Method and Apparatus for Community-Based Comparison Shopping Based on Social Bookmarking

• US 20090287714A1
• Filed: 05/19/2008
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola Mobility, Inc. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Narasimhan, Nitya, Bruner, John D., Vasudevan, Venugopal
• Application Number:
  US12/122,891
• Publication Number:
  US 20090287714A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A method and apparatus for sharing product information amongst users of a computer network using productmarks. A productmark for a product is created by a user of the network and includes a product identifier, an annotation containing user comments, a username that identifies the creator of the productmark, and a categorization tag that identifies the user'"'"'s level of interest in purchasing the product. Productmarks are stored in a database that may be queried using a product identifier, a username, a categorization tag or any combination of these to retrieve productmarks. A user network device provides access to the database and includes modules for creating and uploading productmarks to the database a module for querying and downloading productmarks from the database. A peer-to-peer communication session may be formed relating to a particular product and/or geographical location.

Claims

1. A method for sharing product information amongst users of a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving, via the network, a productmark for a product, the productmark being created by a user of the network and comprising;

a product identifier;

an annotation containing user comments;

a username that identifies the creator of the productmark; and

a categorization tag that identifies the user'"'"'s level of interest in purchasing the product;

storing the productmark in a database;

enabling users of the network to query the database using a product identifier, to retrieve matching productmarks; and

enabling users of the network to query the database using a username, to retrieve productmarks created by the user having that username.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the categorization tag identifies a geographical location where the user viewed the product, the method further comprising:

enabling users of the network to query the database, using a product identifier and a geographical location, to retrieve matching productmarks that were created by users in the geographical location.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the productmark further comprises a date the productmark was created or last modified, the method further comprising:

enabling users of the network to query the database using a range of productmark dates.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

enabling users of the network to query the database using a categorization tag.

5. A method for a user of a computer network to share information about a product with other users of the computer network, the method comprising:

creating productmark for the product, the productmark comprising;

a product identifier;

an annotation containing user comments;

a username that identifies the creator of the productmark; and

a categorization tag that identifies the user'"'"'s level of interest in purchasing the product;

uploading the productmark to a server of the network for inclusion in a database of productmarks; and

accessing the database of productmarks.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5, further comprising:

selecting product identifier; and

joining a peer-peer a communication session to communicate, via the network, with other users who have selected the same product identifier.

7. A method in accordance with claim 5, further comprising:

selecting product identifier; and

joining a peer-peer a communication session to communicate, via the network, with other users who are located within a selected geographical area and have indicated a specified level of interest in the product associated with the selected product identifier.

8. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the network comprises the Internet and the communication session comprises an instant messaging (IM) session.

9. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein creating the productmark for the product comprises:

scanning a barcode of the product to a network device of the user;

decoding the barcode;

generating a corresponding annotation; and

selecting a corresponding categorization tag.

10. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein creating the productmark for the product comprises:

scanning a textual description of the product to a network device of the user;

the network device recognizing the text of the textual description using an character recognition system;

generating a corresponding annotation; and

selecting a corresponding categorization tag.

11. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein creating productmark for the product comprises:

entering an image of the product to a network device of the user;

entering contextual information to the network device;

the network device using the contextual information and the image to identify the product identifier;

generating a corresponding annotation; and

selecting a corresponding categorization tag.

12. A method in accordance with claim 11, wherein the contextual information is used to identify a supplier of the product.

13. An apparatus for sharing product information amongst users of a computer network, the apparatus comprising:

a productmark database storing productmarks, each productmark created by a network user and comprising;

a product identifier;

an annotation containing user comments relating to the product;

a categorization tag identifying the user'"'"'s level of interest in purchasing the product; and

a username identifying the creator of the productmark;

a user information database storing information pertaining to network users; and

a search and access engine able to retrieve information from the productmark database and the user information database in response to queries by users of the network.

14. An apparatus in accordance with claim 13, wherein the product database is indexed by product identifier, categorization tag and username, and wherein the user information database is indexed by username.

15. A user network device for providing a user access to the computer network to enable sharing of product information amongst users of the computer network, the user network device comprising:

a creation module for creating a productmark, the productmark comprising a product identifier, an annotation containing user comments relating to the product, a categorization tag identifying the user'"'"'s level of interest in purchasing the product, and a username identifying the creator of the productmark;

an upload module for uploading the productmark to a service host site, via the computer network, for storage in a productmark database; and

a query and download module for querying the productmark database and downloading productmarks from the service host site.

16. A user network device in accordance with claim 15, further comprising a peer-to-peer communication module for connecting the user to a communication session for a product selected by the user.

17. A user network device in accordance with claim 15, wherein the creation module for creating a productmark comprises:

a means for obtaining a barcode of the product; and

a means for decoding the barcode of the product to obtain a product identifier.

18. A user network device in accordance with claim 15, wherein the creation module for creating a productmark comprises:

a means for obtaining a scanned textual description of the product; and

a means for recognizing text in the scanned textual description of the product and obtaining a product identifier from the text.

19. A user network device in accordance with claim 15, wherein the query and download module comprises a module for displaying annotations of downloaded productmarks.

20. A user network device in accordance with claim 15, further comprising a memory for storing downloaded productmarks.

21. A user network device in accordance with claim 15, wherein the query and download module comprises a module for aggregating information in download product marks.