Re: Ad server options

From: Ivan Weltman <ivan_at_tudogs.com>
Date: Thu 23 Aug 2001 12:13:58 -0500

MATT STEVENS <matt_biz_at_yahoo.com> WROTE:

>You do get what you pay for! The trouble with many of
>the low-end solutions such as CentralAds and Ad
>Juggler is that they don't offer good support, real
>functionality or stability...

I have spent much of the past five years reviewing free
software for TuDogs and the notion that one gets what one
pays for has been well and truly disposed of by the Open
Source movement. MySQL, Apache, FreeBSD, and PHP to name
but a few. There's a solid free banner delivery package
too, named DAD - here's the pitch extracted from there Web
site:

"DAD is a mod_perl application with advanced targeting
capabilities, a comprehensive administrative interface,
and automatic client reporting. Because it uses mod_perl,
DAD can takes advantage of Apache API elements like
subrequests and notes, and it can rely on persistent
database connections through DBI. These features allow
DAD to efficiently implement advanced targeting rules
that would be impossible under CGI.

DAD can target ads by many factors, which include:
remaining impressions, browser, domain name, number of
times a user has seen an ad, virtualhost-specific
environment variables, and other ads on a given page. The
targeting code is written to allow easy addition of new
targeting dimensions for site-specific needs.
DAD provides a web-based administrative interface for
maintenance of ads and their targeting dimension, ad
placement, and site and reporting parameters. Ad
parameters and placement can be updated in real-time
on a live site.

Additionally, each advertiser can be given a password-
protected URL where they can view automatically updated
statistics about their ads."
Not bad for free software - available at
http://www.sklar.com/dad/

Ivan Weltman
http://www.tudogs.com
The Ultimate Directory of Gratis Software



Received on Thu Aug 23 2001 - 12:13:58 CDT