Determining sizes of content items

1. A method of distributing content items to a resource via a computer network, the method comprising:

generating a statistical distribution of height dimensions for a sample set of content items based on a slot width dimension and a parameter, the statistical distribution generated by rendering each of the content items of the sample set in an experiment slot at an experiment device and varying the slot width dimension for the experiment slot;

generating a truncation curve based on the statistical distribution, the truncation curve indicative of a percentile of content items of the sample set with a height dimension at or below the truncation curve at a corresponding slot width dimension;

receiving, at a data processing system via the computer network, a request to provide a content item for display in a slot of the resource; and

selecting content items for display in the slot based on the truncation curve, wherein selecting content items includes at least one of:

optimizing an appearance of a content item for display in the slot based on the truncation curve; or

maximizing a number of a plurality of content items for display in the slot based on the truncation curve.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameter comprises at least one of:

a user interface (UI) parameter;

a font; or

a browser type.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the statistical distribution based on dimensional data received responsive to serving the selected content items.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the statistical distribution is further obtained by:

rendering a plurality of combinations of content items in the experiment slot at the experiment device; and

determining height dimensions of the plurality of combinations.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one content item is selected for display based on a plurality of parameters specified by a content provider.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the sample set of content items is selected by categorizing content items and selecting related content items to form the sample set of content items.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the content items are categorized based on information available prior to selection of at least one content item.

8. A system for distributing content items to a resource via a computer network, the system comprising a data processing system having at least one of a content slot identification module and a content slot measurement module, the data processing system configured to:

generate a statistical distribution of width dimensions for a sample set of content items based on a slot height dimension and a parameter, the statistical distribution generated by rendering each of the content items of the sample set in an experiment slot at an experiment device and varying the slot height dimension for the experiment slot;

generate a truncation curve based on the statistical distribution, the truncation curve indicative of a percentile of content items of the sample set with a width dimension at or below the truncation curve at a corresponding slot height dimension;

receive a request to provide a content item for display in a slot of the resource; and

select content items for display in the slot based on the truncation curve, wherein selecting content items includes at least one of:

optimizing an appearance of a content item for display in the slot based on the truncation curve; or

maximizing a number of a plurality of content items for display in the slot based on the truncation curve.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the parameter comprises at least one of:

a user interface (UI) parameter;

a font; or

a browser type.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the data processing system is further configured to update the statistical distribution based on dimensional data received responsive to serving the selected content items.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the data processing system is further configured to obtain the statistical distribution by:

rendering a plurality of combinations of content items in the experiment slot at the experiment device; and

determining width dimensions of the plurality of combinations.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the data processing system is configured to select at least one content item for display based on a plurality of parameters specified by a content provider.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions to distribute content items to a resource via a computer network, the instructions comprising instructions to:

generate a statistical distribution of height dimensions for a sample set of combinations of content items based on a slot width dimension and a parameter, the statistical distribution generated by rendering each of the combinations of content items of the sample set in an experiment slot at an experiment device and varying the slot width dimension for the experiment slot;

generate a truncation curve based on the statistical distribution, the truncation curve indicative of a percentile of combinations of content items of the sample set with a height dimension at or below the truncation curve at a corresponding slot width dimension;

receive a request to provide a content item for display in a slot of the resource; and

select content items for display in the slot based on the truncation curve, wherein selecting content items includes at least one of:

optimizing an appearance of the content item for display in the slot based on the truncation curve; or

maximizing a number of a plurality of content items for display in the slot based on the truncation curve.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the parameter comprises at least one of:

a user interface (UI) parameter;

a font; or

a browser type.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to update the statistical distribution based on dimensional data received responsive to serving the selected content items.