INCLUDING CONTENT ITEMS IN ADVERTISEMENTS

1 . A system for generating an advertisement unit, comprising:

a processor configured to:

receive a selection of one or more content items other than advertisements, each of which has an associated quality score; and

generate an advertisement, the advertisement including:

a representation of at least one content item from the selected one or more content items, wherein the representation of the at least one content item is included in the advertisement based at least in part on the quality score associated with the at least one content item; and

for each included representation, an associated link configured to, when activated by a viewer of the advertisement, direct the viewer to an instance of the respective included content item; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the quality score is a measure of a plurality of preferences for the content by a respective plurality of individuals.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to receive a set of one or more advertisement generation parameters.

4 . The system of claim 3 wherein the set of advertisement generation parameters includes a content item timeliness threshold.

5 . The system of claim 3 wherein the set of advertisement generation parameters includes a quality score threshold.

6 . The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is configured to generate the advertisement based at least in part on the received set of parameters.

7 . The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to generate the advertisement based at least in part on a user profile.

8 . The system of claim 1 wherein the advertisement further includes a visual representation corresponding to the at least one content item.

9 . The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to generate the advertisement in response to a request to provide a first user with the advertisement and wherein the processor is further configured to receive information associated with a previously indicated preference by the first user for at least one of the one or more content items included in the selection.

10 . The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to generate the advertisement in response to a request to provide a first user with the advertisement and wherein the processor is further configured to receive information associated with a previously indicated preference by a second user for at least one of the one or more content items included in the selection.

11 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one content item includes a review and wherein the quality score is a measure of a plurality of preferences for the review by a respective plurality of individuals.

12 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one content item includes a search result and wherein the quality score includes a text match score.

13 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one content item includes a search result and wherein the quality score includes a link analysis score.

14 . The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to receive the selection at a first time and wherein the processor is configured to generate the advertisement, in response to a request for an advertisement fulfillment, at a second time that is different from the first time.

15 . The system of claim 1 wherein the instance of the respective included content item includes an advertising skin.

16 . The system of claim 1 wherein the associated link is a direct link to the respective included content item.

17 . The system of claim 1 wherein the associated link is an indirect link to the respective included content item and wherein the associated link is a direct link to an interstitial advertisement.

18 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one content item includes a comment and wherein the quality score is an aggregate measure of a plurality of preferences for and against the comment.

19 . A method for generating an advertisement unit, comprising:

receiving a selection of one or more content items other than advertisements, each of which has an associated quality score; and

generating, using a microprocessor, an advertisement, the advertisement including:

a representation of at least one content item among the selected one or more content items, wherein the representation of the at least one content item is included in the advertisement based at least in part on the quality score associated with the at least one content item; and

for each included representation, an associated link configured to, when activated by a viewer of the advertisement, direct the viewer to an instance of the respective included content item.

20 . A computer program product for generating an advertisement unit, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving a selection of one or more content items other than advertisements, each of which has an associated quality score; and

generating an advertisement, the advertisement including:

a representation of at least one content item among the selected one or more content items, wherein the representation of the at least one content item is included in the advertisement based at least in part on the quality score associated with the at least one content item; and

for each included representation, an associated link configured to, when activated by a viewer of the advertisement, direct the viewer to an instance of the respective included content item.

21 . A processor-implemented method of generating an advertisement, the method comprising operating one or more computer processors to:

store a collection of content items excluding advertisements, wherein each content item is actionable to generate a preference event regarding the content item;

generate a first advertisement having first subject matter by:

identifying, in the collection, a first set of content items related to the first subject matter; and

configuring the first set of content items to be actionable;

receive a request for a plurality of content items to serve to a user; and

in response to the request, serve the first advertisement and multiple content items other than the first set of content items.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the advertisement comprises indicia identifying the subject matter.

23 . The method of claim 21 , wherein:

each of the multiple content items other than the first set of content items, and each content item in the first set of content items, is accompanied by a corresponding quality score comprising a measure of preference events received for the content item.

24 . The method of claim 21 , wherein:

configuring the first set of content items comprises assembling representations of the content items; and

each representation of a content item in the first set of content items is actionable to display the content item.

25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein:

configuring the first set of content items further comprises assembling, with the representations of the content items, a representation of the first subject matter; and

the representation of the first subject matter is actionable to display additional information regarding the first subject matter.

26 . The method of claim 21 , wherein:

each of the multiple content items other than the first set of content items comprises an associated control that is actionable to generate a preference event regarding the associated content item; and

the first advertisement comprises a first control that is actionable to activate a link to information regarding the first subject matter.

27 . The method of claim 21 , wherein serving the first advertisement and the multiple content items comprises:

presenting the multiple content items; and

presenting the first advertisement with an appearance similar to an appearance of the multiple content items.

28 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising operating the one or more computer processors to:

receive preference events regarding content items in the collection, from users to whom the content items are served; and

associate a corresponding quality score with each content item in the collection, wherein a content item's corresponding quality score is a measure of preference events received for the content item;

wherein identifying a first set of content items comprises selecting one or more content items related to the first subject matter based at least in part of the quality scores corresponding to the selected content items.