Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
  • G06Q30/0241—Advertisements
  • G06Q30/0251—Targeted advertisements

Definitions

• the present invention generally relates to information processing. More particuiariy, the present invention relates to methods and systems for pre-popuiating advertisement landing pages with user information.
• Advertisers, content publishers, search engine sites, and advertisement (“ad”) brokers have developed an infrastructure for the delivery of ads referred to as an "ad network.”
• a content publisher agrees to permit the delivery of ads to specified portions of its content pages as the content pages are viewed by a content consumer.
• Content consumers inciude "users” or "subscribers.” Advertisers target such users with ads to market and sell their products.
• a user clicks on an ad offered either through a content publisher's web page or through the user's mobile phone, the user is directed to a landing page.
• the landing page is the page the advertiser wishes to display to the user.
• the landing page includes one or more user sections (i.e., online forms) where the user fills in the user's personal information.
• Users might repeatedly be required to enter the same information including their name, home address, business address, email address, and/or phone numbers on a variety of different forms.
• a landing page may include information about a product or service the advertiser wishes to sell and may present the user with one or more sections for the user to fiil in the user's personal information.
• the landing page may include sections allowing the user to provide e-maii or physical mailing address information to allow the address to send sales brochures or additional information about the user's product.
• the landing page may include sections to request the user to provide information about certain user preferences such as the user's primary zip location or area-code information for searching restaurants or sporting good stores.
• the advertiser needs to simplify the inputs needed from the user to achieve that intended purpose. For example, when an advertisement links a landing page with a purchase form for the product advertised, the user likely intends to purchase the advertised product when the user clicks on the advertisement. By automatically filing out any of the necessary information in the purchase form, the advertiser reduces the user effort needed to complete the purchase and in turn increases the likelihood the user will complete the purchase.
• the invention relates to pre-populating an online form with information gathered from a computing device.
• a computer-implemented method for pre-populating an online form opened in a mobile device with information from the mobile device includes running, by the mobile device, a mobile application, where the mobile application includes a preconfigured object that is executed when the mobile application is run on the mobile device.
• the method further includes upon receiving, by the mobile application, a seiection, by the user, of an advertisement link displayed in the mobile device, the object: (1 ) identifies a landing page associated with the selected advertisement link displayed in the mobile device; (2) identifies an online form in the identified landing page, the online form including at least one entry field; (3) extracts, from the mobile device, data associated with the user and/or the mobile device for use in filling out the at least one of entry field of the landing page; and (4) utilizes the data extracted from the mobile device to pre-popuiate at least one entry field of the landing page.
• the method includes displaying, by the mobile device, the landing page to the user of the mobile device, where the online form of the landing page is pre-popuiated using the information extracted from the mobile device.
• Implementations can include any, ail or none of the following features.
• the method can further include modifying configuration of the object to disable pre- populating a given online form, where the modification of the object's configuration can be performed by one or more of: (1 ) a given user of the mobile device; (2) a developer of the mobile application; or (3) a provider of the preconfigured object.
• the method can further include requesting, by the mobile device, the user of the mobile device, permission to access the mobile device for extracting the data associated with the user and/or the given mobile device.
• the method can further include storing, by the mobile device executing the preconfigured object, the data gathered for the one or more identified fields in a user account associated with the user of the mobile device.
• the method can further include utilizing, by the mobile device, the stored data to pre-popuiate a one or more identified fields in a second identified online form present in a second identified landing page, where the second identified landing page is associated with a second presented advertisement link, and further where the second presented advertisement link is opened at a later time after the opening of the first presented advertisement link.
• the method can further include purging, by the mobile device, the extracted data subsequent to one or more of: (1 ) receiving a request from a user to delete the information; (2) subsequent to a specified duration of time; (3) subsequent to usage of the extracted information in a specified number of landing pages; or (4) subsequent to usage of the extracted information at the landing page.
• the method can further include, when requesting, by the mobile device, for permission of the user of the mobile device to gather data for the one or more identified fields: (1 ) providing, by the mobile device, the user with a list of one or more identified fields which the mobile device identified to gather data for; and (2) receiving, by the mobile device, a selection of one or more identified fields from the iist by the user, where the selection of one or more identified fields by the user provides the mobile device permission of the user to gather data for the selected fields.
• a computer-implemented method for pre-populating an online form includes receiving, by computing server, an indication, from a user of a given computing device, of a user desire to access a first link included in a first webpage displayed to the user via the given computing device.
• the method further includes identifying, by the computing server, a landing page associated with the first link identified by the user.
• the method further includes identifying, by the computing server, presence of one or more fields in the landing page configured to receive data entered by the user.
• the method further includes dynamically extracting, by the computing server, data associated with the user and/or the given computing device from the given computing device.
• the method further includes receiving, by the computing server, an indication of display of the landing page associated with the first link at the given computing device.
• the method further includes, utilizing the data extracted from the given computing device, pre-populating, by the computing server, at least one of the one or more identified fields in the landing page displayed by the given computing device.
• Implementations can include any, all or none of the following features.
• the method can further include requesting, by the computing server, from the user of the computing device, permission to access the computing device for extracting the data associated with the user and/or the given computing device.
• the method can further include storing, by the computing server, the data gathered for the one or more identified fields in a user account associated with the user of the computing device.
• the method can further include utilizing, by the computing server, the stored data to pre-populate a one or more identified fields in a second online form present in a second landing page.
• the second landing page is associaied with a second advertisement link, and the second advertisement link is opened at a later time after the opening of the first advertisement link.
• the method can further include purging, by the computing server, the extracted data subsequent to one or more of: (1 ) receiving a request from a user to delete the information; (2) subsequent to a specified duration of time; (3) subsequent to usage of the extracted information in a specified number of landing pages; or (4) subsequent to usage of the extracted information at the landing page.
• Figures 2A, 2B, and 2C illustrate the pre-population of advertisement landing pages by an advertisement server
• Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture of an advertisement server and mobile device configured to perform the various functionalities discussed in Figures 1 , 2 and 5;
• Figure 4 is a flow diagram depicting a process 400 for providing the advertising service described herein;
• Figure 5 illustrate the pre-population of advertisement landing pages by a computing device such as mobile phones.
• Figure 6 is a high-level block diagram showing an example of the architecture for a computer system.
• FIG. 1 Figure 1 and the following discussion provide a brief, general description of a representative environment in which the invention can be implemented.
• a general-purpose data processing device e.g., a server computer or a personal computer
• a general-purpose data processing device e.g., a server computer or a personal computer
• PDAs personal digital assistants
• wearable computers all manner of cellular or mobile phones, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, set-top boxes, network PCs, mini-computers, mainframe computers, and the like.
• the terms "computer,” “server,” and the like are used interchangeably herein, and may refer to any of the above devices and systems.
• the disparate processing devices are linked through a communications network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or the Internet.
• LAN Local Area Network
• WAN Wide Area Network
• program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
• aspects of the invention may be stored or distributed on tangible computer-readable media, including magnetically or optically readable computer discs, hard-wired or preprogrammed chips (e.g., EEPROM semiconductor chips), nanotechnology memory, biological memory, or other data storage media.
• tangible computer-readable media including magnetically or optically readable computer discs, hard-wired or preprogrammed chips (e.g., EEPROM semiconductor chips), nanotechnology memory, biological memory, or other data storage media.
• computer implemented instructions, data structures, screen displays, and other data related to the invention may be distributed over the Internet or over other networks (including wireless networks), on a propagated signal on a
• the data may be provided on any analog or digital network (packet switched, circuit switched, or other scheme).
• a user may use a personal computing device (e.g., a phone 102, a personal computer 104, etc.) to communicate with a network.
• a personal computing device e.g., a phone 102, a personal computer 104, etc.
• the term "phone,” as used herein, may be a cell phone, a persona! digital assistant (PDA), a portable email device (e.g., a Blackberry®), a portable media player (e.g., an I Pod Touch®), or any other device having communication capability to connect to the network.
• PDA persona! digital assistant
• portable email device e.g., a Blackberry®
• portable media player e.g., an I Pod Touch®
• the phone 102 connects using one or more cellular transceivers or base station antennas 106 (in cellular implementations), access points, terminal adapters, routers or modems 108 (in IP-based telecommunications implementations), or combinations of the foregoing (in converged network
• the network 1 10 is the Internet, allowing the phone 102 (with, for example, WiFi capability) or the personal computer 104 to access web content offered through various web servers.
• the network 1 10 may be any type of cellular, IP-based or converged
• GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
• TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
• CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
• OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
• GPRS General Packet Radio Service
• EDGE Enhanced Data GSM Environment
• AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone System
• WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
• UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
• EVDO Evolution- Data Optimized
• LTE Long Term Evolution
• UMB Ultra Mobile Broadband
• VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
• UMA Unlicensed Mobile Access
• a user uses one of the personal computing devices (e.g., the phone 102, the personal computer 104, etc.) to connect to one or more web pages through the network 1 10.
• the user's request to access to a given web page directs the user to, for example, a web server 120 that operates and provides access to the web page requested by the user.
• a content publisher such as a website publisher
• Content consumers could include the website users.
• An advertiser could compensate the content publisher for the use of a portion of a content page of the web page to display the advertiser's ad.
• Ad brokers may insert themselves in the middle of the transaction by facilitating the delivery of high-value ad content and receiving a portion of the ad revenues.
• a user may enter "Bahamas" into a website's search engine search field to obtain information about travel to the Bahamas.
• the web server 120 executing the search engine may return a list of uniform resource locators related to the Bahamas.
• the user may click on one of the URLs related to travel in the Bahamas.
• the user's web browser may send an HTTP request for the desired URL to the selected website (the "content provider").
• the web server 120 hosting the website with web pages may then return one or more HTTP response messages containing the page content.
• the web server 120 communicates with an
• advertisement server 1 14 to provide one or more advertisements in conjunction with web pages offered by the web server 120.
• the web pages in the website may be embedded with an ad "slot" in one or more of the responses.
• the ad slot effectively reserves a blank space on the web page as displayed to the user for subsequent insertion of an ad.
• the advertisement server 1 14 may
• the user's web browser may send a request message back to the content provider to request the ad.
• the content provider may then send a response message back to the user with the ad appended or may forward the user ad request to the advertisement server 1 14 for fuifiliment of the ad.
• the advertisement server 1 14 is maintained by an ad broker or an advertising entity itself.
• the advertisement server 1 14 may also operate an inherent web server to also provide web pages requested by the user. It is understood that the exact configuration and division of web and advertising services, as discussed above, is for the purpose of an exemplary illustration. Other examples of offering connectivity to user-requested web pages and cross-linked
• the advertisements supplied by the advertisement server 1 14 to the web pages displayed to the user are displayed within web widgets included in the web pages.
• the advertisements supplied by the advertisement server 1 14 to the web pages displayed to the user are displayed within web widgets included in the web pages.
• advertisements are displayed in the form of banner ads in a specified section of the web pages.
• Other examples as understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art, may also be used as equivalent variants used in conjunction with the techniques discussed herein.
• a content publisher such as a mobile application developer, can agree to permit the delivery of ads to specified portions of the mobile application's content pages as the content pages are viewed by a content consumer.
• Content consumers could include the mobile phone users.
• An advertiser could compensate the content publisher for the use of a portion of a content page of the mobile application to display the advertiser's ad.
• a user may run a mobile application, such as "Weather Report" that provides the user with the latest weather report in a given location, on their mobile phone 102.
• the mobile application may query a web server 120 to retrieve the latest weather report in a given location. Further, the mobile application may communicate with the web server 120 to request for an ad to be placed within the content pages of the requested weather report. In some instances, the mobile application may communicate with the web server 120 to request for an ad to be placed interleaved between content pages of the requested weather report. Further, in some instances, the mobile application may
• the web server 120 may communicate with the advertisement server 1 14 to provide one or more advertisements in conjunction with content pages offered by the web server 120 through the mobile application.
• the content pages in the mobile application may be embedded with an ad "slot" in one or more of the responses.
• the ad slot effectively reserves a blank space on the content page as displayed to the user for subsequent insertion of an ad.
• the advertisement server 1 14 may communicate with one or more advertising agencies or other such sources of advertisements to coordinate placement of online advertisements in a variety of content pages (e.g., in between the pages of the weather report provided by the mobile application).
• the user's mobile application may send a request message back to the content provider to request the ad.
• the content provider may then send a response message back to the user with the ad appended or may forward the user ad request to the advertisement server 1 14 for fulfillment of the ad.
• the advertisement server 1 14 is maintained by an ad broker or an advertising entity itself.
• the advertisements supplied by the advertisement server 1 14 to the content pages displayed to the mobile user are displayed within widgets included in the content pages of the mobile application.
• the advertisements are displayed in the form of banner ads in a specified section of the content pages.
• the advertisements are displayed in the mobile phone's 102 notification tray, where the advertisements will be accessible to the mobile phone user outside the mobile application.
• Other examples as understood by a person of ordinary skiil in the art, may also be used as equivalent variants used in conjunction with the techniques discussed herein.
• the advertisements may be of any form as is understood in the industry.
• the advertisements may be branding ads, where a video or a loop of videos or other multimedia data is played in the specified section of the web page. Clicking on the multimedia section at any point would direct the user to a "landing page" associated with the advertiser where the user may be presented with additional information.
• the advertisement may simply be a link to the landing page.
• the advertisement may be a banner that links the user to the advertiser's landing page.
• the landing page may itself be displayed within the advertising section of the user's web page, in other examples, the landing page may be a new page that is opened in response to the user's clicking the advertising section.
• FIG. 2A illustrates a web page displayed in a user's computer (e.g., 104).
• the web page includes the content (e.g., news, shopping web site, etc.) that the user originally requested and was provided by, for example, the web server 120.
• the web page may also include one or more advertisements (e.g., ADV 1 , ADV 2, etc.) in banners or web widgets or the like.
• the landing page is the page the advertiser wishes to display to the user.
• the landing page includes one or more user sections where the user fills in personal information.
• the landing page may include information about a product or service the advertiser wishes to sell and may present the user with one or more sections for the user to fill in the user's personal information.
• the landing page may include sections allowing the user to provide e-mail or physical mailing address information to allow the address to send sales brochures or additional information about the user's product.
• the landing page may include sections to request the user to provide information about certain user preferences such as the user's primary zip location or area-code information for searching restaurants or sporting good stores.
• the user fills out the information manually every time he encounters the landing page.
• the user's web browser locally (or at a server associated with the web browser) provides the user's personal information and pre-popu!ates the user's personal information.
• the user is forced to type out the information every time he encounters a landing page, which is laborious.
• the user entrusts personal information (which may include personal information and credit information) to a web browser and does not discriminate forms where the user wishes the information to be pre-filled and places where the user does not wish information to be pre-populated.
• the techniques introduced herein operate in a different manner to enable the user to have pre-fved information on landing pages.
• the advertising server provides ads embedded with preconfigured object files, such as software routines, which when activated can perform a variety of tasks.
• the advertising server receiving information about this request activates software routines embedded within the clicked ad.
• the software routines then extract personal information about the user from the user's computer.
• the software routines embedded within the clicked ad can automatically extract personal information about the user from the user's computer when activated by a user's click.
• SDK routines e.g., API links
• the advertisement server 1 14 parses the landing page associated with an advertisement served to the user's computer to identify fields in any online forms associated with the landing page.
• the advertisement server 1 14 could provide the software routines embedded within the clicked ad with information regarding the identified fields before the ad is placed in the user's computer.
• the embedded software routines can be activated by a user's click of the ad.
• the user's computer could be running applications embedded with pre-configured object files.
• the pre-configured object file can monitor the ads and automatically extract personal information about the user from the user's computer when the user clicks the advertisement.
• the user's computer couid be running an operating system that manages the computer resources and data information present in the user's computer.
• the advertisement server 1 14 can extract data from the user's computer by querying the operating system of the user's computer for information pertaining to the identified fields.
• the extracted information is then conveyed from the user's computer to the advertisement server 114, which in turn forwards the extracted information to the ensuing landing page (see Figure 2C).
• the landing page then parses the user's information and causes the information to be pre- populated in relevant sections in the landing page.
• the pre- configured object file running on the user's computer identifies the fields in the online form and determines the information needed to be filled in the fields available in the online form.
• the pre-configured object file could then extract the available information from the user's computer and pre-popuiate the information in the landing page.
• the advertisement server 114 causes the information to be retrieved from one or more of a variety of locations of the user's personal computer.
• the information is extracted dynamically from the user's personal computer. Dynamic extraction has several advantages. The information is not stored by the advertisement server 114 permanently, minimizing loss or misappropriation of the data. The extracted data is used for the purpose of filiing out the forms and then discarded, enhancing data security.
• the information may be extracted once by the advertising server and stored in conjunction with the user's account, such that the information may simply be used in any landing page (without dynamic extraction) for any future landing pages. Of course, in such instances, the advertising server may still extract additional personal information during each click if new or updated personal information is identified.
• the personal information may be extracted, for example, from the user's mail account where the user self-identifies his personal information, or in other places of the user's personal computer as may be contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art. Further the information that is retrieved may be parsed to identify specific types of information using techniques that may be contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
• the advertisement server 114 may cause, for example, a window or a new intermediary window to be opened to request the user to confirm or agree to the information being extracted from the user's computer and used in the landing page.
• the information may directly be applied to the landing page and have the information sections auto populated and auto-submitted.
• the user has the further ability to accept or edit the information that is pre-popuiated in the landing page.
• the advertisement server 1 14 may retain the information extracted from the user's computer 104 in association with, for example, a user account associated with the user or a cookie associated with the user's computer and use the information for future pre-population of landing pages users may end at.
• the user may be provided options as to allowing the advertising server to selectively retain some information ⁇ e.g., user's address, etc.) while discarding or purging the other data (e.g., financial or credit information) after it is used in pre-popuiating the current landing page.
• the advertising server may selectively send, for example, non-confidential information back to the advertiser (prior to the landing page being displayed) allowing the advertiser to customize the landing page based on the information in addition to pre-populaiing the ensuing page.
• the advertisement server 1 14 may relate to the advertiser that the user is from California or from San Francisco (without revealing the user's actual address) allowing the advertiser to customize the landing page in a fashion that is appealing to a
• the advertisement server 1 14 may first identify what type of information needs to be pre-populated in the ensuing landing page and accordingly minimize extraction of personal information from the user's computer.
• the user may specify or limit the types of personal information that may be extracted from the user's computer, thus limiting the information extracted to suit the user's
• FIG. 5 illustrates a mobile application displayed in a user's mobile device (e.g., 502).
• the mobile application includes the content (e.g., news, shopping, games, banking, weather report, etc.) that the user originally requested and was provided by, for example, the mobile device 502.
• the mobile application may also serve one or more advertisements (e.g., ADV 1 , ADV 2, etc.) in banners or widgets or the like.
• the mobile application developer can embed a preconfigured object file 524, e.g., JAR file, within their application's source code 522.
• a preconfigured object file 524 e.g., JAR file
• the preconfigured object file 524 becomes part of the mobile application 508.
• the preconfigured object file 524 can be placed within the mobile application's main() function, ensuring the execution of preconfigured object file 524 when the mobile application 508 is run by the user.
• the preconfigured object file 524 when the mobile application 508 containing the preconfigured object file 524 is executed, the preconfigured object file 524 is also executed once from the main activity of a mobile application 508.
• the preconfigured object file 524 utilizes the mobile device's operating system framework to schedule ongoing polling events of the advertisement server 504 a few times per day, where each polling event runs briefly as a background service.
• the network 520 is the internet, allowing the mobile device 502 (with, for example, WiFi capability) to communicate with the advertisement server 504.
• the advertisement server 504 could be a cluster of linux-based ad servers 516, where the ad servers determine the optimal ads to delivered in response to polling from clients.
• the advertisement server 504 serves ads that are embedded with advertisement links 518, such as a HTTP link to a web page within a website, which the user of the mobile device 502 can access by clicking on the ad with the embedded advertisement links 518.
• the advertisement server 504 determines the ads to be placed based on a combination of bid from advertisers and relevance of the ad to the user. In some instances, the advertisement server 504 determines the ad's relevance to user based on factors such as information about the target mobile application 502 the ad is placed in, etc. [0059] In some instances, the preconfigured object file 524 requests (i.e., polls) for an ad from the advertisement server 504 and cache any received ads from the advertisement server 504 until optimal display time. In some instances, the preconfigured object file 524 can scheduie a display of a received ad 514 interleaved between the content page 512 of the mobile application.
• the content page 512 of the mobile application can be made viewable through the graphical user interface 510 ("GUI") of the mobile device 502.
• the preconfigured object file 524 can scheduie a display of the received ad 514 within a specified portion of the content page 512 as the content page is viewed by the mobile device 502 user.
• the preconfigured object file 524 can schedule a display of the received ad 514 in the user notification tray of the mobile device 502, where the received ad 514 can be viewed by the user outside of the content page 512 of the mobile application 508.
• the preconfigured object file 524 could schedule a display of a received ad 514 with an embedded advertisement link 518.
• a user of the mobile device 502 clicks on an embedded advertisement link 518 within an ad the user is directed to a landing page 506.
• the landing page 506 is the page the advertiser wishes to display to the user.
• the landing page 506 could be a web page with information relating to the ad 514 displayed on the mobile device 502.
• the landing page 506 includes one or more user sections where the user fills in personal information.
• the landing page 506 may include information about a product or service the advertiser wishes to sell and may present the user with one or more sections for the user to fill in the user's personal information.
• the landing page 506 may include sections allowing the user to provide e-mail or physical mailing address information to allow the address to send sales brochures or additional information about the user's product.
• the landing page 506 may include sections to request the user to provide information about certain user preferences such as the user's primary zip location or area-code information for searching restaurants or sporting good stores.
• the preconfigured object file 524 requests advertisement server 504 to provide ads with embedded executable files, such as software routines, which when activated perform a variety of tasks.
• advertisement server 504 provides ads with embedded executable files, such as software routines, which when activated perform a variety of tasks.
• the mobile device opens the Ianding page 506 associated with the embedded advertisement link 518 while executing the software routine embedded within the clicked ad.
• the software routine automatically extracts information from the user's mobile device needed by the forms in the Ianding page 506.
• the p re-configured object file 524 could track advertisements placed by the advertisement server 504. For example, when a mobile application 508 with the pre-configured object file 524 is used by the advertisement server to display ads, the pre-configured object file can monitor the advertisements placed through the mobile application. When a user clicks such a monitored advertisement to open an embedded advertisement link 518, the pre- configured object file 524 could automatically extract information from the user's mobile device needed to pre-populate forms in ianding page 506 associated with the embedded advertisement link 518.
• the extracted information is then conveyed from the user's mobile device to the advertisement server 504, which in turn forwards the extracted information to the ensuing Ianding page 506 (see Figure 2C).
• the Ianding page 506 then parses the user's information and causes the information to be pre- populated in relevant sections in the Ianding page 506.
• the pre- configured object file running on the user's mobile device identifies the fields in the online form and determines the information needed to be filled in the fields available in the online form.
• the pre-configured object file could then extract the available information from the user's mobile device and pre-popuiate the information in the Ianding page 506.
• the information from the mobile device may be retrieved from one or more of a variety of locations through the user's mobile device.
• the information is extracted dynamically from the user's mobile device. Dynamic extraction has several advantages. The information may not stored by the any web browser permanently, minimizing loss or misappropriation of the data. The extracted data could be used for the purpose of filling out the forms and then discarded, enhancing data security.
• the information may be extracted once by the pre-configured object file 524 or the executable file embedded within the received ad 514 and stored in conjunction with the user's account, such that the information may simply be used in any landing page 506 (without dynamic extraction) for any future landing page 506.
• the advertising server may still extract additional personal information during each click if new or updated personal information is identified.
• the personal information may be extracted, for example, from the user's mail account where the user self-identifies his personal information, or in other places of the user's mobile device as may be contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art. Further the information that is retrieved may be parsed to identify specific types of information using techniques that may be contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
• preconfigured object file 524 or the executable file embedded in the received ad 512 may cause, for example, a window or a new intermediary window to be opened.
• the window could be used to request the user to confirm or agree to the information being extracted from the user's mobile device and used in the landing page 506.
• the information may directly be applied to the landing page 506 and have the information sections auto populated and auto-submitted.
• the user has the further ability to accept or edit the information that is pre- populated in the landing page 506.
• the preconfigured object file 524 or the executable file embedded in the received ad 512 may retain the information extracted from the user's mobile device 502 in association with, for example, a user account associated with the user or a cookie associated with the user's computer and use the information for future pre-population of landing page 506s users may end at.
• the user may be provided options as to allowing the advertising server to selectively retain some information ⁇ e.g., user's address, etc.) while discarding or purging the other data (e.g., financial or credit information) after it is used in pre-populating the current landing page 506.
• the preconfigured object file 524 or the executable file embedded in the received ad 512 may selectively send, for example, non- confidential information back to the advertiser (prior to the landing page 506 being displayed) allowing the advertiser to customize the landing page 506 based on the information in addition to pre-populating the ensuing page.
• the preconfigured object file 524 or the executable file embedded in the received ad 512 may relate to the advertiser that the user is from California or from San Francisco (without revealing the user's actual address) allowing the advertiser to customize the landing page 506 in a fashion that is appealing to a Californian resident.
• Other examples as may be contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the art, may also be used in conjunction with the techniques discussed above.
• the preconfigured object file 524 or the executable file embedded in the received ad 512 may first identify what type of information needs to be pre-popu!ated in the ensuing landing page 506 and accordingly minimize extraction of personal information from the user's computer. This prevents unnecessary information from being extracted from the user's computer, thus further enhancing a user's privacy while providing him with the benefits of the auto- population in the landing page 506.
• the user may specify or limit the types of personal information that may be extracted from the user's computer, thus limiting the information extracted to suit the user's preferences.
• FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture of an advertisement server 1 14 configured to perform the various functionalities discussed herein, in the illustrated embodiment, the advertisement server 1 14 includes a computing subsystem 300, which performs various functions related to the advertisement service.
• the computing subsystem 300 can be implemented by using programmable circuitry programmed by software and/or firmware, or by using special-purpose hardwired circuitry, or by using a combination of such embodiments. In some instances, the computing subsystem 300 is implemented as a unit in a processor of the advertisement server.
• the computing subsystem 300 includes a receiving module 302 to receive indications of a user's click of an advertisement hosted via the advertisement server 1 14. Upon receiving the information using, for example, API calls, the receiving module initiates routines to extract additional user information as discussed above.
• An advertisement routing module 304 then directs the user to a landing page. In some instances, and as suitable for a particular method of advertising used, the advertising routing module may initiate communication with and retrieve Sanding page information.
• a user information retrieval module 306 is then responsible for extracting relevant user information from the user's computer using one or more of the techniques discussed herein.
• a pre-population module 308 uses the extracted information selectively or completely for pre-populating various sections in the landing page.
• a user customization module 310 is responsible for providing options to the user to select particular types of information for pre- population or to even select the option of pre-populating the landing page.
• the block diagram in Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a mobile device 102 configured to perform the various functionalities discussed herein.
• the mobile device 102 includes a computing subsystem 300, which performs various functions related to the pre-population of online forms.
• the computing subsystem 300 can be implemented by using programmable circuitry programmed by software and/or firmware, or by using special-purpose hardwired circuitry, or by using a combination of such embodiments.
• the computing subsystem 300 is implemented as a unit in a processor of the mobile device.
• the computing subsystem 300 includes a computing module for running a mobile application, where the mobile application could include a preconfigured object that is executed when the mobile application is running on the mobile device.
• the computation subsystem 300 includes a receiving module 302 to receive indications of a user's click of an advertisement hosted via the advertisement server 704. Upon receiving the information using, for example, API calls, the receiving module forwards the indication of the user's click of the advertisement to the object being executed on the computing module.
• the object running on the computing module, initiates routines to extract additional user information as discussed above.
• the object communicates with an advertisement routing module 304 to direct the user to a landing page.
• the advertising routing module may initiate communication with and retrieve landing page information.
• the object a user information retrieval module 306 for extracting relevant user information from the user's mobile device using one or more of the techniques discussed herein.
• a pre-population module 308 uses the extracted information selectively or completely for pre-populating various sections in the landing page.
• a user customization module 310 is responsible for providing options to the user to select particular types of information for pre-population or to even select the option of pre- populating the landing page.
• FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a process 400 for providing the advertising service described herein. It is understood that this is one embodiment of an illustrative method, and that other variations to the method, in accordance with various techniques discussed above in this document or in accordance with variations contemplated by persons of ordinary skill in the art, are also included herein.
• the process 400 causes advertisements to be placed in a web page requested by the user.
• the process 400 receives an indication of a user having clicked an advertisement.
• the process 400 collects the user's personal information. In some instances, this may be an optional step after the user accepts extraction of such information.
• the process optionally 400 queries whether the user wants this information transmitted to the advertising server or to the landing page for use in pre-population. When the user agrees, the process 400 transfer to block 450, where the user information is collected. At block 460, the landing page is displayed to the user in response to the user's clicking on the advertisement. At block 470, the process 400 optionally queries whether the user would like the information extracted from the user's computer to be pre-populated in the landing page. Optionally, at block 470, the process 400 may verify or confirm which information may be used for pre-population, for saving in association with the user's account, purging, etc. Based on this information, at block 480, the process 400 uses the extracted information to pre- populate the landing page.
• Figure 6 is a high-level block diagram showing an example of the architecture for a computer system 600 that can be utilized to implement a
• the computer system 600 includes one or more processors 605 and memory 610 connected via an interconnect 625.
• the interconnect 625 is an abstraction that represents any one or more separate physical buses, point to point connections, or both connected by appropriate bridges, adapters, or controllers.
• the interconnect 625 may include, for example, a system bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a HyperTransport or industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, a small computer system interface (SCSI) bus, a universal serial bus (USB), IIC (I2C) bus, or an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 694 bus, sometimes referred to as "Firewire”.
• PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
• ISA HyperTransport or industry standard architecture
• SCSI small computer system interface
• USB universal serial bus
• I2C IIC
• IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• the processor(s) 605 may include central processing units (CPUs) to control the overall operation of, for example, the host computer. In certain embodiments, the processor(s) 605 accomplish this by executing software or firmware stored in memory 610.
• the processor(s) 605 may be, or may include, one or more programmable general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), programmable controllers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or the like, or a combination of such devices.
• DSPs digital signal processors
• ASICs application specific integrated circuits
• PLDs programmable logic devices
• the memory 610 is or includes the main memory of the computer system 1 100.
• the memory 610 represents any form of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory (as discussed above), or the like, or a combination of such devices.
• the memory 610 may contain, among other things, a set of machine instructions which, when executed by processor 605, causes the processor 605 to perform operations to implement embodiments of the present invention.
• the network adapter 615 provides the computer system 600 with the ability to communicate with remote devices, such as the storage clients, and/or other storage servers, and may be, for example, an Ethernet adapter or Fiber Channel adapter.
• connection means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements. Such a coupling or connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof.
• the word "or,” in reference to a list of two or more items covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, ail of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.

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• 2013
  • 2013-06-03 WO PCT/US2013/043945 patent/WO2013181668A1/fr not_active Ceased

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