Apparatus and method for indexing electronic content

摘要

Apparatus and method are provided for indexing electronic content to be served to users that operate mobile and/or stationary communications and computing devices. An index is composed of multiple slices, with each slice capable of storing multiple entries and each entry representing one content item. A content item's index entry is populated with integer values representing attribute/value pairs of a target audience of the content item. A query or request to identify content items for serving to a particular user is similarly formatted with integers representing attribute/value pairs of the user. Queries can then be executed rapidly across any or all index entries in any or all slices. Within a slice, entries may be sorted by value or score, and integer components within an individual entry may be sorted to facilitate rapid comparison with a query.