Apparatus and methods for providing an estimated time of arrival based marketplace
First Claim
1. A method of providing service provider information to a client device in a distributed computer system, comprising:
- obtaining at least one bid from one or more service providers for providing a service;
determining an estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers; and
providing the at least one bid from the one or more service providers and the estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers to the client device.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for providing an estimated time of arrival based marketplace are provided. The apparatus and methods solicit bids from one or more service providers for a requested service. The service providers may respond with bids that may include a price for providing the requested service along with an estimated time to perform the requested service in a location associated with the service provider. The bids are used, along with travel data obtained from a travel data provider, to generate service search results that are provided to a client device. The service search results include the price charged by the service provider as well as estimated times of completion (ETAs) for obtaining the service from the service provider. The ETA may be a combination of travel time determined from the travel data and time of performance determined from the bid submitted by the service provider. The service search results may further include a service provider rating that provides an indication as to the accuracy of the ETAs. From the service search results, a user of the client device may submit an order for having a particular service provider from the service search results provide the requested service.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method of providing service provider information to a client device in a distributed computer system, comprising:
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obtaining at least one bid from one or more service providers for providing a service;
determining an estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers; and
providing the at least one bid from the one or more service providers and the estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers to the client device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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12. An apparatus for providing service provider information to a client device in a distributed computer system, comprising:
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a first interface which obtains at least one bid from one or more service providers for providing a service;
a processor which determines an estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers; and
a second interface which provides the at least one bid from the one or more service providers and the estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers to the client device.
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23. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for providing service provider information to a service consumer in a distributed computer system, comprising:
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first instructions for obtaining at least one bid from one or more service providers for providing a service;
second instructions for determining an estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers; and
third instructions for providing the at least one bid from the one or more service providers and the estimated time of completion for the service for each of the one or more service providers to a service consumer.
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Specification