Patent ID: 7174305

Claim:
A method of scheduling delivery of multiple items of content selectively to a plurality of online users, comprise: determining expected values relating to each user being online during a given time period; generating an ordered list of the items of content to be selectively delivered to the users based on the expected value, said ordered list being prioritized to meet delivery requirements associated with said items of content; and generating an individual list of items of content to be delivered to each user based on the ordered list, wherein generating said individual list comprises determining the position of each of said items of content in said individual list in accordance with the following equation: E[Q j ]â‰¦âˆ’Ï„(ln M j âˆ’ln P j âˆ’ln p )/Î” where, E[Qj] is the position of a given item of content, Ï„ is the mean expected time period of a user online session, M j is the desired number of impressions of the item of content to be delivered per day, P j is the number of online users who are eligible to receive the item of content,p is the probability that a given eligible user is online on a given day, and Î” is time period between deliveries of items of content to a user.