FACILITATING PERFORMANCE OF TASKS VIA DISTRIBUTION USING THIRD-PARTY SITES

• US 20080082542A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cohen, Peter D., Smoak, Christopher E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,697,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management

Abstract

Techniques are described for facilitating performance of tasks by human users. A task exchange server system acts an intermediary to facilitate performance by human task performer users of tasks provided by other task requesters, such as by providing information about tasks via an electronically accessible site. The task exchange server may further cause information about tasks to be provided to at least some users as they interact with third-party sites not provided by the task exchange server, such as third-party sites operated by entities unrelated to the task exchange server'"'"'s operator. The third-party sites may include information about tasks along with other information that the third-party sites provide to users, or instead a separate client-side program executing on computing devices of certain users may obtain and present information about tasks to the users, such as in conjunction with information provided by unaffiliated third-party sites.

Claims

1. A method for a computing system to facilitate performance of tasks by a user of the computing system, the method comprising:

executing a Web browser for use in presenting Web pages obtained from remote Web sites to the user;

executing a toolbar extension application for the Web browser, the toolbar extension application being provided by a remote task exchange server system that acts as an intermediary to facilitate performance by task performance users of tasks submitted by task requester users, the toolbar extension application displaying a toolbar as part of a displayed user interface of the Web browser;

under control of the Web browser, in response to a request from the user, obtaining one or more Web pages from a first third-party Web site operated by an entity other than an operator of the task exchange server system;

under control of the toolbar extension application, automatically determining information to present to the user via the Web browser about one or more tasks available from the task exchange server system, the determining being based at least in part on the obtained one or more Web pages; and

presenting to the user the obtained one or more Web pages and the determined information about the one or more available tasks.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, for each of at least one of the tasks whose information is presented, receiving results of performance of the task by the user, and providing the results to the task exchange server system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the receiving of the results of the performance of a task by the user includes, under control of the Web browser, obtaining information provided by the user via one or more user-selectable portions of the presented one or more Web pages.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the receiving of the results of the performance of a task by the user includes, under control of the toolbar extension application, obtaining information provided by the user via one or more user-selectable controls on the displayed toolbar.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, under control of the toolbar extension application, retrieving information from the task exchange server system about prior performance by the user of one or more tasks as one of the task performer users, and presenting at least some of the retrieved information to the user as part of the displayed toolbar.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the information about the one or more available tasks is received as part of the obtained one or more Web pages from the first third-party Web site, and wherein the method further comprises, under control of the toolbar extension application, determining to include the information about the one or more available tasks as part of the presented Web pages.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, under control of the toolbar extension application, automatically retrieving the information about the one or more available tasks from the task exchange server system.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the presenting of the obtained one or more Web pages and the determined information about the one or more available tasks includes adding the determined information about the one or more available tasks to the obtained one or more Web pages such that the determined information about the one or more available tasks is presented to the user by the Web browser.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the information to present includes selecting the one or more available tasks based at least in part on information about prior performance of tasks by the user and on information about a desired manner of performance of the one or more available tasks.

10. A computer-implemented method for a task exchange server to facilitate performance of tasks by task performers, the method comprising:

receiving information at a task exchange server about tasks submitted by task requesters as being available for performance by task performer users; and

facilitating performance of at least some of the submitted tasks by distributing information about tasks via one or more information services that are not provided by the task exchange server by, for each of the one or more information services,

receiving one or more requests that are each for task information that is to be presented along with other information to a task performer user interacting with the information service, at least some of the other information to be presented being provided by the information service; and

for each of at least one of the requests, determining one or more available tasks, and providing information about the determined tasks for presentation to a task performer user via the information service so that the task performer user is able to perform at least one of the determined tasks.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the information services are each third-party Internet sites that are not provided by an operator of the task exchange server, wherein the task exchange server provides an Internet site to facilitate performance of tasks, and wherein the method further comprises facilitating performance of some of the submitted tasks based on interactions of task performer users with the task exchange server Internet site, the interacting including providing information about tasks to task performer users and receiving results of performance of tasks by task performer users.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein, for each of at least one of the one or more third-party Internet site information services, the providing of information about one or more determined tasks for presentation to a task performer user via the information service is performed such that those determined tasks are available for performance by the task performer user without interactions of the task performer user with the task exchange server Internet site.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein, for each of at least one of the one or more information services, the providing of information about one or more determined tasks for presentation to a task performer user via the information service is performed such that those determined tasks are able to be performed by the task performer user via interactions of the task performer user with the information service.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein each of at least one of the one or more information services is a Web site accessible to users via Web browsers executing on client computing systems of the users.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the one or more information services are operated by one or more entities unaffiliated with an operator of the task exchange server.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein, for each of at least one of the requests for at least one of the information services, the determining of the one or more available tasks for the request is performed in a manner based at least in part on the task performer user to whom the tasks will be provided.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein, for each of at least one of the requests for at least one of the information services, the determining of the one or more available tasks for the request is based on at least one of preferences of the information service, the one or more task requesters that submitted the one or more tasks, the other information to be presented to the task performer user, and information about how performance of the one or more tasks is to occur.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein, for each of at least one of the information services, at least one of the multiple requests for task information are received from the information service.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the requests received from at least one of the information services are each made by that information service as part of preparing a group of information to be presented to a task performer user.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the requests received from at least one of the information services are each made by that information service before receiving interactions from one or more task performer users in order to gather information about tasks for later use during those interactions.

21. The method of claim 10 wherein, for each of at least one of the information services, each of at least one of the multiple requests for task information to be presented along with other information to a task performer user is received from a client system of the task performer user to whom the task information is to be presented.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein at least one of the requests received from at least one of the task performer user client systems is each initiated based on information provided by one of the information services to the task performer user client system.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein at least one of the requests received from at least one of the task performer user client systems is initiated by a client-side application executing on the client system to facilitate performance of tasks by task performer users.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the client-side applications executing on the at least one task performer user client systems are provided to the at least one task performer user client systems by the task exchange server.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the client-side applications executing on the at least one task performer user client systems each provide a toolbar within an executing Web browser, and wherein the information presented to the task performer users of those client systems is part of Web pages displayed via the Web browsers.

26. The method of claim 10 wherein at least one of the requests received from at least one of the information services are each based on invocation by the information service of a Web service provided by the task exchange server.

27. The method of claim 10 further comprising, for each of at least one of the determined tasks whose information is provided to a task performer user via one of the information services, receiving results of performance of the task by the task performer user and providing the received results to the task requester that submitted the task.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein, for each of at least one of the task performance results for a task whose information is provided to a task performer user via one of the information services, the task performance results are received via the one information service.

29. The method of claim 27 further comprising, for each of the at least one determined tasks whose information is provided to a task performer user via one of the information services, before the receiving of the results of the task performance by the task performer user, receiving an indication that the task performer user will perform the determined task and assigning the determined task to the task performer user such that the determined task is not available to other task performer users.

30. The method of claim 10 wherein the providing of information about determined tasks includes supplying the information as at least one of images containing descriptions of the determined tasks and Really Simple Syndication feeds.

31. A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to provide an electronically accessible information service that facilitates performance of tasks by tasks performers, by performing a method comprising:

receiving a request from a task performer user for information available from an electronically accessible information service, the available information not including information about tasks available to be performed;

automatically interacting with a remote task exchange server to obtain information about one or more available tasks, the task exchange server acting as an intermediary to facilitate performance by task performer users of tasks available from task requesters; and

responding to the request by providing information to the task performer user, the provided information including the obtained information about at least one of the one or more available tasks and information retrieved from the electronically accessible information service, so that the task performer user may use the provided information about the at least one available tasks to perform one or more of the at least one available tasks.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the method further comprises receiving requests from one or more users who are not task performer users for the task exchange server, each of the requests being for information available from the electronically accessible information service, and responding to each of the requests from the one or more users by providing information retrieved from the electronically accessible information service without providing information about any available tasks.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein a user is not one of the task performer users for the task exchange server if the user has not registered with the task exchange server to perform tasks, and wherein the method further comprises determining that at least one of the one or more users is not a task performer user for the task exchange server by interacting with the task exchange server.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the information provided to the task performer user about the at least one available tasks is in a form that allows the task performer user to generate and provide to the task exchange server results of performance of each of one or more of the at least one available tasks without the results being accessible to the computing system.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the electronically accessible information service is a Web site that is unaffiliated with the task exchange server other than regarding obtaining and using task information from the task exchange server, and wherein the information provided to the task performer user includes one or more Web pages sent to a client device of the task performer user.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the information provided to the task performer user about the at least one available tasks includes one or more references to each of at least one of the one or more available tasks such that the task performer user may select a reference to a task to obtain additional information about the task from the task exchange server.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the information provided to the task performer user about the at least one available tasks causes a computing device of the task performer user to automatically obtain additional information about the at least one available tasks from the task exchange server.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the at least one available tasks whose information is provided to the task performer user are selected based on at least one of being related to the information retrieved from the electronically accessible information service, and being tasks submitted by the electronically accessible information service for performance.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the computer-readable medium is at least one of a memory of a computing system and a data transmission medium transmitting a generated data signal containing the contents.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing system to perform the method.

41. A computing device configured to facilitate performance of tasks by a user of the computing device, comprising:

a memory; and

an executing task performance facilitator application configured to automatically determine whether to provide information about available tasks to a user of the computing device based at least in part on other information being provided to the user from one or more other third-party information services, and to provide information to the user about one or more available tasks if it is determined to provide that information.

42. The computing device of claim 41 wherein the information about the one or more available tasks is from a remote task exchange server, and wherein the automatic determining of whether to provide information about one or more available tasks to the user is further based at least in part on whether the user is registered as a task performer user with the task exchange server.

43. The computing device of claim 42 wherein the one or more available tasks are selected for the task performer user, and wherein the providing of the information to the user about the one or more available tasks includes automatically interacting with the task exchange server to obtain at least some of the information from the task exchange server.

44. The computing device of claim 41 wherein the executing task performance facilitator application is further configured to automatically retrieve the information about the one or more available tasks from a remote task exchange server.

45. The computing device of claim 41 wherein the executing task performance facilitator application is further configured to retrieve the information about the one or more available tasks in response to the information being provided by at least one of the third-party information services.

46. The computing device of claim 41 wherein the computing device further comprises an executing Web browser, and wherein the executing task performance facilitator application interacts with the executing Web browser to facilitate the providing of the information to the user about the one or more available tasks.

47. The computing device of claim 46 wherein the information about the one or more available tasks is from a remote task exchange server, and wherein the task performance facilitator application is further configured to retrieve information from the task exchange server about prior performance by the user of tasks via the task exchange server and to present the retrieved information to the user as part of the Web browser.

48. The computing device of claim 41 wherein the task performance facilitator application consists of a means for automatically determining whether to provide information about available tasks to a user of the computing device based at least in part on other information being provided to the user from one or more other third-party information services, and for providing information to the user about one or more available tasks if it is determined to provide that information.