US Patent 7099831 Advertising method and awareness server

A method executed on a server for distributing user-acceptable and highly effective advertisements and enabling detailed status representation on an awareness system. Advertisement icons such as a company symbol can be subsequently added to alternatives of user statuses and the icons can be set as user statuses. Display of an advertisement icon as status of an acquaintance in a buddy list allows companies to announce services or items they provide as used by the acquaintance represented by the status. Since advertisement icons are propagated via a reliable network composed of acquaintances in the buddy list, users form a favorable impression of the advertisements and high advertising effectiveness is expected.