Media Releases

New technology will mean shift for internet advertising

April 19, 2010

TORONTO, ON – Plac­ing inter­net ads on web­sites will be eas­i­er and more prof­itable in the future thanks to a new tech­nol­o­gy devel­oped at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to that allows ads to be resized to fit any avail­able web­site space.

Inter­net ads are cur­rent­ly only avail­able in three or four spe­cif­ic sizes, mean­ing web­sites must be designed around the ads. The size restric­tions great­ly lim­it ad place­ment options and affect the way ads look on devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

But a new tech­nol­o­gy, devel­oped by UofT Elec­tri­cal and Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing asso­ciate pro­fes­sor Parham Aara­bi, enables ads to be resized auto­mat­i­cal­ly to con­form to any web space. Aara­bi will present the con­cept at the World Wide Web 2010 Con­fer­ence in late April in Raleigh, North Car­oli­na.

“Cur­rent­ly, a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of usable web­site spaces are not used for adver­tis­ing because the stan­dard size ads don’t fit,” says Aara­bi, Cana­da Research Chair in Inter­net Video, Audio, and Image Search. “Our tech­nol­o­gy is the first ever to con­form ads to any avail­able web­site space in an auto­mat­ed and prac­ti­cal way. Essen­tial­ly, adver­tis­ers pro­vide a sin­gle ad at a pre­set size, and our tech­nol­o­gy can, auto­mat­i­cal­ly and dynam­i­cal­ly, regen­er­ate the ad at any size, res­o­lu­tion, or aspect ratio by tak­ing into account the con­tents of the ad, rel­e­vant text, and oth­er infor­ma­tion.”

He adds that the tech­nol­o­gy will trans­late into prof­it because for­mer­ly wast­ed web space can be used for adver­tis­ing.

“Giv­en an online adver­tis­ing mar­ket worth bil­lions of dol­lars, this tech­nol­o­gy could sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase rev­enues for pub­lish­ers, and cre­ate new oppor­tu­ni­ties for adver­tis­ers,” Aara­bi says.

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For more infor­ma­tion on the tech­nol­o­gy, please con­tact:

Parham Aara­bi
Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Elec­tri­cal and Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing
Cana­da Research Chair in Inter­net, Video, Audio and Image Search
647–350-6525
parham@ecf.utoronto.ca

Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to media rela­tions
416–978-0100
media.relations@utoronto.ca