Robert Allen Main

US Patent:

7546249, Jun 9, 2009

Filed:

Feb 6, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/778666

Inventors:

Robert Main - San Francisco CA, US

Assignee:

Yahoo! Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06Q 30/00

US Classification:

705 14

Abstract:

The present invention relates to managing advertising inventory. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for managing advertising inventory so as to enhance total ad revenue. In a preferred embodiment, one or more restrictions are selectively applied to limit the respective availability levels of one or more selected categories of advertisements within the advertising inventory. Typically, the selected categories of advertisements which are subject to the restrictions are at the lowest end of the pricing levels. By limiting the respective availability levels of selected categories of advertisements, unnecessary displacements of other categories of advertisements which are priced at the higher end of the pricing levels are reduced, thereby enhancing the total ad revenue that can be generated.

US Patent:

8060416, Nov 15, 2011

Filed:

May 7, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/850949

Inventors:

Robert Allen Main - San Francisco CA, US
Wendy Krehbiel - Milpitas CA, US
David Leger - Campbell CA, US

Assignee:

Yahoo! Inc. - Santa Clara CA

International Classification:

G06Q 10/00
G06F 17/60

US Classification:

705 28, 705 14

Abstract:

The present invention relates to a method and system for providing advertising inventory information. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for providing advertising inventory information in response to demographic inquiries. In an exemplary embodiment, a server responds to a demographic query. Based on the query, the server queries an advertising inventory database and a contract database to retrieve relevant information. Using the relevant information, the total inventory and the total sold inventory are obtained. Using the now obtained total inventory and the total sold inventory information, the server then provides an estimation of the total available inventory matching the query.