WO2001052092A2 - Barter-based placement for search engine - Google Patents

Abstract

A search engine provides greater opportunities for advertisers to increase exposure to relevant consumer bases. One aspect of the invention is to provide a barter-per-placement system in which the advertiser offers a quantity of goods and/or services in exchange for advertising. The search engine provider evaluates the quantity of goods and/or services, and then the advertiser accepts or rejects the evaluation of goods and/or services. If accepted, the advertiser receives an account balance equal to the evaluation for advertising on the search engine. Another aspect of the invention is to provide multiple, automatically generated search results on the home page of the search engine. Advertisers are given an opportunity to bid for placement in the automatic searches, either on a cash or barter basis.

Description

BARTER-BASED PLACEMENT FOR SEARCH ENGINE

Background Of The Invention

The present invention relates generally to search engines used in networks

such as the Internet, and more specifically, to search engines that allow advertisers an opportunity to increase the likelihood that someone conducting a search with a

search engine will visit the advertiser's Web site. Basically, the invention

involves a system where advertisers are allowed to barter goods or services for

placement in the results of a search.

Description Of The Related Art

Electronic commerce, often referred to as "e-commerce," has grown at a

logarithmic rate. More and more businesses are using the World Wide Web

("WWW" or simply the "Web") as a means for realizing commercial potential, by

connecting consumers with the businesses that supply the goods and services

sought by the consumers. Obvious advantages are achieved for both sides of the

commercial transactions: consumers can shop at home for virtually any product or

service, and businesses can maximize their potential to reach the enormous

customer base that now has access to the Internet, through the proliferation of

personal computers. It becomes problematic that the Internet makes so much information

available at a specific Web site, or other pertinent information, becomes difficult to locate. In response, several attempts have been made to assist the user of the

Internet, and other networks, in locating pertinent information. U.S. Patent No.

5,987,480 to Donohue et al. describes a method and system for delivering

documents customized for a particular user over the Internet. Searching is facilitated by using imbedded dynamic content.

U.S. Patent No. 5,870,559 to Leshem et al. describes a software system

and associated method for facilitating the analysis and management of Web sites

and Web site content. A mapping component scans a Web site over a network

connection and builds a site map which graphically depicts the URLs and links of

the site. U.S. Patent No. 5,974,572 to Weinberg et al. provides similar features.

U.S. Patent No. 5,966,710 to Burrows describes a method of searching an

index, in which a memory stores an index having a plurality of index entries.

Each of the index entries corresponds to a respective one of a plurality of terms

associated with the stored information and has one or more location identifiers. A

processor searches the stored index to identify the location identifiers of at least

two index entries which correspond to terms of interest. The processor also

determines the locations within the information which are represented by the

identified location identifiers and at which the terms of interest have a relationship

as indicated by a particular operator. U.S. Patent No. 5,751,956 to Kirsch describes a method and apparatus for

re-direction of server external hyper-link references, in which a Web server computer system provides for server based controlled management over a client

reference to a resource locator independently selected by a client computer system

and referencing a server external Web server.

A "search engine" is a tool that lets a consumer explore data bases

containing the text from tens of millions of Web pages. When the search engine

software finds pages that match the consumer's search request (often called

"hits"), it presents them to the user with brief descriptions and click-able links to

take the user to the web site. Some search engines concentrate primarily on

providing a powerful search capability, while others also offer a multi-level topic

directory that the user can browse for information on a given subject. Topic

directories are usually prepared by search engine employees who spend their days

visiting, selecting, and classifying Web sites based on content. Most of the major search engines, including Alta vista, Excite, HotBot,

InfoSeek, Lycos, Yahoo, and RocketLinks, carry advertising in order to finance

their operations and avoid having to charge subscription fees for the user of their

services. These typically come in the form of banner ads, which appear on the

pages of the search engine, which can be clicked by the user to immediately

connect the user to the banner ad Web site. Some search engines carry other

features such as email, news, chat locations, stock quotes, weather reports, etc. as

means for attracting visitors to the site. In general, search engines often offer more than just results of searches. Most want to be thought of as the visitor's

portal to the Internet, meaning the first place the visitor goes whenever he or she

goes online.

Search engines are located by using their official address or URL (Uniform

Resource Locator), which for any Web site usually begins with "http://www."and typically ends with "com." However, with the latest versions of Web browsers

like Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the visitor need include

only the primary name, such as "rocketlinks."

Search engines are designed to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to

find what he or she wants on the Internet. Most engines deploy robot programs

called "spiders" or "crawlers" which are designed to track down Web pages,

follow the links they contain, and add any new information they encounter to a

master database or index. The spiders' work is supplemented with information

supplied directly to the search engines by professional and amateur Web

developers who take the time to notify the engines of newly created sites.

Search results are typically presented in order based on "relevancy."

Different search engines use different methods for calculating relevancy, usually

reported as a percentage indicating how well a particular Web page matches the

visitor's search request. The formulas for calculating relevancy are constantly

changing as search engines attempt to stay one step ahead of Web developers,

some of whom engage in "spamdexing," which is the process of doctoring a Web

page to fool search engines into putting it high on the list of search results. This process may be a benefit to the Web page owner, but the material is likely to be

not in the visitor's zone of interest, thus adding to the frustration of the visitor who needs to locate pages pertinent to his or her search. One common trick is to

load a Web page with words, like "free" or "money," that may have nothing to do

with the Web site. Some search engines respond to these tactics by writing into

their software a relevancy formula that gives lower ranking to pages that contain

numerous repeated words.

When a visitor uses a search engine for Web searching, he or she typically

chooses a relevant search term or "keyword." The keyword is searched by the

search engine from the full text of Web pages collected automatically by spider or

crawler programs. Conventional databases like the electronic card catalog in a

library allow the user to perform field searches. An example would be to input

"Steinbeck" in the author field to produce a list of books by title. If information is sought about the author, "Steinbeck" can be entered into a subject field. Many

Web search engine databases, however, make no distinction among the various

types of information available. For Web search engines having field searching

capabilities, the fields typically have to do with the Web page itself, such as its

title, Web address or URL, the date the page was created, etc., rather than the information on the page. Thus, choosing the right keyword is critical to effective

use of a search engine.

Some search engines have developed "pay-per-placement" marketing

strategies, where in essence, a business pays a relatively small fee for each "hit" registered by a visitor. The business pays more to have their URL appear higher

in the listing of search results. For example, if the business sells flowers, it can pay for the right to have its URL appear first, second, third, etc., in the listing of

search results, whether or not the word flower appears in the domain name of the

business. Obviously, the business pays more per hit, the higher its URL appears

in the results. The higher placement generates a higher number of hits, since the search results may include several pages of hits, and consumer/visitors tend to

visit the first, or the first several, URLs. Increased traffic, measured by the

number of hits, is tantamount to increasing the number of customers who walk

into a store, and thereby results in more sales. Thus, the fees received for

placement provide an additional source of revenue for the search engine company,

apart from subscription fees and/or banner adds.

Summary Of The Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of

conducting electronic commerce, whereby businesses having Web sites can

improve the likelihood that consumers will visit their sites, and thus ultimately

increase sales.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a barter-based

method of doing business, in which a search engine provides search results in

placements selected by advertisers who trade goods or services for higher

placement of their URL in a listing of search results. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a barter- for-

placement search engine in which clients of the search engine can trade goods or services for higher placement, thereby providing clients of the search engine more

flexibility and control in their advertising campaigns.

These and other objects of the invention are met by providing a method of

doing business between a search engine provider and an advertiser, in which the

advertiser offers a quantity of goods and/or services, the search engine provider

evaluates the quantity of goods and/or services, the advertiser accepts or rejects

the evaluation of goods and/or services, and if accepted, the advertiser receives an

account balance equal to the evaluation for advertising on the search engine.

These and other objects and features of the present invention will become

more apparent from the following detailed description, drawings and claims.

Brief Description Of The Drawings

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a typical distributed database for storing

multimedia information and being capable of searching with a search engine;

Figure 2 is a printout of the home page of a search engine according to a

preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a printout of the second half of the home page of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is the first half of a page generated by the search engine of the

present invention, after the visitor clicks on the "Business" category that is listed immediately below the search word window;

Figure 5 is the second page of the page shown in Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a page of the search engine showing the results of a search for

the term "flowers," and showing the placement of links to Web sites according to the highest bid per click; and

Figure 7 is a flow chart showing the steps undertaken by an advertiser to

subscribe to the search engine and submit bids for placement.

Detailed Description Of The Preferred Embodiments

The present invention can be implemented in any conventional network

using known hardware. An example is illustrated in Figure 1, in which a

distributed computer system 10 includes client or purchaser computers 12

connected to merchant server computers 14 through a network 16. The network

16 can use Internet communications protocols to allow the customers to

communicate with the merchants to conduct electronic commerce.

The customer computers 12 can be personal computers (PCs),

workstations, or any of a variety of other larger or smaller computer systems. _ Each customer computer typically includes one or more processors, memories,

and input/output devices. The servers of the merchants can be similarly

configured, although the server may include multiple computers connected by a separate private network.. The network 16 may be the Internet, which is hundreds

of thousands of individual networks of computers.

During operation of the distributed system, customers desiring to access

the Web sites of the merchants can do so by accessing information records stored

by the servers of the merchants using, for example, the World Wide Web

(WWW), The records of information can be in the form of Web pages, which can

be data records including as content plain textual information, or more complex

digitally encoded multimedia content. It should be noted that although this

description focuses on locating information on the Web, the system can also be

used for locating information via other wide or local area networks or information

stored in a single computer using other communications protocols.

The purchasers can execute Web browser programs such as

NAVIGATOR, EXPLORER, or MOSAIC to locate pages or records. The

browser programs allow the users to enter addresses of specific Web pages to be

retrieved. Typically, the address of a Web page is specified as a Universal

Resource Locator (URL). In addition, once a page has been retrieved, the browser

program can provide access to other pages or records by clicking on hyperlinks to

previously retrieved Web pages. Such hyperlinks provide an automated way to enter the URL of another page and to retrieve that page.

In order to identify pages of interest among the millions of pages which

are available on the Web, a search engine 18 can be accessed by the purchasers.

The search engine includes means for parsing the pages, means for indexing the parsed pages, means for searching the index, and means for presenting

information about the pages located. All of these means are generally known, and implemented in software. The search engine 18 can be configured as one or more

clusters of symmetric multi-processors, such as Digital Equipment Corp. ALPHA

processors, memories, disk storage devices, and network interfaces which are all

connected via high speed communications buses. The ALPHA microprocessors,

which are 64 bit RISC processors, are mentioned only for illustrative purposes,

and the search engine can use any other type having sufficient processing power

and memories, including 32 bit CISC processors. For smaller databases, the

search engine can be run on the computer storing the database.

The search engine can include an automated Web browser, a parsing

module, an indexing module, a query module, index stream readers, an index and

a maintenance module, all of which can be of conventional design. During the

operation of the search engine 18, the automated browser, which as noted earlier

can be referred to as a robot, periodically sends out requests over the network 16.

The requests include URLs. In response to the requests, the merchant sites return

the records or pages to the browser. The browser can locate pages by following

hyperlinks embedded in previously acquired pages.

According to the present invention, a search engine facilitates advertising

for merchants, and helps target their goods or services to a greater number of

customers. The search engine of the present invention can correspond structurally

to that shown in Figure 1, and can be accessed by using the URL http://www.rocketelinks.conL The home page 20 for the search engine according

to the present invention appears as two pages, respectively presented in Figures 2 and 3.

The home page 20 includes a variety of features including a "Today's

Best Clicks" section 22, which lists in order headlines "Rewarding Credit Cards,"

"SJF.com - Material Handling Equipment & Services," "Mortgages for Any

Credit At," "Don't Miss This Opportunity...," and "homeloans online at ...". The

headlines are placed in a ranking based on what the merchant is willing to pay per

hit, e.g., the highest placement has the highest per hit cost, which is paid by the

merchant to the search engine company. For illustration, the highest placement in

the Best Clicks section is $0.69 per click. When a potential customer clicks on

the "Rewarding Credit Cards" headline, the customer is linked to the Web site of

the merchant; the merchant pays the per click rate, and the customer visiting the

Web site may purchase goods or services from the merchant. The more hits the

merchant has, potentially the more sales will be generated. Since the first several

positions of the headlines will typically generate the most hits, merchants typically

will bid more per hit to the search engine. This is demonstrated by the fact that

the second highest placement is at $0.68 per hit.

The search engine of the present invention also includes a "top clicks"

section 24 which is similar to the "best clicks" section 22. The top clicks section

spans both halves of the home page (Figures 2 and 3). Just as in the "best clicks" section, the higher placements cost more per hit to the merchant, as illustrated.. The right-hand side of the home page includes a "featured sponsors"

section 26 (also spanning both pages). This section is broken down into different areas of interest, including "Money," "Gifts," "Internet," "Shopping," "Business,"

"Entertainment," and "E-Commerce." Within each section there is a listing of

headlines for goods or services that relate to the particular area of interest. , The

headlines are placed or ranked according to an amount the merchants are willing

to pay per hit. For example, in the Money section, "SJF.com" was the highest placed add, at $0.64 per hit. The cost per hit for all items on the home page is

determined by the search engine proprietor, who ranks them according to what the

merchants are willing to pay.

One of the many novel features of the search engine of the present

invention is that multiple different search results appear automatically on the

home page of the search engine. In the illustrated embodiments, the multiple

different results provide multiple per click bidding opportunities for the

advertisers. The multiple different results are listed in the best clicks section 22,

the featured sponsors section 26, and in the Featured Search sections 28, 30 and

32. As seen in Figure 2 and 3, the Featured Search sections have topical

descriptors such as "Games," "Gifts," and "Entertainment." Preferably, the

topical descriptors change periodically, as will be described more fully below.

When a visitor visits the home page of the search engine, the three

Featured Searches automatically produce search results that have click-able

headlines. Examples of headlines under Games include "Free Poetry Contest - $58,000 in prizes," showing a per hit cost to the advertiser of $0.30. Just as in the

other sections, advertisers (merchants) pay to place their advertisements in the Featured Search categories; the advertisers willing to pay the highest are placed in

the categories according to the highest bids for placement.

Accordingly, one aspect of the invention is the automatic Featured Search feature, whereby just by visiting the search engine home page, the consumer is

immediately provided with choices of Web sites to visit based on a search (that is

paid for). Another aspect is that multiple search results are displayed on the home

page of the search engine.

One optional feature is that at time intervals of, for example, fifteen

minutes, the Featured Search categories can be changed so that a frequent visitor to the search engine will have a variety of items to view at different times. This

also tends to provide multiple exposures of links to multiple Web sites on the

home page of the search engine, thereby providing additional opportunities for

advertisers to have exposure on the home page.

On the home page 20, there are several categories listed under the search

word window 32, including "Business," "Computers," "Education,"

"Entertainment," "Family," etc. By clicking on one of the categories, the home

page changes to present "Best Clicks," "Top Clicks," "Featured Sponsors," and

"Featured Searches" that correspond to the category. For example, when the

visitor clicks on "Business," a page corresponding to Figures 4 and 5 will appear.

This allows more advertisers more opportunities to appear in multiple automatically generated search results, categorized to match the advertiser's goods

or services. As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the resulting automatically generated searches produce results pertinent to the business category. The featured searches

become "Business," "Stocks," and "Investing," for example. Preferably, the

featured sponsors, best clicks and top clicks also change to include headlines that

relate to the business category. For example, the top "Best Click" for business is "Fierce.com" at $0.20 per click.

When a user or consumer uses the search engine to conduct a search, he or

she enters a keyword or keywords into the window 32 provided next to the

"launch" button 34. Referring to Figure 6, by entering the word "flowers," a

search result page 36 is generated. The search results are placed according to the

highest per hit bid accepted by the search engine proprietor. In the illustrated

embodiment, the highest bid, for "Australia Millennium Gallery Of Prints

Posters" was $0.40, resulting in that particular headline being the highest placed

headline in the search results. The other headlines are listed in descending order

determined by the amount of the bid.

The search engine is programmed to allow a merchant or advertiser to

open an account in a way that the advertiser can bid on search terms so that the

higher bids receive higher placement of the advertiser's Web site in the search

results. Referring to Figure 7, the first step 38 in the subscription process is for

the advertiser to open an account with the search engine proprietor. An essential

element of the subscription process is for the advertiser to enter its URL. In the second step 40, the advertiser lists a search term which is relevant to

a particular good or service offered by the advertiser, e.g., "flowers." In the next step 42, the advertiser provides a written description of language that would

appear in the search results. In the next step 44, the advertiser submits a bid on a

per hit basis, e.g., $0.25.

At that time, the advertiser may elect to add an additional search term.

Instead of having to completely re-fill the information provided, the search engine

is programmed to provide "fill-down" at block 46 so that the advertiser does not

have to re-submit URL and other information. A bid for the second term is

submitted at block 48. Alternatively, the additional keyword or term could be

added prior to submitting a bid, so that all bids could be submitted at the same

time.

At any time during the subscription process, the advertiser can elect to

place the advertisement in the general search database, or in any of the multiple

automatically generated searches that appear on the search engine home page,

such as in the featured search section. The advertiser will be presented with

multiple options for where to place the advertisement, thus providing multiple

places to display the advertiser's advertisement, in effect giving more

opportunities to have a high placement and enhanced visibility of their Web site.

Once all bids are submitted, the advertiser has an option to choose at block

50 between two methods of payment. The first is a conventional one in which the

advertiser submits a method of payment at block 52, such as a credit card. Afterwards, the advertiser selects a dollar amount (or other currency) to establish

in an advertising account at block 54. Once this is done, the search engine proprietor approves or rejects the transaction, for example, by accepting or rejecting a check, or by verifying with a credit card company that a charge can be

made, e.g., that the dollar amount of advertising does not exceed the credit limits

of the card.

If payment is rejected, the transaction stops at block 56; if credit is

approved, or a check is accepted, an account balance is established at block 58.

At that point, the keywords or terms bid upon are entered into the database of the

search engine, and thereafter, for each hit that is registered, the advertiser's

account balance is debited on a per click basis by the amount of the bid.

Another novel feature of the present search engine is that the advertiser

has an option to barter for placement. This option is chosen at block 50 of Figure

7. If the barter option is chosen, the advertiser submits his or her goods or

services at block 60. For example, an advertiser may submit an automobile

having a retail value of $20,000. The submission is in essence an offer from the

advertiser to the search engine proprietor to trade $20,000 in goods for a

corresponding dollar amount of advertising. The advertiser may at that time

request a 1 to 1 evaluation, meaning $20,000 in advertising in exchange for the

$20,000 retail value of the goods.

As a threshold matter, the search engine proprietor may reject the goods or

services presented at block 62 for whatever reason deemed appropriate. Most notably, the proprietor may find that some goods and services may be difficult or

impossible to re-sell. Assuming the proprietor is willing to take the goods or services, the next step in the process is for the proprietor to evaluate the goods or

services at block 64. The evaluation is made to correspond to a dollar amount, or

other currency. In the prior example, the search engine proprietor may evaluate

the $20,000 goods at a wholesale value or less, such as $15,000. Once the

evaluation is submitted to the advertiser, the advertiser can reject the evaluation

and stop at block 66. Alternatively, the advertiser can re-submit the goods or

services at a different value, such as $17,000 in a re-bid, re-submit loop 68. Once

an evaluation is agreed upon, the evaluation is accepted by the advertiser and an

account balance is established at block 70. As in the case of the cash transaction,

the account is debited by the per click bid amount, each time the advertiser's Web

site is visited.

It is understood that although the present invention has been described

with reference to a preferred embodiment, various modifications, known to those

skilled in the art, may be made to the structures and process steps presented herein

without departing from the invention as recited in the several claims appended

hereto.

Throughout the description and claims which follow there are references

to means for facilitating the interaction between the customer and the search

engine, between the search engine proprietor and the advertiser, and between the

advertiser and the customer. These various means are provided in the software written for the search engine. By example, when an advertiser seeks to subscribe

to the search engine and purchase, either with cash or barter, the various advertising schemes described herein, the program will display on the PC of the

advertiser the various forms and prompt the entry of the desired data. The

advertiser uses his or her keyboard to enter keywords and bid amount, and provide

other required information necessary to establish an account, including the URL

of the advertiser and the description that would be displayed either on the home

page of the search engine or in the results of a search initiated by the

visitor/customer. Any standard programming techniques and languages can be

employed to implement the foregoing.

What is claimed is:

Claims

1. A method of operating a search engine, comprising the steps of:

allowing an advertiser having a Web site to select at least one keyword chosen to be relevant to the business of the advertiser; and

receiving payment from the advertiser for the right to have a link to the

advertiser's Web site appear on a home page of the search engine in a search result format.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of receiving payment

comprises receiving payment on a per click basis.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising receiving a bid from

the advertiser for an amount the advertiser is willing to pay on the per click basis,

and placing the link to the advertiser's Web site on the home page of the search

engine.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising permitting the

advertiser to establish an account balance which is debited per click.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising providing the advertiser with options for establishing the account balance, a first option being

cash, check or credit, and a second option being barter for goods and services.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the second option comprises

receiving an offer of goods and/or services from the advertiser, evaluating the goods and/or services in a dollar amount, submitting the evaluation to the

advertiser, and permitting the advertiser to accept or reject the evaluation.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising accepting a re-

submission value of the goods and/or services by the advertiser at a alternative

evaluation, and accepting or rejecting the re-submission value.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of allowing an

advertiser to select at least one keyword comprises prompting the advertiser to

undertake the steps of submitting a URL of the advertiser, submitting a

description of the product or services available at the Web site corresponding to

the URL, choosing at least one search term or keyword, and submitting a bid per

click for the at least one keyword.

9. The method according to claim 9, further comprising providing a fill-down

function so that the advertiser can submit multiple keywords without having to

duplicate subscription information.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising permitting the

advertiser to submit a bid per click for a keyword, and placing the advertiser's Web site link in a search result generated by a customer-initiated search in an order corresponding to the value of the bid.

11. A method of doing business between ,a search engine provider and an

advertiser, comprising the steps of:

transmitting an offer to the search engine provider by the advertiser to

exchange a quantity of goods and/or services for a quantity of advertising

expressed in dollars;

transmitting by the search engine provider to the advertiser an evaluation

of the quantity of goods and/or services;

transmitting by the advertiser to the search engine provider an acceptance

or rejection of the evaluation; and

establishing an account balance for the advertiser at the amount of the

accepted evaluation.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of

providing means for the advertiser to undertake the following steps: selecting at least one keyword having a correlation to the goods or services offered for sale at the Web site of the advertiser, submitting a dollar amount the advertiser is willing

to pay for each hit registered by visitors who visit the Web site through the search

engine, and placing the advertiser's link to the Web site in order of the highest bid

for that particular keyword.

13. A search engine for use in a network such as the Internet, comprising:

a database of URL's and descriptions of Web sites;

a home page for the search engine;

a window on the home page for entering a search word;

a clickable icon on the home page for initiating the search; and

search results displayed on the home page, without initiation by a visitor to

the home page.

14. A search engine according to claim 13, wherein the search results are

disposed in a plurality of categories as multiple independent search results.

15. A search engine according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of categories

change periodically.

16. A search engine according to claim 14, further comprising means for

allowing an advertiser to place a link to a Web site of the advertiser on the home page.

17. A search engine according to claim 16, wherein the means for allowing an

advertiser to place a link comprises means for bidding on desired keywords, and means for placing the link to the advertiser's Web site in an order on the home

page of the search engine whereby the highest placement corresponds to the

highest bid for that particular keyword.

18. A search engine according to claim 17, further comprising means for

allowing an advertiser to raise the placement of the link to its Web site in the

results of a search initiated by a visitor.

19. A search engine according to claim 18, wherein the means for allowing the

advertiser to raise the placement includes means for entering at least one desired

search term, means for submitting a bid on the search term, the bid corresponding

to a cost per hit the advertiser is willing to pay for the search term, and means for

displaying the link to the advertiser's Web site in an order of placement

corresponding to the amount of the bid, the higher bids receiving the higher

placements.