In May 2008, Yahoo filed for a behavioural targeting patent in India. According to the filing, the advertisements delivered to a particular user are selected based the users short-term and long-term behaviour, which is determined from information collected on the users online activities and linked to specific interest categories. “A first long-term score, models awareness with respect to a given category. A second long-term score and the short-term score are response-oriented scores that model the user’s interest in making a response with respect to a given category, such as by purchasing a product or service within the category.”
Technology aside, behavioural targeting is used to make advertisements to relevant to users, and this often has an impact on the click-throughs. Greater relevancy is what Google also pitches – both in terms of search results, as well as advertising.
View the patent filing here.
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1 Comments until now.
Is a patent like this valid? From what I know business method patents are not allowed in India. Also, if the method is obvious (i assume in this case it is), the patent is invalid. The scoring algorithm is something that may be patented but otherwise I don’t see how can this restrict other companies from providing the same service.