PROVIDING A MARKETPLACE FOR WEB SERVICES
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Abstract
A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for facilitating interactions between computing systems, such as by providing an electronic Web service (“WS”) marketplace via which third-party WS providers make their WSes available to third-party WS consumers who locate and purchase access to those WSes via the electronic marketplace. Some or all available WSes may have associated use prices and or non-price use conditions, and if so access to those WSes may be provided only if a consumer requesting access provides appropriate payment and otherwise satisfies the specified use conditions. In some situations, WS consumers may also purchase subscriptions to provide later access to registered WSes. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring it, and is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
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Citations
124 Claims
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1-93. -93. (canceled)
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94. A method for a computing system to provide information regarding use of Web services, the method comprising:
under control of an electronic marketplace provided by the computing system for selling and purchasing access to Web services, for each of multiple third-party Web service providers, registering a Web service available from the provider via the electronic marketplace in response to a registration request from the provider, the registration request including an indication of how to invoke the Web service and a specification of use conditions and a use price for use of the registered Web service by third-party Web service consumers; for each of multiple third-party Web service consumers, in response to a request received from the consumer to subscribe to an indicated one of the registered Web services, creating the subscription for later use by the consumer if the subscription request satisfies the specified use conditions for the indicated Web service and if the consumer has provided payment for the specified use price for the indicated Web service; for each of multiple requests received from third-party consumers to access indicated registered Web services, and if it is determined that the consumer from whom the request is received has a valid subscription for the Web service indicated in the request, satisfying the request by, interacting with the provider that registered the Web service to invoke the Web service and receive response information, the invoking using the information from the provider that indicates how to invoke the Web service; and providing to the consumer the received response information; and tracking information about the accessing of the indicated registered Web services by the third-party consumers for the multiple received requests, the tracked information for use in monitoring use of the registered Web services. - View Dependent Claims (95, 96, 97)
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98. A computer-implemented method for providing information regarding use of Web services, the method comprising:
under control of one or more computing systems, in response to registration requests from providers of Web services, registering Web services available from the Web service providers so as to make access to the registered Web services available for purchase by a plurality of consumers of Web services, the registered Web services each having at least one associated use price; providing information about one or more of the available registered Web services to a first of the plurality of Web service consumers; in response to one or more access requests received from the first consumer for access to an indicated first Web service that is one of the registered Web services and that is available from a first Web service provider, automatically facilitating accessing of the first Web service by the first consumer in exchange for payment by the first consumer of an access fee that is based on one or more of the at least one use prices associated with the first Web service; tracking information about the accessing by the first consumer of the first Web service and about other accessing by multiple other Web service consumers of multiple registered Web services; determining to provide tracked information about the first Web service that is based at least in part on the accessing of the first Web service by the first consumer; and after the determining, providing the tracked information about the first Web service for use in remotely monitoring information about the first Web service. - View Dependent Claims (99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116)
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117. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to provide information regarding use of remote services, by performing a method comprising:
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providing information to consumers about multiple remote invocable services that are available from third-party providers; after one or more access requests from a first consumer for access to one or more indicated invocable services of the multiple available invocable services, providing to the first consumer access to the indicated one or more invocable services for one or more access fees associated with the indicated one or more invocable services, the providing of the access including automatically invoking on behalf of the first consumer each of at least one of the indicated one or more invocable services from the provider of that invocable service; and after determining to provide information about use of at least one of the one or more invocable services by one or more consumers that include the first consumer, providing the information for use in monitoring the at least one invocable service. - View Dependent Claims (118, 119, 120)
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121. A computing device configured to provide information regarding use of Web services, comprising:
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one or more storage devices configured to store information about Web services made available by third-party providers for paid access by third-party consumers of Web services, the stored information including at least one associated use price for each of the registered Web services; and one or more memories configured with executable instructions to provide to consumers paid access to registered Web services, by; receiving a plurality of access requests that are each from one of the consumers for paid access to an indicated one of the registered Web services, the plurality of access requests including multiple access requests from a first of the consumers; for each of the plurality of access requests, providing to the consumer that made the access request the paid access to the indicated Web service for the access request in exchange for payment of an access fee based on a use price associated with that indicated Web service; and after determining to provide information about use of at least one of the registered Web services by one or more consumers that include the first consumer, providing the information for use in monitoring the at least one Web service. - View Dependent Claims (122, 123, 124)
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Specification