Systems and methods for selecting advertisements for display over a communications network

1. A system for selecting and displaying advertisements over a communications network, the system comprising:

a database configured to store a plurality of advertisements; and

an advertisement selection application configured to:

receive a request for advertising from a user computer, wherein the request is generated automatically by the user computer in accordance with instructions provided to the user computer by a content publisher upon the user computer accessing the content publisher's page, and wherein the request further comprises one or more advertisement selection criteria; and

in response to the request, select at least one advertisement from the database for display within the page based at least in part on the one or more advertisement selection criteria associated with the request and at least in part on additional criteria that include bid criteria,

wherein:

at least one of the plurality of advertisements is a graphic corresponding to a single frame of video from a video advertisement; and

in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, the advertisement selection application is further configured to receive a request from the user computer for the video advertisement corresponding to the graphic.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of advertisements is a video advertisement.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of advertisements is a multimedia advertisement.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions comprise markup code provided to the user computer in response to the user computer submitting to the content publisher an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) request for access to the page.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection criteria is selected from the group of criteria comprising location, size, and/or format of an advertisement region within the page, an identifier of the content publisher of the page, an identifier of the page, end-user demographic data, end-user preferences, or a combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to randomly order the display of a sequence of advertisements.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order a display of a sequence of advertisements at least partially according to maximum bid amounts by advertisers associated with the advertisements.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order a display of a sequence of advertisements at least partially according to actual amounts advertisers associated with the advertisements would pay based on maximum bid amounts submitted by the advertisers for the ad placement opportunity.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order a display of a sequence of advertisements at least partially according to past performance of the advertisements or similar advertisements.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a content parser configured to parse the content of the page in order to determine one or more relevancy scores corresponding to the relevancy of the page to one or more themes, wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order a display of a sequence of advertisements at least partially according to the relevancy scores.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to rotate over time the particular frame that is selected as the graphic representing the video advertisement and to track user responsiveness to the selected frames.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, a browser of the user equipment is directed to a website associated with the graphic.

13. A method for selecting and displaying advertisements within a page, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of advertisements in a database;

receiving, at an advertisement selection system, a request for at least one of said advertisements from a user computer; and

in response to the request, and using the advertisement selection system, selecting at least one advertisement from of the plurality of stored advertisements for display within the page, wherein the selecting is based at least in part on past performance of an advertisement on the page and at least in part on a bid associated with at least one of the plurality of stored advertisements, wherein:

at least one of the plurality of advertisements is a graphic corresponding to a single frame of video from a video advertisement; and

in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, the method further comprises receiving, at the advertisement selection system, a request from the user computer for the video advertisement corresponding the graphic.

14. A system for selecting and displaying advertisements within a page, the system comprising:

means for storing a plurality of advertisements;

means for receiving a request for an advertisement from a user computer, wherein the request is generated automatically by the user computer in accordance with instructions provided to the user computer by a content publisher upon the user computer accessing a page provided by the content publisher, and wherein the instructions include one or more advertisement selection criteria; and

means for selecting, in response to the request, at least one advertisement from the stored advertisements for display within the page based at least in part on the one or more advertisement selection criteria associated with the request and at least in part on additional criteria that includes bid criteria, wherein:

at least one of the plurality of advertisements is a graphic corresponding to a single frame of video from a video advertisement; and

in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, the system further comprises means for receiving a request from the user computer for the video advertisement corresponding to the graphic.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the database configured to store a plurality of advertisements is further configured to store one or more advertiser bids associated with one or more of the plurality of advertisements.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the bid criteria comprises one or more advertiser bids that vary according to at least one of the advertisement selection criteria.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of advertisements are organized into at least one category, and the bid criteria comprises one or more advertiser bids associated with the at least one category.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the bid criteria comprises at least one advertiser bid indicating the maximum amount the advertiser would pay for an impression of at least one of the plurality of advertisements.

19. A system for selecting and displaying advertisements over a communications network, the system comprising:

a database configured to store a plurality of advertisements and advertiser bid data associated with the plurality of advertisements; and

an advertisement selection application configured to:

receive a request for advertising from a user computer, wherein the request is generated by the user computer in accordance with instructions provided to the user computer by a content publisher upon the user computer accessing the content publisher's page, and wherein the request further comprises one or more advertisement selection criteria; and

select at least one advertisement from the database, wherein the at least one advertisement that is selected corresponds to at least one advertisement selection criterion and is associated with a plurality of advertiser bids,

wherein:

at least one of the plurality of advertisements is a graphic corresponding to a single frame of video from a video advertisement; and

in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, the advertisement selection application is further configured to receive a request from the user computer for the video advertisement corresponding to the graphic.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the database configured to store a plurality of advertisements and advertiser bid data is further configured to associate multiple advertiser bids with one or more of the plurality of advertisements.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein the advertiser bid data indicates one or more advertiser bids that vary based at least in part on at least one of the advertisement selection criteria.

22. The system of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of advertisements are organized into at least one category, and the advertiser bid data indicates one or more advertiser bids associated with the at least one category.

23. The system of claim 19 , wherein the advertiser bid data indicates at least one advertiser bid specifying the maximum amount the advertiser would pay for an impression of at least one of the plurality of advertisements.

24. The system of claim 21 , wherein the one or more advertiser bids that vary based at least in part on at least one of the advertisement selection criteria vary according to an advertisement placement opportunity associated with the content publisher's page.

25. The system of claim 21 , wherein the one or more advertiser bids that vary based at least in part on at least one of the advertisement selection criteria vary according to a relevance score associated with the content publisher's page.

26. The system of claim 19 , wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to select a plurality of advertisements from the database, wherein the plurality of advertisements are organized in a sequence according to the advertiser bid data.