Internet contest

Abstract

In general, the invention relates to providing infrastructure, process controls, and software to design, advertise, and implement an on-line contest in which participants in the contest search the Internet for a target in order to earn a reward. Hints and/or hidden objects may provide clues as to where to look for the reward, how to claim the reward, and what the reward is. The reward is funded by participating web site owners who reserve, in some embodiments via an auction, the opportunity to “host” the target during a contest or a portion of a contest, and as a result, drive traffic to their respective web sites.

1 - 97 . (canceled) 
     
     
         98 . A system for directing internet traffic to web sites, the system comprising:
 a contest server comprising a processor and a storage for storing computer instructions, that when executed by the processor:
 administer an auction in which potential sponsors of an online scavenger hunt bid to host a target of the online scavenger hunt on the potential sponsor's web site; 
 select one or more of the potential sponsors as winning sponsors; and 
 administer the online scavenger hunt in which a target object is hidden on a web site of the winning sponsor and in which participants in the online scavenger hunt navigate to the web site in search of the target object, thereby driving internet traffic to the web site of the winning sponsor. 
   
     
     
         99 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the auction as a blind auction. 
     
     
         100 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the bids comprise bids to be an exclusive host of the scavenger hunt. 
     
     
         101 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the processor selects the winning sponsor by determining the highest bidder at a predetermined time. 
     
     
         102 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the processor selects a winning sponsor by determining the first potential sponsor to bid a predetermined amount of money. 
     
     
         103 . The system of  claim 102  wherein the predetermined amount of money varies for different portions of the scavenger hunt. 
     
     
         104 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the bids comprise bids to host a portion of the scavenger hunt. 
     
     
         105 . The system of  claim 104  wherein the portion comprises one or more contest segments during which the target is to be hosted on the winning sponsor's web site. 
     
     
         106 . The system of  claim 105  wherein each contest segment comprises a fixed duration of time. 
     
     
         107 . The system of  claim 105  wherein the contest segments comprise different durations of time. 
     
     
         108 . The system of  claim 105  wherein each contest segment is attributed to a specific date and time. 
     
     
         109 . The system of  claim 105  wherein each contest segment is attributed to a specific date and time range. 
     
     
         110 . The system of  claim 105  wherein the contest segments are ordered. 
     
     
         111 . The system of  claim 104  wherein execution of the computer instructions causes the target object to be hosted by the winning sponsor during the portion of the scavenger hunt bid on by the winning sponsor. 
     
     
         112 . The system of  claim 104  wherein execution of the computer instructions causes the target object to be hosted by the winning sponsor during randomly selected portions of the scavenger hunt. 
     
     
         113 . The system of  claim 98  wherein execution of the computer instructions further causes the processor to track navigation histories of the participants. 
     
     
         114 . The system of  claim 113  wherein execution of the computer instructions further identifies one or more of the participants to which a prize is awarded based at least in part on their navigation histories. 
     
     
         115 . The system of  claim 114  wherein the prize is awarded to the participants who visited all of the sponsor's web sites. 
     
     
         116 . The system of  claim 114  wherein the prize is awarded to the participants who visited the most of the sponsor's web sites. 
     
     
         117 . The system of  claim 114  wherein the prize is awarded to the participants who find one or more targets. 
     
     
         118 . The system of  claim 114  wherein the prize is awarded to the participants who find one or more targets and solve puzzles. 
     
     
         119 . The system of  claim 114  wherein the prize is awarded to the participants who find one or more targets, solve puzzles and collect electronic keys. 
     
     
         120 . The system of  claim 114  wherein the prize changes during the scavenger hunt. 
     
     
         121 . The system of  claim 120  wherein execution of the computer instructions determines the prize based at least in part on one or more of a number of participants in the scavenger hunt, a number of sponsors for the scavenger hunt, or an amount of money bid to host the target object. 
     
     
         122 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the target object comprises one or more of an icon, a word, an HTML object or an image. 
     
     
         123 . The system of  claim 98  wherein all of the web sites are attributed to a single domain. 
     
     
         124 . The system of  claim 98  wherein the web sites are selected from a plurality of domains.