On the heels of a recent Facebook patent of note (prior blog post HERE), Google, Inc. has been in the news for receiving its own technology patent, entitled “Determining and/or using location information in an ad system.” U.S. Patent No. 7,668,832 (available HERE) was issued on February 23, 2010, and includes eight method and apparatus claims relating to advertising on client devices based upon geographical location information. This issued patent is actually a continuation-in-part patent application of a prior filed patent application having the same title (Serial No. 10/654,265), which, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s electronic records, is itself set to issue on March 16, 2010.
Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 7,668,832 claims “a computer-implemented method for controlling serving of an ad using its relevancy to a request,” comprising the steps (summarized) of accepting geolocation information associated with a request using a computer, comparing that information with geolocation targeting information associated with an advertisement to generate a result, determining advertisement relevancy using the result, controlling the serving of the ad to a client device using the relevancy information, determining if the ad has geolocation price information based on the accepted information, and if so, scoring the ad, wherein the geolocation information associated with the ad corresponds to a geographic area. According to the patent itself, this invention “improves the usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements,” allowing businesses to “better target their ads to a responsive audience … by determining and using location information, such as country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephone area code, etc.”
According to the L.A. Times Web site (article link HERE ), “[m]ore sites than ever are incorporating location awareness into their services,” and to generate revenue, “some of those companies might be considering using location information in ads.” As relating to mobile devices, the article mentions that this patent could have “a similar effect,” noting that “[t]he iPhone and Google Android-based devices have built-in GPS technology, making them location aware. With the help of its patent, Google could capitalize on that technology and offer a mobile-advertising solution that improves the relevancy of ads with the help of a user’s location.”
According to Mashable (the Social Media Guide, article link HERE), “Google’s new location-based advertising patent raises the same questions, but as we said in the news feed article, there is a huge reputation and financial cost to litigation related to patents. At the very least, though, it gives Google an advantage in mobile advertising, especially against Apple, who is quickly becoming its primary rival.” This is yet another example of patents keeping up with technology, especially in the mobile digital age.
