A METHOD OF REALTIME ALLOCATION OF AD SPACE ON A WEB PAGE BASED ON A BIDDING PROTOCOL

摘要

A method of allocating web page space. Information about a user that is currently accessing the web page is provided to a number of bidding agents. Bid prices are received from the bidding agents for space within an interval after the user is identified and the space is allocated. The space is allocated in accordance with an established relationship to bid prices received from the bidding agents. The space may be advertising (ad) space or a listing of search results. One of the bidding agents may be a user agent representing the user. The ad space may be allocated according to highest bid price, or in a ranking order in accordance with bid prices. The method applies to an electronic shopping mall or a search engine in which case search results may be arranged in a ranking order in accordance with bid prices received from the bidding agents within the period of time.