Patent ID: 8392290

Claim:
In an online marketplace with sellers and item listings, a computer-implemented method comprising: calculating a first sum by identifying a first set of item listings associated with a seller, the first set of item listings being a subset of all item listings associated with the seller; calculating a second sum by identifying a second set of item listings, the second set of item listings being successful item listings and a subset of the first set of item listings; calculating, using one or more processors, a conversion factor from the first sum and second sum by dividing the second sum by the first sum; and using the conversion factor as a component in an item listing quality score for a third set of item listings that are a subset of all item listings associated with the seller, using the conversion factor including: assigning a ranking score to an item listing in the third set of item listings that satisfies a query, the ranking score for the item listing including the conversion factor; and presenting the item listing in search results, the item listing positioned in the search results based on the ranking score, the conversion factor demoting the item listing's position if the conversion factor exceeds a threshold score and the conversion factor does not affect the item listing's position if the conversion factor does not exceed the threshold score.