Patent ID: 7783540

Claim:
A search engine method comprising: at an account management server of an online search processing system configured to receive search requests from users and provide responsive search results based on the received search requests, providing menu options for access by a web site promoter; at the account management server, receiving over a computer network from the web site promoter information for an account associated with the web site promoter, including receiving over the computer network at the account management server information defining a subaccount from the web site promoter to organize advertising efforts of the web site promoter, including for each search listing of the subaccount, receiving at the account management server from the web site promoter information specifying a search listing to be included in the defined subaccount, receiving at the account management server a search term for the specified search listing of the defined subaccount, receiving at the account management server a uniform resource locator (URL) address associated with a web site of the web site promoter for the specified search listing of the defined subaccount, and receiving at the account management server a bid amount chargeable to the account of the web site promoter for the specified search listing of the defined subaccount; at the account management server, determining a current rank value associated with the bid amount for each respective search listing of the respective subaccount; at the account management server, receiving additional information defining additional subaccounts from the web site promoter to define a plurality of subaccounts; storing at the account management server the received information for the plurality of subaccounts and each respective search listing in a database; subsequently, providing computer network access to the account management server for monitoring the advertising efforts of the web site promoter and the plurality of subaccounts of the database by the web site promoter; receiving at the account management server over the computer network from a data processing device of the web site promoter a request for current account status information; and sending a message over the computer network to the data processing device of the web site promoter data defining the requested current account status information.