Google Patents RSS Advertising

IO ERROR writes "Google filed a patent application for targeted advertising in RSS feeds about a year and a half ago. The USPTO has now assigned it a number and placed it online. The patent application covers both targeting in RSS feeds and geotargeting by IP address. It gives some insight into how Google's ad servers work."

Comments

Prior art right here on Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot has RSS feeds for a number of years, and during that time they've run many Slashvertisements.

Those evil bastards

[tobybuk]

...Oh wait. Does not compute..... Brain is going to explode

The USPTO has done it again, brilliant.

[The I Shing]

I bet that the number of examiners at the USPTO that have a comprehensive understanding of the way RSS works is exactly zero. I'm can only imagine an examiner breathlessly intoning, "I don't know what the hell this patent is talking about, so it must be totally new, non-obvious, and useful, so here," (THUMP as the rubber stamp comes down) "patent granted."

Of course, it could be a defensive patent. Heaven knows who out there thinks he's patented the whole RSS idea.

Still, regarding this new patent, I'm looking forward to the usual Slashdot pick-apart, where every claim is shown to be something people have been doing for a decade, and enough prior art is unearthed in fifteen minutes to invalidate the patent ten times over.

Heck, why doesn't the USPTO lay off half its examiners and just post patent applications to Slashdot?

Amazon

[VeganBob]

Take THAT Amazon.

Booyah