Abstract: An ad network system for providing content quality controls to advertisers when placing display advertisements online at publishers' sites and applications is disclosed. The ad network system includes a proposal tool for creating proposals for advertising campaigns, the proposals specifying content quality controls for the campaign. An advertiser management system manages the advertising campaigns for the advertisers, and a content categorization module analyzes content at the publishers' sites and applications. The display advertisements are served to the publishers' sites and applications with a two-stage ad server system according to the content quality controls for the advertising campaigns.

Abstract: An ad network system for optimizing the delivery of online display advertisement inventory is disclosed. The ad network system includes an advertiser management system to manage and acquire data for a set of advertising campaigns for a set of advertisers and a publisher management system to manage and acquire data for inventory at publishers' sites and applications. A delivery management system manages representations of the set of advertising campaigns in a third-party, external ad server in order to meet a set of guarantees for the set of advertising campaigns.

Abstract: An ad network system for optimizing the purchase of online display advertisement inventory is disclosed. The ad network system includes an advertiser management system to manage and acquire data for a set of advertising campaigns for a set of advertisers and a publisher management system to manage and acquire data for inventory at publishers' sites and applications. A media buying system runs a two-part optimization to determine an allocation of available inventory and an inventory purchase plan based on the data acquired by the advertiser management system and the publisher management system.

Abstract: A method and system for enabling segmentation of advertising inventory for an advertisement campaign includes capturing a plurality of requirements for an advertisement campaign. The campaign requirements include a descriptive tag that uniquely identifies the advertisement campaign. The requirements include a plurality of campaign attributes that define the requirements of the advertisement campaign including target audience and advertisement campaign objective. A tag inventory, with a plurality of descriptive tags and a plurality of advertisement bookings associated with one or more of the descriptive tags, is analyzed based on the captured advertisement campaign requirements. A recommended suggestion of bookings based on the analysis is presented. The recommended suggestion of bookings matches at least a portion of the campaign attributes.

Abstract: The present invention introduces methods for allocating: overlapping inventory. In the system of the present invention overlapping inventory problems are reformulated as a network transport problem. Specifically, different inventory types are represented as inventory network nodes. Similarly, corresponding inventory requests are also represented as request network nodes. The different inventory network nodes corresponding to inventory that can satisfy inventory requests are coupled to the request network nodes associated with those inventory requests. A source node is then coupled to the inventory network nodes and a destination node is coupled to the request network nodes. A flow limit of the available inventory is assigned to the connections between the source node and the inventory network nodes. Finally, inventory requests that must be satisfied are represented as flow minimums between the request network nodes and the destination network node.

Abstract: An auction system 200 in a networked environment. The system includes a preregistration module 201 for identifying and verifying a user of the auction system. The preregistration module checks the credit history of the user and generates a registration record of the user. The system includes an assurance module 210 for conducting a presale inspection of the merchandise item and to generate a merchandise inspection report. The system also includes a description module 215 for displaying the merchandise inspection report and a description report of the merchandise item. The system includes a bidding module 220 for processing a plurality of bids from a plurality of users. The bidding module analyzes each of the plurality of bids from each of the plurality of users to determine whether an incoming bid is higher or lower than a current high bid and to determine a current high bid.

Abstract: An auction system 200 in a networked environment. The system includes a preregistration module 201 for identifying and verifying a user of the auction system. The preregistration module checks the credit history of the user and generates a registration record of the user. The system includes an assurance module 210 for conducting a presale inspection of the merchandise item and to generate a merchandise inspection report. The system also includes a description module 215 for displaying the merchandise inspection report and a description report of the merchandise item. The system includes a bidding module 220 for processing a plurality of bids from a plurality of users. The bidding module analyzes each of the plurality of bids from each of the plurality of users to determine whether an incoming bid is higher or lower than a current high bid and to determine a current high bid.