Abstract: An ad server system takes into consideration information about a user who clicks on an ad in determining whether to charge the advertiser for the click event, and/or in determining an amount to charge the advertiser. In one embodiment, unless the user is recognized, the advertiser is not charged for the ad selection event. Thus, advertisers do not have to pay the ad placement provider when the users who click on their ads are not recognized. If the user is recognized, the ad server system may determine whether and/or how much to charge the advertiser based on information about the recognized user. This information may include, for example, whether the user has set up an account, whether a valid credit card is on file for the user, and/or other types of user information that can be used to hold fraudulent users accountable for their actions.

Abstract: An improved system and method for securing invocations for serving advertisements and instrumentation in online advertising is provided. An advertisement exchange server may provide services for publisher servers to add executable instructions to securely display online advertisements on a client device within allocated space of a web page of content published by the publisher servers. A client device may retrieve a document with added executable instructions and execute the executable instructions that may calculate a checksum, extract the internet protocol address of the publisher server, and send a request with the checksum and internet protocol address of the publisher server to retrieve an advertisement to display with content of the document. The advertisement exchange server may verify that the checksum is valid for the internet protocol address of the publisher server and may send the request to an advertiser server to serve an advertisement to the client device.

Abstract: An Internet-oriented advertising exchange controller presents website content in a plurality of frames as well as support search criteria and other flexible forms of inventory formatting and delivery. Applications include Internet protocol request coordination or relay, cooperative frame based or interstitial advertising, and support for a local search or dataless metasearch system. The controller operates in a cookieless environment, has logic to protect advertiser's investment from AutoSurf equivalent systems, and protects against other inappropriate stimuli including denial of service or IP blast attacks. As such, an advertiser's credits are affected only by human stimuli. Communication with and among exchange controllers for sharing or delivering information about inventory occurs by a number of protocols with optional encryption.