ADVERTISING SELECTION AND DISPLAY BASED ON ELECTRONIC PROFILE INFORMATION

1 . A method for displaying content in a web browser for an entity, the method comprising:

rendering a relevant content area within the web browser;

accessing a web page in a web page area within the web browser;

transmitting information regarding the web page to a profiling system configured to access an electronic profile of the entity;

receiving at least one advertisement selected based at least in part on the electronic profile of the entity and the transmitted information; and

displaying the received advertisement in the relevant content area.

2 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the relevant content area overlays the web page area.

3 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the web browser is displayed on a widescreen monitor thereby leaving unused space, the act of rendering the relevant content area comprising rendering the relevant content are in the unused space.

4 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the information regarding the web page comprises URL, metadata, a term contained in the web page, or combinations thereof.

5 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at least one link to a content item selected based in part on the electronic profile of the entity and the transmitted information; and

displaying the link in the relevant content area.

6 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

navigating to a second web page;

transmitting information regarding the second web page to the profiling system;

receiving a different advertisement selected based in part on the electronic profile of the entity and the transmitted information regarding the second web page; and

updating the displayed advertisement with the different advertisement.

7 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the electronic profile comprises a relational database on an electronic storage medium.

8 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an indication that a term on the web page is relevant to the electronic profile; and

transmitting the term to the profiling system for inclusion in the electronic profile.

9 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the electronic profile includes permissions, and the act of transmitting occurs only if the permissions allow for communication with the web browser.

10 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the selected advertisement was selected based on a computed degree of relevance of the advertisement to the electronic profile and transmitted information.

11 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the degree of relevance includes a relevance number, the relevance number computed based on term frequency and inverse document frequency calculations for the advertisement using the electronic profile.

12 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving a plurality of links, each to a respective content item and each selected based on a computed degree of relevance of the advertisement to the electronic profile and transmitted information; and

displaying the links in the relevant content area.

13 . A user device for use by an entity, the user device comprising:

a display;

a processor;

memory coupled to the processor, the memory encoding computer readable instructions that, when executed cause the processor to:

display network accessible content in a viewed content area of the display;

transmit information regarding the network accessible content to a profiling system configured to access an electronic profile of the entity;

receive at least one advertisement selected based at least in part on the electronic profile of the entity and the transmitted information; and

display the received advertisement in a relevant content area of the display different than the viewed content area.

14 . The user device according to claim 13 wherein the network accessible content comprises a web page and the viewed content area comprises a web page area.

15 . The user device according to claim 13 wherein the display is a widescreen display and the relevant content area includes an area of the display that is unused when displaying a standard web page.

16 . The user device according to claim 13 wherein the computer readable instructions comprise an Internet browser plug-in.

17 . The user device according to claim 13 wherein the computer readable instructions further comprise instructions causing the processor to:

receive a link to a content item selected based at least in part on the electronic profile associated with the entity and the network accessible content.

18 . The user device according to claim 13 wherein the computer readable instructions further include instructions causing the processor to transmit information regarding a second accessed network accessible content item to the profiling server, receive a second advertisement based in part on the electronic profile of the entity and the second accessed network accessible content item, and update the relevant content area of the display with the second advertisement.

19 . A method for selecting relevant advertisements for an entity, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first computing device, information regarding a network accessible content item accessed by an entity with a second computing device;

accessing, by the first computing device, a stored electronic profile associated with the entity;

scoring a plurality of stored advertisements based on the stored electronic profile and the received network accessible content item information;

selecting at least one of the plurality of stored advertisements based on their score; and

transmitting the selected advertisements to the second computing device.

20 . The method according to claim 19 wherein the network accessible content item comprises a web page.

21 . The method according to claim 20 wherein the information regarding the web page comprises URL, metadata, a term or set of terms contained in the web page, or combinations thereof.

22 . The method according to claim 19 further comprising:

scoring a plurality of content links based in part on the electronic profile of the entity and the transmitted information; and

selecting at least one of the plurality of content links based on their score; and

transmitting the selected links to the second computing device.

23 . The method according to claim 19 further comprising:

receiving, at the first computing device, information regarding a second network accessible content item accessed by the entity at the second computing device;

scoring the plurality of stored advertisements based on the electronic profile of the entity and the transmitted information regarding the second network accessible content item;

selecting at least one of the stored advertisements based on their score; and

transmitting the selected advertisements to the second computing device.

24 . The method according to claim 19 wherein the electronic profile comprises a relational database on an electronic storage medium.

25 . The method according to claim 19 wherein the electronic profile includes permissions, and the act of transmitting occurs only if the permissions allow for communication with the second computing device.

26 . The method according to claim 19 wherein the act of scoring includes computing a relevance number, the relevance number computed based on term frequency and inverse document frequency calculations for the advertisement using the electronic profile.