Abstract: An online auction that combines elements of traditional English-style (ascending price) and Dutch-style (descending price) online auction is disclosed. Such an online auction maintains simultaneous ascending lower-bound price(s) and descending upper-bounds price(s) that gradually converge, narrowing the channel between them. The auction may be for a single, many identical, or several different objects or services and ends when supply equates to demand at either the upper or lower bound prices. The rate of adjustment of each price or set of prices is determined partly in response to the demand conditions at the other price and partly with the goal of achieving rapid convergence towards an equilibrium price where supply equals demand. This online auction design combines the information revealed by an English-style online auction with the safety and planning allowed to participants in a Dutch-style online auction.

Abstract: An improved system and method is provided for making markets for a finite subset of orders across continuous and countably infinite outcome spaces. To do so, a prediction market engine may be provided to support prediction markets by aggregating information about orders specifying a continuous subspace of a continuous outcome space and orders specifying a subset of a countably infinite set of outcomes. The pricing and/or quantities for orders received may be determined, a response may be sent to traders indicating the pricing or quantities of orders for payment, and the amount owed for accepted orders may be collected. Winning accepted orders may be identified and payout may be made for winning accepted orders. Advantageously, the present invention may support aggregation of more information from market participants in a prediction market to forecast the likelihood of the occurrence of a certain event.

Abstract: A method comprising receiving a search query to generate a search result of one or more media items and providing a personalized search rank of the one or more media items on the basis of a user profile and an item relevance for a given media item with regard to the query metadata associated with the search result is identified and used to identify at least one related media item. The at least one related media item is ranked on the basis of the user profile and the metadata.

Abstract: An improved system and method is provided for making markets for a finite subset of orders across continuous and countably infinite outcome spaces. To do so, a prediction market engine may be provided to support prediction markets by aggregating information about orders specifying a continuous subspace of a continuous outcome space and orders specifying a subset of a countably infinite set of outcomes. The pricing and/or quantities for orders received may be determined, a response may be sent to traders indicating the pricing or quantities of orders for payment, and the amount owed for accepted orders may be collected. Winning accepted orders may be identified and payout may be made for winning accepted orders. Advantageously, the present invention may support aggregation of more information from market participants in a prediction market to forecast the likelihood of the occurrence of a certain event.

Abstract: An improved system and method is provided for permutation betting. To do so, a permutation betting engine may be provided for providing services to support betting on an outcome resulting in an ordinal ranking of objects. Orders specifying a property of an ordering of one or more positions of an object in an ordinal ranking of objects may be received. The quantities for orders to accept may be determined, a response may be sent to traders indicating the quantities of orders for payment, and the amount owed for accepted orders may be collected. Winning accepted orders may be identified and payout may be made for winning accepted orders. Advantageously, the present invention may provide a framework for efficiently optimizing an auctioneer's objective using linear programming for a prediction market where the outcomes of interested events are ordered statistics.

Abstract: A method comprising receiving a search query to generate a search result of one or more media items and providing a personalized search rank of the one or more media items on the basis of a user profile and an item relevance for a given media item with regard to the query metadata associated with the search result is identified and used to identify at least one related media item. The at least one related media item is ranked on the basis of the user profile and the metadata.