System and method for compounded marketing

• US 20050203800A1
• Filed: 01/07/2005
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharenet, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sharenet, Inc.
• Inventors: Rosenberg, Harry, Sweeney, Duane, Hopkinson, Stephanie
• Application Number:
  US11/033,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20050203800A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.160
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems

Abstract

A system and method to facilitate computer-based commerce is presented. The system includes a module to facilitate communicating a vendor offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering. The provider offering includes a category code to indicate an associated category for the provider offering. If a user chooses to propagate a vendor offering to another user, the user may be entitled to a reward. The reward may be designated to the user or to a third party. A spam control module may also be provided to identify spam complaints and to take actions in response to the spam complaints.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate computer-based commerce, the system including:

an offering dispatch module to facilitate communicating a provider offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

a rewards module to reward the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user,

wherein the provider offering includes a category code to indicate an associated category for the provider offering.

2. The system of claim 1, including:

a user profile monitor to maintain a user profile, the user profile including one or more user selections from a plurality of categories, each selection associated with an area of interest;

a provider communication module to detect receipt of the provider offering; and

an offerings monitor in communication with the provider communication module to identify the offering as associated with an offering category utilizing the category code associated with the provider offering and to store the offering in an offerings database.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user profile includes user preferences based on one or more selections by the user responsive to one or more selections presented to the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the communicating of the provider offering to the user being without revealing the user'"'"'s contact information or the user'"'"'s identity to the provider.

5. The system of claim 2, including a user communication module in communication with the user profile monitor to receive a selection from the user and to store the selection in the user profile, wherein the selection includes one or more of adding a category and removing a category.

6. The system of claim 5, including an intelligent agent to:

identify a related category associated with the selection of the at least one category;

identify a product associated with the related category; and

publish the associated product to the user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein intelligent agent being to invite the user to select the related category to be included in the user profile, responsive to identifying the user as being interested in the associated product.

8. The system of claim 2, including a statistics generator to automatically generate values associated with utilization of the system.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the user profile is stored independently from the user'"'"'s communication service provider.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the offering dispatch module is to:

detect a change to the user profile,

identify the change as an additional category in the user profile, and

enable the user to access provider offerings associated with the additional category in the user profile responsive to the change to the user profile.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the reward criteria include a response by the second user identified as being of value to the provider.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the reward includes one or more items selected from a group including a product, a service, an information item, a credit value, one or more points, and a monetary value.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the reward being designated to one or more of the user and a third party.

14. The system of claim 1, including a spam control module to detect an unauthorized communication of the provider offering utilizing a permission code associated with the provider offering.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the spam control module is to receive a spam complaint, and to initiate an action in response to the spam complaint.

16. The system of claim 1, including a variable price component to allow the price for an offering to vary.

17. A system including:

a user search profile component to modify a user preference profile based on a request from a user and on a selection of one or more characteristics associated with the request;

an offering profile component to generate an offering profile based on one or more selections characteristics of the offering; and

a matching component to identify an entry from the user preference profile as corresponding to an entry from the offering profile.

18. A method to facilitate computer-based commerce, the method including:

communicating a provider offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

rewarding the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user,

wherein the provider offering includes a category code to indicate an associated category for the provider offering.

19. The method of claim 18, further including:

maintaining a user profile, the user profile including one or more user selections from a plurality of categories, each selection associated with an area of interest;

detecting receipt of the provider offering; and

identifying the offering as associated with an offering category utilizing the category code associated with the provider offering and to store the offering in an offerings database.

20. The method of claim 19, further including receiving user preferences based on one or more selections by the user responsive to one or more selections presented to the user.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the communicating of the provider offering to the user being without revealing the user'"'"'s contact information or the user'"'"'s identity to the provider.

22. The method of claim 19, including receiving a selection from the user and storing the selection in the user profile, wherein the selection includes one or more of adding a category and removing a category.

23. The method of claim 22, further including:

identifying a related category associated with the selection of the at least one category;

identifying a product associated with the related category; and

publishing the associated product to the user.

24. The method of claim 23, further including inviting the user to select the related category to be included in the user profile, responsive to identifying the user as being interested in the associated product.

25. The method of claim 19, further including:

detecting a change to the user profile,

identifying the change as an additional category in the user profile, and

enabling the user to access provider offerings associated with the additional category in the user profile responsive to the change to the user profile.

26. The method of claim 18, further including detecting an unauthorized communication of the provider offering utilizing a permission code associated with the provider offering.

27. The method of claim 18, further including modifying the price for an offering according to a predetermined criteria.

28. An apparatus including:

means for communicating a provider offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

means for rewarding the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user,

wherein the provider offering includes a category code to indicate an associated category for the provider offering.

29. A user interface including:

an item display area to display an item;

an affiliated communication creation area to;

enable a user to create one or more affiliated communications including content associated with the product, and

enable the user to qualify for a reward if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user; and

a control button associated with the item to enable a user to access the affiliated communication creation area.

30. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing sets of instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

facilitate communicating a provider offering to a user if the offering is within a category designated by the user as being acceptable for receipt of such offering; and

reward the user if the user satisfies a reward criteria, the reward criteria including the user propagating the provider offering to a second user,

wherein the provider offering includes a category code to indicate an associated category for the provider offering.