System using first banner request that can not be blocked from reaching a server for accurately counting displays of banners on network term

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method for delivering information to a terminal connected to a computer network, wherein information delivered over the computer network from a primary server to the terminal contains references to other information to be delivered to the terminal from the primary server or from one or more other servers connected to the computer network, comprising:

serving a first portion of information to the terminal, wherein said first portion of information contains a reference to a second portion of information;

sending a first request signal from the terminal to the primary server requesting a location address for said second portion of information from which said second portion of information can be served to the terminal, wherein said first request signal cannot be blocked from reaching said primary server by either the terminal or any intermediary device located topologically between the terminal and the primary server as a result of previous caching or storing of said first portion of information or said second portion of information by the terminal or said intermediary device;

sending a location signal from the primary server to the terminal providing said location address of said second portion of information; and

determining if said second portion of information is already stored on the terminal and, if said second portion of information is not already stored on the terminal, sending a second request signal from the terminal containing said location address of said second portion of information and requesting that said second portion of information be served to the terminal for display on the terminal, and, if said second portion of information is already stored on the terminal, displaying said second portion of information on the terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, including counting each time said second portion of information is displayed on the terminal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said counting each time said second portion of information is displayed on the terminal is performed by the primary server after said primary server receives said first request signal from the terminal.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said content general request signal includes the string's "cgi-bin" and "?".

5. The method of claim 1, including serving said second portion of information to the terminal if said second portion of information is not already stored on the terminal and updating a counter of displays of said second portion of information on the terminal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said first request signal is a content general request signal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said second request signal is a content specific request signal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said first request signal includes the strings "cgi-bin" and "?".

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said banner location signal includes an HTTP 302 redirect signal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said first request signal includes the strings "cgi-bin" and "?".

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said second portion of information includes an advertisement.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein browser software is operating on said terminal and said browser software generates said first request signal and said second request signal.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said reference to said second portion of information includes at least a portion of a URL.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said location signal includes at least a portion of a URL.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said intermediary device is a proxy server.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said first portion of information is a world wide web page.

17. A method for distributing a banner over a computer network to a client device, wherein the banner is stored in one or more servers connected to the computer network and referenced in a hypertext document served to the client device, and for counting the number of times a banner is displayed on the client device, comprising:

sending a first banner request signal from the device to a server requesting that a banner be served to the client device, wherein said first banner request signal cannot be blocked from reaching said server by either the client device or any intermediary device located topologically between the client device and the server as a result of previous caching or storing of said banner by the client device or said intermediary device;

sending a banner location signal from said server to the client device, wherein said banner location signal includes location information for a specified banner to be displayed on the client device;

determining if said specified banner is stored on the client device and, if said specified banner is stored on the client device, displaying said specified banner on the client device, and if said specified banner is not stored on the client device, sending a second banner request signal from the client device requesting that said specified banner be served to the client device for display on the client device; and

counting each display of said specified banner on the client device.

18. The method of claim 17, including storing said specified banner in the client device after said specified banner is served to the client device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said first banner request signal is a content general request signal.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said second banner request signal is a content specific request signal.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein said first banner request signal includes the strings "cgi-bin" and "?".

22. The method of claim 17, wherein said banner location signal includes an HTTP 302 redirect signal.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein said banner includes an advertisement.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein said counting each display of said specified banner on the client device is done by said server.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said counting each display of said specified banner on the client device is done by said server after said server receives said first banner request signal.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein browser software is operating on said client device and said browser software generates said first banner request signal and said second banner request signal.

27. The method of claim 17, wherein said banner location signal includes at least a portion of a URL.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein said first banner request signal includes at least a portion of a URL.

29. The method of claim 17, wherein said intermediary device is a proxy server.

30. A method for counting the number of times a banner is displayed on a device, wherein the banner is referenced in a document served to the device, the banner is stored in one or more servers connected to the computer network, and the device is connected to the computer network via an intermediary server, comprising:

sending a first banner request signal from the device to a first server requesting that a banner be served to the device, wherein said first banner request signal cannot be blocked from reaching said first server by either the device or the intermediary server as a result of previous caching or storing of said banner by the device or the intermediary server;

sending a banner location signal from said first server to the device, wherein said banner location signal includes location information for a specified banner stored on a second server;

determining if said specified banner is stored on the device and, if said specified banner is not stored on the device, then sending a second banner request signal from the device to the intermediary server and determining if said specified banner is stored on the intermediary server, wherein if said specified banner is not stored on the intermediary server, sending said second banner request signal from said intermediary server to said second server requesting that said second server serve said specified banner to the device;

displaying said specified banner on the device; and

counting the number of times said specified banner is displayed on the device.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said second server is said first server.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein said first banner request signal includes the strings "cgi-bin" and "?".

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said banner location signal includes an HTTP 302 redirect signal.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein said banner location signal includes an HTTP 302 redirect signal.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein said banner includes advertising information.

36. The method of claim 30, wherein said counting the number of times said specified banner is displayed on the device is performed by said first server.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein said counting the number of times said specified banner is displayed on the device is performed by said first server after said first server receives said first banner request signal sent by the device.

38. The method of claim 30, wherein the intermediary server is a proxy server.

39. A method for serving a banner to a client device, wherein a primary server serves a HTML document to the client device and the HTML document contains an initial URL associated or pointing to a banner to be served to the client device in order to complete rendering of the HTML document on the client device, comprising:

causing a first TCP/IP compliant request for the banner containing at least a portion of the initial URL, to be sent from the client device to the primary server without allowing said first TCP/IP compliant request to be blocked from being received by the primary server;

serving a signal from the primary server to the client device that includes a second URL associated with the banner's location;

determining if the banner is stored on the client device and, if the banner is stored on the client device, rendering the banner on the client device, and if the banner is not stored on the client device, causing a second TCP/IP compliant request to be sent from the client device requesting that the banner be served to the client device; and

counting at least one rendering of the banner on the client device.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said first TCP/IP compliant request includes the strings "cgi-bin" and "?".

41. The method of claim 39, wherein said signal sent from said primary server to said client device includes an HTTP 302 redirect command.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein said first TCP/IP compliant request cannot be blocked from being received by the primary server as a result of previous caching or storing of the banner by the client device or an intermediary device connected to the computer network.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein said intermediary device is located topologically on said computer network between the client device and the primary server.

44. A method for enabling accurate counting of the number of times a banner is displayed on a client device, wherein the banner is referenced in a document served to the client device, the banner is stored in one or more servers connected to the computer network, and the client device is connected to the computer network via an intermediary server, comprising:

causing a first banner request signal to be sent from the client device to a first server requesting that a banner be served to the client device, wherein said first banner request signal cannot be blocked from reaching said first server by either the client device or the intermediary server as a result of previous caching or storing of said banner by the client device or the intermediary server;

sending a banner location signal from said first server to the client device, wherein said banner location signal includes location information for a specified banner stored on a second server; and

determining if said specified banner is stored on the client device and, if said specified banner is not stored on the client device, causing a second banner request signal to be sent from the client device to the intermediary server and determining if said specified banner is stored on the intermediary server, wherein if said specified banner is not stored on said intermediary server, causing a third banner request signal to be sent from the intermediary server to said second server requesting that said second server serve said specified banner to the client device.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the intermediary server is a proxy server.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein said third banner request signal is identical to said second banner request signal.

47. The method of claim 44, including counting the number of times said specified banner is displayed on the client device.

48. The method of claim 44, wherein said first banner request signal includes the strings "cgi-bin" and "?".

49. The method of claim 44, wherein said first server and said second server are the same server.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the system for the storage, management, and delivery of information on a computer network and, more specifically, to the efficient and accurate counting of advertising information displayed on terminals connected to the computer network.

2. Description of the Prior Art

During recent years there have been rapid advancements in computers and computer networking. In particular, the world-wide network of computers commonly referred to as the Internet has seen explosive growth The Internet comprises a vast network of smaller wide area and local area computer networks connected together so as to allow the sharing of resources and to facilitate data communication between computers and users. The rapid growth of the Internet is due, in large part, to the introduction and widespread use of graphical user interfaces called browsers which allow users easy access to network servers and computers connected to the Internet and, more particularly, the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web forms a subset of the Internet and includes a collection of servers, computers, and other devices. Each server may contain documents formatted as web pages or hypertext documents that are accessible and viewable with a web compliant browser, such as the Netscape Navigator.TM. browser or the Mosaic.TM. browser. Each hypertext document or web page may contain references to graphic files or banners that are to be displayed in conjunction with the hypertext document or web page. The files and banners may or may not be stored at the same location as the hypertext document or web page.

A hypertext document often contains hypertext links to other hypertext documents such that the other hypertext documents can be accessed from the first hypertext document by activating the hypertext links. The servers connected to the World Wide Web utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which is widely known protocol which allows users to use browsers to access web pages and the banners or files associated with web pages. The files, banners, hypertext documents, or web pages may contain text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc. and are generally written in a standard page or hypertext document description language known as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The HTML format allows a web page developer to specify the location and presentation of the graphic, textual, sound, etc. on the screen displayed to the user accessing the web page. In addition, the HTML format allows a web page to contain links, such as the hypertext links described above, to other web pages or servers on the Internet. Simply by selecting a link, a user can be transferred to the new web page, which may be located very different geographically or topologically from the original web page.

When using a conventional browser, a user can select which web page or hypertext document the user wishes to have displayed on the user's computer or terminal by specifying the web page's Universal or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address. Each server has a unique URL address and, in fact, so does each web page and each file needed to display the web page. For example, the URL address for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is currently http://www.uspto.gov. When a user types in this URL address into a browser, the user's terminal establishes a connection with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the initial web page for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is transmitted from the server storing this web page (which may or may not be actually located at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) to the user's terminal and displayed on the user's terminal. The web page may include a number of graphic images or elements, often referred to as banners, which are to be displayed on the user's terminal in conjunction with the web page. Each of the graphic images is typically stored as a separate file on the server and has its own URL address. When the web page is initially transmitted from the server to the user's terminal, the browser receives the URL addresses for the graphic images and then requests that they be transmitted from the server on which they are stored to the user's terminal for display on the user's terminal in conjunction with the web page. The server(s) on which the graphic images are stored may or may not be the same server on which the original web page is stored. More specifically, since the URL's addresses for the included graphic images are all processed separately using the HTML protocols, it is possible and, in fact, common, for these graphic images to be stored on separate and even widely distributed computers or hosts, all of which are accessible to the user's terminal via a computer network. For purposes of the present invention, the term "banner" is meant to be construed very broadly and includes any information displayed in conjunction with a web page wherein the information is not part of the same file as the web page. That is, a banner includes anything that is displayed or used in conjunction with a web page, but which can exist separately from the web page or which can be used in conjunction with many web pages. Banners can include graphics, textual information, video, audio, animation, and links to other computer sites, web sites, web pages, or banners.

The growth of easy access to the World Wide Web and the ability to create visually pleasing web pages have helped increase the amount of advertising and other promotional materials created for use and display with web pages. For example, a car manufacturer may have a web page describing the company and the cars and car parts that the company manufactures and sells. Part of the web page may include advertising information or banners such as, for example, images of current car models sold by the manufacturer or the types and numbers or cars the manufacturer has in stock. The car manufacturer may also contract with the owners or operators of other web pages to have the car manufacturer's advertisement banners displayed when users access these other web pages. Similarly, an advertising agency may contract with various web sites to have the advertisement banners of the agency's clients displayed when users access the web pages stored on the web sites. For example, an advertising agency or ad-network firm may contract with a web site containing general information about cars to have advertising information or banners included on the web pages displayed to a user accessing the web site. The advertising banners may contain graphics, text, etc. about car models or car parts manufactured by on of the advertising agency's clients. Furthermore, the advertisement banners may not be stored on the same server or computer or web site on which the web page is stored. Rather, all or a significant portion of the advertisement banners created by an advertising agency may reside on one or more information or ad servers. Typically, an advertising agency will pay a fixed amount of money for a fixed number of displays of its advertisement banners on a single web page or group of web pages. Therefore, advertising agencies are understandably very interested in knowing which advertisement banners have been displayed with which web pages and how often each advertisement banner has been displayed on terminals or otherwise served to terminals.

Unfortunately, the current state of the art is such that accurate counts are not made of how many times an banner, even a banner containing an advertisement, is displayed to users or served to terminals. Furthermore, nature and extent of the problem of miscounting displays of banners is not well-known or even understood in the industry or by people of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, despite the well-developed state of the art in the displaying of information, banners, and advertisements in conjunction with web pages, documents, or other information, there is still a need for a system for storing and delivering information and banners on a computer network where accurate counts of the number of times each piece of information and banner is displayed can be made and the information and banners are displayed quickly and efficiently to users or terminals. In addition, there is a need for a highly reliable, even fault-tolerant, system for storing and delivering the information and banners that will not significantly reduce the efficiency of the Internet or the servers on which the information and banners