Patent ID: 7844491

Claim:
A method of displaying advertisements to a user of an online service provider using a client application on a local device, the local device including an input device and an output device, the client application accessing an online server associated with the online service provider and providing access to the Internet, the method comprising: a) the client application activating; b) the client application commencing an initial online session with the online service provider to gain access to the Internet, the client application operating independently of an Internet browser and operating concurrently with the Internet browser; c) the client application receiving sponsorship data from the online service provider, the sponsorship data comprising a sponsorship object including a resource locator associated with a sponsorship label to be displayed and a resource locator associated with a click-through of the sponsorship label; d) the client application causing a client window to be displayed on the output device, the client window remaining fully visible so long as the online session with the online service provider persists, wherein the client window is displayed independently of a browser window generated by the Internet browser; e) the client application displaying a sponsorship label on the client window by referring to the resource locator associated with the sponsorship label to be displayed, the sponsorship label comprising a hypertext link, wherein, when the user clicks on the sponsorship label, the client application causes the local device to access the resource locator associated with a click-through of the sponsorship label; f) the client application causing a first advertisement to be displayed in the client window, wherein the client application retrieves the first advertisement from a memory cache local to the local device; g) the client application receiving a second advertisement from the online server; h) the client application causing the second advertisement to be displayed in the client window.