Content Feed - Advertising content with a feed (Outbrain) - Patent Application - PRIOR ART REQUEST

Question

AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON an advertising unit consisting of a content feed - This application from Outbrain seeks to patent the idea of...Creating a content feed and using it as an advertising unit! 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.

QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before 11/18/2011 that discusses:

• Content feeds used as an advertising unit

If so, please submit evidence of prior art as an answer to this question.. We welcome multiple answers from the same individual.

EXTRA CREDIT - A reference to anything that meets all of the criteria to the question above AND ALSO classifies content so as to create an advertising unit around a specific topic (e.g. Golfing)

TITLE: Advertising content with a content feed on a specific topic

Summary: [Translated from Legalese into English] Creating an advertising unit consisting of a content feed from content which is frequently changing and on a specific topic (e.g. a Golfing advertising unit consisting of Golfing content)

• Publication Number: US 20130132191 A1
• Application Number: US 13/676,471
• Assignee: Outbrain
• Prior Art Date: Seeking prior Art predating 11/18/2011
• Open for Challenge at USPTO: Open through 11/19/2013

Claim 1 requires each and every step below:

1. receiving data indicating a data feed to use to create a feed-based advertisement to represent content, that is to be advertised, of a content provider;

2. receiving the data feed that is associated with the content to be advertised;

3. generating, by a server computer the feed-based advertisement using one or more data elements associated with an item in the data feed; and

4. providing the feed-based advertisement to a user device.

In English this means:

A method comprising

1. Receiving a data feed of content from a content provider who wishes to advertise its content

2. Creating a feed-based advertisement unit based on the data feed

3. Sending the feed-based advertisement to a user (presumably to display on his device)

Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to 11/18/2011

You're probably aware of ten pieces of art that meet this criteria already... separately, the applicant is claiming categorizing the content to create advertising feeds around specific topics (e.g golfing)

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"providing feed-based advertisements using a data feed.from the Applicant"

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What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.

Want to help? Please vote or comment on submissions below. We welcome you to post your own request for prior art on other questionable US Patent Applications.

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Answer 1

In 2008, the Internet Content Syndication Council (http://www.internetcontentsyndication.org/) published a white paper entitled "Content Creation and Distribution in an Expanding Internet Universe":

http://www.internetcontentsyndication.org/downloads/whitepapers/content_creation.pdf

Point 1 (of the plain english) is embodied by the idea of "Internet Content Syndication"; defined as "The controlled placement of the same content on multiple partnering Internet destinations" (page 1). The "Internet destination" is receiving a feed of content.

Point 3 (plain english again), could be covered by a number of existing technologies, one of which is RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS). RSS is mention by the white paper specifically in an example from page 10: "RSS is a potentially powerful way for advertisers to aggregate a targeted audience because of the self-selected nature of the system. For example, an automotive company can place ads on a feed for auto news or car care, knowing that the users who select the feed are likely to be car enthusiasts." Here we not only see the content delivery technology, RSS, but also the targeted (by content) nature of it.

Point 2 (english) seems to intend for a middle man of some sort to add advertising to an existing content stream, not at the origination of the stream which Internet Content Syndication is focused on. However, the white paper takes for granted that this is an obvious consequence, as seen on page 10 as part of the previously stated example: "However, only the advertisements on the originating Web site are within a fully controlled environment. Unless ads are also available on the feed reader sites (which is a separate media buy for the advertiser), the impressions are only served when the feed is clicked on."

This is my first response to a prior-art request, so I would greatly appreciate any constructive criticism. Thank you.

Answer 2

United States Patent Application 20060217110 - Filed March 25, 2005

Prioritizing the display of non-intrusive content on a mobile communication device

"Advertisements and the timing of the display thereof on tickers of mobile devices are selected based on activity of the mobile devices and bids made by advertisers. Advertisers define conditions of the mobile devices that are to trigger the display of particular advertisements..."

CLAIM 13. In a mobile communication system, a method of receiving and processing advertisement campaign information from an advertiser such that advertisements can be displayed on tickers of mobile devices operating in the mobile communication system, comprising: receiving, from the advertiser, one or more of: parameter specification data that specifies at least one parameter associated with target mobile devices or target mobile users that is to be used to select a particular advertisement for display on a ticker of a selected mobile device; and event specification data that specifies at least one event associated with target mobile devices or target mobile users that is to be used to trigger the display of the particular advertisement on the ticker; and storing said one or more of the parameter specification data and the event specification data for later use in selecting an advertisement and the time at which the selected advertisement is to be displayed on the ticker.

CLAIM 20. The method of claim 13, wherein the parameter specification data specifies parameters that include one or more of: a location of the mobile device; a time of day of operation of the mobile device; software currently residing on the mobile; the user's purchase history; content that the user has subscribed to or purchased; demographic information relating to a user of the mobile device; and preferences expressed by the user of the mobile device.