Agent-based technique for implementing browser-initiated user-transparent interstitial web advertising in a client computer

Abstract

A technique for implementing in a networked client-server environment, e.g., the Internet, network-distributed advertising in which advertisements are downloaded, from an advertising server to a browser executing at a client computer, in a manner transparent to a user situated at the browser, and subsequently displayed, by that browser on an interstitial basis, in response to a click-stream generated by the user to move from one web page to the next. Specifically, an HTML advertising tag is embedded into a referring web page. This tag contains two components. One component effectively downloads, from an distribution web server and to an extent necessary, and then persistently instantiates an agent at the client browser. This agent “politely” and transparently downloads advertising files (media and where necessary player files), originating from an ad management system residing on a third-party advertising web server, for a given advertisement into browser cache and subsequently plays those media files through the browser on an interstitial basis and in response to a user click-stream. The other component is a reference, in terms of a web address, of the advertising management system. This latter reference totally “decouples” advertising content from a web page such that a web page, rather than embedding actual advertising content within the page itself, merely includes an advertising tag that refers, via a URL, to a specific ad management system rather than to a particular advertisement or its content. The ad management system selects the given advertisement that is to be downloaded, rather than having that selection or its content being embedded in the web content page.