Systems and methods for contextual transaction proposals

• US 20060167857A1
• Filed: 05/12/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kraft, Reiner, Hartmann, Andreas, Maghoul, Farzin
• Granted Patent: US 7,451,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Context-specific transaction proposals are automatically generated and presented to a user who expresses interest in a particular topic. A user viewing a World Wide Web page or other content item activates an interface to indicate that he or she is interested in additional information related to the subject of the page. A context vector or other representation of the content of the page being viewed is transmitted to an information server, which identifies possible transactions related to the content and proposes one or more of these transactions to the user. Transaction proposals can be presented together with a contextual search interface that allows the user to submit zero or more search terms together with the context vector as a search query.

Claims

1. A method performed by an information server computer for communicating transaction proposals to a user, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of partners, storing, in a location accessible to the information server computer, partner data representing products available from that partner;

receiving, at the information server computer, a request from a user for information related to a currently presented content item, the request including context data representing content of the currently presented content item;

selecting at least one of the partners as a transaction partner, wherein the selection is based at least in part on comparing the context data to the stored partner data for the plurality of partners;

obtaining at least one transaction proposal from each transaction partner; and

transmitting a representation of at least one of the obtained transaction proposals to the requesting user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each transaction proposal includes a transaction page configured to present terms of a proposed business transaction between the user and the transaction partner.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the proposed business transaction is for a purchase of goods or services by the user.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the representation includes a resource identifier of the transaction page.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the act of transmitting includes transmitting the resource identifier of the transaction page to the requesting user.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the act of transmitting includes transmitting an instruction to insert a link to the transaction page into the currently presented content item.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the act of transmitting includes transmitting the resource identifier of the transaction page to an intermediary server, wherein the intermediary server includes the resource identifier as special content to be transmitted to the user.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the act of transmitting includes transmitting an instruction to display a link to the transaction page in an overlay window.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the overlay window further includes a search interface.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of obtaining a transaction proposal includes:

for each transaction partner;

formulating a query, the query being based at least in part on the context data;

submitting the query to a partner server associated with the transaction partner; and

receiving a response to the query from the partner server, the response including at least one transaction proposal; and

selecting at least one of the received transaction proposals for transmission to the requesting user.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the act of selecting at least one of the received transaction proposals includes:

generating a representation of content of each received transaction proposal; and

determining relevance of each received transaction proposal based at least in part on comparing each generated representation to the context data received from the user,

wherein the transaction proposal determined to be most relevant is selected.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the partner data for at least one of the partners is supplied by the partner.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the partner data for at least one of the partners is generated based on a data dump from a partner server associated with the partner.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the content item is a World Wide Web page.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the user requests information by activating a contextual search interface included in the currently presented World Wide Web page.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is a human.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is a computer.

18. A system for communicating transaction proposals to a user, the system comprising:

a data store configured to store information about each of a plurality of partners, the information including partner data for each partner, the partner data representing products available from that partner;

partner selection control logic communicably coupled to the data store,

the partner selection control logic being configured to receive a user request for information, the request including context data representing content of a currently presented content item, and to select at least one of the partners as a transaction partner, wherein the selection is based at least in part on comparing the context data to the partner data in the data store; and

partner interaction control logic coupled to receive identifiers of the selected transaction partners from the partner selection logic and configured to obtain at least one transaction proposal from each transaction partner and to transmit at least one of the obtained transaction proposals to the requesting user.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein each transaction proposal includes a transaction page configured to present terms of a proposed business transaction between the user and the partner.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the representation includes a resource identifier of the transaction page.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the proposed business transaction is for a purchase of goods or services by the user.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the partner interaction control logic is further configured to formulate a query for each transaction partner, the query being based at least in part on the context data;

to submit the query to a partner server associated with the transaction partner;

to receive a response to the query from the partner server, the response including at least one transaction proposal; and

to select at least one of the received transaction proposals for transmission to the requesting user.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the partner interaction control logic is further configured to select at least one of the received transaction proposals by generating a representation of content of each received transaction proposal and determining relevance of each received transaction proposal based at least in part on comparing each generated representation to the context data received from the user, wherein the transaction proposal determined to be most relevant is selected.

24. A computer-implemented method for communicating a transaction proposal to a user, the method comprising:

presenting to a user, by a client computer, a content item including an activatable icon, the icon being associated with content of the presented content item;

in response to user activation of the icon, transmitting, by the client computer, context data representing the associated content to an information server;

receiving, at the client computer, a response from the information server, the response including a reference to a transaction proposal, the transaction proposal being selected based at least in part on the context data; and

presenting to the user, by the client computer, an interface including the reference to the transaction proposal.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein each transaction proposal includes a transaction page.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the proposed business transaction is for a purchase of goods or services by the user.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the content item is a hosting World Wide Web page.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the reference to the transaction proposal is a hyperlink to a transaction World Wide Web page configured to present terms of a proposed business transaction between the user and the transaction partner.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the hyperlink is included in a special content data block inserted inline into the hosting World Wide Web page.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the hyperlink is included in a special content data block presented in an overlay window.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein the reference to the transaction proposal is presented together with a contextual search interface configured to enable the user to search at least a portion of the World Wide Web using the context data and zero or more user-supplied search terms.

32. The method of claim 24 wherein the user is a human.

33. The method of claim 24 wherein the user is a computer.