Juno Online Services, Inc.

Jon D McAuliffe

Brian D Marsh

Mark A Moraes

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for scheduling the presentation of a continuously-changing display to computer users, and is particularly well-suited for use in an advertisement-supported e-mail service. An advertisement display scheduler resident on a user's computer receives advertisements from a server system over a network. Upon receipt, the advertisement display scheduler determines the priority of the advertisement and assigns it to one of a plurality of prioritized advertisement queues. Each queue is sorted according to predetermined scheduling criteria so that advertisements deemed 'more important' are presented to a user first. The advertisement display scheduler logs statistical information relating to the presentation of advertisements for use in updating the scheduling criteria, and makes such statistical information available to the server system.

Method and apparatus for scheduling the presentation of messages to

A system and method for authenticating that advertisements are properly displayed at a remote computer. The advertisements are received electronically and are stored in a memory device at the remote computer. The advertisements are output to users when the remote computer is off-line. Each advertisement is authenticated by the remote computer prior to output to ensure, for example, that the advertisement has not been tampered with, modified or replaced. Information as to when advertisements are output is recorded and used for billing the advertisers. This information can be stored in a statistics file on the remote computer. When the statistics file is transferred to a central computer, the statistics file is authenticated to ensure that it has not been tampered with, modified or replaced. The authentication scheme can be used as part of an electronic mail system.

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New York, NY, United States of America

Jon D McAuliffe