System and method of selecting advertising content

Abstract

A method includes receiving data for an object at a computing device. The method includes sending a representation of the object from the computing device to a display device coupled to the computing device. The object includes a first display element in a featured position and a second display element. The method includes selecting advertising content with a processor of the computing device based on first information retrieved from the data that is associated with the first display element, based on second information retrieved from the data that is associated with the second display element, and based on a first location in the representation of the first display element relative to a second location in the representation of the second display element. The method also includes sending the advertising content from the computing device to the display device for display in an advertising window.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, at a computing device, data including first information and second information;   generating an interface that includes a representation of an object including a first display element associated with the first information and a second display element associated with the second information; and   adding advertising content to the interface, wherein the advertising content is associated with the first information when the first display element is more centrally located in the representation than the second display element, and wherein the advertising content is associated with the second information when the second display element is more centrally located in the representation than the first display element.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the object has a cubical shape. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the advertising content further comprises using pattern recognition techniques to identify first candidate advertising content associated with the first information and second candidate advertising content associated with the second information, wherein the advertising content is selected from the first candidate advertising content and the second candidate advertising content. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising sending the interface to a display device. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 sending a request to a server for the advertising content; and   receiving the advertising content from the server.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data is received from a server. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first information comprises multimedia content. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the representation of the object has a spheroid shape. 
     
     
         9 . A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions executable by a processor to perform operations including:
 receiving data including first information and second information;   generating an interface that includes a representation of an object including a first display element associated with the first information and a second display element associated with the second information; and   adding advertising content to the interface, wherein the advertising content is associated with the first information when the first display element is more centrally located in the representation than the second display element, and wherein the advertising content is associated with the second information when the second display element is more centrally located in the representation than the first display element.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 9 , wherein the advertising content is received from a server. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 9 , wherein the first information includes historical information associated with the first display element and the second information includes historical information associated with the second display element. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 11 , wherein the historical information associated with the first display element includes information related to content previously displayed at the first display element, information from a browser history file, information from a recently accessed files list, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 9 , further comprising blocking display of particular advertising content based on a user setting. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 9 , wherein the representation of the object includes a third display element located between the first display element and the second display element, and wherein the data includes third information associated with the third display element. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 14 , wherein the data is received from a server. 
     
     
         16 . A computing device comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory accessible to the processor, wherein the memory includes instructions executable by the processor to perform operations including:
 receiving data including first information and second information; 
 generating an interface that includes a representation of an object including a first display element associated with the first information and a second display element associated with the second information; and 
 adding advertising content to the interface, wherein the advertising content is associated with the first information when the first display element is more centrally located in the representation than the second display element, and wherein the advertising content is associated with the second information when the second display element is more centrally located in the representation than the first display element. 
   
     
     
         17 . The computing device of  claim 16 , wherein the operation further include:
 receiving a user command to change a view of the representation;   changing the representation in response to the user command to produce a modified representation;   selecting second advertising content based on the modified representation; and   adding the second advertising content to the interface.   
     
     
         18 . The computing device of  claim 17 , wherein the second advertising content is associated with the first information when the first display element is more centrally located in the modified representation than the second display element, and wherein the second advertising content is associated with the second information when the second display element is more centrally located in the modified representation than the first display element. 
     
     
         19 . The computing device of  claim 17 , wherein the user command is a command to zoom in on the object. 
     
     
         20 . The computing device of  claim 16 , wherein the processor and the memory are included in a set-top box device.