Delivery of internet ads

Abstract

Delivering advertisements via the Internet may include extracting an index file, including a bid price, and a table of contents pointing to a start location of the keyword in the index file. Keywords in the query string may be matched to advertisements by searching the table of contents to locate the start location of that keyword in the index and matching that keyword to index file entries until a next indexed keyword is encountered. Advertisements may be matched based on an estimated yield and priced a price lower than the bid price that retains the ranking. A search result set including a link to the highest ranked advertisements may be used to respond to the query string. Each entry in the index file may include a set of preselected keywords, a text copy of the advertisement, a negative keyword to prevent a matching and/or click through rates.

1 . A method for delivering advertisements via the Internet, comprising: 
 (a) extracting, from a database of advertisements, an index file alphabetized by keyword, each entry in the index file including a bid price for placement of the related advertisement;    (b) extracting a table of contents of the index file, each entry in the table of contents for a keyword pointing to a start location of a first entry related to that keyword in the index file;    (c) matching a keyword in a query string to advertisements in the database by searching the table of contents to locate the start location of that keyword in the index and matching that keyword to index file entries until a next indexed keyword is encountered;    (d) ranking advertisements matching the keyword at least in part on an estimated yield for each such advertisement;    (e) pricing the highest ranked advertisement at a price lower than the bid price for that advertisement that retains the ranking for that advertisement for that keyword; and    (f) responding to the query string with a search result which contains a link to the highest ranked advertisement for the keyword.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  1  wherein each entry in the index file includes selected text related to the advertisement and matching further comprises: 
 (g) matching at least a portion of a multiple keyword phrase in the query string to the selected text.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each entry in the index file includes selected text related to the advertisement and matching further comprises: 
 (h) matching a keyword in the query string to the selected text.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each entry in the index file includes selected text associated with the advertisement and a selected type of matching algorithm, and matching further comprises: 
 (i) matching a keyword in the query string to the selected text if a first type of matching algorithm is selected; and    (j) matching at least a portion of a multiword keyword phrase in the query string to the selected text if a second, broader type of matching algorithm is selected.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each entry in the index file may include one or more negative keywords and matching further comprises: 
 (k) matching any of the one or more negative keywords if present in the index file entry with another keyword in the query string to prevent a match of the keyword in that query string with that index file entry.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each entry in the index file includes click through rate data for each advertisement and ranking further comprises: 
 (l) determining a product of the bid price and click through rate data for each matching entry; and    (m) determining the estimated yield as a product of the bid price and the click through rate data for each such matching entry.    
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the search result set includes: 
 (n) links to a plurality of the other ranked advertisements for the keyword.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each entry in the index file includes a URL linking to the advertisement and including a link to the highest ranked advertisement further comprises: 
 (o) including the URL in the index file entry to the highest ranked advertisement.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (p) filtering the search result set to remove links to entries based on the URL.    
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (q) filtering the search result set to remove links to entries based on a domain associated with the query string.    
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (r) filtering the search result set to remove links to entries having click through rates below a predetermined minimum before responding.    
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (s) filtering the search result set to remove links to entries having bid prices below a predetermined minimum before responding.    
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (t) rebuilding the index and table of content files on a daily basis during time periods of relatively low usage.    
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising: 
 (u) updating the index and table of content files more frequently than rebuilding the index and table of content files.    
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein updating further comprises: 
 (v) incrementally updating the index and table of content files by adding data to the index and table of contents and marking entries in the table of content files for deletion.    
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising: 
 (w) storing the table of contents in RAM memory.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (x) storing the table of contents in RAM memory.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 (y) maintaining a database of advertisements and click through rates, for each advertisement in the database, from which the index file and table of contents may be extracted.