Broadcast Network Platform System

Abstract

A commercial search engine for searchmercials. The system manages and searches advertising media video and audio files and associating the media with one or more calls to action. The system contains Metadata utilized for various queries including search, channels of distribution and account information. The system uses a manually data entry interface or a custom retrieval system to selectively update media files and Metadata from Meta tags or feeds on a scheduled basis automatically without having to manually update this data in the system. The system spiders these custom Meta tags or feeds for new Metadata on a scheduled basis to automate the submission and programming of the searchmercials content over the search engine. The system provides videos tailored for search in the results list in order to better inform users as to the contents of a link URL. The system can also provide users with other call to action options such as click to call, literature, order forms, etc. The system can schedule searchmercials to target users by time of day, location, device, and other parameters to offer a call to action to different audiences.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This Continuation application is related to the commonly owned non-provisional application entitled “Broadcast Network Platform System,” filed Sep. 23, 2002, bearing U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 252,806, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,498, and naming Alex Fiero, the named inventor herein, as sole inventor, the contents of which are specifically incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, the commonly owned non-provisional application, now expired, entitled “Broadcast Network Platform System,” filed Sep. 19, 2007, bearing U.S. Ser. No. 11 / 858,103 and naming Alex Fiero, the named inventor herein, as sole inventor, the contents of which are specifically incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, the commonly owned non-provisional application entitled “Broadcast Network Platform System,” filed Jan. 3, 2011, bearing U.S. Ser. No. 12 / 983,878 and naming Alex Fiero, the named inventor herein, as sole inventor, the contents of which are sp...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a search engine that can provide more informed results with searchmercials and provide more calls to action for each searchmercial's listing. The search engine displays searchmercials search results entries in a window on the search results screen, and the searcher has the ability to step from entry to entry based on information presented in the searchmericals in the search results screen or to link to the web site presenting the searchmerical on the search results screen. The search engine provides an icon that can be selected to cause a searchmerical multimedia file from the linkable web site to be streamed to the search results page for display or directly linked to. The searcher can display a searchmerical multimedia file based on text or link to the linkable call to action associated with the text search results entry. The system uses Metadata to identify and locate searchmercial multimedia data and associated Metadata, including searchmercials multimedia data. The user can input search criteria and select the format of the search results, which can be multimedia, text, icons, or combinations of the foregoing. The system also provides a numerical index system in which multimedia broadcasting sources provide numerical addressing information related to a station / channel / program structured environment, allowing users to access information on the Web by entering a preselected numerical code."

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, there is so much information available that it is difficult to locate the items that may be the most pertinent in terms of the user's interest.

However, search engines are not charities.

As proprietors of search engines sought ways to generate revenue from the traffic at their web site, they found that direct payment by visitors was unpopular and would result in a substantial loss of traffic.

As a result, search engines inevitably turned to alternative ways of earning revenue.

However, a disadvantage associated with this strategy is that Web users dislike advertising which impacts performance by consuming communication bandwidth.

Another disadvantage associated with this type of advertising is that in difficult economic times, such as occurred with the collapse of many Internet companies, advertisers were reluctant to spend substantial amounts on banner advertisements.

As a result, the generation of advertising revenue through direct placement of advertisements on search engine Web pages has become more difficult.

Unfortunately, this practice introduces a substantial imperfection into the frictionless marketplace that the Web could become, because millions of naive users are being frequently directed to sites that have paid a premium for preferred placement, rather than to sites that may have more pertinent information.

In theory, the Web makes it possible for customers to locate the best supplier, but it can only deliver on that promise if the search process is objective.

When search results are artificially distorted by the paid alteration of ranking results, the Web is unable to deliver the best search results for the searcher, and instead becomes a tool for entities with more resources to effectively monopolize the marketplace.

In addition to the use of artificially altered rankings as they relate to direct sales of products, paying for placement in search results also distorts the Web as a medium for the unfettered dissemination of ideas.

As a result, the current versions of these formats are often incompatible and the market suffers from their incompatibility.

When the personal computer was introduced, it was difficult to imagine that it would have such a profound effect on the professional video production industry.

Those most threatened by this new technology argued that new tools running on off-the-shelf computers would never match the capabilities of the proprietary computer “Black Boxes” that were typical of the pre-PC year.

One problem faced by Web sites is that the Meta tags used by search engines today focus on text based information.

By focusing on textual data types, conventional search engines fail to take advantage of the inherent information rich media, which data types such as audio, video, and multimedia, provide.

Currently, there are no Meta tags specifically designed for use with icons, URLs for streaming multimedia data, or multimedia audio tags.

Unfortunately, these Meta tags do not exist at present.

Another disadvantage of conventional search engines is that they typically provide a list of text results describing potentially interesting sites with links to those sites.

Unfortunately a substantial amount of time can be wasted in the linking process, only to find that the site that was linked to is of no interest to the searcher.

A main reason for this is due to the fact that text based search results are limited to a certain number of characters per search result and cannot properly inform the searcher of the contents of the landing page link.

Not only does linking to the Web site waste time and effort, sometimes the site which is linked to does not allow the searcher to return to the search list.

This causes an even greater waste of the user's time by disrupting the search, which may have taken considerable time to execute; and, which now may have to be re-executed from the beginning.

Unfortunately, with over one billion sites catalogued around the web, your message can get lost in the crowd or appear to be all the same.

While the prior art has attempted to provide a variety of methods to search the Web, it has failed to provide a multimedia search system which provides Meta tags to allow the search of multimedia, audio and icon data in addition to the text data available by conventional search systems.

It has also failed to provide search results containing multiple data types, including text, icons, video, audio, and / or multimedia data into the search results list.

It has failed to allow searchers to preview data (which may be an advertisement or information or promotional multimedia files) associated with linkable sites prior to linking to those sites.

In addition, it has failed to allow search results to be presented in a variety of formats, including a conventional search list, or a multimedia search list that provides video as part of search results to better inform the user as to the contents of the link, or a multimedia network platform that uses a numeric index to access data.

Further, the prior art has failed to provide a method of using searchmercials to provide information to searchers and give them a call to action based on the content of the searchmercial.

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