Paid search engine bid management
Paid Search Engine Tools, LLCPatent 7,043,450 (the '450 patent) has been asserted by Paid Search Engine Tools, LLC against Microsoft Corp. and Google, Inc. in federal district court alleging patent infringement. The '450 patent pertains to a system for monitoring keyword bids across one or more search engines so that that marketers can make adjustments to their pay-per-click bids. This patent may impact any party that is in the business of selling keywords for advertising and marketing. The challenge is to determine whether the patent is valid.
Last updated: about 1 year ago
Summary / Description
| Summary / Description | (1) Abstract - The present invention provides a system and method for enabling a web site promoter using a computer network to influence a position within a search result list generated by an Internet search engine. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method to enable a web site promoter to define a search listing for a search result list, select a search term relevant to the promoter's web site, and influence a search result list position for the search listing on an Internet search engine. When an Internet user enters the search terms in a search engine query, the search engine will generate a search result list with the web site promoter's listing in a position influenced by one or more parameters defined by the promoter. |
Basic Information
| Type of Prior Art | Issued Patents - US |
| Country | United States of America |
| Patent/Application # | 6,269,361 |
| Kind Code | United States (US) - United STATES Patent - A |
| Patentee Name | Yahoo!, Inc. |
| Relevant Pages, Columns, or Lines | (1) Abstract; (2) col. 4, ln 5 |
| URL | http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/... |
| Publication Date | July 31, 2001 |
| Additional Information | Filing date: May 28, 1999 |
Notes / To Do
| Notes | |
Excerpt
(2) col. 4, ln 51 - col. 6, ln 34 - The present invention seeks to address the aforementioned problems by providing a system and method for enabling a web site promoter using a computer network to influence a position within a search result list generated by an Internet search engine. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method to enable a web site promoter to define a search listing for a search result list, select a search term relevant to the promoter's web site, and influence a search result list position for the search listing on an Internet search engine. When an Internet user enters the search terms in a search engine query, the search engine will generate a search result list with the web site promoter's listing in a position influenced by one or more parameters defined by the promoter. . .
(3) col. 10, ln 36-58 - FIG. 2 is a diagram showing menus, display screens, and input screens presented to an advertiser accessing the account management server 22 through a conventional browser program 16. The advertiser, upon entering the URL of the account management server 22 into the browser program 16 of FIG. 1, invokes a login application, discussed below as shown at screen 110 of FIG. 2, running on the processing system 34 of the server 22. Once the advertiser is logged-in, the processing system 34 provides a menu 120 that has a number of options and further services for advertisers. These items, which will be discussed in more detail below, cause routines to be invoked to either implement the advertiser's request or request further information prior to implementing the advertiser's request. In one embodiment of the present invention, the advertiser may access several options through menu 120, including requesting customer service 130, viewing advertiser policies 140, performing account administration tasks 150, adding money to the advertiser's account 160, managing the account's advertising presence on the search engine 170, and viewing activity reports 180. Context-specific help 190 may also generally be available at menu 120 and all of the abovementioned options.
(4) col. 12, ln 40-55 - The search listing 344 corresponds to a search term/bid pairing and contains key information to conduct the online competitive bidding process. Preferably, each search listing comprises the following information: search term 352, web site description 354, URL 356, bid amount 358, and a title 360. The search term 352 comprises one or more keywords which may be common words in English (or any other language). Each keyword in turn comprises a character string. The search term is the object of the competitive online bidding process. The advertiser selects a search term to bid on that is relevant to the content of the advertiser's web site. Ideally, the advertiser may select a search term that is targeted to terms likely to be entered by searchers seeking the information on the advertiser's web site, although less common search terms may also be selected to ensure comprehensive coverage of relevant search terms for bidding.
(5) col. 19, ln 38-58 - Many of the other selections listed in the "Account Management" menu 170 of FIG. 2 function as variants of the "Change Bid" function described above. For example, if the advertiser selects the "Change Rank Position" option, the advertiser may be presented with a display similar to the display of FIG. 9 used in the "Change Bid" function. However, in the "Change Rank Position" option, the "New Bid" field would be replaced by a "New Rank" field, in which the advertiser enters the new desired rank position for a search term. After the advertiser requests that the ranks be updated, the system then calculates a new bid price by any of a variety of algorithms easily available to one skilled in the art. For example, the system may invoke a routine to locate the search listing in the search database having the desired rank/search term combination, retrieve the associated bid amount of said combination, and then calculate a bid amount that is N cents higher; where N=1, for example. After the system calculates the new bid price and presents a read-only confirmation display to the advertiser, the system updates the bid prices and rank values upon receiving approval from the advertiser.
(6) col. 21, ln 66 - col. 22, ln 33 - For an advertiser who requires a more comprehensive report of search listing activity, the "View Report" option may be selected from the Advertiser Main Page 120 of FIG. 2. In an embodiment of the present invention, the "View Report" options generate reports comprehensive for up to one year preceding the current date. For example, daily reports are available for the each of the immediately preceding 7 days, weekly reports for the preceding four weeks, monthly reports for the preceding twelve months, and quarterly reports for the last four quarters. Additional reports may also be made available depending on advertiser interest. Other predefined report types may include activity tracked during the following time periods: Since Inception of the Account, Year To Date, Yearly, Quarter To Date, Month To Date, and Week to Date. Report Categories may include a Detail Report, viewable by Advertiser Account, by Search Listing, and by URL, and a Summary Report, viewable by Advertiser Account and by Subaccount. The reports may include identification data such as advertiser account and subaccount name, the dates covered by the report and the type of report. In addition, the reports may include key search listing account data such as current balance, pending current balance, average daily account debit, and run rate. Furthermore, the reports may also include key data, such as: search terms, URLs, bids, current ranks, and number of clicks, number of searches done for the search term, number of impressions (times that the search listing appeared in a search result list), and click through rate (defined as Number of Clicks/Number of Impressions). Preferably, the report is available in at least HTML view options for viewing via a browser program, printing, or downloading. Note, however, that other view options may be made available, such as Adobe Acrobat, PostScript, ASCII text, spreadsheet interchange formats (e.g., CSV, tabdelimited), and other well-known formats.
Relevance
Claims
Managing an offeror's offer for a keyword
A method of managing an offeror's offer for a keyword made to a search engine, said offer identifying an amount said offeror will pay upon a searcher's use of an offeror-supplied reference located upon the keyword within said search engine, comprising receiving an authorization from said offeror, after receipt of said authorization, monitoring keyword offers at one or more Internet search engines to identify a change in said offeror's offer of interest to said offeror, and implementing said change in said offeror's offer on behalf of said offeror based upon the previously received authorization without further intervention of said offeror.
Relevance
References 1, 2, 4 and 5 above
References 1, 2, 4 and 5 above
Claim Chart
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Second method for managing offers for keywords
A method of managing offers for a keyword made to a search engine, said offers identifying an amount an offeror will pay upon a searcher's use of an offeror-supplied reference located using the keyword within said search engine, comprising presenting adjacently-ranked authorized payment amounts for a plurality of target keywords at one or more Internet search engines on a single display screen, each keyword comprising one or more words, in a manner that distinctively identifies one or more selected authorized payments of interest.
Relevance
References 1, 2, 4, and 6 above
References 1, 2, 4, and 6 above
Claim Chart
All
Managing offers for a keyword
A method of managing offers for a keyword made to a search engine, said offers identifying an amount an offeror will pay upon a searcher's use of an offeror-supplied reference located using the keyword within said search engine, comprising accumulating adjacently-ranked authorized payment amounts for a plurality of target keywords, each target keyword comprising one or more words, each authorized payment amount representing an offeror's authorized payment for one of said keywords at one or more Internet search engines, and presenting the adjacently-ranked authorized payment amounts for a plurality of target keywords on a single display screen to a user.
Relevance
References 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 above
References 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 above
Claim Chart
All


