Methods and Apparatuses for Sorting Lists for Presentation

• US 20110264517A1
• Filed: 07/08/2011
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Ho, Kelvin
• Granted Patent: US 9,679,295 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.46
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0274 Split fees
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for sorting seller listings or advertisements of a seller network. In one embodiment, a method includes: determining an indicator of potential revenue for a first party from price information of a list of entities, wherein revenue generated according to the price information of at least some of the list of entities is to be split among a plurality of parties; and, sorting the list of entities into a first list based at least partially on the indicator of potential revenue.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, via a computing device, a plurality of first advertisements, each having an indicator of potential revenue to a first party specified based upon price information for each respective first advertisement and a first percentage of first revenue generated by a listing of the first advertisement, the first percentage to be received by the first party according to a split of the first revenue between a first plurality of parties including the first party;

identifying, via the computing device, a plurality of second advertisements, each having the indicator of potential revenue to the first party specified based upon price information for each respective second advertisement and a second percentage of second revenue generated by a listing of the second advertisement, the second percentage to be received by the first party according to a split of the second revenue between a second plurality of parties, including the first party, the second plurality of parties being different from the first plurality of parties; and

sorting, via the computing device, the plurality of first advertisements along with the plurality of second advertisements, according to the indicator of potential revenue to the first party for each advertisement to create a sorted list.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

listing the sorted list in a media channel.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the media channel is one of:

a hypertext transfer protocol server;

a wireless application protocol server; and

a short message service based server.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

listing advertisements of the plurality of first advertisements and the plurality of second advertisements according to the sorted list in a media channel.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the price information is based in part on a bid-rate for the respective advertisement.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the bid rate is based at least in part on a charge per telephonic connection resulting from the listing of the respective advertisement.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the bid rate is determined at least in part based on an indicator of likelihood of telephonic connections resulting from the listing of the respective advertisement.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the indicator of likelihood of telephonic connections is based on a ratio of past telephonic connections and past listings of corresponding advertisements.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting from the sorted list for listing to a user in response to a search request from the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of parties is composed only of the first party resulting in the split of the first revenue being between the first plurality of parties being between the first party and itself.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first percentage of the first revenue is different from the second percentage of the second revenue.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking, via the computing device, revenues realized according to respective listings of an advertisement;

determining, via the computing device, revenues realized for a second party, different from the first party, based on the revenues realized; and

presenting, via the communication device, a report indicating the revenues realized for the second party in response to a request from the second party.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, via the computing device, from a second party an advertisement for an advertising entity in the second plurality of advertisements;

wherein the second plurality of parties includes the first party and the second party.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second party represents an individual person.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the price information is based at least in part on revenue received by the advertising entity for one of a good and a service provided by the advertising entity based on the listing of the advertisement.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

contacting, via a communication network, the advertising entity to join a seller network according to information received from the second party; and

associating, via the computing device, the advertising entity with the second party when the advertising entity joins the seller network.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the seller network sells at least one of a good and a service.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the price information is based at least in part on one of:

a price for a product;

a price for a service; and

a price for an advertisement to sell one of a product and a service.

19. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of first advertisements, each having an indicator of potential revenue to a first party specified based upon price information for each respective first advertisement and a first percentage of first revenue generated by a listing of the first advertisement, the first percentage to be received by the first party according to a split of the first revenue between a first plurality of parties including the first party;

identifying, via the computing device, a plurality of second advertisements, each having the indicator of potential revenue to the first party specified based upon price information for each respective second advertisement and a second percentage of second revenue generated by a listing of the second advertisement, the second percentage to be received by the first party according to a split of the second revenue between a second plurality of parties, including the first party, the second plurality of parties being different from the first plurality of parties; and

sorting, via the computing device, the plurality of first advertisements along with the plurality of second advertisements, according to the indicator of potential revenue to the first party for each advertisement to create a sorted list.

20. A system, comprising:

a computing device configured to identify a plurality of first advertisements, each having an indicator of potential revenue to a first party specified based upon price information for each respective first advertisement and a first percentage of first revenue generated by a listing of the first advertisement, the first percentage to be received by the first party according to a split of the first revenue between a first plurality of parties including the first party;

wherein the computing device is further configured to identify a plurality of second advertisements, each having the indicator of potential revenue to the first party specified based upon price information for each respective second advertisement and a second percentage of second revenue generated by a listing of the second advertisement, the second percentage to be received by the first party according to a split of the second revenue between a second plurality of parties, including the first party, the second plurality of parties being different from the first plurality of parties; and

wherein the computing device is further configured to sort the plurality of first advertisements along with the plurality of second advertisements, according to the indicator of potential revenue to the first party for each advertisement to create a sorted list.