ad processing on local machineUS20060149710 *Dec 30, 2004Jul 6, 2006Ross KoningsteinAssociating features with entities, such as categories of web page documents, and/or weighting such featuresUS20060159339 *Jan 20, 2005Jul 20, 2006Motorola, Inc.Method and apparatus as pertains to captured image statisticsUS20060179453 *Feb 7, 2005Aug 10, 2006Microsoft CorporationImage and other analysis for contextual adsUS20060200445 *Mar 3, 2005Sep 7, 2006Google, Inc.Providing history and transaction volume information of a content source to usersUS20060224448 *Mar 31, 2005Oct 5, 2006Herf Michael BSystem and method for obtaining content based on data from an electronic deviceUS20060242016 *Jan 13, 2006Oct 26, 2006Tremor Media LlcDynamic advertisement system and methodUS20060242663 *Apr 24, 2006Oct 26, 2006Inclue, Inc.In-email rss feed delivery system, method, and computer program productUS20060271425 *May 27, 2005Nov 30, 2006Microsoft CorporationAdvertising in application programsUS20060287913 *Jun 20, 2005Dec 21, 2006Google, Inc.Allocating advertising space in a network of displaysUS20070011050 *May 22, 2006Jan 11, 2007Steven KlopfDigital advertising systemUS20070038600 *Aug 10, 2005Feb 15, 2007Guha Ramanathan VDetecting spam related and biased contexts for programmable search enginesUS20070038601 *Aug 10, 2005Feb 15, 2007Guha Ramanathan VAggregating context data for programmable search enginesUS20070038603 *Aug 10, 2005Feb 15, 2007Guha Ramanathan VSharing context data across programmable search enginesUS20070038614 *Aug 10, 2005Feb 15, 2007Guha Ramanathan VGenerating and presenting advertisements based on context data for programmable search enginesUS20070038616 *Aug 10, 2005Feb 15, 2007Guha Ramanathan VProgrammable search engineUS20070050389 *Nov 14, 2005Mar 1, 2007Opinmind, Inc.Advertisement placement based on expressions about topicsUS20070067395 *Sep 16, 2005Mar 22, 2007Microsoft CorporationOutsourcing of email hosting servicesUS20070067396 *Sep 16, 2005Mar 22, 2007Microsoft CorporationOutsourcing of instant messaging hosting servicesUS20070067457 *Sep 16, 2005Mar 22, 2007Microsoft CorporationHosting of network-based servicesUS20070067465 *Sep 16, 2005Mar 22, 2007Microsoft CorporationValidation of domain name controlUS20070073696 *Sep 28, 2005Mar 29, 2007Google, Inc.Online data verification of listing dataUS20070083611 *Oct 7, 2005Apr 12, 2007Microsoft CorporationContextual multimedia advertisement presentationUS20070112630 *Nov 7, 2006May 17, 2007Scanscout, Inc.Techniques for rendering advertisments with rich mediaUS20070116284 *Jun 8, 2006May 24, 2007Esclamada Arthur GMethod and system for encrypting data delivered over a networkUS20070129075 *Jul 21, 2006Jun 7, 2007Electronics And Telecommunications Research InstituteMethod for Seamless Inter-Frequency Hard Handover in Radio Communication SystemUS20070129999 *Nov 18, 2005Jun 7, 2007Jie ZhouFraud detection in web-based advertisingUS20070133034 *Dec 14, 2005Jun 14, 2007Google Inc.Detecting and rejecting annoying documentsUS20070136443 *Dec 12, 2005Jun 14, 2007Google Inc.Proxy server collection of data for module incorporation into a container documentUS20070156887 *Dec 30, 2005Jul 5, 2007Daniel WrightPredicting ad qualityUS20070162342 *Mar 1, 2007Jul 12, 2007Steven KlopfDigital advertising systemUS20070204010 *May 4, 2006Aug 30, 2007Steven GoldbergRemote Module Syndication System and MethodUS20070239531 *Mar 30, 2006Oct 11, 2007Francoise BeaufaysControlling the serving of serially rendered ads, such as audio adsUS20070239533 *Mar 31, 2006Oct 11, 2007Susan WojcickiAllocating and monetizing advertising space in offline media through online usage and pricing modelUS20070260508 *Oct 19, 2005Nov 8, 2007Google, Inc.Method and system for providing advertising through content specific nodes over the internetUS20070268707 *May 22, 2006Nov 22, 2007Edison Price Lighting, Inc.LED array wafer lighting fixtureUS20070294080 *Jun 20, 2006Dec 20, 2007At&T Corp.Automatic translation of advertisementsUS20070299815 *Jun 26, 2006Dec 27, 2007Microsoft CorporationAutomatically Displaying Keywords and Other Supplemental InformationUS20070300152 *Nov 29, 2005Dec 27, 2007Google Inc.Formatting a user network site based on user preferences and format performance dataUS20080033822 *Oct 3, 2007Feb 7, 2008The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Systems and methods for filtering online advertisements containing third-party trademarksUS20080033956 *Jun 1, 2007Feb 7, 2008Shoumen SahaDistribution of Content Document to Varying Users With Security Customization and ScalabilityUS20080046315 *Aug 17, 2006Feb 21, 2008Google, Inc.Realizing revenue from advertisement placementUS20080098312 *Dec 20, 2007Apr 24, 2008Bay-Wei ChangMethod, System, and Graphical User Interface for Dynamically Updating Transmission Characteristics in a Web Mail ReplyUS20080104052 *Oct 31, 2006May 1, 2008Microsoft CorporationImplicit, specialized search of business objects using unstructured textUS20080109391 *Nov 7, 2006May 8, 2008Scanscout, Inc.Classifying content based on moodUS20080162439 *Mar 13, 2008Jul 3, 2008Jason BosargeMethod of enhancing email text with hyperlinked word pointing to targeted adUS20080162454 *Jan 3, 2007Jul 3, 2008Motorola, Inc.Method and apparatus for keyword-based media item transmissionUS20080201222 *Apr 25, 2007Aug 21, 2008Ecairn, Inc.Blog advertisingUS20080215692 *Mar 13, 2008Sep 4, 2008Jason BosargeMethod of compensating for enhancing emails with targeted adsUS20080228576 *Nov 20, 2007Sep 18, 2008Scanscout, Inc.Ad performance optimization for rich media contentUS20080228581 *Mar 12, 2008Sep 18, 2008Tadashi YonezakiMethod and System for a Natural Transition Between Advertisements Associated with Rich Media ContentUS20080235083 *Sep 4, 2002Sep 25, 2008Jason BosargeMethod and apparatus for adding advertising tag lines to electronic messagesUS20080275873 *Jul 17, 2008Nov 6, 2008Jason BosargeMethod of enhancing emails with targeted adsUS20090006996 *Jun 1, 2007Jan 1, 2009Shoumen SahaUpdating Content Within A Container Document For User GroupsUS20090024470 *Jul 20, 2007Jan 22, 2009Google Inc.Vertical clustering and anti-clustering of categories in ad link unitsUS20090048910 *Aug 13, 2007Feb 19, 2009Research In Motion LimitedSystem and method for facilitating targeted broadcast based mobile advertisementUS20090048911 *Aug 13, 2007Feb 19, 2009Research In Motion LimitedSystem and method for facilitating targeted mobile advertisement with scanning engine on communications pathUS20090048912 *Aug 13, 2007Feb 19, 2009Research In Motion LimitedSystem and method for dynamic configuration of scanning engineUS20090048913 *Aug 13, 2007Feb 19, 2009Research In Motion LimitedSystem and method for facilitating targeted mobile advertisement using metadata embedded in the application contentUS20090048914 *Aug 13, 2007Feb 19, 2009Research In Motion LimitedSystem and method for facilitating targeted mobile advertisement using pre-loaded ad contentUS20090049090 *Aug 13, 2007Feb 19, 2009Research In Motion LimitedSystem and method for facilitating targeted mobile advertisementUS20090083417 *Sep 17, 2008Mar 26, 2009John HughesMethod and apparatus for tracing users of online video web sitesUS20090092139 *Oct 7, 2008Apr 9, 2009Keep In Touch Systemstm, Inc.Time sensitive scheduling data delivery networkUS20090106076 *Oct 17, 2008Apr 23, 2009Keep In Touch Systemstm, Inc.System and method for a time sensitive scheduling data promotions networkUS20090106368 *Oct 18, 2007Apr 23, 2009Adpickles, Inc.Injection advertising technologyUS20090106848 *Oct 19, 2008Apr 23, 2009Keep In Touch Systems, Inc.System and method for Time Sensitive Scheduling Data privacy protectionUS20090112719 *Sep 26, 2008Apr 30, 2009Bhave Mahesh PBranded inter-personal communicationsUS20090125372 *Oct 10, 2007May 14, 2009Van Zwol RoelofContextual Ad Matching Strategies that Incorporate Author FeedbackUS20090164283 *Dec 10, 2008Jun 25, 2009Keep In Touch Systemstm, Inc.System and method for reception time zone presentation of time sensitive scheduling dataUS20090164293 *Dec 10, 2008Jun 25, 2009Keep In Touch Systemstm, Inc.System and method for time sensitive scheduling data grid flow managementUS20090222431 *Feb 28, 2008Sep 3, 2009Yahoo! Inc.System and/or method for personalization of searchesUS20090228360 *Mar 4, 2009Sep 10, 2009Mailmethods, LlcEmail advertisement system and method for online retailUS20090259552 *Apr 8, 2009Oct 15, 2009Tremor Media, Inc.System and method for providing advertisements from multiple ad servers using a failover mechanismUS20090265242 *Jun 26, 2009Oct 22, 2009Microsoft CorporationPrivacy-centric ad models that leverage social graphsUS20100011295 *Jul 8, 2008Jan 14, 2010Nortel Networks LimitedMethod of Delivering Customer Contact Service to IPTV ViewerUS20100017294 *Jan 23, 2009Jan 21, 2010Mailmethods, LlcEmail advertisement system and methodUS20100049813 *Jul 3, 2008Feb 25, 2010Bhavin TurakhiaMethod and system for determining a context of a messageUS20100057879 *Nov 13, 2009Mar 4, 2010Buchheit Paul TRetrieving and snoozing categorized conversations in a conversation-based email systemUS20100064017 *Nov 13, 2009Mar 11, 2010Buchheit Paul TLabeling Messages of Conversations and Snoozing Labeled Conversations in a Conversation-Based Email SystemUS20100070510 *Mar 18, 2009Mar 18, 2010Google Inc.System and method for rating electronic documentsUS20100106595 *Oct 9, 2009Apr 29, 2010Google Inc.Formatting a User Network Site Based on User Preferences and Format Performance DataUS20100106788 *Dec 28, 2009Apr 29, 2010Adknowledge, Inc.Method and system for dynamically generating electronic communicationsUS20100114691 *Jun 12, 2009May 6, 2010Oracle International CorporationManaging a marketing template used in an e-mail marketing campaignUS20100121706 *Nov 12, 2008May 13, 2010Yahoo! Inc.Method and system for selecting advertisementsUS20100198825 *Apr 13, 2010Aug 5, 2010Google Inc.Method and System for Providing Targeted Documents Based on Concepts Automatically Identified ThereinUS20100217756 *Feb 16, 2010Aug 26, 2010Google Inc.Programmable Search EngineUS20100223125 *May 13, 2010Sep 2, 2010Google Inc.Mixing items, such as ad targeting keyword suggestions, from heterogeneous sourcesUS20100223144 *Feb 27, 2009Sep 2, 2010The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Systems for generating online advertisements offering dynamic content relevant domain names for registrationUS20100223250 *Apr 30, 2010Sep 2, 2010Google Inc.Detecting spam related and biased contexts for programmable search enginesUS20100250513 *Mar 29, 2010Sep 30, 2010Google Inc.Aggregating Context Data for Programmable Search EnginesUS20100268585 *Oct 17, 2008Oct 21, 2010Cloops, Inc.Injection advertising technologyUS20100268601 *May 12, 2010Oct 21, 2010Jason BosargeMethod of enhancing email text with hyperlinked word pointing to targeted adUS20100281397 *Jul 12, 2010Nov 4, 2010Buchheit Paul TDisplaying Conversation Views in a Conversation-Based Email SystemUS20100293242 *Jul 29, 2010Nov 18, 2010Buchheit Paul TConversation-Based E-Mail MessagingUS20100325128 *Jun 18, 2009Dec 23, 2010The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Generating and registering domain name-based screen namesUS20100325253 *Jun 18, 2009Dec 23, 2010The Go Daddy Group, Inc.Generating and registering screen name-based domain namesUS20100332321 *Jun 25, 2010Dec 30, 2010Google Inc.Method and System for Providing Advertising Through Content Specific Nodes Over the InternetUS20110015988 *Sep 24, 2010Jan 20, 2011Google Inc.Using estimated ad qualities for ad filtering, ranking and promotionUS20110016188 *Sep 28, 2010Jan 20, 2011Paul BuchheitEmail Conversation Management SystemUS20110016189 *Sep 28, 2010Jan 20, 2011Paul BuchheitEmail Conversation Management SystemUS20110029666 *Oct 14, 2010Feb 3, 2011Lopatecki JasonMethod and Apparatus for Passively Monitoring Online Video Viewing and Viewer BehaviorUS20110087676 *Oct 13, 2009Apr 14, 2011Hermann GeupelCommunication system, server and methodUS20110093783 *Feb 24, 2010Apr 21, 2011Charles ParraMethod and system for linking media componentsUS20110125573 *Nov 19, 2010May 26, 2011Scanscout, Inc.Methods and apparatus for optimizing advertisement allocationUS20110191694 *Apr 13, 2011Aug 4, 2011Coleman Keith JEnhanced Message DisplayUS20110219300 *May 20, 2011Sep 8, 2011Google Inc.Detecting and rejecting annoying documentsUS20110225047 *Jan 17, 2011Sep 15, 2011Paul BreedApparatus and methods for generation and utilization of sales leadsUS20110238508 *Mar 28, 2011Sep 29, 2011Google Inc.System and Method for Enabling an Advertisement to Follow the User to Additional Web PagesUS20120303445 *Aug 9, 2012Nov 29, 2012Victor Roditis JablokovFacilitating presentation of ads relating to words of a messageUS20130005367 *Sep 12, 2012Jan 3, 2013Voice Signal Technologies, Inc.System and method for conducting a search using a wireless mobile deviceUS20130085852 *Oct 4, 2011Apr 4, 2013Yahoo! Inc.Deal and ad targeting in association with emailsUS20140067533 *Oct 8, 2013Mar 6, 2014Google Inc.Distributing content based on transaction informationUS20140074612 *Nov 11, 2013Mar 13, 2014Google Inc.System and Method for Targeting Information Items Based on Popularities of the Information ItemsEP1743248A2 *Mar 30, 2005Jan 17, 2007Google, Inc.Rendering content-targeted ads with e-mailEP1743248A4 *Mar 30, 2005Apr 2, 2008Google IncRendering content-targeted ads with e-mailWO2008085585A1 *Oct 30, 2007Jul 17, 2008Motorola, Inc.Method and apparatus for keyword-based media item transmissionWO2008112033A1 *Dec 7, 2007Sep 18, 2008Scanscout, Inc.Ad performance optimization for rich media contentWO2013163084A1 *Apr 22, 2013Oct 31, 2013Yahoo! Inc.Systems and methods for insertion of content into an email over imapWO2017048567A1 *Sep 8, 2016Mar 23, 2017Microsoft Technology Licensing, LlcPersonalized electronic message* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification1/1, 707/999.001International ClassificationG06Q30/00, G06F1/00, G06Q10/00, H04L12/16, G06F15/16, G06F, G06F17/30, G06F7/00Cooperative ClassificationG06Q10/107, G06Q30/02European ClassificationG06Q30/02, G06Q10/107Legal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMar 16, 2005ASAssignmentOwner name: GOOGLE TECHNOLOGY INC., CALIFORNIAFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:DEAN, JEFFREY A.;HARIK, GEORGES R.;BUCHEIT, PAUL;REEL/FRAME:015910/0070;SIGNING DATES FROM 20030811 TO 20030812Owner name: GOOGLE INC., CALIFORNIAFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:GOOGLE TECHNOLOGY, INC.;REEL/FRAME:015910/0118Effective date: 20040827RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services