SERVICES FOR ENABLING USERS TO SHARE INFORMATION REGARDING E-COMMERCE TRANSACTIONS

• US 20080040238A1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey Bezos, Joel Spiegel, Jon Mcauliffe
• Inventors: Spiegel, Joel, McAuliffe, Jon, Bezos, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0619 Neutral agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Various computer-implemented services are disclosed for assisting users in selecting items from an electronic catalog, and for selecting merchants with which to conduct transactions. One such service enables users to share information about their respective purchases with other users. Another service enables users to share information regarding the merchants with which they have conducted transactions.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a data repository comprising user-specific purchase histories of users, said user-specific purchase histories identifying items purchased by particular users;

a user interface through which the users can explicitly elect to expose their item purchases to other users;

preference data that specifies elections made by users via said user interface to expose item purchases to other users; and

a server system that enables users to view information regarding the item purchases of other users, as represented in said user-specific purchase histories, in accordance with said preference data.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user interface enables a user to expose the user'"'"'s item purchases to other users on an item-by-item basis.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user interface enables a user to expose the user'"'"'s item purchases to other users on a user-by-user basis.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user interface enables a user to limit exposure of the user'"'"'s purchases to members of a particular community.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides functionality for a user to create a private community, and to limit exposure of the user'"'"'s item purchases to members of the private community.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user interface enables a user to explicitly join a community, and to specify whether purchases of the user are to be exposed to members of said community.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user interface additionally enables users to elect to expose their contact information to other users.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the server system is capable of supplementing product detail pages of an electronic catalog with purchase notification messages in accordance with said preference data.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the purchase notifications include contact information of users that purchased corresponding items.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the server system restricts user access to the purchase histories in accordance with the preference data.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the server system proactively notifies users of item purchases made by other users in accordance with the preference data.

12. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user-specific purchase histories are based on purchases made from an electronic catalog of items hosted by the computer system.