COMMUNITY BASED NETWORK SHOPPING

• US 20070239552A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Sundaresan, Neelakantan
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,270 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A system receives item data corresponding to an item list from a user. The item list may include one or more items. The system communicates the item list to a community group associated with the user and the system then receives member data from one or more members of the community group, wherein the member data is associated with the one or more items on the item list.

Claims

1. A method, including:

receiving from a user, item data corresponding to an item list including of one or more items;

communicating the item list to a community group associated with the user; and

receiving member data from one or more members of the community group, the member data being associated with one or more items on the item list.

2. The method of claim 1, further including creating the community group based on receiving member identification data from the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the member identification data corresponds to at least one of one or more other users and one or more other community groups.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more items include at least one of a product, a service, a category of item, a category of service, an occasion associated with the user, and a person associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, including updating the item list based on the received member data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving member data corresponding to a review of the one or more items of the item list.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving member data corresponding to a recommendation of a specific product or service associated with the one or more items of the item list.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving a request to add an item to an electronic shopping cart.

9. The method of claim 1, further including creating an electronic shopping cart indicating which of the items from the item list have been selected for purchase, wherein the electronic shopping cart is accessible by each member of the community group.

10. The method of claim 9, further including:

performing an automatic search of online vendors for each item indicated in the electronic shopping cart;

automatically selecting one or more vendors having each item based on one or more thresholds associated with the purchase of each item; and

automatically purchasing each item available from the one or more vendors based on a single click from one of the user and a member of the community group.

11. The method of claim 1, further including creating one or more rules associated with at least one of the items of the item list and one or more members of the community group.

12. The method of claim 11, further including preventing one or more selected members from viewing one or more of the items by setting a visibility attribute associated with the one or more items to invisible for the selected members.

13. The method of claim 1, further including creating one or more roles associated with at least one or more members of the community group.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more roles determines a level of accessibility to attributes and functions of the item list.

15. A system comprising:

an item list module to receive item data from a user, the item data corresponding to an item list including of one or more items;

a community group module to communicate the item list to a community group associated with the user; and

user input module to receive member data from one or more members of the community group, the member data being associated with one or more items on the item list.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving a request to add an item to an electronic shopping cart.

17. The system of claim 15, further including a transaction module to create an electronic shopping cart to indicate which of the items from the item list have been selected for purchase by one or more members of the community group.

18. The system of claim 17, further including:

a search module to;

perform an automatic search of online vendors for each item indicated in the electronic shopping cart; and

select one or more vendors that indicate saleable inventory for each item based on one or more thresholds associated with the purchase of each item; and

the transaction module to automatically purchase each item available from the one or more vendors based on a single click from one of the user and a member of the community group.

19. The system of claim 18, further including a rules and roles module to create one or more rules associated with at least one of the items of the item list and one or more members of the community group.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the rules and roles module is to set a visibility attribute associated with one or more items to invisible for the selected members to prevent the one or more selected members from viewing one or more of the items.

21. The system of claim 15, further including a rules and roles module to create one or more roles associated with at least one or more members of the community group.

22. The system of claim 21, including the rules and roles module to determine a level of accessibility to attributes and functions of the item list based on the one or more created roles.

23. The system of claim 15, further including the community group module to receive member identification data from the user and to create a community group based on the received member identification data.

24. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

receive from a user, item data corresponding to an item list including of one or more items;

communicate the item list to a community group associated with the user; and

receive member data from one or more members of the community group, the member data being associated with one or more items on the item list.

25. The machine readable medium of claim 24, further including instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine further:

perform an automatic search of online vendors for each item indicated in the electronic shopping cart;

select one or more vendors having each item based on one or more thresholds associated with the purchase of each item; and

automatically purchase each item available from the one or more vendors based on a single click from one of the user and a member of the community group.