Patent ID: 7058633

Claim:
A method for re-writing a received link with an alternative link in a computer network, comprising the steps of: receiving data requested by a client; examining said received data for links to additional data; comparing said links to entries in a database, wherein said database stores advertiser URLs with corresponding arbitrary URLs, said comparing further comprising comparing said links to said advertiser URLs; for each link matching an advertiser URL stored in said database, replacing said matched link in said received data with a corresponding arbitrary URL from said database; and forwarding said received data with the arbitrary URL to said client, wherein: (i) the computer network is the worldwide web; (ii) the received data is a first web page being returned from a server to the client in response to a first request from the client; (iii) the client may include an ad blocker operative to block the advertiser URL but not operative to block the arbitrary URL; and (iv) the received data forwarded to the client comprises an adjusted first web page created by adjusting the first web page with the arbitrary URL to avoid violating expectations and checks of the first web page at the client computer system; and further comprising: (v) intercepting a second request from the client for a second web page in response to activating the arbitrary URL in the adjusted first web page, the second request containing the arbitrary URL; (vi) replacing the arbitrary URL in the second request with the advertiser URL from the matching entry of the database; and (vii) forwarding the second request with the advertiser URL for servicing within the worldwide web.