A friend and I developed a proof-of-concept system in 2006 to address this opportunity. The central concept was that publishers would receive offers via our ad

A friend and I developed a proof-of-concept system in 2006 to address this opportunity. The central concept was that publishers would receive offers via our advertising marketplace, and then use their own selection algorithm to select ads to display (publishers could choose to use our hosted selection tools, use our open-source selection algorithms, or build their own). This would allow the publisher to use any combination of factors, such as ad format and perceived relevance -- not just eCPM. It is a flexible system that give the publisher the final decision to display or veto an ad. If anyone wants to read the whitepaper, feel free to send me an email. The truly adventurous can check out the patent application (#11948995).