Patent ID: 7756754

Claim:
A method of providing a search service to a shopper by an on-line shopping mall comprising a plurality of on-line shops, wherein the on-line shops are operated by sellers that sell registered products in their respective on-line shops, the method comprising: receiving, from a terminal associated with a shopper, a search query for a product; conducting a search in reply to the search query and locating a plurality of on-line shops, associated with the on-line shopping center, that sell the product specified in the search query; determining a set of search results for the search query, wherein the search results comprise data indicating which on-line shops sell the product specified in the search query and wherein the search results are displayed in an order that is based on respective lengths of time during which each shop has been registered with the on-line shopping center; and transmitting data for displaying the search result view to the terminal associated with the shopper.