SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPERATING A MARKETPLACE FOR INTERNET AD MEDIA AND FOR DELIVERING ADS ACCORDING TO TRADES MADE IN THAT MARKETPLACE

1 . A method for operating an Internet-based exchange marketplace offering commoditized Ad Media, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving the identity of Ad Media from a publisher for publication of advertisements on a webpage;

automatically classifying the Ad Media according to attributes;

associating the classified Ad Media with other classified Ad Media in accordance with predetermined criteria;

grouping the associated Ad Media into buckets forming a predefined quantity of commoditized Ad Media; and

offering the commoditized Ad Media for purchase or sale over the Internet as tradable units on an exchange marketplace.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined criteria is at least one of time dependency, geographic location, and demographic information.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further including the step of automatically applying business rules in conjunction with the offering step so as to limit the offering steps to recipients based on the business rules.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the business rules are established as conditions of the purchase or the sale of the tradable units.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the classifying step occurs in real time as ad requests are received.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further including the steps of:

receiving an ad request from an Internet browser accessing a webpage associated with that Ad Media; and

routing advertisements for display on the webpage based on classifying the ad request, wherein the classification incorporates the attributes.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the ad requests are classified in real time.

8 . The method of claim 6 , further including the steps of:

settling the purchase of the Ad Media through at least one of a real time settlement over the Internet and an incrementally updated settlement; and

storing records of the settlement including purchase and sale information.

9 . The method of claim 6 , further including the steps of:

querying records of a plurality of purchasers of the offers to determine the ownership interest in the Ad Media among the plurality of the purchasers;

configuring the ad request to incorporate purchaser specific information in the ad request; and

forwarding the ad request back to the Internet browser, wherein the Internet browser then accesses an ad server of the purchaser and receives the advertisement.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further including the steps of:

storing records of a purchase or sale; and

providing a market accessor tool to the publisher and a purchaser of the commoditized Ad Media, wherein the market accessor tool accesses the stored records.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further including at least one of the steps of:

providing an ability to utilize the market accessor tool to monitor the effectiveness of an ad campaign based on data in the stored records;

dynamically identifying the existence of Ad Media conforming to a buyer's preference on the exchange marketplace;

placing an order for Ad Media on the exchange marketplace; and

canceling an order present on the exchange marketplace.

12 . An Internet-based exchange marketplace for offering commoditized Ad Media, comprising:

a media ownership rules module containing business rules, wherein the media ownership rules module is in communication with a media trades record module containing records of ownership interests in the commoditized Ad Media;

a classification module configured to automatically classify the Ad Media in accordance with predetermined attributes;

an ad server registry module containing configuration information specific to a plurality of ad servers; and

a tag routing module configured to receive ad requests for advertisements from an Internet browser and forward the ad requests back to the Internet browser for rerouting to an ad server;

wherein the tag routing module accesses the classification module for categorization of the ad request, obtains an identity of a purchaser of commoditized Ad Media matching the categorized ad request; and configures the ad request based on requirements of the purchaser within the ad server registry module prior to forwarding the ad request back to the Internet browser.

13 . The exchange marketplace of claim 12 , further comprising a market accessor tool configured to evaluate the effectiveness of an ad campaign.

14 . The exchange marketplace of claim 13 , wherein the market accessor tool is an interactive GUI, and is further configured to:

dynamically identify commoditized Ad Media conforming to a buyer's preference;

place an order for the commoditized Ad Media on the exchange marketplace; and

cancel an order present on the exchange marketplace.