Patent ID: 6986100
Filing Date: 2006-01-10
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of allocating a number N of available display slots on a Web page among a plurality of different sources of display items, said method comprising: (a) defining, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed; (b) selecting display items from a pool of all candidate sets of display items in a manner that equalizes a probability that display items of a first candidate set from a first source are selected in relation to display items of a second candidate set from a second source, wherein the display items of the first candidate set and the second candidate set are unequal in number; (c) inserting up to N of the selected items in the available display slots of the Web page; (d) defining a plurality of different levels of source participation, each source being associated with one level and each level having one or more sources associated with it; (e) performing (a) through (c) separately for the sources at each level of participation, thereby selecting a number of display items at each level; and (f) selecting a predefined number of display items from said selected items at each level and assigning the predefined number of display items of each level to respective display slots on the Web page in a manner that gives preference to one level of source participation relative to another.