GLOBAL CONSTRAINTS IN OPEN EXCHANGE PLATFORMS

Abstract

In a system that provides an open exchange environment to connect business entities through a network, methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for enabling a first of the business entities to specify global constraint information; and identifying, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the first of the business entities.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an open exchange environment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a process for facilitating an online advertisement transaction.

FIG. 3 schematically depicts an environment in which a transaction management system provides a platform for facilitating online advertisement transactions; and

FIGS. 4-8 each schematically depict a hierarchical auction process.

Claims

1. In a system that provides an open exchange environment to connect business entities through a network, a computer-implemented method comprising: enabling a first of the business entities to specify global constraint information; andidentifying, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the first of the business entities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first of the business entities comprises an advertiser or an ad network/broker that is associated with the online advertisement creative.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first of the business entities comprises an ad network/broker or a publisher that is associated with the online advertisement space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information comprises: enabling the first of the business entities to specify one or more of the following:size, geography, frequency, section, channel, rating, daypart, language, netspeed, browser, internet service provider (ISP), uniform resource locator (URL), inventory type, publisher, creative, offer type, creative specification, query string, and validated URL.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities comprises: excluding, from the eligible set, each business entity, line item, or both that fails to satisfy any constraint that is provided for by the global constraint information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the online advertisement creative is one of a plurality of online advertisement creatives associated with the first of the business entities.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein enabling the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information comprises: enabling the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information for the plurality of online advertisement creatives, wherein the global constraint information overrides line item-based constraint information specified for any one of the plurality of online advertisement creatives.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the online advertisement space is one of a plurality of online advertisement spaces associated with the first of the business entities.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein enabling the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information comprises: enabling the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information for the plurality if online advertisement spaces, wherein the global constraint information overrides line item-based constraint information specified for any one of the plurality of online advertisement spaces.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a graph that includes a node representative of the first of the business entities and one or more other nodes, each of the one or more other nodes representative of a business entity of the set of business entities eligible to participate in the transaction with the first of the business entities.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: performing a series of decision processes on the nodes of the graph to identify one of the business entities of the set of business entities to execute the transaction with the first of the business entities.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling the first of the business entities to specify global constraint exception information; andidentifying, at least in part on the global constraint exception information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the first of the business entities.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling a second of the business entities to specify global constraint information; andidentifying, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the second of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the second of the business entities.

14. A machine-readable medium that stores executable instructions to cause a machine in a system that provides an open exchange environment to connect business entities through a network to: enable a first of the business entities to specify global constraint information; andidentify, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the first of the business entities.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions to cause the machine to enable the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information comprises: instructions to enable the first of the business entities to specify one or more of the following: size, geography, frequency, section, channel, rating, daypart, language, netspeed, browser, internet service provider (ISP), uniform resource locator (URL), inventory type, publisher, creative, offer type, creative specification, query string, and validated URL.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions to cause the machine to identify, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities comprises: instructions to exclude, from the eligible set, each business entity, line item, or both that fails to satisfy any constraint that is provided for by the global constraint information.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the online advertisement creative is one of a plurality of online advertisement creatives associated with the first of the business entities, and wherein instructions to cause the machine to enable the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information comprises: instructions to enable the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information for the plurality of online advertisement creatives, wherein the global constraint information overrides line item-based constraint information specified for any one of the plurality of online advertisement creatives.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the online advertisement space is one of a plurality of online advertisement spaces associated with the first of the business entities, and wherein instructions to cause the machine to enable the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information comprises: instructions to enable the first of the business entities to specify global constraint information for the plurality of online advertisement spaces, wherein the global constraint information overrides line item-based constraint information specified for any one of the plurality of online advertisement spaces.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions to cause the machine to: generate a graph that includes a node representative of the first of the business entities and one or more other nodes, each of the one or more other nodes representative of a business entity of the set of business entities eligible to participate in the transaction with the first of the business entities.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions to cause the machine to: perform a series of decision processes on the nodes of the graph to identify one of the business entities of the set of business entities to execute the transaction with the first of the business entities.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions to cause the machine to: enable the first of the business entities to specify global constraint exception information; andidentify, at least in part on the global constraint exception information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the first of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the first of the business entities.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions to cause the machine to: enable a second of the business entities to specify global constraint information; andidentify, at least in part on the global constraint information, a set of business entities eligible to participate in a transaction with the second of the business entities, the transaction involving an online advertisement space or an online advertisement creative that is associated with the second of the business entities.