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Abstract

Dynamic advertising scheduling, display, and tracking for the world wide web. The invention includes at least one template web page that has conventional HTML codes defining the format and content of the web page. Special 'ad tags' are used to indicate the characteristics of an ad that can be displayed on a web page at the position of the ad tag. A request to view a page is sent to a server-resident parser. The parser accesses the template for the requested page, parses the conventional HTML codes, and provides such codes to the user. In addition, the parser 'expands' each ad tag to standard HTML code that defines the characteristics of an ad. During expansion of ad tags, the parser determines from each ad tag the type of ad that can be inserted at the page position of the ad tag; a bin identifier defining which ads can be associated with the ad tag; a page identifier of the page associated with the ad tag; and various optional flags and codes. The parser generates a list of valid ads by searching through a conventional database, selects one that fulfills all the parameters of the ad tag, and generates HTML code linking a particular ad to the ad tag. That HTML code is then sent to the user. The parser program can also apply scheduling criteria to select ads from the generated list of eligible candidates.

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First Claim