Patent ID: 8162758

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for hosting a video contest on a video hosting website, the method comprising: receiving a request from a user of the video hosting website to create a video contest; receiving, from the user, contest parameters for the video contest, the contest parameters comprising at least a submission period that is less than a duration of the video contest, a voting period that is less than the duration of the video contest, and an indication that a winning video contest entry is determined based on votes; initiating the video contest at the video hosting site based at least in part on the received contest parameters; receiving, from a plurality of contestants of the video contest during the submission period, video contest entries for the video contest, each entry provided by one of the plurality of contestants; receiving, during the voting period, votes for a plurality of the video contest entries from a plurality of additional users of the video hosting website; tabulating the received votes; automatically determining the winning video contest entry based on the tabulated votes; and providing an indication of the winning video content entry.