Yahoo has sought a patent for a technolgoy which allows deciding ad charges based on viewer’s ‘social influence’.
The patent, filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office, would assist advertisers to bid against each other to target users as per their level of authority among their peers scored on terms of their social media influence.
The score could be based on the number of followers of the user on social media and the number of times they are talked about in the social media.
According to the internet major, currently, advertisers are allowed to specify the position of their ads on a site to help target a specific type of user, while cookies would also assist in fine tuning their aim.
The patent states that the level of social influence may be based upon factors such as the number of followers of the user, the number of contacts of the user, and/or the title of the user.
"In this manner, an advertiser may be billed a higher amount for advertisements provided to users having a higher social authority score than for advertisements provided to users having a lower social authority score," the patent adds.
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