Patent ID: 6928615

Claim:
A method of displaying advertisements to a user of an online service using a client application on a local device, the local device including an input device and an output device, the local device accessing the online service and providing interaction with the online service, the method comprising the steps of: the client application becoming active; the client application establishing a communication channel from the local device to the online service; the client application receiving a first play list; the client application displaying a client window on the output device of the local device, wherein the client window displays continuously so long as the communication channel from the local device to the online service is maintained; the client application causing advertisements to be displayed in an ad pane of the client window, wherein the display of advertisements operates in accordance with the first play list, the first play list comprising plural ad objects, each ad object comprising a resource locator for a given advertisement and a resource locator for a click-through associated with the given advertisement, the first play list further specifying an order in which the advertisements identified in the first play list are to be displayed.