Generating and presenting targeted advertisements including representations of subject individuals

Abstract

Advertisements are generated and selected for display to users, wherein the advertisements include representations of subject individuals. These subject individuals can be friends with whom the user interacts on the Internet and/or any other contributors who may or may not have expertise with regard to the subject matter of the advertisement. A subject individual can be portrayed in an advertisement by including any type of representation of the individual.Ranks for the subject individuals are determined based on the subject individuals' interactions with advertisements and/or on other factors. An advertisement is selected and presented to a user based on a score derived from friends' and/or contributors' interactions with the advertisement. According to various embodiments of the invention, a method is provided for choosing which advertisement(s) to show to a user and which subject individuals to portray in the advertisements.

1 - 38 . (canceled) 
     
     
         39 . A computer-implemented method for selecting and presenting one or more advertisements to a user, comprising:
 receiving, via an interaction receiving engine, and recording, at a server, one or more indications of advertisement interactions, the one or more indications of advertisement interactions being received input at a client device associated with the user and indicative of activity between the client device and one or more presented advertisements that are displayed on the client device;   receiving and storing, at an interaction database, metadata corresponding to one or more indications of social network interactions occurring between the client device associated with the user and at least one interacting subject individual using an Internet-based social network, wherein the metadata corresponding to each of the one or more indications of social network interactions is stored in a uniform format so as to enable comparison of the one or more indications of social network interactions to which the metadata corresponds;   receiving, at the server from the client device associated with the user, a request for the one or more presented advertisements to be presented to the user;   for each of a plurality of candidate advertisements, determining, by the server, (i) at least one friend rank comprising a metric associated with the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted using the Internet-based social network, wherein the at least one friend rank is determined at least in part by the received and stored metadata and (ii) at least one contributor rank indicating relative performance of advertisements containing a representation of a contributing subject individual, the at least one contributor rank not being based on social network interactions between the contributing subject individual and the user;   for each of the plurality of candidate advertisements, aggregating the at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank, and   generating a score for each of the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on the aggregated at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank, with the score differing from the at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank;   identifying a selected advertisement set from the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on the generated scores;   selecting, from the selected advertisement set, the one or more presented advertisements based on one or more presentation criteria;   comparing at least one normalized contributor rank for the one or more presented advertisements to at least one normalized friend rank for the one or more presented advertisements;   selecting, based on the comparing, a represented subject individual, the represented subject individual having contributed input with respect to the subject matter of the one or more presented advertisements and having at least one recorded indication of an interaction with the one or more presented advertisements;   determining a representation type placeholder in the one or more presented advertisements;   obtaining, from a storage database by the server, a representation of the represented subject individual having a representation type that matches the representation type placeholder;   configuring, by the server, the one or more presented advertisements to include the representation of the represented subject individual, obtained from the storage database, inserted at the representation type placeholder in the one or more presented advertisements;   electronically transmitting visible indicia of the one or more presented advertisements to a user interface of a display of the client device associated with the user, wherein, in response to receiving the one or more presented advertisements, the client device associated with the user is configured to display, via the display of the client device associated with the user, the one or more presented advertisements that comprises the representation of the represented subject individual and enables user interaction by the user, via the user interface, with the visible indicia associated with the one or more presented advertisements; and   detecting, via the user interface, and storing an interaction of the user with the visible indicia of the one or more presented advertisements that comprises the representation of the represented subject individual.   
     
     
         40 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the one or more presentation criteria include a pre-defined rotation, a random selection, and a ranking within the selected advertisement set. 
     
     
         41 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the representation of the represented subject individual comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of:
 a picture of the represented subject individual;   a name of the represented subject individual;   an icon representing the represented subject individual; and   an identifier for the represented subject individual.   
     
     
         42 . The method of claim  1 , wherein identifying the selected advertisement set based at least in part on the generated scores comprises identifying one or more selected advertisements of the selected advertisement set that each have a generated score exceeding a threshold. 
     
     
         43 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the at least one friend rank comprises a friend rank associated with the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted on an electronically implemented social network. 
     
     
         44 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the at least one friend rank comprises a friend rank indicating a degree of interaction between the user and the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted. 
     
     
         45 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the at least one friend rank comprises a friend rank generated responsive to at least one interaction between the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted and an Internet-based component associated with the one or more presented advertisements. 
     
     
         46 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the representation of the represented subject individual comprises an indication of the represented subject individual's previous interaction with an advertisement. 
     
     
         47 . The method of claim  1 , wherein the one or more presented advertisements are output as a component of a web page display. 
     
     
         48 . The method of claim  1 , wherein at least one of the one or more presented advertisements comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of:
 an audio advertisement;   an animated advertisement;   a video;   a text based advertisement;   a text message;   an instant message;   an email message;   a web page;   a banner; and   a portion of a web page.   
     
     
         49 . The method of claim  1 , further comprising:
 receiving the user's interactions with the one or more presented advertisements; and storing the user's interactions in a storage medium.   
     
     
         50 . The method of claim  1 , wherein generating the score based at least in part on the aggregated at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank comprises generating the score based on the aggregated at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank combined with a user score based on the user's history of interactions on the Internet. 
     
     
         51 . A computer program product for selecting and presenting an advertisement to a user, comprising:
 a computer-readable storage medium; and   computer program code, encoded on the computer-readable storage medium, for causing an electronic device to perform the steps of:   receiving, via an interaction receiving engine, and recording, at a server, one or more indications of advertisement interactions, the one or more indications of advertisement interactions being received input at a client device associated with the user and indicative of activity between the client device and one or more presented advertisements that are displayed on the client device;   receiving and storing, at an interaction database, metadata corresponding to one or more indications of social network interactions occurring between the client device associated with the user and at least one interacting subject individual using an Internet-based social network, wherein the metadata corresponding to each of the one or more indications of social network interactions is stored in a uniform format so as to enable comparison of the one or more indications of social network interactions to which the metadata corresponds;   receiving, at the server from the client device associated with the user, a request for the one or more presented advertisements to be presented to the user;   for each of a plurality of candidate advertisements, determining, by the server, (i) at least one friend rank comprising a metric associated with the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted using the Internet-based social network, wherein the at least one friend rank is determined at least in part by the received and stored metadata and (ii) at least one contributor rank indicating relative performance of advertisements containing a representation of a contributing subject individual, the at least one contributor rank not being based on social network interactions between the contributing subject individual and the user;   for each of the plurality of candidate advertisements, aggregating the at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank, and   generating a score for each of the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on the aggregated at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank, with the score differing from the at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank;   identifying a selected advertisement set from the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on the generated scores;   selecting, from the selected advertisement set, the one or more presented advertisements based on one or more presentation criteria;   comparing at least one normalized contributor rank for the one or more presented advertisements to at least one normalized friend rank for the one or more presented advertisements;   selecting, based on the comparing, a represented subject individual, the represented subject individual having contributed input with respect to the subject matter of the one or more presented advertisements and having at least one recorded indication of an interaction with the one or more presented advertisements;   determining a representation type placeholder in the one or more presented advertisements;   obtaining, from a storage database by the server, a representation of the represented subject individual having a representation type that matches the representation type placeholder;   configuring, by the server, the one or more presented advertisements to include the representation of the represented subject individual, obtained from the storage database, inserted at the representation type placeholder in the one or more presented advertisements;   electronically transmitting visible indicia of the one or more presented advertisements to a user interface of a display of the client device associated with the user, wherein, in response to receiving the one or more presented advertisements, the client device associated with the user is configured to display, via the display of the client device associated with the user, the one or more presented advertisements that comprise the representation of the represented subject individual and enable user interaction by the user, via the user interface, with the visible indicia associated with the one or more presented advertisements; and   detecting, via the user interface, and storing an interaction of the user with the visible indicia of the one or more presented advertisements that comprise the representation of the represented subject individual.   
     
     
         52 . The computer program product of claim  13 , wherein the one or more presentation criteria include a pre-defined rotation, a random selection, and a ranking within the selected advertisement set. 
     
     
         53 . The computer program product of claim  13 , wherein the at least one friend rank comprises a friend rank associated with the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted on an electronically implemented social network. 
     
     
         54 . The computer program product of claim  13 , wherein the at least one friend rank comprises a friend rank indicating a degree of interaction between the user and the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted. 
     
     
         55 . The computer program product of claim  13 , wherein the at least one friend rank comprises a friend rank generated responsive to at least one interaction between the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted and an Internet-based component associated with the advertisement. 
     
     
         56 . The computer program product of claim  13 , wherein at least one of the one or more presented advertisements comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of:
 an audio advertisement;   an animated advertisement;   a video;   a text based advertisement;   a text message;   an instant message;   an email message;   a web page;   a banner; and   a portion of a web page.   
     
     
         57 . The computer program product of claim  13 , comprising further computer program code for:
 receiving the user's interactions with the one or more presented advertisements; and   storing the user's interactions in a storage medium.   
     
     
         58 . A system for selecting and presenting an advertisement to a user, comprising:
 an interaction receiving engine to receive one or more indications of advertisement interactions;   a database to record the one or more indications of advertisement interactions, indications of advertisement interactions being received input at a client device associated with a user indicative of activity between the client device associated with the user and one or more presented advertisements displayed on the client device associated with the user;   an interaction database to receive and record metadata corresponding to one or more indications of social network interactions occurring between the client device associated with the user and at least one interacting subject individual using an Internet-based social network, wherein the metadata corresponding to each of the one or more indications of social network interactions is stored in a uniform format so as to enable comparison of the one or more indications of social network interactions to which the metadata corresponds;   a server, to receive, from the client device associated with the user, a request for the one or more presented advertisements to be presented to the user;   an advertisement rank computation and selection engine to:   for each of a plurality of candidate advertisements, determine (i) at least one friend rank comprising a metric associated with the at least one interacting subject individual with whom the user has interacted using the Internet-based social network, wherein the at least one friend rank is determined at least in part by the received and stored metadata and (ii) at least one contributor rank indicating relative performance of advertisements containing a representation of a contributing subject individual, the at least one contributor rank not being based on social network interactions between the contributing subject individual and the user;   for each of the plurality of candidate advertisements, aggregate the at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank, and generate a score for each of the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on the aggregated at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank, with the score differing from the at least one friend rank and the at least one contributor rank;   identify a selected advertisement set from the plurality of candidate advertisements based at least in part on the generated scores;   select, from the selected advertisement set, the one or more presented advertisements based on one or more presentation criteria;   compare at least one normalized contributor rank for the one or more presented advertisements to at least one normalized friend rank for the one or more presented advertisements;   select, based on the comparing, a represented subject individual, the represented subject individual having contributed input with respect to the subject matter of the one or more presented advertisements and having at least one recorded indication of an interaction with the one or more presented advertisements;   determine a representation type placeholder in each of the one or more presented advertisements;   obtain, from a storage database by the server, a representation of the represented subject individual having a representation type that matches each of the representation type placeholders in the one or more presented advertisements;   configure, by the server, the one or more presented advertisements to include the representation of the represented subject individual, obtained from the storage database, inserted at each of the representation type placeholders in the one or more presented advertisements;   a transmission device to electronically transmit visible indicia of the one or more presented advertisements to a user interface of a display of the client device associated with the user, wherein, in response to receiving the one or more presented advertisements, the client device associated with the user is configured to display, via the display, the one or more presented advertisements that comprise the representation of the represented subject individual; and   detect, via the user interface, and store an interaction of the user with the one or more presented advertisements that comprise the representation of the represented subject individual.