Social content-based computing resource optimization engine

Abstract

[0003] In particular, the present specification provides a novel computing resource optimization engine. In one exemplary system, multiple publisher platforms are provided for access by multiple client devices. The multiple publisher platforms can carry some content for direct consumption and additional content for suggesting diversion to one of multiple target platforms. Each publisher platform may generate unique primary content but can be configured to carry similar secondary content for the suggested diversion. The system includes an optimization engine configured to reduce wasted network bandwidth and other computing resources by embedding the diversion content in the primary content, thereby biasing the diversion content on the publisher platforms toward client devices that more commonly generate the secondary content that actually causes diversion to the target platform.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 102,308, filed January 27, 2023, and entitled "COMPUTING RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION ENGINE BASED ON SOCIAL CONTENT," the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] The present invention relates to a social content based computing resource optimization engine. [Background technology]

[0003] Communication activity on the modern Internet is distributed among many different server platforms that offer content to millions of different client devices. Some platforms offer similar types of content and therefore compete for connections from the same client devices. Furthermore, many platforms may carry additional content intended to trigger input from client devices that would cause them to divert traffic to another platform. However, the additional content may not trigger such input, resulting in an overall waste of computing resources by generating and transmitting the additional content that is ignored. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] 1. A server for controlling content for generation at a client device, said server comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing a plurality of programming instructions for execution at said processor, said plurality of programming instructions, when executed, receiving a platform account profile associated with a content platform, the account profile including a departure point; receiving a data feed for the account profile from the content platform, the data feed including a destination; receiving reserved travel itineraries from a travel stakeholder data source engine, the travel stakeholder data source engine configured to determine available travel itineraries based on at least one of the departure location or the destination location; controlling a client device associated with the account profile to populate the data feed with the available travel itineraries; The processor is configured to: [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0005] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for computing resource optimization. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary structure of the identifier object of FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of exemplary internal components of the optimization engine of FIG. 1. [Figure 4] 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for computing resource optimization. [Figure 5] 5 illustrates an exemplary implementation of some blocks in the method of FIG. 4. [Figure 6] 5 illustrates an exemplary implementation of some blocks in the method of FIG. 4. [Figure 7] 2 illustrates an example of a client device from FIG. 1 being controlled according to one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0006] One aspect of the present disclosure provides a novel computing resource optimization engine. In one exemplary system, multiple publisher platforms are provided for access by multiple client devices. The multiple publisher platforms can carry some content for direct consumption and additional content for suggesting diversion to one of multiple target platforms. Each publisher platform may generate unique primary content but can be configured to carry similar secondary content for the suggested diversion. The primary and secondary content can be hybridized in real time. The system includes an optimization engine configured to reduce wasted network bandwidth and other computing resources by biasing the additional content on the publisher platforms toward client devices that more commonly generate the secondary content that actually causes diversion to the target platform.

[0007] One aspect of the present disclosure provides a server for controlling content for generation on a client device. The server may include a processor and a memory for storing a plurality of programming instructions for execution on the processor, the plurality of programming instructions, when executed, configuring the processor to receive a platform account profile associated with a content platform. The account profile includes a departure location. The processor is further configured to receive a data feed for the account profile from the content platform. The data feed includes a destination. The processor is further configured to receive reserved travel itineraries from a travel stakeholder data source engine, the travel stakeholder data source engine configured to determine the travel itinerary based on at least one of the departure location or the destination, and to control a client device associated with the account profile to populate the data feed with the travel itinerary.

[0008] The travel itinerary may include transportation routing from origin to destination, including departure date and time, arrival date and time, and mode of transportation.

[0009] The itinerary may include accommodation at the destination.

[0010] A data feed may include multiple segmented primary content items targeted to an account profile.

[0011] The destination may be derived from an image of the destination, and the itinerary may be embedded in the image.

[0012] The travel itinerary may include a link that, when selected on the client device, signals the travel stakeholder data source engine to assign an account profile to the travel itinerary and change the reserved (or available for purchase) travel itinerary to a purchased travel itinerary.

[0013] The account profile may be associated with an electronic wallet, where the signal causes a change to the electronic wallet corresponding to the value of the travel itinerary.

[0014] The processor may be further configured to assign a copy of the purchased itinerary to the account profile.

[0015] The account profile may be associated with a travel profile, and the travel stakeholder data source engine is configured to determine the travel itinerary further based on the travel profile.

[0016] The engine may be further configured to determine itineraries based on one or more of a date range, price, promotional code, lowest price, shortest travel time, popular days and times for travel, typical length of stay for travel from origin to destination, and preferred transportation companies.

[0017] Another aspect of the present specification is a computer-implemented method for displaying a service on a user device displaying a browser page, the method comprising: determining service data relating to an image of the browser page; retrieving a list of services from a database based on service data related to the image; displaying a graphical user interface element in the browser page; upon receiving user input related to a graphical user interface element, displaying results corresponding to the retrieved list of services at the user device; Including, A method is provided in which the determining and retrieving steps are performed as consecutive tasks on a user device.

[0018] Determining service data related to the image may include identifying a geographic location displayed in the image.

[0019] The geographic location may be based on geolocation metadata associated with the image.

[0020] Determining service data related to the image includes identifying an activity related to the image.

[0021] The starting location may be determined based on user-related location data, and the retrieving step may also be based on the starting location.

[0022] User-related location data may comprise the user device's Internet Protocol (IP) address or the device's Global Positioning System ("GPS") data.

[0023] The graphical user interface element may be configured to be displayed only once service data relating to the image has been determined and a list of services has been retrieved from the database.

[0024] The retrieving step may be based on an account profile.

[0025] The method may include identifying an image in the browser page.

[0026] The identifying step comprises the following: - filtering based on account profile, - No content scrolling related to the browser page, - User cursor-based or touch-based interaction with the image The image may be based on any of the following:

[0027] The method may further include initiating an auxiliary search based on the retrieved list of services upon receiving user input related to the graphical user element.

[0028] The user input may involve a graphical user element, including receiving user input data for the list of services retrieved, and the auxiliary search may be based on the user input data.

[0029] The method may further provide options for viewing results from the auxiliary search and for subscribing to services corresponding to the results.

[0030] 1 illustrates a system for network traffic monitoring and optimization, generally indicated at 100. System 100 includes multiple publisher platforms 104-1, 104-2... 104-n. (Collectively, platforms 104-1, 104-2... 104-n are referred to as platforms 104, and generically as platforms 104. This nomenclature is used elsewhere herein.) In system 100, platforms 104 connect to a network 108, such as the Internet. Network 108 interconnects publisher platform 104 with a) multiple target platforms 112, b) multiple client devices 116, and c) an optimization engine 120. As described further below, optimization engine 120 performs several processing functions on system 100.

[0031] The platform 104 may be based on any current or future electronic media server that publishes content for the client devices 116. The client devices 116 may be any type of human-machine interface for interacting with the platform 104. For example, the client devices 116 may include traditional laptop computers, desktop computers, mobile phones, tablet computers, and any other devices that may be used to receive content via one or more of the platforms 104 and that complement the input and output hardware devices associated with a given client device 116. It is contemplated that the client devices 116 may include virtual reality or augmented reality equipment that complements virtual reality or augmented reality or “metaverse” environments that may be offered on the publisher platform 104. The client devices 116 may be operated by different users 124, each associated with a respective identifier object 128 that uniquely identifies the given user 124 accessing the given client device 116 in the system 100.

[0032] In this exemplary embodiment, platform 104 may be based on a media platform that carries primary content for direct consumption by users 124 at client devices 116, while also generating secondary content in the form of advertisements from the service. (Secondary content may sometimes be referred to herein as diversion content or diversionary content.)

[0033] In particular, the publisher platform 104 may be based on a social media ecosystem such as TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook that generates primary content (e.g., social media posts of users 124) and can embed its own secondary content (e.g., advertisements for products or services available from the target platform 112) intended to redirect a given client device 116 from the publisher platform 104 toward a particular target platform 112 associated with the secondary content. The publisher platform 104 may also be based on an ecosystem such as Google, which includes primary content distributed via YouTube®, Google Maps, Google Search, and Google News, while also embedding secondary content intended to direct traffic to the target platform 112. Primary content may also be provided by the publisher platform 104, which offers web pages, social media, audio, video, movies, television, games, books, news, search results, and the like. Thus, the nature of the publisher platform 104 is not particularly limited. Very generally, the platform 104 carries primary content for consumption by the client devices 116 and secondary content for redirecting traffic to the target platform 112 .

[0034] Generally, secondary content is typically generated in association with primary content and, in this embodiment, is typically advertisements. Advertisements may be generated and managed by advertising services such as Google (Google AdEx / Google DV360...), or Facebook (social campaigns), or Amadeus Media Services (programmatic / display / video...), which may embed or otherwise associate advertising content with primary content provided by other websites or apps, or with other primary content from the platform 104. Again, secondary content is any content that, when accessed or selected on the platform 104 by a given client device 116, can trigger an interaction with the target platform 112.

[0035] By way of specific illustrative example, this specification may have particular application to the travel industry and may therefore (but need not) be biased towards primary content of interest to users 124 known to be travelers, while secondary content may be more likely to include travel advertisements, including pre-curated travel itineraries, intended to direct traffic to target platforms 112 that are travel professionals and sell travel services.

[0036] Travel stakeholders can broadly encompass all types of travel service offerings in different categories, including transportation stakeholders, accommodation stakeholders, and travel destination stakeholders. Transportation stakeholders can provide transportation services for users 124, such as airlines, car rental agencies, rail services, ferries, and bus companies. Accommodation stakeholders can provide lodging for users 124, such as hotels, vacation rentals, resorts, and bed and breakfasts ("B&Bs"), including lodgings at locations where users 124 arrive after receiving transportation services. Travel destination stakeholders can include activity providers at locations where users 124 are staying. Thus, travel destination stakeholders can include, by way of non-limiting example, restaurants, spas, concert venues, exhibition centers, summits, sporting event venues, fairs, conference venues, sports arenas, museums, art galleries, tours, resort activity centers, and the like.

[0037] According to certain illustrative examples described further below, the targeting platform 112 may focus on platforms 112 that generate content of interest to travelers. In some currently preferred embodiments, the platform 112 refers to transportation parties and their sales workflows. However, the platform 112 may also include a travel destination targeting platform 112. Additionally, the platform 112 may also include travel parties that have connectivity to partners, such as transportation parties that can sell their own flights along with services from accommodation parties and travel destination parties, thereby enabling the sale of various services and / or bundles of services. Regardless, the platform 112 may include an e-commerce environment that includes sales workflows or interactive sales functionality for client devices 116 that represent a customer experience sales funnel, including experiences such as travel itinerary forecasting and fulfillment, as well as service search, service browsing, adding services to a shopping cart, checkout, fare locks and temporary inventory reservations that may be offered for a fee, and payment processing.

[0038] As described in more detail below, according to some embodiments, the optimization engine 120 is configured to provide interactive secondary content by proposing complete services, such as fully costed travel itineraries, with payment processing, so that selection of secondary content generated on the publisher platform 104 results in the fulfillment of a complete electronic transaction, which exchanges an electronic payment message representing a financial fulfillment from a financial account associated with the user identifier object(s) 128 along with an electronic itinerary fulfillment message representing that the complete itinerary (or other service) is associated with one or more user identifier objects 128 for use by the associated user 124. This example may be referred to elsewhere as a “travel itinerary fulfillment” or a “complete travel itinerary fulfillment,” or variations thereof, depending on the context. When embodiments herein apply beyond travel itineraries, “travel itinerary fulfillment” may be considered more broadly as a “service offering fulfillment,” where the service offering may include other complete offerings, such as a flight+hotel dynamic package, concert tickets, or other travel destination activities.

[0039] Thus, client devices 116 may be based on any suitable client computing platform operated by users 124 who may be interested in content provided on platform 104 and services offered on target platform 112. Accordingly, each device 116 and its user 124 is associated with a user identifier object 128. Client computing platforms may include desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, mobile phones, etc.

[0040] Those skilled in the art should recognize that the form of identifier object 128 is not particularly limited and, in a simple exemplary embodiment, may simply be an alphanumeric sequence that is completely unique with respect to other identifier objects in system 100. Identifier objects may also be more complex, as they may be a combination of account credentials (e.g., username, password, two-factor authentication token, etc.) that uniquely identify a given user 124. Identifier objects themselves may also be indexes that point to other identifier objects, such as accounts. The key point is that identifier objects are uniquely identifiable within system 100 in relation to what they represent.

[0041] Users 124 are typically individuals, but may also be business entities. Such users 124 interact with both the publisher platforms 104 and the target platforms 112 via devices 116. Each consumer identifier object 128 can be used by other nodes in the system 100, including the publisher platforms 104, the target platforms 112, and the optimization engine 120, to track, among other things, a) traffic flow between a given client device 116 and the various publisher platforms 104, including interactions (impressions and redirections) with a given advertising campaign, b) traffic flow between a given client device 116 and the target platforms 112, c) traffic redirection generated by a given client device 116 from a given publisher platform 104 to the target platform 112, and d) itinerary fulfillment resulting from selection of secondary content generated on one of the publisher platforms 104.

[0042] 2 shows a non-limiting example of how a consumer identifier object 128 may be implemented as multiple consumer identifier sub-objects 132. The consumer identifier sub-objects 132 follow a nomenclature 132-XY, where X corresponds to a reference number for the corresponding user 124 and Y corresponds to a reference number for the corresponding node in system 100. (This nomenclature builds on the nomenclature described above because consumer identifier objects are collectively referred to as consumer identifier objects 128 and are generically referred to as consumer identifier objects 128.) Specifically, sub-object 132-1-Y refers to user 124-1, sub-object 132-2-Y refers to user 124-2, and sub-object 132-p-Y refers to user 124-p. Sub-object identifier 132-1-120 refers to an identifier for user 124-1 for optimization engine 120. Sub-object identifier 132-1-104-1 refers to the identifier for user 124-1 for platform 104-1. Sub-object identifier 132-1-104-2 refers to the identifier for user 124-1 for platform 104-2. This nomenclature repeats for all identifier sub-objects 132 for each user 124 across each publisher platform 104 and each target platform 112.

[0043] Sub-objects 132 may be provided to anonymize specific identifying information (i.e., personally identifiable information or PII) of the associated user 124 for privacy reasons. Some or all of these identifier sub-objects 132 may be anonymous or private to some nodes in the system 100, but non-private to other nodes. For example, an operator of the target platform 112 may maintain an account (in the form of a consumer identifier sub-object 132-X-112) for each user 124-X that clearly identifies the user 124-X to handle delivery and payment processing of a given purchased good or service, such as a ticket or discount voucher for a service at a travel destination. At the same time, the operator of the publisher platform 104 need not specifically identify a given user 124 to perform its ad campaign function, but instead may rely on general demographic information for each user 124-X (via a "cookie," a type of identifier sub-object 132-X-104, etc.), which may be configured to enable targeting of ad campaigns to the client device 116 while respecting the personal anonymity of the user 124-X of the client device 116. Thus, in some embodiments, it is contemplated that one consumer identifier sub-object 132 may comprise a cookie used by the publisher platform 104, while another consumer identifier sub-object 132 may comprise the user 124's account information as used by the target platform 112. However, for simplicity of description of this embodiment, a single consumer identifier object 128 for each user 124 may be referenced herein, although those skilled in the art will now appreciate that for such simplification, and in context, reference to an identifier object 128 for a given node in system 100 may instead involve the use of a consumer identifier sub-object 132.Similarly, the heterogeneous and often anonymous nature of identifier sub-objects 132 makes load balancing of system 100 difficult, a difficulty that is alleviated by this specification, and it is this contextual complexity that reveals one of the technical advantages of this specification that will become apparent upon further reading.

[0044] However, for ease of explanation, the following description may simply refer to the consumer identifier object 128, although those skilled in the art will recognize that the consumer identifier object 128 may be implemented in accordance with FIG.

[0045] 1 , those skilled in the art will recognize that there are many different types of interactions between client devices 116 accessing platform 104 and many different ways in which such interactions can lead to a redirection that causes a given client device 116 to access target platform 112. In a presently preferred exemplary embodiment, the redirection results in the fulfillment of a complete travel itinerary proposed within the secondary content on platform 104. However, in other embodiments, complete fulfillment may not occur, and there may be partial fulfillment, with potentially repeated redirections from the same or different platform 104 during different stages of the target platform 112 sales funnel experience that can lead to complete fulfillment. For example, in the case of partial fulfillment, client device 116-1 may access platform 104-1 and may be shown an advertisement connected to an advertising campaign that causes client device 116-1 to direct traffic to an “Offer for Sale” web page on platform 112-1 offering services such as a complete travel itinerary. As part of the sales funnel experience, client device 116-1 may submit input to "add" the service to a virtual "shopping cart" on target platform 112-1, but client device 116-1 may not submit input to complete the "checkout" portion of the sales funnel experience during the same session. This incomplete sales funnel experience may then be recorded within system 100, such that during a subsequent access of client device 116-1 to platform 104-1, client device 116-1 may be exposed to another version of the secondary content in the form of an advertisement that causes traffic from client device 116-1 to be directed to a "checkout" web page on target platform 112-1, prompting completion of the "checkout" or purchase portion of the sales funnel experience.Again, however, this is one example, and with further consideration of this specification, one skilled in the art will appreciate how the present teachings can be applied to these different types of interactions between client devices 116, publisher platforms 104, and sales funnel experiences on target platforms 112.

[0046] It is contemplated that each publisher platform 104 has a publisher reporting application 154 stored in the non-volatile storage of the respective platform 104 and executable on its processor. The publisher reporting application 154 may be accessed by the optimization engine 120 to track the number of impressions and / or diversions (if any) from each publisher platform 104 to the target platform 112 associated with each consumer identifier object 128. The publisher reporting application 154 may also be used to track queries or searches for a given identifier 128 (or a given sub-object identifier 132-X-104) or the type of primary content being accessed on the platform 104. For example, repeated searches of a travel destination for activities at the travel destination may be recorded in the application 154 for later access by the optimization engine 120 and / or publisher platform 104 to generate primary and / or secondary content related to that destination.

[0047] The target platforms 112 are also contemplated to include a target reporting application 158 stored in non-volatile storage and executable on their processors. The target reporting application 158 can track various stages of the sales funnel experience for users 124 via their respective identifier objects 128. The target reporting application 158 can also maintain historical and future itineraries for each identifier 128.

[0048] The optimization engine 120 may also be configured to obtain reports based on a) reports from each publisher reporting application 154 in combination with b) reports from the target reporting application 158. Such reports thereby simplify the process of comparing relative progress through the sales funnel experience, including actual sales conversions, associated with a given advertising campaign on each publisher platform 104 for a respective product. The normalized reports may then be used to adjust advertising campaigns and / or control which platform servers 104 the advertising campaigns are served to, thereby reducing or eliminating wasteful delivery of advertising campaigns from publisher platforms 104 that do not result in diversions to the target platform 112 (and the associated waste of communication and other computing resources).

[0049] The optimization engine 120 may also be configured to access a publisher reporting application 154 to note the top impressions of destinations by users 124 as a whole, while preserving the anonymity of those users 124 .

[0050] The optimization engine 120 may also be configured to access a targeted reporting application 158 to obtain demographic data for different users 124. If permission is given by the user 124, the optimization engine 120 may specifically identify a given user 124, or if permission is not given, the optimization engine 120 may access only meta results, such as generalized demographic data for the user 124.

[0051] Having described an overview of system 100, it is useful to comment on the hardware infrastructure of system 100. Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of a non-limiting example of the internal components of optimization engine 120.

[0052] In this example, the optimization engine 120 includes at least one input device 204. Input from the device 204 is received at a processor 208, which in turn controls an output device 212. The input device 204 may be a traditional keyboard and / or mouse for providing physical input. Similarly, the output device 212 may be a display. In variations, additional and / or other input devices 204 or output devices 212 are contemplated, or may be omitted entirely as the context requires.

[0053] The processor 208 may be implemented as multiple processors or one or more multi-core processors. The processor 208 may be configured to execute different programming instructions in response to input received via one or more input devices 204 and to control one or more output devices 212 to generate output thereat.

[0054] To perform its programming functions, the processor 208 is configured to communicate with one or more memory units, including non-volatile memory 216 and volatile memory 220. The non-volatile memory 216 may be based on any persistent memory technology, such as erasable electronic programmable read-only memory ("EEPROM"), flash memory, solid-state hard disk (SSD), other types of hard disk, or a combination thereof. The non-volatile memory 216 may also be referred to as a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Also, more than one type of non-volatile memory 216 may be provided.

[0055] The volatile memory 220 may be based on any random access memory (RAM) technology. For example, the volatile memory 220 may be based on double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM). Other types of volatile memory 220 are contemplated.

[0056] The processor 208 also connects to the network 108 via a network interface 232. The network interface 232 may also be used to connect to another computing device having input and output devices, thereby eliminating the need for the input devices 204 and / or the output devices 212 entirely.

[0057] Programming instructions in the form of applications 224 are typically maintained persistently in non-volatile memory 216 and used by processor 208, which reads from and writes to volatile memory 220 during execution of applications 224. The various methods described herein may be coded as one or more applications 224. One or more tables or databases 228 are maintained in non-volatile memory 216 for use by applications 224.

[0058] The optimization engine 120 infrastructure, or variations thereof, may be used to implement any of the computing nodes in system 100, including platform 104 and target platform 112. Additionally, optimization engine 120, platform 104, and target platform 112 may also be implemented as virtual machines and / or using mirror images to provide load balancing. The functionality of optimization engine 120 may also be distributed among different target platforms 112 and / or platforms 104, thereby eliminating the need for a central optimization engine 120. Similarly, multiple optimization engines 120 may be provided.

[0059] Furthermore, those skilled in the art will recognize that the core elements of processor 208, input device 204, output device 212, non-volatile memory 216, volatile memory 220, and network interface 232 described with respect to the server environment of optimization engine 120 are similar in various form factors of client machines, such as those that may be used to implement client device 116. Again, client device 116 may be based on a computer workstation, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile telephony device, or the like.

[0060] 4 shows a flowchart illustrating a method for network traffic optimization, generally indicated at 400. Method 400 may be implemented on system 100. Those skilled in the art may choose to implement method 400 on system 100 or variations thereof, or such that some blocks are omitted, performed in parallel, or in an order different from that shown. Accordingly, method 400 may also be modified. However, for purposes of explanation, method 400 will be described with respect to its execution on system 100, e.g., treating method 400 as an application 224-1 maintained within optimization engine 120, with particular focus on its interaction with other nodes in system 100.

[0061] Block 404 includes receiving a platform account profile. According to a specific example in the system 100, assume that the optimization engine 120 receives an identifier 128-1 for a user 124-1 operating a client device 116-1 accessing a given publisher platform 104-1. The identifier 128-1 is associated with the user's 124-1 account profile. The account profile may be maintained in the dataset 228-1 or elsewhere in the system 100. The account profile includes demographic information for the user 124-1, including at least one point of interest, e.g., a travel destination that may be of interest to the user 124-1. The travel destination may be known directly, such as based on the user's 124-1's previous search activity for that destination, or indirectly, such as a popular destination of interest to other users 124 of a similar demographic profile to the user 124-1, or through inference, such as the number of seconds the user 124-1 pauses in their social media feed while content about a destination is displayed. By way of a specific example, assume that user 124-1 is from Budapest and has a point of interest of London, England, according to his account profile, or expresses an interest in London, England, as another travel destination.

[0062] Block 408 includes receiving a data feed for the profile. The data feed may be based on one or more primary content items associated with the profile. Continuing with this example, assume that optimization engine 120 receives content queued for delivery to client device 116-1 by publisher engine 104-1. Optimization engine 120 is configured to examine the content for any content that may be related to the points of interest from block 404. According to a particular example, assume that, according to user 124-1's account profile, the data feed includes content, including pictures, videos, text, or other content, depicting London, England. Thus, in block 408, the fact that the data feed includes content that represents the points of interest from block 404 is determined, or perhaps noted.

[0063] Block 412 includes receiving an assignable itinerary. The assignable itinerary can be a partial or complete itinerary that fulfills part or all of the overall sales funnel experience. Continuing with this example, assume that optimization engine 120 receives secondary content in the form of a complete (or partial) itinerary that can be assigned to identifier 128-1 based on the points of interest from block 408. Such an itinerary may be constructed by target platform 112-1, which, according to our particular example, is a travel party booking engine, such as in the form of an airline, which, if the airline is equipped with a passenger servicing system (PSS) and / or offer management system (OMS), may participate in an aggregator or global distribution system (GDS) to assign proposed itineraries in the name of user 124-1, including assigning passenger identifiers (e.g., passenger name records (PNRs), and / or booking reference numbers, and / or record locators, all of which may be embodied as newly generated sub-object identifiers 132), carriers, travel dates and times, seat classes, or ticket pricing. The itinerary may also include payment authorizations for credit cards (or other electronic credit ratings) or digital wallets (including, but not limited to, cryptocurrencies and real-time wire transfer mechanisms) associated with user 124-1. Each itinerary may generate additional itineraries for other identifiers 128-2...128-p of other users 124-2...124-p, who may be known to typically accompany user 124-1 based on known demographic information about those other users 124.The itinerary may be stored anywhere within the system 100, such as on an associated target platform 112, and / or on an associated publisher platform 104 and / or an associated client device 116, for later access.

[0064] It should again be emphasized that the travel itineraries provided above are non-limiting examples, and that the travel itineraries may additionally or alternatively include other types of itineraries for different travel parties, including accommodations, ground transportation, restaurant reservations, and / or event reservations. Other examples of travel itineraries will occur to those skilled in the art.

[0065] Block 416 includes controlling an electronic device to embed the travel itinerary from block 412 into the data feed from block 408. The term "embedding" should not be construed limitingly and may include any generation of an itinerary alongside primary content at the device. The means by which block 416 is performed is not particularly limited and may be realized by the optimization engine 120, the target platform 112, or the content platform 104 sending the travel itinerary combined with the primary content from the data feed to the device 116 and generating the combination on the display of the device 116. It should also be noted that the combined view at the device 116 is interactive, and input may be received at the device 116 that allows the user 124 to complete the itinerary transaction or purchase with a "one click."

[0066] According to a particular example, in block 416, as part of generating a data feed at device 116, the primary content of the data feed (including a picture of London, England from 408) may be combined with secondary content (including a flight itinerary from Budapest to London from block 412).

[0067] An example implementation of blocks 408 and 412 is shown in Figure 5. In Figure 5, primary content 504 including a picture of London, England, is received at optimization engine 120 from publisher platform 104-1. Secondary content 508 representing a complete, assignable travel itinerary from Budapest to London, including travel dates and times, transportation companies, etc., and a single-click "Book Now" button, is generated by target platform 112-1 based on the known departure point (Budapest) and interests (London) of user 124-1. Secondary content 508 is also received at optimization engine 120 and forwarded back to publisher platform 104-1.

[0068] 6 illustrates an example execution of block 416 whereby platform 104-1 sends combined content 604 (comprising primary content 504 and secondary content 508) to device 116-1. Combined content 604 shows secondary content 508 overlaid on primary content 504, although any manner of embedding or associating primary content 504 and secondary content 508 in relation to one another in the display of device 116-1 is contemplated.

[0069] Thus, the secondary content according to block 416 can be selected using a first button 608 (for "Book Now" or "Buy Now") or driven directly to a "checkout" page, so that itineraries, services, or products can be pre-selected and partially or completely purchased (or placed on temporary hold, potentially for a fee) for the user 124 simply while viewing the primary content that would otherwise already be viewed. In this sense, traditional primary content (e.g., a social network data feed) can be merged and / or overlaid with secondary content (e.g., a partial or complete purchase fulfillment). An example of this is shown in FIG. 7, where button 608 causes device 116-1 to redirect from platform 104-1 to a landing page (hosted by optimization engine 120 or target platform 112-1, as appropriate) and generate a checkout page 704, which shows the complete travel itinerary and generates the following: a. a second button 708 that may be used to pay for and fulfill the assignment of the travel itinerary to the user 124-1, or alternatively, to store and / or tokenize and / or reserve and / or encrypt the purchase transaction while leaving the travel itinerary unassigned to the user; b. a third button 712 that may be used to pay for and fulfill the assignment of the itinerary to user 124-1 and to add additional passengers or users 124; and c. A fourth button 716 to reschedule or otherwise move to another location in the sales funnel.

[0070] When button 608 is configured as a "one-click" purchase, which is equivalent to selecting button 708, a step from Figure 7 may be eliminated. Similarly, different buttons other than or in addition to second button 708, third button 712, and fourth button 716 may be provided on the screen in Figure 7.

[0071] The technical advantages of the present disclosure become apparent because, according to the prior art, diversion to the target platform 112 involves the user 124 interacting with the client device 116 at the beginning of the sales funnel, forcing the user 124 to browse, select, and check out from the target platform 112, thereby disrupting the user's experience on the publisher platform 104. The present disclosure optimizes network, processing, and memory resources in the system 100 compared to the prior art because fewer traffic diversions are enabled and / or less processing is required at the target platform 112 and client device 116 to complete the sales funnel experience.

[0072] Those skilled in the art will now appreciate that the above description is generalized and simplified, and that numerous implementation details may be included, as desired, in an implementation of system 100. When implemented using TikTok as platform 104-1, broadly speaking, a TikTok user 124-1 will see secondary content 508 in the form of an advertisement associated with the airline's (i.e., target platform 112) TikTok profile. Within the advertisement, the TikTok user may click a "Book Now" or other "Call to Action" button and be redirected to the device's 116 default browser (or to TikTok's in-app browser), where a landing page experience is rendered from the target platform 112 or from the optimization engine 120 acting on behalf of the airline.

[0073] The landing page experience on device 116 can be customized at the airline's direction. The airline can (1) report successful landings to TikTok via the TikTok event application programming interface (API) and (2) provide guidance on its requirements per data privacy regulations for non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) (such as booking and itinerary analytics). The landing page experience presents itineraries from the airline, as in FIG. 7. The landing page experience allows the user 124 to sign in to their profile with the airline (associated with their identifier 128 or sub-object identifier 132) or continue as a guest. The user 124 can purchase itineraries from the airline.

[0074] Note that the primary content 504 can be videos, such as those common on TikTok. The primary content 504 can also be organic videos posted under the TikTok profile of the target platform 112, thereby making the target platform 112 a participant in the generation of the primary content on the platform 104.

[0075] Upon selection of the first button 608 or the second button 708, the reservation ID may be displayed on the device 116-1 and an email confirmation may be sent to the user 124-1 or by other messaging means. The end user may optionally share a link to the airline's itinerary via messaging.

[0076] The reporting application 154 may be configured to generate analytics (typically non-PII) for the target platform 112 and / or optimization engine 120, including: Transactions performed according to Figure 7 ·Analysis of the number of bookings made ·Analysis of the dates used in the reservations made

[0077] In light of the above, it will now become apparent that variations, combinations, and subsets of the above embodiments are contemplated. For example, the optimization engine 120 could be eliminated, or its functionality could be distributed throughout variations in the system 100, such that the method 400 could be performed within the publisher platform 104 during a session with the client device 116, with the data from block 408 being generated locally within the platform 104, with appropriate communication with the target platform 112, to generate and receive the itinerary in block 412. The optimization engine 120, or variations thereof, could also be configured with an application programming interface (API) for rapid access to the method 400 by the publisher platform 104 and / or the target platform 112.

[0078] According to another exemplary variation, in a broader sense, method 400 may be applied to generating secondary content for any purchasing event and embedding that secondary content within primary content that may be associated with the purchasing event. Thus, a particular example of method 400 contemplates generating a complete travel itinerary as secondary content and embedding, overlaying, or associating that travel itinerary as a purchasable event within primary content to be generated at client device 116. However, the secondary content may be for the purchase of clothing in a preselected size and color, along with payment and shipping information, and associated with the primary content of the same clothing item.

[0079] Those skilled in the art will now appreciate that the teachings herein can improve technical efficiency and computational and communication resource utilization across the system 100 by curating advertising promotion to those publisher platforms 104 with greater curation and simplified redirection to the target platforms 112, or thereby more efficiently utilizing network and processing resources in the system 100. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that conventional generation of secondary content in the form of destination activity advertisements on random client devices 116 without curation can lead to significant waste of computing and network resources in the system 100. In other words, the inability to generate relevant secondary content on platforms 104 that do not lead to redirection to the target platforms 112 can lead to the wasteful generation of secondary content on the client devices 116, with wasted network bandwidth on the network 108 and processing resources at the client devices 116. Furthermore, the inability to generate traffic on the target platforms 112 can lead to underutilization of processing resources on the target platforms 112. Thus, overall load balancing in the system 100 is better achieved when traffic is redirected from the publisher platforms 104 to the target platforms 112 in a reasonably consistent manner.

[0080] It should be appreciated that features and aspects of the various examples provided above may be combined into additional examples that also fall within the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, the figures are not to scale and may have exaggerated sizes and shapes for illustrative purposes. [Explanation of symbols]

[0081] 100 systems 104 Publisher Platform, Platform, Platform Server, Content Platform 104-1 Publisher Platform, Platform, Publisher Engine 104-2...104-n Publisher Platform, Platform 108 Network 112 Target Platform, Platform, Travel Destination Target Platform 112-1 Platform, target platform 116, 116-1 Client device, device 120 Optimization Engine 124, 124-2...124-p, 124-X users 124-1 user, TikTok user 128 Identifier Object, User Identifier Object, Consumer Identifier Object, Identifier 128-1, 128-2...128-p identifiers 132 Consumer Identifier Sub-Object, Identifier Sub-Object, Sub-Object, Sub-Object Identifier 132-1-Y, 132-2-Y, 132-pY sub-objects 132-1-120, 132-1-104-1, 132-1-104-2 Sub-Object Identifiers 132-X-104 Identifier Subobject, Subobject Identifier 132-X-112 Consumer Identifier Subobject 154 Publisher Reporting Application, Application, Reporting Application 158 Target Reporting Application 204 Input Devices 208 processors 212 Output Devices 216 Non-volatile memory 220 Volatile Memory 224, 224-1 Applications 228 Tables or Databases 228-1 Dataset 232 network interface 504 Primary Content 508 Secondary Content 604 Combined Content 608 First Button, Button 704 Checkout Page 708 Second Button 712 Third Button 716 Fourth Button

Claims

1. 1. A server for controlling content for generation at a client device, said server comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing a plurality of programming instructions for execution at said processor, said plurality of programming instructions, when executed, receiving a platform account profile associated with a content platform, the account profile including a departure point; receiving a data feed for the account profile from the content platform, the data feed including a destination; receiving reserved travel itineraries from a travel stakeholder data source engine, the travel stakeholder data source engine configured to determine available travel itineraries based on at least one of the departure location or the destination location; controlling a client device associated with the account profile to populate the data feed with the available travel itineraries; and configuring the processor to:

2. The server of claim 1 , wherein the travel itinerary is a transportation route from the origin to the destination, including a departure date and time, an arrival date and time, and a mode of transportation.

3. 3. The server according to claim 1, wherein the travel itinerary includes accommodation at the destination.

4. The server of claim 1 , wherein the data feed includes a plurality of segmented primary content items directed to the account profile.

5. 5. The server of claim 1, wherein the destination is derived from an image of the destination and the itinerary is embedded in the image.

6. 6. The server of claim 1, wherein the travel itinerary includes a link that, when selected on the client device, sends a signal to the travel stakeholder data source engine to assign the account profile to the travel itinerary and change the available travel itinerary to a purchased travel itinerary.

7. 7. The server of claim 6, wherein the account profile is associated with an electronic wallet, and the signal causes a change to the electronic wallet corresponding to the value of the travel itinerary.

8. The server of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to assign a copy of the purchased itinerary to the account profile.

9. 9. The server of claim 1, wherein the account profile is associated with a travel profile, and the travel stakeholder data source engine is configured to determine the travel itinerary further based on the travel profile.

10. 10. The server of claim 1, wherein the travel stakeholder data source engine is further configured to determine the travel itinerary based on one or more of a date range, price, promotional code, lowest price, shortest travel time, popular days and times for travel, typical length of stay for travel from the origin to the destination, and preferred transportation companies.

11. 1. A computer-implemented method for displaying a service on a user device displaying a browser page, comprising: determining service data relating to the image of the browser page; retrieving a list of services from a database based on the service data related to the image; displaying a graphical user interface element in the browser page; upon receiving user input related to the graphical user interface element, displaying results corresponding to the retrieved list of services at the user device; Including, A method wherein the determining and retrieving steps are performed as consecutive tasks on the user device.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining service data related to the image includes identifying a geographic location displayed in the image.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the geographic location is based on geolocation metadata associated with the image.

14. 14. The method of claim 11, wherein determining service data related to the image comprises identifying an activity related to the image.

15. 15. The method of any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein a starting location is determined based on user-related location data, and wherein the retrieving step is also based on the starting location.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the user-related location data includes an IP address of the user device and / or GPS data of the user device.

17. 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the graphical user interface element is displayed only if service data relating to the image has been determined and a list of services has been retrieved from the database.

18. 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the retrieving step is also based on a user profile.

19. 19. A method according to any one of claims 11 to 18, comprising identifying an image in the browser page.

20. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein identifying the images includes filtering based on a user profile.

Images