Normalized rotation on a web site of display items from multiple sources

• US 6,986,100 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2000
• Issued: 01/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. (d/b/a DJI) (iFlight Technology Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blinn, Arnold N., Cook, Daniel B., Dunning, John A. Jr., Brussard, Peter H., Copson, Steven D., Ugar, Mark, Roper, John D., Sparr, Kathryn L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Herndon, Heather R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Campbell, Joshua D
• Application Number:
  US09/676,364
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 715/511, 715/513, 715/530, 715/539, 715/540, 715/908, 205/14
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A method for balancing the allocation of available display slots on a Web page among a plurality of different sources of display items comprises (a) defining for each source a set of candidate items to be displayed, (b) selecting items from a pool of all candidate sets, in a manner that normalizes the probability that the items of any one candidate set will be selected in relation to the items of the other candidate sets, and (c) inserting the selected items into the available display slots of the Web page.

Claims

1. A method of allocating a number N of available display slots on a Web page among a plurality of different sources of display items, said method comprising:

(a) defining, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed;

(b) selecting display items from a pool of all candidate sets of display items in a manner that equalizes a probability that display items of a first candidate set from a first source are selected in relation to display items of a second candidate set from a second source, wherein the display items of the first candidate set and the second candidate set are unequal in number;

(c) inserting up to N of the selected items in the available display slots of the Web page;

(d) defining a plurality of different levels of source participation, each source being associated with one level and each level having one or more sources associated with it;

(e) performing (a) through (c) separately for the sources at each level of participation, thereby selecting a number of display items at each level; and

(f) selecting a predefined number of display items from said selected items at each level and assigning the predefined number of display items of each level to respective display slots on the Web page in a manner that gives preference to one level of source participation relative to another.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein if there are not enough display items at a given level to select said predefined number of display items, then said method further comprises assigning display slots that otherwise would have been assigned to the display items of that level instead to the display items at the highest other level of participation having available items to fill those slots.

3. The method recited in claim 1, wherein if there are not enough display items among all of the levels of source participation to fill the available display slots on the Web page, then said method further comprises filling the unfilled display slots with display items selected from sources outside of said predefined levels of source participation.

4. The method recited in claim 1, wherein (b) further comprises (b1) randomly selecting one of the candidate sets, (b2) selecting one item from the selected candidate set, (b3) reducing a count of the display items of the selected candidate set by one and removing that candidate set from further consideration when the count reaches zero;

and (b4) repeating (b1) through (b3) until a desired number of display items have been selected.

5. The method recited in claim 4, wherein (b2) comprises randomly selecting one item from the selected candidate set.

6. The method recited in claim 4, wherein (b2) comprises selecting one item from the selected candidate set in accordance with a weighting of items applied to the selected candidate set.

7. The method recited in claim 6, wherein (a) comprises defining, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed, each candidate set of items having at least a first subset and a second subset, each subset having a count associated therewith of the number of display items in that subset, and wherein (b2) and (b3) are performed first on the first subset of display items until the count for that subset reaches zero, and then on the second subset, the candidate set being removed from further consideration only after the counts of both subsets reach zero.

8. The method recited in claim 7, wherein each candidate set comprises two or more subsets, and wherein (b2) and (b3) are performed, in turn, on each successive subset until the counts of all of the subsets reach zero.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to allocate a number N of available display slots on a Web page among a plurality of different sources of display items, said instructions causing the computer to:

(a) define, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed;

(b) selecting display items from a pool of all candidate sets of display items in a manner that equalizes a probability that display items of a first candidate set from a first source are selected in relation to display items of a second candidate set from a second source, wherein the display items of the first candidate set and the second candidate set are unequal in number;

(c) insert up to N of the selected items in the available display slots of the Web page;

(d) define a plurality of different levels of source participation, each source being associated with one level and each level having one or more sources associated with it;

(e) perform (a) through (c) separately for the sources at each level of participation, thereby selecting a number of display items at each level; and

(f) select a predefined number of display items from said selected items at each level and assigning those selected display items to respective display slots on the Web page in a manner that gives preference to one level of source participation relative to another.

10. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 9, wherein if there are not enough display items at a given level to select said predefined number of display items, then said instructions further cause the computer to assign display slots that otherwise would have been assigned to the display items of that level instead to the display items at the highest other level of participation having available items to fill those slots.

11. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 9, wherein if there are not enough display items among all of the levels of source participation to fill the available display slots on the Web page, then said instructions further cause the computer to fill the unfilled display slots with display items selected from sources outside of said predefined levels of source participation.

12. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 9, wherein (b) further comprises (b1) randomly selecting one of the candidate sets, (b2) selecting one item from the selected candidate set, (b3) reducing a count of the display items of the selected candidate set by one and removing that candidate set from further consideration when the count reaches zero;

and (b4) repeating (b1) through (b3) until a desired number of display items have been selected.

13. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 12, wherein (b2) comprises randomly selecting one item from the selected candidate set.

14. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 12, wherein (b2) comprises selecting one item from the selected candidate set in accordance with a weighting of items applied to the selected candidate set.

15. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 14, wherein (a) comprises defining, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed, each candidate set of items having at least a first subset and a second subset, each subset having a count associated therewith of the number of display items in that subset, and wherein (b2) and (b3) are performed first on the first subset of display items until the count for that subset reaches zero, and then on the second subset, the candidate set being removed from further consideration only after the counts of both subsets reach zero.

16. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 15, wherein each candidate set comprises two or more subsets, and wherein (b2) and (b3) are performed, in turn, on each successive subset until the counts of all of the subsets of that set reach zero.

17. A method of generating a Web page having a number of display items from different sources located in at least some of N available display slots of the Web page:

(a) defining, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed;

(b) selecting display items from a pool of all candidate sets of display items in a manner that equalizes a probability that display items of a first candidate set from a first source are selected in relation to display items of a second candidate set from a second source, wherein the display items of the first candidate set and the second candidate set are unequal in number;

(c) inserting up to N of the selected items in the available display slots on the Web page;

(d) defining a plurality of different levels of source participation, each source being associated with one level and each level having one or more sources associated with it;

(e) performing (a) through (c) separately for the sources at each level of participation, thereby selecting a number of display items at each level; and

(f) selecting a predefined number of display items from said selected items at each level and assigning the predefined number of display items of each level to respective display slots on the Web page in a manner that gives preference to one level of source participation relative to another.

18. The method recited in claim 17, wherein if there are not enough display items at a given level to select said predefined number of display items, the method of generating the Web page further comprises assigning display slots that otherwise would have been assigned to the display items of that level instead to the display items at the highest other level of participation having available items to fill those slots.

19. The method recited in claim 17, wherein if there are not enough display items among all of the levels of source participation to fill the available display slots on the Web page, the method of generating the Web page further comprises filling the unfilled display slots with display items selected from sources outside of said predefined levels of source participation.

20. The method recited in claim 17, wherein (b) further comprises (b1) randomly selecting one of the candidate sets, (b2) selecting one item from the selected candidate set, (b3) reducing a count of the display items of the selected candidate set by one and removing that candidate set from further consideration when the count reaches zero;

and (b4) repeating (b1) through (b3) until a desired number of display items have been selected.

21. The method recited in claim 20, wherein (b2) comprises randomly selecting one item from the selected candidate set.

22. The method recited in claim 20, wherein (b2) comprises selecting one item from the selected candidate set in accordance with a weighting of items applied to the selected candidate set.

23. The method recited in claim 22, wherein (a) comprises defining, for each source of display items, a candidate set of items to be displayed, each candidate set of items having at least a first subset and a second subset, each subset having a count associated therewith of the number of display items in that subset, and wherein (b2) and (b3) are performed first on the first subset of display items until the count for that subset reaches zero, and then on the second subset, the candidate set being removed from further consideration only after the counts of both subsets reach zero.

24. The method recited in claim 23, wherein each candidate set comprises two or more subsets, and wherein (b2) and (b3) are performed, in turn, on each successive subset until the counts of all of the subsets reach zero.