Overture Services, Inc.

Yahoo! Inc.

Eugene F Hu

Darren J Davis

Scott W Snell

Dominic Dough-Ming Cheung

Scott A Shifflett

Peter Savich

A system and method of generating an ordered search list via a search engine by determining various account balances to determine where a search listing will appear, if at all, in a search results list. If a web site advertiser's account is below a threshold, the search listing associated with the advertiser will not appear in the search list. Various balances may be used. Some of the balances may be closer to real-time balances and others may be more accurate, for example by removing certain event charges that were later determined to be non-chargeable. By using and monitoring the various account balances, the search engine prevents over-delivery of advertising through search result listings and possible over-billing of the advertisers.

Search engine account monitoring

A system and method of generating an ordered search list via a pay-for-performance search engine by determining various account balances to determine if a search listing is given preferential placement in a search list. If a web site advertiser's account is below a threshold, for example zero dollars, the search listing associated with the advertiser is not given preferential placement in a search list regardless of the advertiser bid amount for that search listing. Various balances may be used. Some of the balances may be closer to real-time balances and other may be more accurate, for example by removing click charges that were later determined to be non-chargeable. By using the various account balances, the pay-for-performance search engine prevents over-delivery of preferential placement and possible over-billing of the advertisers.

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Monrovia, CA, United States of America

Eugene F Hu