Method and system for ranking information items for display

Abstract

A method of displaying information items, the method comprising: determining a ranking score for each of a plurality of information items based on a history of votes received for each of the information items, the determining comprising: assigning a value to the information item for each vote received in respect of that information item, assigning a weight to each value as a function of the recency of the vote, and calculating a score for each information item, the score being calculated as a first sum across all votes of the product of the value of each vote with its assigned weight, divided by a second sum of the weights across all votes; determining, responsive to a first serve request and based on at least one criterion, at least one of the information items to be displayed at a client device; and transmitting to the client device code executable by a browser application to display the at least one information item based on the ranking score.

1 - 29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . A method of ranking or categorizing coupons and other promotional offers distributed over the Internet, the method comprising:
 obtaining data describing a plurality of promotional offers, at least some of the promotional offers including a discount offered by a merchant that is redeemable at a website of the merchant by entering a coupon code in a checkout page of the website of the merchant;   obtaining, for each of the plurality of promotional offers, a plurality of values from consumers assessing the respective promotional offer, the plurality of values each having a respective age indicative of a time at which a consumer provided an assessment of the respective promotional offer;   calculating, with a processor, for each of the plurality of the promotional offers, a score for the respective promotional offer based, at least in part, on the respective plurality of values and ages of the respective plurality of values, wherein a contribution of a value among the respective plurality of values toward the score diminishes with the age of the value; and   ranking or categorizing the plurality of offers based on the calculated scores.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , comprising:
 receiving at least some of the data describing promotional offers from an affiliate network system, the data including, for at least some of the promotional offers, the coupon code, an identifier of the merchant, and a description of the promotional offer;   receiving the plurality of values from consumer user devices, the plurality of values being votes expressing a consumer assessment of the efficacy of a corresponding promotional offer among the plurality of promotional offers;   selecting promotional offers to be sent to consumers based on the ranking or categorizing; and   tracking consumer selections of the sent promotional offers to calculate compensation from merchants issuing offers among the plurality of promotional offers.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 30 , comprising:
 sending the plurality of promotional offers to a user device with instructions to display the plurality of promotional offers in ranked order or in categories based on the ranking or categorizing,   the sent instructions further including instructions to present a user interface on the user device operative to receive a user assessment of a corresponding one of the plurality of promotional offers;   receiving an assessment of one of the plurality of promotional offers from the user device after user interaction with a presented user interface; and   updating the score for the one of the plurality of promotional offers based on the received assessment.   
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of the promotional offers, a score comprises:
 calculating the score based on an amount of values among the plurality of values of the respective promotional offer.   
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of the promotional offers, a score comprises:
 increasing the score proportional to a number of the plurality of values of the respective promotional offer.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of the promotional offers, a score comprises:
 determining a weighting for each of the values based on the respective ages of the values, wherein the weighting decays over time as the respective age of a value increases.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the weighting decays exponentially. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the plurality of values comprise:
 votes by consumers in favor of a given one of the plurality of promotional offers.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 30 , comprising:
 categorizing the promotional offers as being reliable or unreliable based, at least in part, on whether the respective promotional offers have a calculated score above a reliability threshold.   
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 38 , comprising:
 determining that a given promotional offer is not associated with any values from consumers assessing the promotional offer; and   assigning the given promotional offer a score equal to or adjacent the reliability threshold.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 30 , comprising:
 categorizing the plurality of offers into at least two categories; and   selecting at least some promotional offers from each category based, at least in part, on the scores of the promotional offers, wherein selected promotional offers in one category have a lower score than un-selected promotional offers on another category to provide diversity among categories within the selected promotional offers.   
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 30 , comprising:
 determining that a threshold duration of time has expired since a previous time scores were calculated; and   in response, re-calculating scores for at least some of the promotional offers.   
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 41 , comprising:
 selecting the at least some of the promotional offers based, at least in part, on whether a new value assessing the respective promotional offer was received since the last time scores were calculated.   
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein calculating, for each of the plurality of the promotional offers, a score comprises: performing steps for calculating a score. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 30 , comprising:
 selecting at least some of the promotional offers to send to a user device of a consumer;   sending the selected promotional offers to the user device, wherein each sent promotional offer is associated with instructions that cause the user device to display the respective offer in association with statistical information about the offer, a feedback portion configured to receive a consumer assessment of the offer, and a description of the offer.   
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 44 , wherein the description of the offer includes an interface to display a coupon code of the respective offer, the interface to display the coupon code being overlaid with a transparent empty flash movie that when selected causes the coupon code to be copied to a clipboard memory of the user device. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 44 , wherein the statistical information about the offer comprises a visualization of previous assessments of the respective promotional offer. 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 44 , wherein feedback portion comprises:
 a user-selectable button for registering a positive vote for the respective promotional offer; and   another user-selectable button for registering a negative vote for the respective promotional offer.   
     
     
         48 . A system, comprising:
 one or more processors;   memory storing instructions that when executed by at least some of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:
 obtaining data describing a plurality of promotional offers; 
 obtaining values from consumers assessing the respective promotional offers; 
 calculating scores for the promotional offers based, at least in part, on the respective plurality of values and ages of the respective plurality of values, wherein the contribution of a value toward the score diminishes with an age of the value; and 
 ranking or categorizing the plurality of offers based on the calculated scores. 
   
     
     
         49 . A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to effectuate operations comprising:
 obtaining data describing a plurality of promotional offers;   obtaining values from consumers assessing the respective promotional offers;   calculating scores for the promotional offers based, at least in part, on the respective plurality of values and ages of the respective plurality of values, wherein the contribution of a value toward the score diminishes with an age of the value; and   ranking or categorizing the plurality of offers based on the calculated scores.