Patent ID: 8452832

Claim:
A computer system serving advertisements, the system comprising: an input/output device receiving an indication of a first web destination; a memory storing a web destination profile comprising a set of characteristics of a population of visitors visiting the first web destination, wherein at least one characteristic is unknown; a processor device operably coupled with the memory, said processor device executing instructions comprising: when user traffic to the first web destination cannot be observed or inferred, performing steps of: comparing content of a second web destination to content of the first web destination; determining that visitor profiles of the second web destination contain characteristics similar to those of the population of visitors visiting the first web destination when the compared content is determined to be similar; analyzing user traffic at the second web destination to understand the population visiting said second web destination when it is determined that the visitor profiles are similar; propagating the web destination profile for the first web destination with known characteristics derived from analyzing the user traffic at the second web destination; wherein the user traffic comprises both differentiated and undifferentiated clickstream trails and wherein the undifferentiated clickstream trails comprise data that is undifferentiated as to the visitors to the second web destination; wherein the second web destinations are web pages in a hierarchy of web pages that intersect the differentiated clickstream trails; selecting an advertisement using the propagated web destination profile for the first web destination; and serving the advertisement selected for display to a user.