Display ads testing tool for rich media developers

Abstract

An ad test tool allows rich media developers to test ads in both a stand-alone environment and within live web pages. The ad test tool includes a stand-alone ad test tool, a live site ad test tool, and a rules and compliancy engine. The stand-alone ad test tool tests ads in a stand-alone environment by providing the ad rendering framework necessary to render ads on the user's local device. The live site ad test tool tests ads on live web pages. The live site ad test tool includes a proxy that intercepts ad requests from web pages and replaces the ads on the web pages with test ads. The rules and compliancy engine checks test ads for compliancy for security and privacy purposes and also verifies that click tracking and/or impression tracking operate properly.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-storage medium including computer-useable instructions that, when used by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations for testing an ad in a web page, the operations comprising:
 receiving, in a test ad tool on a local computing device, a test ad;   on the local computing device, receiving, from a user, a selection of a web page for testing the test ad;   receiving the web page, wherein the web page includes an ad markup for an ad from a remote advertising delivery system, the ad markup causing an ad request to be generated;   intercepting, on the local computing device, the ad request;   replacing, on the local computing device, the ad markup in the web page with an ad markup for the test ad; and   on the local computing device, displaying the test ad in the web page using the ad markup for the test ad.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the test ad comprises receiving at least one selected from the following: an ad tag for the test ad; an ad ID for the test ad; and a URL for the test ad. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the test ad comprises receiving the test ad from a remote computing device. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the test ad comprises receiving the test ad from the local computing device. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise refreshing the test ad to thereby determine if any remnant HTML, java script, or images remain on the web page. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving a selection of a web browser for presenting the web page with the test ad. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining an ad size corresponding with the ad markup for the ad from the remote advertising delivery system; and   selecting the test ad based on a determination that the test ad has an ad size matching the ad size corresponding with the ad markup for the ad from the remote advertising delivery system.   
     
     
         8 . A computing device for testing an ad, the computing device comprising:
 one or more processors coupled to a computer-storage medium, the computer-storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer software components executable by the processor, the computer software components comprising:   a test ad entry component allowing a user to enter one or more test ads;   a stand-alone ad test component that facilitates testing the one or more ads using a rendering framework of an advertising delivery system in a stand-alone environment; and   a live site ad test component that facilitates replacing one or more ads on a live web page with at least one of the one or more test ads.   
     
     
         9 . The computing device of  claim 8 , wherein the at least one of the one or more test ads is initially located on a remote computing device. 
     
     
         10 . The computing device of  claim 8 , wherein the test ad entry component allows the user to: enter one or more ad IDs for the one or more test ads; enter one or more URLs at which the one or more test ads are located; or enter one or more ad tags for the one or more test ads. 
     
     
         11 . The computing device of  claim 8 , wherein the stand-alone ad test component includes a refresh testing feature that replaces a rendered test ad with another test ad. 
     
     
         12 . The computing device of  claim 8 , wherein the live site ad test component includes a proxy that monitors web traffic, identifies an ad request for at least one of the one or more ads for the live web page, and provides the at least one of the one or more test ads for rendering within the live web page. 
     
     
         13 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the proxy identifies an ad size of the at least one of the one or more ads for the live web page and the live site ad test component provides the at least one of the one or more test ads based on a determination that an ad size of the at least one of the one or more test ads matches the ad size of the at least one of the one or more ads for the live web page. 
     
     
         14 . The computing device of  claim 8 , wherein the software components further comprise a rules and compliancy engine that checks the one or more ads for security and privacy compliancy. 
     
     
         15 . The computing device of  claim 8 , wherein the software components further comprise a rules and compliancy engine that checks the one or more ads for at least one selected from the following: click tracking compliancy; and impression tracking compliancy. 
     
     
         16 . A computer-implemented method for testing an ad using an ad test tool, the method comprising:
 receiving, in a test ad tool on a local computing device, a test ad;   on the local computing device, receiving, from a user, a selection of a web page for testing the test ad;   receiving the web page, wherein the web page includes an ad markup for an ad from a remote advertising delivery system, the ad markup causing an ad request to be generated;   intercepting, on the local computing device, the ad request;   replacing, on the local computing device, the ad markup in the web page with an ad markup for the test ad; and   on the local computing device, displaying the test ad in the web page using the ad markup for the test ad.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein receiving the test ad comprises receiving at least one selected from the following: an ad tag for the test ad; an ad ID for the test ad; and a URL for the test ad. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein receiving the test ad comprises receiving the test ad from a remote computing device. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises determining that a URL for the ad request corresponds with a predetermined URL. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:
 rendering and displaying the test ad in a stand-alone environment using a rendering framework of an advertising delivery system provided locally by the ad test tool; and   replacing, on the local computing device, the rendered and displayed test ad with a second test ad by rendering and displaying the second test ad.