Architecture for high speed delivery of advertising content

Abstract

A system comprises advertisement channels coupled to a network and disposed in various locations within a region, each channel configured to receive a content request from a visitor of the channel; and advertisement servers coupled to the network and distributed within the region such that each channel has at least one server more proximate than another server, the servers for storing advertisements for web properties, each advertisement associated with criteria indicating when presentation of the advertisement is desired; a given channel for providing request information regarding a content request to a given server; at least one of the servers for determining whether the request information meets any of the criteria; a relatively more proximate server configured to forward an advertisement to the given channel in response to the request information when the criteria have been met, and the given channel for presenting the advertisement in response to the content request.

1 . A system comprising: 
 advertisement channels coupled to a network and disposed in various geographic locations within a region, each advertisement channel being configured to receive a content request from a visitor of the advertisement channel; and    advertisement servers coupled to the network and geographically distributed within the region such that each advertisement channel has at least one advertisement server located more proximate to it than another advertisement server, the advertisement servers for storing advertisements for web properties, each advertisement being associated with criteria indicating when presentation of the advertisement is desired;    a given advertisement channel being configured to provide request information regarding a received content request of a given visitor to a given one of the advertisement servers;    at least one of the advertisement servers being configured to determine whether the received request information meets the criteria associated with the advertisements;    a relatively more proximate one of the advertisement servers being configured to forward at least one of the advertisements to the given advertisement channel in response to the received request information when the associated criteria have been met, and    the given advertisement channel being configured to present the at least one advertisement to the given visitor in response to the received content request.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement channels are operated by various entities.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement channels include at least one of search engines, e-commerce sites and content sites.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the content request includes a keyword search.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the request information includes keywords of the keyword search.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the given advertisement channel presents the advertisement as at least one of a banner ad, a content match or a sponsored match.  
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an interface for enabling a user to input an additional advertisement for a web property and criteria indicating when presentation of the advertisement is desired into the system.  
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , further comprising a distribution component coupled to the network for propagating the advertisement and the associated criteria to the advertisement servers according to an arrangement.  
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the distribution component is configured to propagate the advertisement and the associated criteria to all the advertisement servers.  
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the relatively more proximate one of the advertisement servers is the one of the advertisement servers closest to the given advertisement channel.  
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement servers store the advertisements and associated criteria with some redundancy.  
     
     
         12 . A method comprising: 
 providing advertisement channels coupled to a network and disposed in various geographic locations within a region, each advertisement channel being configured to receive a content request from a visitor of the advertisement channel;    providing advertisement servers coupled to the network and geographically distributed within the region such that each advertisement channel has at least one advertisement server located more proximate to it than another advertisement server, the advertisement servers for storing advertisements for web properties, each advertisement being associated with criteria indicating when presentation of the advertisement is desired;    receiving a content request from a given visitor by a given advertisement channel;    providing request information regarding the received content request by the given advertisement channel to a given one of the advertisement servers;    determining by at least one of the advertisement servers whether the received request information meets the criteria associated with the advertisements;    forwarding by a relatively more proximate one of the advertisement servers at least one of the advertisements to the given advertisement channel in response to the received request information when the associated criteria have been met, and    presenting by the given advertisement channel the at least one advertisement to the given visitor in response to the received content request.    
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the advertisement channels are operated by various entities.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the advertisement channels include at least one of search engines, e-commerce sites and content sites.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the content request includes a keyword search.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the request information includes keywords of the keyword search.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the given advertisement channel presents the advertisement as at least one of a banner ad, a content match or a sponsored match.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising enabling a user to input an additional advertisement for a web property and criteria indicating when presentation of the advertisement is desired into an interface.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising propagating the advertisement and the associated criteria to the advertisement servers according to an arrangement.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the propagating includes propagating the advertisement and the associated criteria to all the advertisement servers.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the relatively more proximate one of the advertisement servers is the one of the advertisement servers closest to the given advertisement channel.  
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the advertisement servers store the advertisements and associated criteria with some redundancy.  
     
     
         23 . A system comprising: 
 advertisement channels coupled to a network and disposed in various geographic locations within a region, each advertisement channel being configured to receive a content request from a visitor of the advertisement channel;    advertisement servers coupled to the network and geographically distributed within the region such that each advertisement channel has at least one advertisement server located more proximate to it than another advertisement server, the advertisement servers for storing advertisements for web properties, each advertisement being associated with criteria indicating when presentation of the advertisement is desired;    means for receiving a content request from a given visitor by a given advertisement channel;    means for providing request information regarding the received content request by the given advertisement channel to a given one of the advertisement servers;    means for determining by at least one of the advertisement servers whether the received request information meets the criteria associated with the advertisements;    means for forwarding by a relatively more proximate one of the advertisement servers at least one of the advertisements to the given advertisement channel in response to the received request information when the associated criteria have been met, and    means for presenting by the given advertisement channel the at least one advertisement to the given visitor in response to the received content request.