Method of delivery targeting and measuring advertising over networks

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for targeting the delivery of advertisements over a network such as the Internet are disclosed. Statistics are compiled on individual users and networks and the use of the advertisements is tracked to permit targeting of the advertisements of individual users. In response to requests from affiliated sites, an advertising server transmits to people accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of the advertisement based upon profiling of users and networks.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A method for providing information to be displayed a plurality of times over a network, a first node communicating with a second node using a network protocol including address information for the first node, the method comprising: 
 receiving address information from the first node at the second node;    determining the identity of the first node based upon the address information;    providing a first set of information from the second node to be displayed by the first node irrespective of the address of the first node; and    providing at least one object to be displayed by the first node based upon the address information from the first node and how often the at least one object has been transmitted.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing of the at least one object is from a third node.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing of the at least one object also depends upon that at least one information that has been provided by the second node.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first node is part of a first domain and the providing of the at least one object depends upon the domain that the first node is a part of.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method includes storing data identifying the information transmitted from the second node to be displayed at the first node.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the data is the address of a web page.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the providing of the at least one object depends upon the data identifying information previously viewed by the user.  
     
     
         8 . A method for providing first information and a plurality of different objects to be displayed a plurality of times over a network, a first node communicating with a second node using a network protocol including address information for the first node, the method comprising: 
 receiving address information from the first node at the second node;    determining the identity of the first node based upon the address information;    providing a first set of information from the second node to be displayed by the first node irrespective of the address of the first node; and    providing a selected one of the object to be displayed by the first node based upon the address information from the first node and how often the selected one of the object has been displayed in comparison to how often the other object has been transmitted.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the selected one of the object is first available for displaying on a first date and will not be available on the network for displaying after a second date, and the selection of the providing depends in part on how much time has passed from the first date and how much time remains to the second date.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein each of the objects is to be displayed a minimum number of times between the first and the second date and the selection of particular object is based upon the relative rates that that particular object is being selected to maximize the likelihood that each object will be displayed the minimum number of times for that minimum number of times.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein if the user at the first node selects the object, the user is linked to another node.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein if the user selects the object, the fact that the user selected that particular object is stored.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein if the user selects the object, which particular first information was being displayed when the user selected the object is also stored.  
     
     
         14 . A method of communicating between a plurality of nodes on a communications network each node in the network having identification information that is transmitted between nodes when the nodes are communicating, the method comprising: 
 transmitting from a first node to a second node a request for information to be displayed from a second node;    transmitting from the second node to the first node a first portion of the information to be displayed and transmitting from the second node to the first node identification information for a third node along with information to cause the first node to request information from the third node; and    determining at the third node the identification of the first node and selecting the information to be transmitted back to the first node based at least in part on the identity of the first node to display the selected information with the requested information.    
     
     
         15 . A method of targeting the transmission of information to individual users using browsers of either an Intranet or an Internet, the method comprising: 
 providing a first web site to be accessed by browsers, the web site comprised of web pages that for at least one page upon being accessed, the web site transmits back a redirect to a second web site;    providing a third web site to be accessed by browsers comprising of web pages that for at least one page upon being accessed, the second web site transmits back a redirect to the second web site; and    the second web site upon receiving a redirect from either of the first or the third web site causes an object to be transmitted to the requesting browser to be displayed with the page from the accessed web site.    
     
     
         16 . A method of tracking the number of times that a user of a network sees particular information, the users communicating with a server process using a protocol that includes information to identify the user, the method comprising: 
 providing a limit of the number of times that a given user can see the information;    receiving information from the user through the protocol and transmitting the information back to the user;    incrementing a count reflecting the number of times the information has been transmitted to the user; and    preventing the transmission of the information to the user if the information has been transmitted to the user more than the predetermined limit.