Advertising content timeout methods in multiple-source advertising systems

1 . In a computer system, a method for ensuring timely receipt of advertisements in response to an advertisement request, the method comprising:

identifying a base request from an advertisement requester;

identifying a total response time allowed to process the base request, wherein the total response time allowed comprises:

a preprocessing period before the base request is sent to an advertisement supplier;

a fetch period to send the request to the advertisement supplier and receive advertisements from the advertisement supplier; and

a postprocessing period to process the advertisements obtained from the advertisement supplier and send the advertisements to the advertisement requester; and

monitoring the processing of the base request to determine whether the advertisements are received and sent to the advertisement requester within the total response time allowed.

2 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein during the fetch period to send the request to the advertisement supplier and receive advertisements from the advertisement supplier, the method comprises:

identifying a first fetching period;

sending the first request to the first advertisement supplier;

monitoring to determine whether the desired number of advertisements from the first advertisement supplier are received within the first fetching period;

if the desired number of advertisements are not received within the first fetching period, performing a backfill mechanism to supply the desired number of advertisements.

3 . The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein during the preprocessing period before the base request is sent to an advertisement supplier, the method comprises:

identifying a base request from an advertisement requester;

identifying a first keyword associated with the base request; and

dynamically altering the base request with the first keyword to form an altered request.

4 . The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein identifying a first keyword associated with the base request comprises identifying the first keyword based on at least one of:

the content of the base request based on at least one of:

identifying search terms in the base request;

crawling the content of a URL identified in the base request; or

identifying content in a content, category or hint parameter included with the base request; or

factors that may or may not be related to the content of the base request based on at least one of:

synonyms to content in the base request;

relevancy to the content of the base request;

current popular keywords for a given day;

historically popular keywords for a given day;

the time of day;

the time of week; or

the context of the base request based on at least one of:

identifying trends;

identifying system requirements of a user;

identifying the time and date of the base request;

identifying past user search history; or

identifying user demographics.

5 . The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein identifying a first keyword associated with the base request comprises identifying a user response history associated with the first keyword based on at least one of:

click-through-rate (CTR) of advertisements obtained using the first keyword;

cost-per-click (CPC) of advertisements obtained using the first keyword;

ad response percentage (ARP) of advertisements obtained using the first keyword;

call response ratio of advertisements obtained using the first keyword; or

views of advertisements obtained using the first keyword.

6 . The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein identifying the first keyword to be used to dynamically alter the base request comprises at least one of:

performing the identifying of the first keyword on a periodic or non-periodic basis;

assigning a usage weight to the first keyword indicating the percentage of times that the first keyword should be used to dynamically alter the base request; or

generating an optimized profile identifying at least the first advertisement supplier and the first keyword to be used to dynamically alter the base request.

7 . The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising tracking user response to the advertisements.

8 . A system configured to process advertisement requests and return advertisements to an advertisement requester, the system comprising:

a routing system communicating with an advertisement requester and an advertisement supplier, the routing system configured to:

identify a base request from an advertisement requester;

send the base request to an advertisement supplier;

receive advertisements from the advertisement supplier in response to the base request; and

send the advertisements to the advertisement requester; and a clocking module configured to:

identify a total response time allowed to process the base request, wherein the total response time allowed comprises:

a preprocessing period before the base request is sent to an advertisement supplier;

a fetch period to send the request to the advertisement supplier and receive advertisements from the advertisement supplier; and

a postprocessing period to process the advertisements obtained from the advertisement supplier and send the advertisement to the advertisement requester; and

monitor the processing of the base request to determine whether the advertisements are received and sent to the advertisement requester within the total response time allowed.

9 . The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein during the fetch period to send the request to the advertisement supplier and receive advertisements from the advertisement supplier, the method comprises:

identifying a first fetching period;

sending the first request to the first advertisement supplier;

monitoring to determine whether the desired number of advertisements from the first advertisement supplier are received within the first fetching period; and

if the desired number of advertisements are not received within the first fetching period, performing a backfill mechanism to supply the desired number of advertisements.

10 . The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein sending the base request to an advertisement supplier further comprises:

identifying a first keyword associated with the base request; and

dynamically altering the base request with the first keyword to form an altered request.

11 . The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein identifying a first keyword associated with the base request comprises identifying the first keyword based on at least one of:

the content of the base request based on at least one of:

identifying search terms in the base request;

crawling the content of a URL identified in the base request; or

identifying content in a content, category or hint parameter included with the base request; or

factors that may or may not be related to the content of the base request based on at least one of:

synonyms to content in the base request;

relevancy to the content of the base request;

current popular keywords for a given day;

historically popular keywords for a given day;

the time of day;

the time of week; or

the context of the base request based on at least one of:

identifying trends;

identifying system requirements of a user;

identifying the time and date of the base request;

identifying past user search history; or

identifying user demographics.

12 . The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein identifying a first keyword associated with the base request comprises identifying a user response history associated with the first keyword based on at least one of:

click-through-rate (CTR) of advertisements obtained using the first keyword;

cost-per-click (CPC) of advertisements obtained using the first keyword;

ad response percentage (ARP) of advertisements obtained using the first keyword;

call response ratio of advertisements obtained using the first keyword; or

views of advertisements obtained using the first keyword.

13 . The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein identifying the first keyword to be used to dynamically alter the base request comprises at least one of:

performing the identifying of the first keyword on a periodic or non-periodic basis;

assigning a usage weight to the first keyword indicating the percentage of times that the first keyword should be used to dynamically alter the base request; or

generating an optimized profile identifying at least the first advertisement supplier and the first keyword to be used to dynamically alter the base request.

14 . The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the routing system is further configured to track user response to the advertisements.