Patent ID: 7694215

Claim:
A data storage medium with computer-executable instructions for marketing and selling sponsorship of a directory listing in a system that displays directory listings in response to search criteria submitted by a user comprising: instructions for presenting a listing from the directory listing to the user based on the search criteria; instructions for determining if a sponsor for the listing exists based upon the search criteria and a bidding process where a highest bidder for the search criteria is selected as the sponsor for the listing; instructions for evaluating if a listee that is not the highest bidder in the presented listing has paid to self-sponsor and remove the selected sponsor for the listing when the selected sponsor would otherwise have sponsor information presented with listee information based upon the search criteria; and instructions for, based upon the listee self-sponsor payment evaluation, transmitting listee self-sponsor information to the user for use in generating a display if the listee self-sponsor payment was made, and if the listee self-sponsor payment was not made, transmitting the sponsor information to the user for use in generating the display.