Neighborhood commerce in a geo-spatial environment

• US 20070233582A1
• Filed: 02/21/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fatdoor Incorporated
• Inventors: Abhyanker, Raj
• Application Number:
  US11/709,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20070233582A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system of neighborhood commerce in a geo-spatial environment are disclosed. In one embodiment a method includes associating a verified registered user with a user profile, associating the user profile with a specific geographic location, generating a map concurrently displaying the user profile and the specific geographic location, simultaneously generating, in the map, wiki profiles associated with different geographic locations surrounding the specific geographic location associated with the user profile, populating an item data of a verified user with specific items in a physical location of a user when the verified user populates an inventory module associated with the user profile, marking a status of specific ones of the item data as being at least one of an on-sale status, a for-loan status, a free status, a donation status and a not-for-sale status based on responses of the user in populating the inventory module and publishing the inventory module as at least one of a garage sale and a flea market based on a request of the user during a duration of a specific day and time when an inventory in a physical garage of a registered user will be available for public view.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

associating a verified registered user with a user profile;

associating the user profile with a specific geographic location;

generating a map concurrently displaying the user profile and the specific geographic location;

simultaneously generating, in the map, wiki profiles associated with different geographic locations surrounding the specific geographic location associated with the user profile;

populating an item data of a verified user with specific items in a physical location of a user when the verified user populates an inventory module associated with the user profile;

marking a status of specific ones of the item data as being at least one of an on-sale status, a for-loan status, a free status, a donation status and a not-for-sale status based on responses of the user in populating the inventory module; and

publishing the inventory module as at least one of a garage sale and a flea market based on a request of the user during a duration of a specific day and time when an inventory in a physical garage of a registered user will be available for public view.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

processing an acquisition request of a particular user of a particular item in the inventory module that is at least one of a bid to purchase and a fixed amount;

crediting at least one a financial amount and a goodwill point to the registered user based on the acquisition request;

altering the status of the particular item to at least one of a sold status, a reserved status, and a loaned status; and

providing an auction interface so that other bidders to simultaneously and competitively participate in an auction and bidding process when the acquisition request is the bid to purchase.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising simultaneously displaying, in a geo-spatial environment, a series of pushpins each indicating at least one of the garage sale and the flea market for each physical location contemporaneously having the garage sale and the flea market.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising generating a searchable database of each item being exposed in the garage sale and the flea market based on a category, a type, a location and a description criteria.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising distributing a flyer announcing at least one of the garage sale and the flea market to each resident within a threshold radius away from the at least one of the garage sale and the flea market, wherein the distributing the flyer is conducted through an electronic communications and/or through a direct postal mail communication automatically generated based on a content, day and time of the at least one garage sale and the flea market.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

improving a popularity marking of a neighbor based on a feedback rating provided on a conduct of the neighbor in hosting and marketing items in the inventory module; and

automatically generating a walkable and drivable map based on a physical distance between each of garage sale in the geo-spatial environment based on a preference of items selected by the user to preview prior to a scheduled event.

7. The method of claim 1 in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

8. A system comprising:

a plurality of neighborhoods having registered users and unregistered users of a global neighborhood environment;

a wiki module of the global neighborhood environment to enable the registered users to create a social network page of themselves, and to edit information associated with the unregistered users identifiable through a viewing of physical properties in which the unregistered users reside when the registered users have knowledge of characteristics associated with the unregistered users;

a garage builder module of the global neighborhood environment to enable the registered users to drag and drop representations of items in a home as being divestible in a representation of a garage representing an inventory module, and to enable the registered users to tag and describe the items in the home as being available as on at least one of a sale status and a loan status;

a radius module of the global neighborhood environment to publish items as being sellable, viewable, and transactable to a set of neighbors within a distance away from each of the registered users; and

a map module of the global neighborhood environment to include a map data associated with a satellite data which serves as a basis of rendering the map in the global neighborhood environment and which simultaneously renders a plurality of the garages in an explorable view of the global neighborhood environment.

9. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

an acquisition module to generate an acquisition request of particular user of a particular item in the inventory module;

a credit module to apply at least one of a financial amount and a goodwill point to the registered user based on the acquisition request;

a status module to alter a status of the particular item to at least one of a sold status, a reserved status, and a loaned status; and

a flea market module to aggregate the plurality of the garages in an explorable flea market, such that the garages are rendered as tables visually placed adjacent to each other and such that entities outside any particular neighborhood are able to simultaneously participate in the explorable flea market.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a map module to simultaneously display, in a geo-spatial environment, a series of pushpins each indicating at least one of a garage sale and a flea market for each physical location contemporaneously having the garage sale and the flea market.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising a search module to generate a database of each item being exposed in the garage sale and the flea market a based on a category, type, location and description criteria.

12. The system of claim 8 further comprising a flyer module to announce at least one of the garage sale and the flea market to each resident within a threshold radius away from the at least one of the garage sale and the flea market through an electronic communications and through a direct postal mail communication automatically generated based on a content, day, and time of the at least one of the garage sale and the flea market.

13. The system of claim 8 further comprising a popularity module to represent a likability of a neighbor based on a feedback rating provided on a conduct of the neighbor in hosting and marketing items in the inventory module.

14. A global neighborhood environment, comprising:

a first instruction set to enable a social network to reside above a map data, in which the social network is associated with specific geographical locations identifiable in the map data;

a second instruction set integrated with the first instruction set to enable users of the social network to create profiles of other people through a forum which provides a free form of expression of the users sharing information about any entities and people residing in any geographical location identifiable in a satellite map data, and to provide a technique of each of the users to claim a geographic location to control content in their respective claimed geographic locations; and

a third instruction set integrated with the first instruction set and the second instruction set to enable searching of homes having garage sales in the global neighborhood environment by indexing each of an inventory data in the garage sales as represented and offered by each registered user publishing the inventory data in the global neighborhood environment.

15. The global neighborhood environment of claim 14 wherein the claimed geographic locations can mask at least a portion of data from other users based on a request of a claimant of the claimed geographic location.

16. The global neighborhood environment of claim 14 further comprising:

a fourth instruction set to enable other users in the global neighborhood environment to submit a bid of specific ones of the inventory data, and to mark the specific ones of the inventory data as being reserved when mutually agreed between parties having an agreement to transact the specific ones of the inventory data.

17. The global neighborhood environment of claim 16 further comprising:

a fifth instruction set to distribute a notice advertising the garage sales to a set of residents within an adjustable geographic proximity from each of the garage sale.

18. The global neighborhood environment of claim 17 further comprising:

a sixth instruction set to generate a database of each item being exposed in the garage sale and the flea market based on a category, a type, a location and a description criteria.

19. The global neighborhood environment of claim 18 further comprising:

a seventh instruction set to improve a popularity marking of a neighbor based on a feedback rating provided on a conduct of the neighbor in hosting and marketing items in an inventory module.

20. The global neighborhood environment of claim 19 further comprising:

an eighth instruction set to publish the inventory module as at least one of the garage sale and the flea market based on the request of the user during a duration of a specific day and time when an inventory in a physical garage of the registered user will be available for public view.