Patent ID: 8533049

Claim:
A method for facilitating transactions for publishing inventory available in an advertising exchange including at least one publishing entity to represent at least one publisher and at least one advertising entity to represent at least one advertiser, wherein the advertising exchange federates at least two disparate advertising networks, comprising: communicating a request for information to a third party value add broker, the information being relevant to at least one potential advertising transaction within the advertising exchange, the request including information about the at least one potential advertising transaction; receiving, at one or more computing devices on which the advertising exchange is operating, the information from a value add broker that does not purchase or sell advertising in the advertising exchange; determining, at the one or more computing devices, a value of the information by auctioning the information to entities participating in a potential advertising transaction; completing the potential advertising transaction between the entities using the information; and automatically generating a benefit for the value add broker as a function of the value of the information or the services provided by the value add broker.