WO2010123815A1

WO2010123815A1 - Customized content and method

Info

Publication number: WO2010123815A1
Application number: PCT/US2010/031587
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shubber Ali; David Chariton
Original assignee: Bne1, Inc.
Priority date: 2009-04-20
Filing date: 2010-04-19
Publication date: 2010-10-28
Also published as: WO2010123815A8

Abstract

A method of providing customized content to a computer user, comprising the steps of a content providing system receiving an information device associated with a user computing system, the information device being associated with user information for determining customized content, the content providing system utilizing the information device to determine content to provide to the user computing system, and providing the customized content.

Description

CUSTOMIZED CONTENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61/170,901,

filed April 20, 2009, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field The present invention relates generally to a system and method for providing customized content via a computing system and more particularly, but not exclusively, to a system and method for providing customized webpage content, including advertising, which may be based on a user's demographics, personal attributes and/or preferences. Background of the Invention

Recent improvements in webpage design have allowed for customized web content to be provided to requesting users. Typically, however, the website hosting the webpage will only provide the customized content after the requesting user has subscribed to that website and/or provided pertinent information, for example demographic information, about himself. This process may involve the user entering detailed personal information which is subsequently stored in a customized content database maintained by the website. For example, some Internet news sites will provide customized news content after a user has subscribed to the news service and entered detailed information such as his age, e-mail address, residential address, preferred news service etc. The personal information which is stored in the database is typically associated with an account name or number associated with the user. Once the subscribing user has identified himself to the website (using the account name or number), the website accesses the personal information stored in the customized content database and customizes the webpage content accordingly. For an Internet news site, for example, the stored user information may indicate that the user requires local news only, and the webpage content may be varied to provide only local news,

A problem with such systems is that the user has to repeatedly subscribe to, and enter personal information for, each new website that he visits before he can receive customized webpage content. Clearly, this process can be extremely time consuming for the requesting user, particularly when he wishes to receive customized content from a large number of websites.

Further, the personal information provided by the user can often be misused by these websites to provide, for example, intrusive advertising, etc. There is also the potential for the user's personal information to be fraudulently obtained by hackers accessing the customized content database.

Another method by which websites determine what custom content to provide to a user is through the use of the "cookie" - a string of computer code placed on a user's computer by a website that is linked to a record or records stored on a database on the website's own system, containing information about the user based on his behavior on that site. When that user returns to the website, the website will know it is the user by checking for the cookie, and will know the information about him based on the information stored in the database. Some websites and web advertisers ("companies") have recently begun to take this one step further, placing cookies on a user's computer which can be read by the companies when that user is on another website.

This method of cookies is invasive, and compromises the privacy of individual users. Moreover, in many cases, the companies use the information they have on a user to infer user characteristics from exhibited behavior and customize content based on those characteristics; however, because the cookie system and the inferred values are opaque to the individual user, that user is not able to audit the information to make sure it is correct. Summary of the Invention

In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of providing customized content to a computer user, comprising the steps of a content providing system receiving an information device associated with a user computing system, the information device being associated with user information for determining customized content, the content providing system utilizing the information device to determine content to provide to the user computing system, and providing the customized content. The step of utilizing the information device to determine content may comprise the content providing system accessing an information database containing the user information. For example, the information device may be a pointer which points to particular user information stored in the database.

The information database may be accessible via the content providing system or may be accessible via a host computing system which hosts the information database.

The information device may provide the user information itself. For example, the information device may be an ASCII string which is understood by the content providing system to represent particular user information.

The information device may be a code and the step of utilizing the information device may comprise the content providing system decrypting the code to determine the user information.

The information device may be comprised of one or more codes, each representing different information about the user. For example, an information device may contain a plurality of codes, such as, one each for the user's general demographic information, content-preferences, clothing and shoe sizes and sports interests.

The information device may be provided in software and residing on the software may be a browser extension. The information device may also be provided by email, instant messenger, or other means of user-generated electronic communication.

80 The information device may be received by the content providing system in response to the user computing system accessing the content providing system, or the content providing system initiating the communication with the user computing system

The user information may be representative of user demographic and/or psychographic information and/or content-type selection.

85 The customized content may be provided via a webpage.

In accordance with a second aspect, there is provided a method of providing customized content to a computer user, comprising the steps of a user computing system providing an information device associated with user information for determining customized content to a content providing system, the content providing system being arranged to utilize the information 90 device to determine customized content to provide to the user computing system.

In accordance with this aspect, the method may also include the step of receiving the customized content.

In accordance with a third aspect, there is provided a method of generating an information device which is arranged to be utilized by a content providing system for determining

95 customized content to be provided to a user computing system, the method comprising the steps of a host computing system receiving user information from a user computing system and generating an information device associated with the user information.

The method may further comprise the step of providing the information device to the user computing system. 00 The step of receiving user information may include the steps of posing questions to a computer user via the user computing system and receiving the user's answers to determine user information. The method may further comprise the step of posing further questions based on previous answers. 105 The method may further comprise the step of the host computing system probabilistically determining user information based on answers to previous questions.

In accordance with a fourth aspect, there is provided a system for providing customized content to a computer user, the system comprising a content providing system, the content providing system being arranged to receive an information device associated with a user 110 computing system, the information device being associated with user information for determining customized content, the content providing system being arranged to utilize the information device to determine content to be provided to the user computing system.

The system may further comprise an information database for storing demographic, psychographic, and/or content-type selection information associated with the information device. 115 The content providing system may include the information database.

Alternatively, the information database may be accessed via a host computing system which hosts the information database and the content providing system may be arranged to access the user information via the host computing system.

In accordance with a fifth aspect, there is provided a system for providing customized 120 content to a computer user, the system comprising a user computing system and an information device associated with user information for determining customized content, the user computing system being arranged to provide the information device to a content providing system, the content providing system being arranged to utilize the information device to determine content to be provided to the user computing system. 125 In accordance with a sixth aspect, there is provided a system for generating an information device which is arranged to be utilized by a content providing system for determining customized content to be provided to a user computing system, the system comprising a host computing system which is arranged to receive user information from the user computing system and a generating device which is arranged to generate an information device associated with the 130 user information.

In accordance with a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer program including instructions for controlling a computing apparatus to implement the method steps in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention.

In accordance with an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program including 135 instructions for controlling a computing apparatus to implement the method steps in accordance with the second aspect of the present invention.

In accordance with a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer program including instructions for controlling a computing apparatus to implement the method steps in accordance with the third aspect of the present invention.

140 In accordance with an tenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium providing a computer program in accordance with the seventh aspect.

In accordance with an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium providing a computer program in accordance with the eighth aspect.

In accordance with an twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium 145 providing a computer program in accordance with the ninth aspect.

In accordance with a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a device for facilitating the provision of customized content to a computer user, comprising an information device which is arranged to be transmitted over a network to a content providing system, the information device being associated with user information for determining customized content to be provided by the 150 content providing system, the information device being arranged to be utilized by the content providing system to determine content to be provided to a computer user. Brief Description of the Drawings 155 Features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a networked computing system illustrating systems in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; 160 Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating the method steps for generating an information device which is used by content providing systems to determine customized content according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating the method steps for providing customized content using the systems of the embodiments of Figure 1. 165

Detailed Description of the Invention

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of systems in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, co-operating to provide customized content to a user computing device 102.

The system 100 includes a user computing system 102, a host computing system 126 and a 170 content providing system 128. In this embodiment the customized content is provided over the web and is in the form of customized webpage content. A computer user receives the customized webpage content via his user computing system 102 which, in this embodiment, is in the form of a personal computer 102 having a processor 104 and memory 106, linked by a bus 108. The personal computer 102 also includes input/output devices in the form of a disk drive (not shown), 175 visual display unit (VDU) 112, keyboard 114 and mouse 116. The personal computer 102 may use any suitable operating system, such as Microsoft Windows™ or Unix™ based operating system. The personal computer 102 also includes a network card 118 and is loaded with a web browser application 120 in the form of Internet Explorer made by Microsoft Corporation™,

180 Firefox made by Mozilla Corporation, or any other similar web browser application, for accessing content from various websites, via the network 122. The web browser application 120 is coupled to a browser extension in the form of a Browser Helper Object 124 which, as will be described later, has the task of managing an information device which is associated with user information and which can be utilized by content providing system 128 to determine customized content.

185 According to this embodiment, the user information is related to user demographic and/or psychographic and/or content-type preference information and the information device is in the form of a 60-byte hexadecimal code (hereinafter "the code") or code of any length desired. In an alternate embodiment, the information device may simply comprise a string of ASCII characters which either represents particular user information or which can be used to locate (or

190 "point to") user information which may be stored in a database 130.

Also shown in Figure 1 is a host computing system in the form of a host website 126 connected to computer network 122. Host website 126 includes a generating device 127 for generating the code and providing it to personal computer 102. Content providing website 128, which may be in the form of a web server, is connected to computer network 122 for providing

195 customized webpage content. Content providing website 128 is coupled to an information database 130 for storing user information associated with the code. In an alternate embodiment, information database 130 is not hosted by the content providing system 128, but rather is hosted by the host website 126. In this embodiment, the content providing website 128 accesses the user information via the host website 126. In an alternate embodiment, both the content providing

200 website 128 and the host website 126 each host an information database for storing user information. Information database 130 comprises a look-up table which explains the information stored in the code. For instance, a code string of 01100111001 may provide information that the user is a 43 year old male, divorced, with 2 children, who likes sports.

A method of generating the code, which is utilized by the content providing system 128

205 for determining customized webpage content, will now be described with reference to the system 100 of Figure 1 and flow chart 200 of Figure. 2.

At step 202 a computer user accesses host website 126 using his web browser application 120. If the computer user does not already have Browser Helper Object 124 resident on his personal computer 102, he may download it from the host website 126 at step 204. If Browser

210 Helper Object 124 is already resident on the personal computer 102, the process proceeds directly to step 206.

At step 206 the computer user is directed to a questionnaire webpage hosted by host website 126. The questionnaire webpage prompts the user for demographic and/or psychographic information by posing a series of questions (step 206). These questions may cover a series of

215 topics, for example, geography, preferences, personality, height, likes, dislikes, etc.

Advantageously, it is the user who decides how little or how much user information to provide to the host website 126 during the questioning step. For example, should the user only want to divulge his location, he can simply answer questions relating to "geography". Host website 126 receives the user's answers at step 208.

220 Once the user has answered as many questions as he feels appropriate, he notifies the host website 126. At step 210, generating device 127, coupled to host website 126, generates the 60-byte hexadecimal code, or code of any length, based on the received user information. According to this embodiment, a standard hashing algorithm such as SHA-I is used to generate the code. A key for decrypting the code is provided to decrypting means 110 coupled to content

225 providing website 128. The final step in the process (step 212) involves host website 126 providing the code to Browser Helper Object 124, which subsequently stores it in memory 106. The computer user can revisit the questionnaire webpage at any time to update or change his user information. When a user does so, the host computing system decrypts the code currently active in user's personal

230 computer 102 so the user only has to make changes to the previously entered profile. A new code is then generated and provided to personal computer 102.

A user may create multiple profiles (embodied as the associated code) to be stored in in memory 106, and may activate from among them when utilizing the Browser Helper Object 124. For example, a user may wish to do this if more than one family member uses the same computer.

235 Turning to Figure 3, there is shown a flow chart 300 illustrating a method for providing customized webpage content which will also be described with reference to the system 100 of Figure 1.

In a first step 302, a computer user accesses content providing website 128 using his web browser application 120. In step 304, Browser Helper Object 124, residing on personal computer

240 102, examines content providing website's 128 META data (such as, for example META tags in the content providing website's 128 HTML code) to establish whether content providing website 128 is capable of receiving the code (step 304). At step 306 content providing website 128 receives the code from the personal computer 102 and decrypts it using decryption means 110. Content providing website 128 uses the code to "look up" the corresponding user information

245 which is stored in information database 130 (which provides user demographic and/or psychographic information).

Content providing website 128 is either given a copy of the information database or a license key to access the information database 130 on host website 126. Host website 126 may require content providing website 128 to subscribe to a service plan for access to such information

250 database, for which Host website may charge a fee. Once content providing website 128 has located the user information, it determines which content to provide to the computer user (step 308). For example, if the content providing website 128 is an "events site" and the user information shows that the computer user is a teenager residing in Los Angeles, California, who enjoys rock music, the customized webpage content may relate to Los Angeles-based rock

255 concerts which appeal to people under the age of 20. It can readily be appreciated that the more user information provided to the host website 126, the more targeted the customized webpage content may be to the user. At step 310, the customized webpage content is provided to personal computer 102.

Browser Helper Object 124 may perform other functions, such as reporting both the code

260 and the name of the content providing website 128 back to host website 126 for auditing purposes (optional step 312). In this manner, host website 126 can see how many times the information device is being utilized, thereby enabling it to determine how much revenue to collect from content providing website 128. This functionality also allows host website 126 to collect valuable demographic data which reflects the browsing habits of computer users with particular user

265 information. Another function which may be performed by Browser Helper Obj ect 124 includes encrypting the code using a key provided by host website 126. Browser Helper Object 124 may also instruct web browser application 120 to revise and/or re-draw parts of a webpage in response to receiving customized webpage content from content providing website 128. According to this embodiment, the customized webpage content may be displayed on personal computer 102

270 without the computer user needing to re-load the webpage or visit a new webpage.

According to embodiments of the present invention, computer users need only enter user information once, in order to receive customized content from any number of independent content providing systems who have the ability to read the code. Moreover, it is the computer user who decides how much or how little user information to divulge to the host computing system. In

275 contrast to conventional techniques, the computer user does not need to give out personal user information, such as his name, e-mail address, etc., which may be misused by content providing websites for advertising purposes.

In addition, the user may turn on or off the extension, as well as choose among various profiles created and stored in memory 106.

280 It will be understood by persons skilled in the art that the computer system used for receiving customized webpage content may also be in the form of a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a wireless computer system or other device capable of communications over the Internet or some other network, a computer terminal (thin client) or Internet appliance capable of such network communications or a mobile phone.

285 Further, it should be appreciated that the systems described herein are not limited to a system connected over the web, but may also be in the form of any suitable network, or device to device communications, such as, for example, wireless networks including radio networks, bluetooth networks, and the like. Equally, the systems can be implemented by any appropriate computer software and hardware system or configuration and are not limited to the particular

290 architecture shown in the drawings and described embodiment. Any particular architecture could be used, including client server arrangements, mainframes, stand-alone networked computer, and the like.

In the above described embodiment, the user information was provided to host website 126 as a result of host website 126 questioning the computer user, however it should be

295 appreciated that the computer user may provide user information to host website 126 without being prompted by questioning. Further, host website 126 may be able to probabilistically infer user information which is not provided in response to questioning. For example, where a computer user has not answered a particular question, host website 126 may be able to infer this information from other computer users having a similar demographic who have answered the

300 question. This could be achieved, for example, by querying information database 130 to search for comparable user profiles. In addition, the method of probabilistically inferring such user information may be provided to the content providing website 128 if the information database 130 resides on the content providing website.

Further, it should be noted that the user information may relate to any sort of user 305 information including, but not limited to, general user demographics and/or psychographics, content-type selection (eg. "news-only content", sports, travel) user or system requirements (eg. the type of operating system used by the user's computer system) and the like.

It should also be understood, that many forms of browser extension are equally suited for monitoring browser content and providing the information device to a content providing system. 310 For example, for Mozilla derived browsers (Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, etc.) the browser extension could be implemented as a browser extension application which may be written in Javascript or some version of C, C++, or C#, or any other current or future computer language. Industrial Applicability

The customized content system of this invention is useful and effective to accomplish 315 providing customized content to a computer user from a plurality of content providing systems without the need to enter user information for each content providing system.

In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" is used in an inclusive sense, ie. to 320 specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Variations and/or modifications can be made to the parts herein described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the invention.

325 I Claim:

Claims

1. A method of providing customized content from a content providing system to a computer user having a computer system, comprising, transmitting to the content providing system one or more codes, which provide user information for determining customized content associated with the user, the content providing system utilizing the user information to determine customized

330 content to provide to the user's computer system, and providing the customized content to the user's computer system.

2. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1, wherein the content providing system accesses an information database to read the code containing the user information.

335

3. The method of providing customized content of Claim 2, wherein the information database is accessible via the content providing system.

4. The method of providing customized content of Claim 2, wherein the information database is 340 accessible via a host computing system which hosts the information database.

5. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1, wherein the user information comprises one or more of demographic or psychographic information .

345 6. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1 , wherein the user information is accessed by the content providing system decrypting the code to determine the user information.

7. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1, wherein the code is present in software residing on the user computer system.

350 8. The method of providing customized content of Claim 7, wherein the software is a browser extension.

9. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1, wherein the code is received by the content providing system in response to the user computing system accessing the content

355 providing system.

10. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1, wherein the user information comprises content-type selection.

360 11. The method of providing customized content of Claim 1 , wherein the customized content is provided via a webpage.

12. A method of providing customized content to a computer user comprising, an information device associated with the user computing system, said information device containing user

365 information, a content providing system having means for accessing said information device and utilizing said user information and providing customized content to the user computer system.

13. The method of providing customized content of Claim 12 in which the user information is contained in an encrypted code.

370

14. The method of providing customized content of Claim 12 in which the user information is obtained by the information device posing a series of questions to the user and the user answering one or more of the series of questions.

375 15. The method of providing customized content of Claim 12 in which the user information is received by the content providing system in response to the user computing system accessing the content providing system or the content providing system initiating communication with the user computing system.

380 16. The method of providing customized content of Claim 12 in which the user information comprises one or more of demographic or psychographic information .

17. The method of providing customized content of Claim 12 in which the computer user determines what user information is entered into the information device. 385

18. The method of providing customized content of Claim 12 in which the computer user enters more than one set of user information into the information device and the computer user decides which set of information is sent to the content providing system.

390 19. A method of providing customized content from a content providing system to a computer user having a computer system comprising, transmitting to the content providing system one or more codes, which provide user information for determining customized content associated with the user, wherein the content providing system accesses an information database to read the code containing the user information, the information database being accessible via a host computing

395 system which hosts the information database, the content providing system utilizing the user information to determine customized content to provide to the user's computer system.

20. The method of providing customized content from a content providing system to a computer user having a computer system of Claim 19 in which the host computing system

400 charges a fee to the content providing system for accessing the information database.

21. The method of providing customized content from a content providing system to a computer user having a computer system of Claim 1 in which the code information is transmitted to a host computing system.

405

410