Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080222000A1/en
Timestamp: 2020-01-22 11:27:51
Document Index: 430964988

Matched Legal Cases: ['§120', 'art 400', 'art 400', 'art 400', 'art 400', 'art 400', 'art 500', 'art 500', 'art 500', 'art 500', 'art 500', 'art 500', 'art 600', 'art 600', 'art 600', 'art 600', 'art 600', 'art 600']

US20080222000A1 - Systems and Media for Awarding Credits Based on Provided Usage Information - Google Patents
Systems and Media for Awarding Credits Based on Provided Usage Information Download PDF
US20080222000A1
US20080222000A1 US12/122,186 US12218608A US2008222000A1 US 20080222000 A1 US20080222000 A1 US 20080222000A1 US 12218608 A US12218608 A US 12218608A US 2008222000 A1 US2008222000 A1 US 2008222000A1
US12/122,186
US8073852B2 (en
2005-01-11 Priority to US11/032,879 priority Critical patent/US7433866B2/en
2008-05-16 Application filed by International Business Machines Corp filed Critical International Business Machines Corp
2008-05-16 Priority to US12/122,186 priority patent/US8073852B2/en
2008-09-11 Publication of US20080222000A1 publication Critical patent/US20080222000A1/en
2011-04-20 Assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION reassignment INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: BERSTIS, VIKTORS, FORLENZA, RANDOLPH MICHAEL
2011-12-06 Publication of US8073852B2 publication Critical patent/US8073852B2/en
Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information are disclosed. More particularly, hardware and/or software for collecting and disseminating usage information related to electronic documents and for awarding usage credits to users in exchange for providing usage information are disclosed. Embodiments include receiving an indication of the usage of an electronic document by a user and aggregating the received usage indication for the document with usage indications relating to other users. Embodiments may also include creating document utilization information for the electronic document based on the aggregated usage indications and awarding usage credit to the user based on the user's providing statistics on the usage of the electronic document. Further embodiments may include transmitting an indication of the awarded usage credit to the user and receiving a request to use the usage credits,
Pursuant to 35 USC §120, this continuation application claims priority to and benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/032,879, entitled “SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND MEDIA FOR AWARDING CREDITS BASED ON PROVIDED USAGE INFORMATION”, attorney docket number AUS920040613US1(4074), filed on Jan. 11, 2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety for all purposes. This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/032,872, entitled “SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND MEDIA FOR UTILIZING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT USAGE INFORMATION WITH SEARCH ENGINES”, attorney docket number AUS920040611US1(4072), filed on Jan. 11, 2005.
The following is a detailed description of example embodiments of the invention depicted in the accompanying drawings. The example embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the invention. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all odifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The detailed descriptions below are designed to make such embodiments obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Each search engine sewer 106 may also include a usage credit module 124 and a statistics credit module 122. The usage credit module 124 of the search engine server 106 may be similar to the usage credit module 118 of the aggregator server 104, and either, or both, may grant and manage usage credits. Statistics credit module 122 may grant statistics credit to document providers in exchange for aggregated document utilization information. A document provider (e.g., aggregator server 104 owner, document author, document copyright owner, etc.) may exchange statistics credits for improved services from a search engine provider, such as higher visibility in search results, document utilization information related to other documents, free or discounted advertisements, cash or other items, etc. By providing statistics credits to document providers in exchange for document utilization information, search engine providers are able to encourage document, providers to supply document utilization information to improve the quality and content of their searches. Document providers, on the other hand, may receive significant benefits in exchange for information that they are already gathering.
After detecting document usage information and/or bookmarks, the method of flow chart 400 continues to element 424. In this element, flow chart 400 saves any document usage information, including bookmark informations to any type of storage and transmits any document usage and/or bookmark information to an aggregator server 104 via network 110. The method of flow chart 400 may receive usage credit in element 426, after which flow chart 400 terminates. The method of flow chart 400 may receive an indication of the usage credit from an aggregator server 104, search engine server 106, etc.
After usage and/or bookmark information has been collected, the method of flow chart 500 continues to element 506, creating document utilization information from the aggregated usage and/or bookmark information for a particular document. In one example, document utilization information for a particular electronic document includes the relative amounts of time spent on each page of an electronic document by aggregated users. For example, the document utilization information could indicate that users spent an average of 30 seconds on page 1, two minutes on page 2, and 13 seconds on page three, and so on. A bar chart or histogram-like display could he created illustrating the time spent on each page. Using this visual representation, a user could see that page 2, in this example, is probably the most valuable of the electronic document pages. Any methodology is possible for aggregating the usage and/or bookmark information, and particular types of processing might be requested by users or administrators, set up as defaults, may be used in response to particular types of data, etc.
After creating document utilization information, the method of flow chart 500 may award usage credits to a user in element 508. Usage credits may include any type of credit, reward, or benefit that may be given to a user in exchange for providing document usage information. In one embodiment, usage credits may be exchanged for discounted or free services relating to electronic documents. For example, a user may receive usage credits that may be exchanged for additional electronic documents. In another example, a user may exchange usage credits for premium versions of electronic documents, such as electronic documents that include document utilization information or full versions Of articles, chapters, etc. The method of flow chart 500 may award users with usage credits for any type of document usage, such as time spent viewing documents, the number of documents viewed, the number of bookmarks created, etc. The method of flow chart 500 may also award users with usage credits based on any number of factors, including the quality of a user's usage (e.g., how well it corresponds to other users). groups for which the user qualifies (e.g., Ph.D.'s, ages 18-49, income above $100,000, etc.), etc. After awarding usage credits, the method of flow chart 500 continues to element 510, where an indication of the awarded usage credits is transmitted to the user. At optional element 512, the method of flow chart 500 may receive a request from a user to use some or all of their usage credits in exchange for search-related benefits, such as a premium search.
FIG. 6 depicts an example of a flow chart 600 for receiving electronic document usage information and generating search results according to one embodiment. The method of flow chart 600 maybe performed, in one embodiment, by a search engine server 106. In element 602, the method of flow chart 600 may receive aggregated document utilization information relating to one or more documents from an aggregator server 104. The method of flow chart 600 may also receive an indication of a request to use statistics credits from the aggregator server 104 or document provider in decision block 604. In one embodiment, the credits may be used to enhance the priority of a search. If there is no request to use statistics credits, flow chart 600 continues to element 608. If there is a request to use statistics credits, flow chart 600 continues to element 606, in another embodiment modifying the priority of a document in search results for a document provider when statistics credits are cashed in. Increasing the priority of a document makes the document more likely to be selected by a user from their search results, as many users start from the beginning of the search results to find the content for which they are looking. This provides an incentive for document providers (e.g., owners of aggregators servers 104) to provide document utilization information to a search engine. A search engine server 106 may provide other benefits or take other actions in response to a document provider or aggregator server 104 using statistics credits instead of an improved priority for documents, such as providing payment, free advertising, premium searches, etc.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that the present invention contemplates methods, systems, and media for awarding credits based on provided electronic document usage information. It is understood that the form of the invention shown and described in the detailed description and the drawings are to he taken merely as examples. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted broadly to embrace ail the variations of the example embodiments disclosed.
1. A storage device having a machine-accessible medium containing instructions effective, when executing in a data processing system, to cause said data processing system to perform operations comprising:
receiving an indication that statistics credits have been granted by the search engine server in response to the document utilization information; and
2. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, further comprising transmitting an indication of the awarded usage credit to the user.
3. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to use usage credits.
4. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein the awarded usage credit may be exchanged by the user for one or more of goods, services, electronic coupons, document utilization information relating to an electronic document, electronic documents, portions of electronic documents, discounted electronic documents, or monetary rewards.
5. A data processing system, the system comprising:
a document computer system having a usage tracking module to track a user's usage of an electronic document; and
an aggregator server in communication with me document computer system, the aggregator server having an aggregator module and a usage credit module, the aggregator module creating document utilization information based on document usage information from one or more users, wherein the usage credit module awards usage credit to users based on their usage of the electronic document; and
a search engine server for generating search results in response to a search request from a user computer system, the search engine server having a statistics credit module to receive document utilization information from the aggregator server and to award statistics credits to the aggregator server based on the received document utilization information; and
wherein the aggregator server uses granted statistics credits in exchange for premium search services from the search engine server.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein further the search engine server generates search results based on received document, utilization information for a plurality of electronic documents.
7. The system of claim 5, wherein the document computer system further comprises a document reader-to allow a user to view the electronic document.
8. The system of claim 5, wherein the aggregator server further comprises a usage credit module.
9. The system of claim 5, wherein the usage credit allows users to exchange usage credits for goods or services of value.
10. The system of claim 5, wherein the usage credit allows users to exchange usage credits for one or more of premium searches, document utilization information relating to an electronic document, electronic documents, portions of electronic documents, discounted electronic documents, or monetary rewards.
US12/122,186 2005-01-11 2008-05-16 Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information Active 2026-11-23 US8073852B2 (en)
US11/032,879 US7433866B2 (en) 2005-01-11 2005-01-11 Systems, methods, and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US12/122,186 US8073852B2 (en) 2005-01-11 2008-05-16 Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US13/305,658 US8463766B1 (en) 2005-01-11 2011-11-28 Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US11/032,879 Continuation US7433866B2 (en) 2005-01-11 2005-01-11 Systems, methods, and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US13/305,658 Continuation US8463766B1 (en) 2005-01-11 2011-11-28 Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US20080222000A1 true US20080222000A1 (en) 2008-09-11
US8073852B2 US8073852B2 (en) 2011-12-06
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US11/032,879 Active 2026-02-24 US7433866B2 (en) 2005-01-11 2005-01-11 Systems, methods, and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US12/122,186 Active 2026-11-23 US8073852B2 (en) 2005-01-11 2008-05-16 Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US13/305,658 Active US8463766B1 (en) 2005-01-11 2011-11-28 Systems and media for awarding credits based on provided usage information
US (3) US7433866B2 (en)
2005-01-11 US US11/032,879 patent/US7433866B2/en active Active
2008-05-16 US US12/122,186 patent/US8073852B2/en active Active
2011-11-28 US US13/305,658 patent/US8463766B1/en active Active
US8073852B2 (en) 2011-12-06
US8463766B1 (en) 2013-06-11
US20060173837A1 (en) 2006-08-03
US7433866B2 (en) 2008-10-07
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