Cross domain customer interface updates

• US 20070299735A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mangalick, Piyush, Dierks, Timothy M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,751 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A methodology and system for allowing a third-party system to institute online commerce services such as a shipping service. In the described embodiments, a third-party web page and/or a third party server sends and receives information from a merchant server to seamlessly update information used in the display without requiring the customer to perform additional mouse clicks. In some embodiments, sending and receiving information can be performed across address domains.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving information, by a third-party web page, for a transaction by a customer;

sending, by the third-party web page, order information relating to the transaction to a backend server without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click to effect the sending, the third-party web page and the backend server being in different domains; and

receiving, by the third-party web page from the backend server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying, by the third-party web page, the customer for his address; and

wherein sending order information to the backend server includes sending the customer'"'"'s address to the backend server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving information for a transaction includes receiving shopping cart information.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein sending order information relating to the transaction includes sending a shopping cart contents.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein sending order information relating to the transaction includes sending an address of the customer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein sending order information relating to the transaction includes identifying at least one item purchased by the customer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a shipping cost for the transaction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a final tax value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a tax amount incorporating information about what types of items are taxable.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a coupon amount.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a catalog code.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising figuring, by the third-party web page, the customer'"'"'s total in accordance with a transaction cost and the merchant-specific information.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information is tax information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving merchant-specific information for the item includes receiving merchant-specific information via an http request from the third-party server.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein querying the customer for his address includes having the customer fill out his address online.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein querying the customer for his address includes receiving the address as a parameter in an http call.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the customer'"'"'s address to a backend server without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click includes calling a method of an AJAX object that calls the backend server.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the customer'"'"'s address to a backend server without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click includes the third-party web page calling a method of an AJAX object that calls the backend server.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, by the third-party web page, order information relating to the transaction to a backend server without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click to effect the sending, the third-party web page and the backend server being in different domains comprises communicating the information relating to the transaction by the third party web page to a third party web server and the third party web server communicating the information to the backend server.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving, by the third-party web page from the backend server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information comprises receiving the information from the backend server by a third party server and communicating the information from the third party server to the third party web page.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a web page and replacing estimated shipping information that had been previously displayed on the web page in accordance with the merchant-specific information.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a web page and replacing a blank shipping cost field on the web page in accordance with the merchant-specific information.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising charging the merchant for the method performed by the third-party server.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party server stores credit card information for the customer and processes credit card transactions without sharing the credit card information with the merchant web server.

25. A computer implemented method performed by a third-party web page, of adding information to the third-party web page, comprising:

receiving information, including identification of an item that a customer wishes to buy;

querying the customer for his address;

receiving an address from the customer;

sending the customer'"'"'s address to a third-party server in the same domain as the third-party web page without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click;

receiving, from the third-party server merchant-specific information for the item in accordance with the customer'"'"'s address; and

displaying the third-party web page with the merchant-specific information.

26. A computer program product, including computer instructions stored on a computer readable medium, the instructions capable of causing the computer to perform the method of:

receiving information, by the third-party web page, for a transaction by a customer;

sending, by the third-party web page, order information relating to the transaction to a backend server without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click to effect the sending, the third-party web page and the backend server being in different domains; and

receiving, by the third-party web page from the backend server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information.

27. A system, comprising:

a merchant web page allowing a customer to initiate a transaction;

a third-party web entity, for receiving information about the transaction from the merchant web page, for querying the customer for his address and for sending the customer'"'"'s address without requiring that the customer perform a mouse click to effect the sending;

a backend server receiving the customer'"'"'s address from the third-party web entity, for determining merchant-specific information in accordance with the customer'"'"'s address, and for sending the merchant-specific information to the third-party web entity.

28. The system of claim 28, further comprising a second backend server, wherein the first and second backend server respectively send first and second merchant-specific information having different values for the same customer'"'"'s address.

29. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving information, by a third-party web server, for a transaction by a customer;

displaying by the third party web server, a third party web page prompting the customer for order information and receiving the customer'"'"'s entered order information without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click to effect the receipt;

sending, by the third-party web server, order information relating to the transaction to a backend server without requiring the customer to perform a mouse click to effect the sending, the third-party web server and the backend server being in different domains;

receiving, by the third-party web server from the backend server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information; and

sending, by the third party server to the third party web page, the merchant-specific information for display.