Patent Application
20160180409
1. Technical Field
The present teaching relates to methods and systems for online advertising. Specifically, the present teaching relates to methods and systems for online advertisement placement.
2. Discussion of Technical Background
Online advertising involves the technologies and services for selecting and placing advertisements on websites. Advertisement serving entities provide services to website hosts, online content providers and/or advertisers to serve advertisements, including choosing the advertisements that will enhance the revenue associated with the advertisements and/or monitor the effectiveness of different advertising campaigns. Advertisement servers may be divided into two types: publisher advertisement servers (publishers) and advertiser (or third party) advertisement servers (advertisers). In a modern online advertisement exchange network, additional intermediary parties may be involved in the advertisement serving process, including supply-side platforms (SSPs), which enable publishers to manage their advertising impression inventory and maximize revenue from digital media, and demand-side platforms (DSPs), which allow advertisers to purchase advertising impressions across a range of publishers. Publishers make their advertisement impressions available through advertisement placements (also known as “marketplaces”) by SSPs, and DSPs automatically decide which of those advertisement impressions it makes the most sense for an advertiser to purchase.
An advertisement placement is a specific group of advertisement units or spaces on which an advertiser can choose to place their advertisements on a publisher's website. An advertisement placement may be as broad as an entire website or as specific as a single advertisement unit or space on one webpage.
Also, the static advertisement placement configuration as shown in
Therefore, there is a need to provide a solution for a more efficient and effective approach for creating and managing advertisement placements to avoid the above-mentioned drawbacks.
The present teaching relates to methods and systems for online advertising. Specifically, the present teaching relates to methods and systems for online advertisement placement.
In one example, a method, implemented on at least one computing device each having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for providing an advertisement is presented. A request for an advertisement to be presented to a user is received. The request is received with information associated with a plurality of advertisement placements. Information related to the user is obtained. From the plurality of advertisement placements, at least one advertisement placement is selected based, at least in part, on the information related to the user. Each of one or more parties is requested to provide a response with respect to the selected at least one advertisement placement. At least one response is associated with an advertisement to be presented to the user. Information associated with the advertisement is transmitted in response to the request.
In another example, a method, implemented on at least one computing device each having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for providing content to a user is presented. A first request is received from a user for content. First information indicative of at least one advertisement unit to be provided with the content is obtained. A second request is sent for second information related to at least one advertisement to be presented to the user on the at least one advertisement unit. The request is sent with third information associated with a plurality of advertisement placements with respect to the at least one advertisement unit. At least one advertisement placement is selected from the plurality of advertisement placements based, at least in part, on fourth information related to the user. Each of one or more parties is requested to provide a response with respect to the selected at least one advertisement placement. At least one response is associated with the at least one advertisement to be presented to the user. The second information identified in response to the request is then received. The content is provided with the at least one advertisement to the user.
In still another example, a method, implemented on at least one computing device each having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for providing a tag for multiple advertisement placements is presented. A party is facilitated to create a plurality of advertisement placements with respect to a website or an application. The party is facilitated to provide one or more parameters for each of the plurality of advertisement placements. A tag to be placed on the website or the application is provided to the party. The tag is associated with the plurality of advertisement placements. At least one of the one or more parameters is associated with information related to a user that is to be dynamically obtained upon receiving a request including the tag for an advertisement to be presented to the user on the website or the application.
In a different example, a system having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform for presenting an advertisement is presented. The system includes a request handling unit, an information monitoring unit, an advertisement placement decision unit, an advertisement placement solicitation unit, and a transmission unit. The request handling unit is configured to a request for an advertisement to be presented to a user. The request is received with information associated with a plurality of advertisement placements. The information monitoring unit is configured to obtain information related to the user. The advertisement placement decision unit is configured to select, from the plurality of advertisement placements, at least one advertisement placement based, at least in part, on the information related to the user. The advertisement placement solicitation unit is configured to request each of one or more parties to provide a response with respect to the selected at least one advertisement placement. At least one response is associated with an advertisement to be presented to the user. The transmission unit is configured to transmit information associated with the advertisement in response to the request.
In another example, a system having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform for providing a tag for multiple advertisement placements is presented. The system includes an advertisement placements creation unit, an advertisement placements configuration unit, and a tag generation unit. The advertisement placements creation unit is configured to facilitate a party to create a plurality of advertisement placements with respect to a website or an application. The advertisement placements configuration unit is configured to facilitate the party to provide one or more parameters for each of the plurality of advertisement placements. The tag generation unit is configured to provide, to the party, a tag to be placed on the website or the application. The tag is associated with the plurality of advertisement placements. At least one of the one or more parameters is associated with information related to a user that is to be dynamically obtained upon receiving a request including the tag for an advertisement to be presented to the user on the website or the application.
Other concepts relate to software for implementing the present teaching on online advertising based on dynamic advertisement placement. A software product, in accord with this concept, includes at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium and information carried by the medium. The information carried by the medium may be executable program code data, parameters in association with the executable program code, and/or information related to a user, a request, content, or information related to a social group, etc.
In one example, a non-transitory machine readable medium having information recorded thereon for presenting an advertisement is presented. A request for providing an advertisement to a user is received. A request for an advertisement to be presented to a user is received. The request is received with information associated with a plurality of advertisement placements. Information related to the user is obtained. From the plurality of advertisement placements, at least one advertisement placement is selected based, at least in part, on the information related to the user. Each of one or more parties is requested to provide a response with respect to the selected at least one advertisement placement. At least one response is associated with an advertisement to be presented to the user. Information associated with the advertisement is transmitted in response to the request.
In another example, a non-transitory machine readable medium having information recorded thereon for providing content to a user is presented. A first request is received from a user for content. First information indicative of at least one advertisement unit to be provided with the content is obtained. A second request is sent for second information related to at least one advertisement to be presented to the user on the at least one advertisement unit. The request is sent with third information associated with a plurality of advertisement placements with respect to the at least one advertisement unit. At least one advertisement placement is selected from the plurality of advertisement placements based, at least in part, on fourth information related to the user. Each of one or more parties is requested to provide a response with respect to the selected at least one advertisement placement. At least one response is associated with the at least one advertisement to be presented to the user. The second information identified in response to the request is then received. The content is provided with the at least one advertisement to the user.
In still another example, a non-transitory machine readable medium having information recorded thereon for providing a tag for multiple advertisement placements is presented. A party is facilitated to create a plurality of advertisement placements with respect to a website or an application. The party is facilitated to provide one or more parameters for each of the plurality of advertisement placements. A tag to be placed on the website or the application is provided to the party. The tag is associated with the plurality of advertisement placements. At least one of the one or more parameters is associated with information related to a user that is to be dynamically obtained upon receiving a request including the tag for an advertisement to be presented to the user on the website or the application.
The methods, systems, and/or programming described herein are further described in terms of exemplary embodiments. These exemplary embodiments are described in detail with reference to the drawings. These embodiments are non-limiting exemplary embodiments, in which like reference numerals represent similar structures throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present teaching may be practiced without such details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and/or circuitry have been described at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teaching.
The present disclosure describes method, system, and programming aspects of efficient and effective online advertisement serving based on dynamic advertisement placement realized as a specialized and networked system by utilizing one or more computing devices (e.g., mobile phone, personal computer, etc.) and network communications (wired or wireless). The method and system as disclosed herein aim at simplifying the creation and management of multiple advertisement placements for a publisher by associating multiple advertisement placements with one single smart tag. The publisher's efforts of placing and managing multiple tags on its assets (website or application) are thus reduced. Moreover, the method and system as disclosed herein can determine the most suitable combination of advertisement placements and their execution sequence at runtime based on the dynamic situation when the advertisement serving request is received. The dynamic situation includes, for example, information related to a user who is visiting the publisher's website. The dynamically determined advertisement placements and their execution sequence can maximize the probability of generating revenue from the advertisement placements and can fully utilize network resources by targeting the advertisement placements to the potential purchasers (e.g., advertisers) and avoiding empty response.
Additional features will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The features of the present teaching may be realized and attained by practice or use of various aspects of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed below.
The combination of advertisement placements 404 in this embodiment is associated with various configurable parameters 406 that can be set up by the publisher. The configurable parameters 406 include, for example, priorities for determining the execution order of the advertisement placements 404, targeting information of the potential audiences of the advertisement placements 404, delivery requirements such as an agreement that the publisher has entered into with one or more advertisers, and desired advertisers of the advertisement placements 404. It is understood that any other suitable parameters that are related to advertisement placement creation, management, or execution may be configured by the publisher as part of the configurable parameters 406.
As described below in detail, the configurable parameters 406 may be used to dynamically determine the actual combination of advertisement placement and execution order at runtime when the single smart 402 is activated with an advertisement serving request. That is, the tag 402 is “smart” in the sense that which suitable advertisement placement(s) from the initial set of advertisement placements 404 are sent to which advertisers in what order is dynamically determined in response to each advertisement serving request in order to achieve the goal of maximizing the potential revenue from a single advertisement serving request. Various factors may be considered when making the dynamic decision, including for example criteria, limitations, conditions, and goals set up by the publisher (owner of the advertisement placements) in the form of configurable parameters 406, information related to the users (audiences of advertisement), or information related to the advertisers (potential purchasers of the advertisement placements). It is also understood that because the multiple advertisement placements 404 and their configurable parameters 406 are associated with a single smart tag 402, only one network call needs to be made by the user from the publisher's webpage or application to the SSP to which the tag 402 is directed. The SSP then can dynamically determine the most suitable advertisement placement(s) to be executed and the execution order thereof. Even if the first one or several advertisement placements cannot be satisfied, the SSP in this embodiment does not return an empty response but instead, can automatically continue to try the next suitable advertisement placement in the execution order until a favorable response is received.
In this embodiment, the publisher 604 may be any entity that hosts one or more advertisement spaces on its asset (e.g., website, or application). The advertisement spaces may be purchased, via advertisement placement, by advertisers to place their advertisements. The advertisements may be presented to the users 610 when the users 610 get access to the publisher 604's assets. The users 610 may be of different types such as users connected to the network 608 via desktop computers 610-1, laptop computers 610-2, a built-in device in a motor vehicle 610-3, or a mobile device 610-4. In this embodiment, the advertisement placement system 602 serves as an SSP or part of an SSP for the publisher 604. The publisher 604 may create, using the advertisement placement system 602, a smart tag associated with multiple advertisement placements and manage the advertisement placements by configuring parameters as described before. The created smart tag may be put onto the publisher 604's website or application, which can be visited by the users 610.
When a user 610 gets access to the publisher 604, the user 610's device may send an advertisement serving request with the smart tag URL via the network 608 to the advertisement placement system 602. By recognizing the smart tag and its associated initial set of advertisement placements and configured parameters, the advertisement placement system 602 in this embodiment dynamically determines at least one advertisement placement from the initial set and sends a serial of requests to the advertisers 606 to solicit responses with respect to the selected advertisement placement(s) in a certain order. In other words, the advertisement placement system 602, on behalf of the publisher 604, negotiates with the advertisers 606 to obtain the maximum potential revenue generated from the advertisement serving request with the single smart tag. Based on the responses from the advertisers 606, the advertisement placement system 602 selects an advertisement to be rendered on the user's device 610 at the corresponding advertisement unit/space hosted by the publisher 604.
In one use case, the publisher 604 receives a request from a user 610 for content on the publisher 604's website or application. The publisher 604 then obtains information indicative of the available advertisement unit(s) on the website or application to be provided with the content. As described above, the advertisement unit(s) have been associated with multiple advertisement placements via a smart tag for the publisher 604. The publisher 604 then sends an advertisement serving request to the advertisement placement system 602 for providing advertisement(s) on the available advertisement unit(s) to the user 610. The request is associated with the multiple initial advertisement placements. The advertisement placement system 602 then at runtime dynamically selects appropriate advertisement placement(s) and decide their execution order if more than one advertisement placement are selected. Based on the responses from advertisers 606 to the dynamically selected advertisement placement(s), at least one advertisement can be determined, and its information is returned to the publisher 604 by the advertisement placement system 602. Based on the received information, the publisher 604 may retrieve the at least one advertisement and placing them at the advertisement unit(s) so that they can be presented to the user 610 together with the requested content.
In this embodiment, the advertisement placement setup module 802 includes an advertisement placement creation unit 808, an advertisement placement configuration unit 810, and a tag generation unit 812. The advertisement placement creation unit 808 is configured to facilitate a publisher 604 to create multiple advertisement placements with respect to the website of the publisher 604. In some embodiments, the advertisement placements may be created with respect to an application of the publisher 604. The advertisement placement configuration unit 810 is configured to facilitate the publisher 604 to provide configurable parameters for each advertisement placement. The parameter includes, for example, priority, targeted user profile, desired advertiser, delivery requirement of the corresponding advertisement placement, etc. Each type of parameter may be provided for some or all of the advertisement placements as needed. For example, the publisher 604 may specify a preferred execution order of the advertisement placements by assigning priorities to each advertisement placement. In another example, for any advertisement placement operated in the passback mode, a desired advertiser may be specified by the publisher 604. In still another example, the publisher 604 may configure the delivery requirement for each advertisement placement operated in the guaranteed mode and monitor the delivery status and statistics towards completing the guaranteed deal with an advertiser. It is understood that the publisher 604 may not only create the initial set of advertisement placements and set the initial values of the configurable parameters, but also manage and update the existing advertisement placements and values of the configurable parameter via the advertisement placement configuration unit 810 and the advertisement placement creation unit 808. For example, the publisher 604 may manually increase or decrease the initial floor price of an advertisement placement operated in the RTB mode as time goes by in view of the performance data of the advertisement placement (e.g., favorable response ratio).
The tag generation unit 812 in this embodiment is responsible for providing, to the publisher 604, a tag to be placed on its website or application. The tag is associated with the created multiple advertisement placements and the parameters thereof. In one example, the tag may be in the form of a URL that can be copied by the publisher 604 and put onto one or more pages of its website. In another example, the tag may be a script that runs on the publisher's 604 website or application. In the advertisement placement/tag database 806, smart tags created by different publishers 604 are stored and indexed with respect to their corresponding advertisement placements and configured parameters. Based on a single unique smart tag, advertisement placements and parameter created by the corresponding publisher 604 can be retrieved in response to an advertisement serving request.
In this embodiment, the advertisement selection module 804 includes a request handling unit 814, a user information monitoring unit 816, an advertisement placement information retrieving unit 818, an advertisement placement decision unit 820, an advertisement placement solicitation unit 822, an advertisement selection unit 824, and an advertisement information transmission unit 826. The request handling unit 814 is configured to receive a request for presenting an advertisement to a user 610 (an advertisement serving request). The request is received with information associated with advertisement placements, such as a tag placed on a website or application of the publisher 604. As described above, the tag may be provided to the publisher 604 by the advertisement placement setup module 802 and associated with a set of initial advertisement placements (candidate advertisement placements). Once the user 610 visits the website or opens the application where the tag is placed by the publisher 604, a network call is made by the browser or application from the user's device 610 to the request handling unit 814. In this embodiment, the request handling unit 814 identifies the tag URL and provides it to the advertisement placement information retrieving unit 818.
The advertisement placement information retrieving unit 818 in this embodiment is responsible for retrieving the initial set of advertisement placements (candidate advertisement placements) and their associated parameters from the advertisement placement/tag database 806 based on the identified tag URL. The retrieved advertisement placement-related information is fed into the advertisement placement decision unit 820. On the other hand, the user information monitoring unit 816 in this embodiment is configured to obtain information related to the user 610 to which advertisements are served. That is, the user information monitoring unit 816 may dynamically collect user-related information at runtime. The user-related information includes personal information, such as the location, demographics or online activities of the user 610. The user-related information may also include any information related to the user's network (e.g., network speed, bandwidth, service provider, etc.), information related the user' device (e.g., device type, brand, hardware specification, etc.), and information related the applications (e.g., browser type, version, software configuration, etc.). For instance, the user's current network speed and bandwidth may be dynamically tested and used for determining whether an advertisement placement related to rich media types of advertisements (e.g., video advertisements) should be executed or not. In one example, the lower the bandwidth available at that time, the less likely an advertisement placement reserved for video advertisements would be executed. It is understood that in addition to dynamically collecting user-related information, some information may be retrieved from a user information database 828 that is built offline and kept updating. In this embodiment, the user-related information collected by the user information monitoring unit 816 is also fed into the advertisement placement decision unit 820. It is understood that other information, such as advertiser-related information, may also be dynamically collected and fed into the advertisement placement decision unit 820 in some embodiments.
In this embodiment, the advertisement placement decision unit 820 is configured to determine at least one advertisement placement from the retrieved initial set of candidate advertisement placements based, at least in part, on the information related to the user. That is, not all the advertisement placements preset by the publisher 604 may be suitable in view of the dynamic situation at the time when the user 610 makes the advertisement serving request. The advertisement placement decision unit 820 may consider the dynamic situation, for example, by comparing the user-related information against at least some of the parameters for each candidate advertisement placement to determine the suitable advertisement placement(s) for execution. For example, the publisher 604 may specify that certain advertisement placements are targeted and individualized for certain user segments. If the user 610 is not within those user segments, then the advertisement placement decision unit 820 may take those advertisement placements out from consideration. In some embodiments, the decision may be made based on other information, such as information related to advertisers or information related to an advertisement placement. In one example, the publisher 604 may designate a preferred advertiser for an advertisement placement in the passback mode. If the advertiser becomes unavailable at the time when the advertisement serving request is received, then the advertisement placement decision unit 820 may take that advertisement placement out as well. In another example, the publisher 604 may have entered an agreement with an advertiser for a guaranteed advertisement placement. If the contractual obligation has already been met at the time when the advertisement serving request is received, then the corresponding advertisement placement may also be filtered out at that time.
In this embodiment, the advertisement placement decision unit 820 not only filters candidate advertisement placement(s) from the initial set, but also determines the order in which the advertisement placements to be satisfied (execution order). In this embodiment, priorities of the advertisement placements in the initial set are considered by the advertisement placement decision unit 820. That is, if the publisher 604 has specified the execution order for some or all of the candidate advertisement placements, then this initial order will be taken into consideration by the advertisement placement decision unit 820. In some embodiments, the advertisement placement decision unit 820 may adjust the initial order set by the publisher 604 in view of the dynamic situation, for example based on information related to the user 610 and/or the advertisers 606. For example, if the user 610 is not within the targeted user group of an advertisement placement, instead of completely taking out the advertisement placement, the advertisement placement decision unit 820 may change the priority of the advertisement placement so that it will be executed at a lower ranking. Once the advertisement placement(s) and their execution order are determined, the advertisement placement decision unit 820 sends such information to the advertisement placement solicitation unit 822.
In this embodiment, the advertisement placement solicitation unit 822 is configured to request advertisers 606 to provide a response with respect to the determined advertisement placement(s). For example, the advertisement placement solicitation unit 822 may send a first request to a first set of advertisers to provide a first response with respect to a first advertisement placement that is ranked the highest by the advertisement placement decision unit 820. If no favorable response to the first request is received from the first set of advertisers, the advertisement placement solicitation unit 822 then may send a second request to a second set of advertisers (may be the same or different from the first set of advertisers) to provide a second response with respect to a second advertisement placement (determined based on the execution order). The solicitation process is repeated until a favorable response (e.g., a winning bid in the RTB mode or an acceptance in the passback mode) is received with respect to one of the advertisement placements. Each set of advertisers in the solicitation process may be dynamically determined based on the information related to the advertisers 606 and the information related to the user 610. For example, if the user 610 is determined to be a minor, then any advertisers in the tobacco industry may be filtered out for the solicitation process. The details of advertisement placement solicitation process are described above with respect to
In this embodiment, the advertisement selection unit 824 is configured to select an advertisement based on the response from the advertisers 606 with respect to the determined advertisement placement(s). If a positive response is received by the advertisement placement solicitation unit 822, then the advertisement placement solicitation unit 822 may pass the positive response to the advertisement selection unit 824. For example, if the positive response is a winning bid for an advertisement placement in the RTB mode, then the advertisement selection unit 824 in conjunction with the winning advertiser may select suitable advertisements to be placed onto each advertisement unit/space of the advertisement placement. The advertisement information transmission unit 826 may transmit information associated with the selected advertisement for a presentation to the user 610. For instance, the advertisement information transmission unit 826 may send link(s) to the selected advertisement(s) to the user's browser as a valid advertisement serving response so that the user's browser can retrieve and render the selected advertisement(s) at the advertisement units/spaces according to the advertisement placement.
To implement various modules, units, and their functionalities described in the present disclosure, computer hardware platforms may be used as the hardware platform(s) for one or more of the elements described herein. The hardware elements, operating systems, and programming languages of such computers are conventional in nature, and it is presumed that those skilled in the art are adequately familiar therewith to adapt those technologies to implement the dynamic advertisement placement method and system as described herein. A computer with user interface elements may be used to implement a personal computer (PC) or other type of work station or terminal device, although a computer may also act as a server if appropriately programmed. It is believed that those skilled in the art are familiar with the structure, programming, and general operation of such computer equipment and as a result the drawings should be self-explanatory.
The computer 1800, for example, includes COM ports 1802 connected to and from a network connected thereto to facilitate data communications. The computer 1800 also includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1804, in the form of one or more processors, for executing program instructions. The exemplary computer platform includes an internal communication bus 1806, program storage and data storage of different forms, e.g., disk 1808, read only memory (ROM) 1810, or random access memory (RAM) 1812, for various data files to be processed and/or communicated by the computer, as well as possibly program instructions to be executed by the CPU 1804. The computer 1800 also includes an I/O component 1814, supporting input/output flows between the computer and other components therein such as user interface elements 1816. The computer 1800 may also receive programming and data via network communications.
Hence, aspects of the method of online advertising based on dynamic advertisement placement, as outlined above, may be embodied in programming. Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as “products” or “articles of manufacture” typically in the form of executable code and/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type of machine readable medium. Tangible non-transitory “storage” type media include any or all of the memory or other storage for the computers, processors or the like, or associated modules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives, disk drives and the like, which may provide storage at any time for the software programming.
All or portions of the software may at times be communicated through a network such as the Internet or various other telecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enable loading of the software from one computer or processor into another, for example, from a management server or host computer of a search engine operator or other advertisement placement server into the hardware platform(s) of a computing environment or other system implementing a computing environment or similar functionalities in connection with dynamic advertisement placement. Thus, another type of media that may bear the software elements includes optical, electrical, and electromagnetic waves, such as used across physical interfaces between local devices, through wired and optical landline networks and over various air-links. The physical elements that carry such waves, such as wired or wireless links, optical links or the like, also may be considered as media bearing the software. As used herein, unless restricted to tangible “storage” media, terms such as computer or machine “readable medium” refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution.
Hence, a machine readable medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, a tangible storage medium, a carrier wave medium or physical transmission medium. Non-volatile storage media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as any of the storage devices in any computer(s) or the like, which may be used to implement the system or any of its components as shown in the drawings. Volatile storage media include dynamic memory, such as a main memory of such a computer platform. Tangible transmission media include coaxial cables; copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that form a bus within a computer system. Carrier-wave transmission media can take the form of electric or electromagnetic signals, or acoustic or light waves such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media therefore include for example: a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD or DVD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards paper tape, any other physical storage medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave transporting data or instructions, cables or links transporting such a carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer can read programming code and/or data. Many of these forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to a processor for execution.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present teaching is amenable to a variety of modifications and/or enhancements. For example, although the implementation of various components described above may be embodied in a hardware device, it can also be implemented as a software only solution—e.g., an installation on an existing server. In addition, the dynamic advertisement placement as disclosed herein can be implemented as a firmware, firmware/software combination, firmware/hardware combination, or a hardware/firmware/software combination.
While the foregoing has described what are considered to constitute the present teaching and/or other examples, it is understood that various modifications may be made therein and that the subject matter disclosed herein may be implemented in various forms and examples, and that the teachings may be applied in numerous applications, only some of which have been described herein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and all applications, modifications and variations that fall within the true scope of the present teaching.
