US 6,983,311 B1
Access to internet search capabilities
Stacy Haitsuka, Oak Park, Calif. (US); Ronald Burr, Agoura, Calif. (US); Harold MacKenzie, Los Angeles, Calif. (US); Marwan Zebian, Agoura Hills, Calif. (US); Terry Warren, Santa Ana, Calif. (US); and Shane Blaser, Camarillo, Calif. (US)
Assigned to NetZero, Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif. (US)
Filed on Aug. 04, 2000, as Appl. No. 9/632,773.
Claims priority of provisional application 60/160393, filed on Oct. 19, 1999.
Int. Cl. G06F 15/16 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 709—217 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of displaying advertisements to a user of an online service using a client application on a local device, the device including an input device and an output device, the local device accessing an online sever associated with the online service and providing interaction with the online service, the method comprising:
a) the client application activating;
b) the client application establishing and managing an online session with the online server, wherein the client application is not a browser application;
c) the client application causing a client window to be displayed on the output device of the local device, the client window including a search button icon;
d) the client application obtaining a data access string from the user in response to the user selecting the search button icon, wherein the data access string is search term;
e) the client application causing the local device to access data from a web server, the data being related to the data access string;
f) the client application receiving a match list from an ad server establishing the online session, the match list comprising at least one match object comprising an activity identifier and an ad object, the ad object comprising a resource locator for a given advertisement and a resource locator for a click-through associated with the given advertisement;
g) the client application comparing the data access string to the match list;
h) if the data access string match one of the activity identifier in the match list, then in the client application, an ad display process causing the given advertisement of the ad object of the match object corresponding to the matched activity identifier to be displayed in the client window on the output device of the local device;
i) the client application causing a browser application to open on the local device; and
i) the browser application accessing an Internet web site associated with the resource locator;
k) the browser application displaying a web page associated with the Internet web site, the web page being displayed in a browser window on the output device of the local device.