Patent ID: 7363300

Claim:
A method of operating a search engine on a computer network to generate a search result list in response to a client submitting a search query, the method comprising: maintaining a database searchable by the search engine, the database storing a plurality of search listings, each search listing including search listing text, an information provider and a bid amount; receiving a search query from a client; identifying at least some search listings matching the search query, wherein a match is based at least in part on a location for an information provider; displaying at least some of the identified search listings to the client, where the displayed search listings are ordered using the bid amounts of the respective identified search listings; receiving a request made by the client to retrieve a selected search listing displayed to the client; charging to an account of the information provider for the selected search listing an amount related to the bid amount of the selected search listing; and providing an information provider with authenticated online access to the stored search listings of the information provider to modify a bid amount of a search listing or search listing text of a search listing.