Advertisement delivery

Abstract

Advertisement delivery capable of providing data to satisfy advertising requests for displaying information to a user accessing an online computer system, generally includes using a first server that is structured and arranged to deliver advertisements to a first region of a display, and a second server that is structured and arranged to deliver advertisements to a second region of a display that is different from the first region. Advertisement delivery may also include a display server that sends input based on demographic data to the servers, where the display server receives instructions from at least one of the first and second servers based on the region controlled by the server, and a configuration system that generates and sends a first configuration file to the first server and a second configuration file to the second server, where the first configuration file includes instructions for displaying advertisements to the first region, and the second configuration file includes instructions for displaying advertisements to the second region.

1 .- 26 . (canceled) 
     
     
         27 . An advertisement server system, comprising:
 a network communication interface that receives advertisement requests, each advertisement request including an identifier for an ad space of a web page;   a storage unit that stores a set of instructions; and   at least one processor that executes the set of instructions to, in response to the advertisement requests, employ the identifiers to select an advertisement for each identified ad space based on (i) demographic data relevant to the advertisement requests and (ii) balancing the delivery of advertisements between ad spaces, the balancing being based on the frequency that the ad spaces are visited.   
     
     
         28 . The advertisement server system of  claim 27 , wherein the at least one processor further executes the set of instructions to:
 identify, based on the identifiers, ad space servers associated with each ad space; and   balance the delivery of advertisements between ad spaces by assigning at least a first ad space server of the identified ad space servers a number of ad spaces and at least a second ad space server of the identified ad space servers a larger number of ad spaces than the number of ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server, the ad spaces assigned to the second ad space server being less frequently visited than the ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server.   
     
     
         29 . The advertisement server system of  claim 28 , wherein the first ad space server stores configuration information for the ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server and the second ad space serve stores configuration information for the ad spaces assigned to the second ad space server. 
     
     
         30 . The advertisement server system of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 a logger configured to track and record advertisement activity.   
     
     
         31 . The advertisement server system of  claim 30 , further comprising:
 a predictor server configured to receive statistics data derived from the logger and use the received statistics data to forecast future ad space availability.   
     
     
         32 . The advertisement server system of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 a configuration builder that generates configuration information to determine the frequency and identity of advertisements to be made available to specified or available ad spaces over a given time period.   
     
     
         33 . An advertisement server method, comprising:
 receiving advertisement requests over a network, each advertisement request including an identifier for an ad space of a web page; and   in response to the advertisement requests, employing the identifiers to select an advertisement for each identified ad space based on (i) demographic data relevant to the advertisement requests and (ii) balancing the delivery of advertisements between ad spaces, the balancing being based on the frequency that the ad spaces are visited.   
     
     
         34 . The advertisement server method of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 identifying, based on the identifiers, ad space servers associated with each ad space; and   balancing the delivery of advertisements between ad spaces by assigning at least a first ad space server of the identified ad space servers a number of ad spaces and at least a second ad space server of the identified ad space servers a larger number of ad spaces than the number of ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server, the ad spaces assigned to the second ad space server being less frequently visited than the ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server.   
     
     
         35 . The advertisement server method of  claim 34 , wherein the first ad space server stores configuration information for the ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server and the second ad space serve stores configuration information for the ad spaces assigned to the second ad space server. 
     
     
         36 . The advertisement server method of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 tracking and recording advertisement activity.   
     
     
         37 . The advertisement server method of  claim 36 , further comprising:
 receiving statistics data derived from the tracked and recorded advertisement activity and use the received statistics data to forecast future ad space availability.   
     
     
         38 . The advertisement server method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 generating configuration information to determine the frequency and identity of advertisements to be made available to specified or available ad spaces over a given time period.   
     
     
         39 . A computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, implement an advertisement server method, comprising:
 receiving advertisement requests over a network, each advertisement request including an identifier for an ad space of a web page; and   in response to the advertisement requests, employing the identifiers to select an advertisement for each identified ad space based on (i) demographic data relevant to the advertisement requests and (ii) balancing the delivery of advertisements between ad spaces, the balancing being based on the frequency that the ad spaces are visited.   
     
     
         40 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 39 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the following operations:
 identifying, based on the identifiers, ad space servers associated with each ad space; and   balancing the delivery of advertisements between ad spaces by assigning at least a first ad space server of the identified ad space servers a number of ad spaces and at least a second ad space server of the identified ad space servers a larger number of ad spaces than the number of ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server, the ad spaces assigned to the second ad space server being less frequently visited than the ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server.   
     
     
         41 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 40 , wherein the first ad space server stores configuration information for the ad spaces assigned to the first ad space server and the second ad space serve stores configuration information for the ad spaces assigned to the second ad space server. 
     
     
         42 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 39 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the following operation:
 tracking and recording advertisement activity.   
     
     
         43 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 42 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the following operation:
 receiving statistics data derived from the tracked and recorded advertisement activity and use the received statistics data to forecast future ad space availability.   
     
     
         44 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 39 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the following operation:
 generating configuration information to determine the frequency and identity of advertisements to be made available to specified or available ad spaces over a given time period.