Patent ID: 7366682

Claim:
In a network environment comprising one or more first computer processing systems for a plurality of promoter systems, a second computer processing system including a vendor system, a third computer processing system including a promotions management system, and a fourth computer processing system including a user system, each computer processing system coupled to a communication network, a method of providing a set of promotions to a user when the user accesses a web page via the fourth computer processing system including the user system, the web page being stored at a vendor web site hosted by the second computer processing system including the vendor system and including information related to an item, the method comprising: sending promotions information and rules associated with the promotions from the one or more first computer processing systems for the plurality of promoter systems to the third computer processing system over the communication network, the third computer processing system includes the promotions management system, wherein a rule associated with the promotions requires determination of the set of promotions based on price, name, category or manufacturer of the item available for purchase from the vendor system via the user system; storing the promotions information and rules associated with a plurality of promotions at the third computer processing system including the promotions management system; generating a promotions query at the second computer processing system including the vendor system for the item available for purchase from the vendor system via the user system, the promotions query including item-related information and user-related information; communicating the promotions query from the second computer processing system including the vendor system to the third computer processing system including the promotions management system over the communication network; determining at the third computer processing system including the promotions management system, in response to receiving the promotions query, the set of promotions for the item from the plurality of promotions based on the promotions query, and the promotions information and the rules associated with the promotions, by assigning a matching score to each promotion from the plurality of promotions based on the promotions query and user and vendor information and the rules associated with the plurality of promotions; prioritizing the plurality of promotions based on the matching scores and identifying the top scoring promotions to be included in the set of promotions; communicating the set of promotions for the item from the third computer processing system including the promotions management system to the second computer processing system including the vendor system over the communication network; and providing the set of promotions for the item from the second computer processing system including the vendor system to the fourth computer processing system including the user system over the communication network.