Internet Contextual Communication System

Abstract

A computer system for identifying contextually-targeted ads to be displayed with the content of a web page on a display of a user workstation. The system includes a data store for storing a set of rules defining the relevancy of available ads to a number of predetermined structured objects, and a processor configured to apply the set of rules to identify the targeted ads. The processor obtains the content of the web page, extracts keywords from the web page, parses the extracted keywords to form structured objects incorporating the keywords, and applies the set of rules to identify the contextually-targeted ads.

1 . A computer system for identifying targeted ads to be displayed with the content of a web page on a display of a user workstation, the computer system and the user workstation each having access to a distributed computer network, the computer system comprising:
 a data store storing a set of rules associated with a plurality of ads, the rules defining a relevance of each of the plurality of ads to one or more predetermined structured objects; and   a processor configured to extract keywords from the content of the web page, to parse the keywords to form structured objects incorporating the keywords, to access the data store to apply the set of rules to the content of the web page as represented by the structured objects incorporating the keywords, and to identify one or more of the plurality of ads as targeted ads that are relevant to the content of the web page according to the set of rules.   
     
     
         2 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an ad server in communication with the processor, and configured to store the plurality of ads and to transmit one or more of the targeted ads to the user workstation over the distributed computer network for display with the content of the web page.   
     
     
         3 . The computer system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise at least one of static text, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), image data, flash data, or rich media format data. 
     
     
         4 . The computer system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise a link executable at the user workstation to access information of a service provider. 
     
     
         5 . The computer system of  claim 2 , wherein the ad server is configured to receive the content of the web page over the distributed computer network and to transmit the content of the web page to the processor. 
     
     
         6 . The computer system of  claim 2 , wherein the ad server is provided by an affiliate site and the targeted ads comprise affiliate links. 
     
     
         7 . The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein each of the predetermined structured objects comprises a predetermined object and one or more predetermined attributes of the predetermined object. 
     
     
         8 . The computer system of  claim 7 , wherein one or more of the set of rules pertains to a characteristic or value of one or more keywords in the structured objects incorporating the keywords. 
     
     
         9 . A computer system for identifying targeted ads to be displayed with the content of a web page on a display of a user workstation, the computer system and the user workstation each having access to a distributed computer network, the computer system comprising:
 a data store storing a set of rules associated with a plurality of ads, the rules defining a relevance of each of the plurality of ads to one or more predetermined structured objects; and   a server configured to extract keywords from the content of the web page, to parse the keywords to form structured objects incorporating the keywords, to access the data store to apply the set of rules to the content of the web page as represented by the structured objects incorporating the keywords, to identify one or more of the plurality of ads as targeted ads that as relevant to the content of the web page according to the set of rules, to retrieve one or more of the targeted ads, and to transmit the one or more targeted ads to the user workstation over the distributed computer network for display with the content of the web page.   
     
     
         10 . The computer system of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 a plug-in component installed in a browser application executed on the user workstation to display the web page, the plug-in component being configured to communicate with the server from the user workstation over the distributed computer network.   
     
     
         11 . The computer system of  claim 10 , wherein the plug-in component is configured to transmit the content of the web page from the user workstation to the server over the distributed computer network. 
     
     
         12 . The computer system of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise at least one of static text, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), image data, flash data, or rich media format data. 
     
     
         13 . The computer system of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise a link executable at the user workstation to access information of a service provider. 
     
     
         14 . The computer system of  claim 9 , wherein the server is configured to receive the content of the web page over the distributed computer network. 
     
     
         15 . The computer system of  claim 9 , wherein each of the predetermined structured objects comprises a predetermined object and one or more predetermined attributes of the predetermined object. 
     
     
         16 . The computer system of  claim 15 , wherein one or more of the set of rules pertains to a characteristic or value of one or more keywords in the structured objects incorporating the keywords. 
     
     
         17 . A method performed by a computer system for identifying targeted ads to be displayed with the content of a web page on a display of a user workstation, the computer system and the user workstation each having access to a distributed computer network, the method comprising the steps of:
 extracting keywords from the content of the web page;   parsing the keywords to form structured objects incorporating the keywords;   accessing a data store storing a set of rules associated with a plurality of ads, wherein the rules define a relevance of each of the plurality of ads to one or more predetermined structured objects;   applying the set of rules to the content of the web page as represented by the structured objects incorporating the keywords; and   identifying one or more of the plurality of ads as targeted ads that are relevant to the content of the web page according to the set of rules.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising the step of:
 transmitting one or more of the targeted ads to the user workstation over the distributed computer network for display with the content of the web page.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise at least one of static text, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), image data, flash data, or rich media format data. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise a link executable at the user workstation to access information of a service provider. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein each of the predetermined structured objects comprises a predetermined object and one or more predetermined attributes of the predetermined object. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein one or more of the set of rules pertains to a characteristic or value of one or more keywords in the structured objects incorporating the keywords. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein at least one of the structured objects incorporating the keywords defines a first product and at least one of the targeted ads is directed to a second product that is distinct from and usable in conjunction with the first product. 
     
     
         24 . A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having computer-executable software code stored thereon, the code for executing a method performed by a computer system for identifying targeted ads to be displayed with the content of a web page on a display of a user workstation, the computer system and the user workstation each having access to a distributed computer network, the code comprising:
 code for extracting keywords from the content of the web page;   code for parsing the keywords to form structured objects incorporating the keywords;   code for accessing a data store storing a set of rules associated with a plurality of ads, wherein the rules define a relevance of each of the plurality of ads to one or more predetermined structured objects;   code for applying the set of rules to the content of the web page as represented by the structured objects incorporating the keywords; and   code for identifying one or more of the plurality of ads as targeted ads that are relevant to the content of the web page according to the set of rules.   
     
     
         25 . The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 24 , wherein the code further comprises:
 code for transmitting one or more of the targeted ads to the user workstation over the distributed computer network for display with the content of the web page.   
     
     
         26 . The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 24 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise at least one of static text, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), image data, flash data, or rich media format data. 
     
     
         27 . The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 24 , wherein the one or more targeted ads each comprise a link executable at the user workstation to access information of a service provider. 
     
     
         28 . The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 24 , wherein each of the predetermined structured objects comprises a predetermined object and one or more predetermined attributes of the predetermined object. 
     
     
         29 . The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 28 , wherein one or more of the set of rules pertains to a characteristic or value of one or more keywords in the structured objects incorporating the keywords. 
     
     
         30 . The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 24 , wherein at least one of the structured objects incorporating the keywords defines a first product and at least one of the targeted ads is directed to a second product that is distinct from and usable in conjunction with the first product.