Replacement of content items

Abstract

Example systems may include: receiving an auction announcement message for a content inventory unit from an auction platform, where the auction announcement message includes an identifier that is associated with a user device; determining a bid for the content inventory unit based on data in a record associated with the identifier; transmitting the bid to the auction platform in response to the auction announcement message; transmitting a content item associated with the identifier in response to the auction announcement message; receiving a message indicating that the content item is presented on the user device; and updating a stored account value associated with the identifier based on an auction price for the content inventory unit.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method performed by one or more data processing apparatus, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a content suppression system and from a user device, a login request identifying an account of a user;   receiving, by the content suppression system and through the account of the user, user-specified data for suppressing content presented to the user;   receiving, by a content inventory exchange, an announcement message generated by a publisher resource, where the announcement message includes a user account identifier that uniquely identifies the account of the user and a request for the content inventory exchange to provide a content item from a set of available content items provided by third parties relative to the user for presentation in the publisher resource provided by a publisher that differs from the third parties;   matching, by the content inventory exchange, the user account identifier received in the announcement message to an instance of the user account identifier that was stored by the content inventory exchange; and   transmitting, to the user device for presentation in the publisher resource in response to the announcement message, content other than that in a set of available content items provided by the third parties that are blocked based on the user-specified data, wherein the transmitting is performed without requiring a registration of the user with the publisher of the publisher resource.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, before receiving the announcement message generated by the publisher resource:
 transmitting, by the content suppression system and to the user device, the user account identifier that uniquely identifies the account of the user relative to other accounts.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising, before receiving the announcement message generated by the publisher resource:
 storing, by the content inventory exchange and in an index of account identifiers, an instance of the user account identifier in a data structure.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user-specified data is received before receiving the announcement message. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the content transmitted to the user device for presentation in the publisher resource in response to the announcement message causes a blank image or video of zero duration to be presented in a content slot in a display of the user device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 transmitting a request to receive announcement messages for content inventory units associated with data comprising the user account identifier.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , in which the data comprising the user account identifier is for a cookie. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 reducing, by the content suppression system, a credit balance value of the account of the user based on a minimum amount required for presentation of third party content in response to the announcement message.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein reducing, by the content suppression system, the credit balance value in response to the announcement message comprises reducing the credit balance value by an amount depending on the announcement message. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 transmitting a usage report to the user device reflecting allocations of content inventory units to the user-specified data and corresponding changes in the credit balance value.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the content suppression system and from the user, a set of rules specifying a list of publisher resources on which the user-specified data is eligible for presentation, wherein transmitting the content in response to the announcement message is conditioned on the announcement message being generated by one of the publisher resources included in the list of publisher resources.   
     
     
         12 . A system comprising:
 one or more computers; and   one or more storage devices communicatively coupled to the one or more computers, wherein the one or more storage devices store instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to implement a content management system configured to perform operations comprising:
 receiving, by a content suppression system and from a user device, a login request identifying an account of a user; 
   receiving, by the content suppression system and through the account of the user, user-specified data for suppressing content presented to the user;   receiving, by a content inventory exchange, an announcement message generated by a publisher resource, where the announcement message includes a user account identifier that uniquely identifies the account of the user and a request for the content inventory exchange to provide a content item from a set of available content items provided by third parties relative to the user for presentation in the publisher resource provided by a publisher that differs from the third parties;   matching, by the content inventory exchange, the user account identifier received in the announcement message to an instance of the user account identifier that was stored by the content inventory exchange; and
 transmitting, to the user device for presentation in the publisher resource in response to the announcement message, content other than that in a set of available content items provided by the third parties that are blocked based on the user-specified data, wherein the transmitting is performed without requiring a registration of the user with the publisher of the publisher resource. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise, before receiving the announcement message generated by the publisher resource:
 transmitting, by the content suppression system and to the user device, the user account identifier that uniquely identifies the account of the user relative to other accounts.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise, before receiving the announcement message generated by the publisher resource:
 storing, by the content inventory exchange and in an index of account identifiers, an instance of the user account identifier in a data structure.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the user-specified data is received before receiving the announcement message. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the content transmitted to the user device for presentation in the publisher resource in response to the announcement message causes a blank image or video of zero duration to be presented in a content slot in a display of the user device. 
     
     
         17 . One or more non-transitory computer storage media storing instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to implement a content management system configured to perform operations comprising:
 receiving, by a content suppression system and from a user device, a login request identifying an account of a user;   receiving, by the content suppression system and through the account of the user, user-specified data for suppressing content presented to the user;   receiving, by a content inventory exchange, an announcement message generated by a publisher resource, where the announcement message includes a user account identifier that uniquely identifies the account of the user and a request for the content inventory exchange to provide a content item from a set of available content items provided by third parties relative to the user for presentation in the publisher resource provided by a publisher that differs from the third parties;   matching, by the content inventory exchange, the user account identifier received in the announcement message to an instance of the user account identifier that was stored by the content inventory exchange; and   transmitting, to the user device for presentation in the publisher resource in response to the announcement message, content other than that in a set of available content items provided by the third parties that are blocked based on the user-specified data, wherein the transmitting is performed without requiring a registration of the user with the publisher of the publisher resource.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer storage media of  claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise, before receiving the announcement message generated by the publisher resource:
 transmitting, by the content suppression system and to the user device, the user account identifier that uniquely identifies the account of the user relative to other accounts.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer storage media of  claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise, before receiving the announcement message generated by the publisher resource:
 storing, by the content inventory exchange and in an index of account identifiers, an instance of the user account identifier in a data structure.   
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer storage media of  claim 17 , wherein the user-specified data is received before receiving the announcement message.