general the advertiser on behalf of itself or its clients creates ads to be served to users 112 via the internet as described in greater detail below the advertiser 110 submits an electronic ad input file to the portal 100 that contains the ad message specifying the required text graphics and other content in the ad the ad may be part of a webpage served by the portal 39 s web server 114 or by another web server 114 for example one operated by the advertiser 110 the ad may also include one or more buttons or other actions that allow users 112 to link to other websites for example those provided by the web servers 114 of the advertiser or its clients notably the electronic file submitted by the advertiser 110 in the present embodiment is in certain respects of a standard format regardless of the particular ad content and tracking methodology being use this standardized format provides greater ease and flexibility in editing and serving the ad and tracking the responses of users 112 more specifically because the ad content is merged with the code necessary for tracking the ad as described below the advertiser 110 may provide the content to many different portals without concerning itself with the difference in portal tracking methodologies similarly portals may select a tracking methodology and implement it.