Patent ID: 8856106

Claim:
A tangible machine-readable storage medium having no transitory signals and storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising: identifying a listing entity providing each entry of a plurality of entries in a result set of a search initiated by a searching user, the listing entity is either a business or an individual user; accessing sorting criteria including a constraint that indicates a maximum number of entries from a same entity allowed within a predetermined number of the plurality of entries, and a distance rule that defines a minimum distance between each of the maximum number of entries from the same entity in the result set, the maximum number of entries from the same entity allowed being based on a ratio of business entries to individual user entries in the result set; generating a sorted result set by sorting the plurality of entries in the result set using the sorting criteria such that each entry from the same entity in the result set is positioned in a sorted order in compliance with the sorting criteria; and providing the sorted result set to the searching user.