Online advertising has become the main source of income for most site owners, content providers and publishers. No wonder new and improved measures are being taken to refine and improve it’s targeting/delivery. One consolidation tool new on the block is an interface described in Yahoo’s new patent application- Yahoo Universal Advertisement Services.

The new invention was created to enhance the process of ad creation and optimization for advertisers. Both banner ads and sponsored search media buying can be processed using the single interface with no need to open and switch between multiple windows. As we expectes this service should significantly simplify and expedite the online ad publication and management process:

A universal advertisement services system provides a common framework for managing web-based advertisement campaigns associated with various kinds of advertisement formats and advertisement pricing mechanisms. A unified set of interfaces is provided for advertisement configuration, fetching, arbitration and optimization, and advertisement campaign validation, exposing services to external parties as well as internal users. The universal advertisement services system enables delivery of an optimal available guaranteed or performance-based advertisement for a specified position in a web page and based on given business rules and metrics.

Now that Google SiteTargeting has also launched, and MSN has their hands in the mix, this new online marketplace is due for a shake-up!