INTEGRATION OF eCOMMERCE FEATURES INTO SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORM

• US 20110184780A1
• Filed: 01/21/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Victor, Nisha, Hui, Alvin, Williams, Diana, Alderson, Chad
• Application Number:
  US13/011,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20110184780A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A method and system are provided for ecommerce marketplace users to provide contents for social networking platform integration, such as a user sharing purchases with friends so that the user may show new clothes to friends on a social networking service. Content can be transmitted to a social network server for storing at a message space of a user of the social network server and requesting the user of the social network to provide an opinion about the content. In addition, the content might include an image resembling a paper doll, the paper doll having the capability of having parts electronically superimposed with images of articles of clothing comprising all or part of an outfit. Images of such articles of clothing can be electronically superimposed on the paper doll. The paper doll with images of the articles of clothing can be transmitted to friends on a social network for an opinion or for completion of the outfit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

using a computer processor, receiving from a user of an ecommerce marketplace one or more first signals identifying content to be transmitted to a social network server for storing at a message space of a user of the social network server;

analyzing the one or more first signals; and

responsive to the analysis of the one or more first signals, providing to the social network server one or more second signals requesting the user of a social network to provide an opinion about the content.

2. The method of claim 1 where the content identified in the one or more first signals includes information describing/identifying a commercial item.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the content comprises an image of the commercial item and the one or more first signals includes a signal for enabling the user of the social network to see images of additional items like the commercial item.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the commercial item is one of the group consisting of clothing, shoes and accessories.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more second signals includes a signal for enabling the user of the social network to purchase one or more commercial items.

6. The method of claim 2, the method further comprising:

receiving at least one of an opinion concerning the commercial item from, and an image of a user of the social network; and

providing at least one of a signal for rendering the opinion and a signal for rendering the image of the user who provided the opinion.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the signal for rendering the opinion is provided by the user of the social network selecting a graphical user interface element to generate and communicate that the user of the social network has a favorable opinion concerning the commercial item.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the opinion is one of a group of opinions consisting of:

a two-choice poll and a multiple choice poll.

9. The method of claim 8, the method further including:

providing a signal used for tallying a plurality of votes; and

responsive to a tally of the plurality of votes, providing a signal to allow the tally of the votes to be rendered for viewing by one of a group consisting of the user of the ecommerce marketplace and a user of the social network who provided a vote.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the rendering is in at least one of a bar chart, a pie-shaped percentage graph, or a bell-shaped curve format.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the user of the ecommerce marketplace is a member of the social network and subscribes to alerts of special interest, the alerts being streamed to a social network web page of the user of the ecommerce marketplace.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the alerts streamed to the wall include a mechanism to allow users of the social network viewing the wall to receive information about the alerts.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises an image resembling a paper doll, the paper doll having a capability of having parts electronically superimposed with images of articles of clothing, the method further comprising:

receiving from a client machine a second signal indicating an article of clothing desired to be electronically superimposed on the paper doll;

responsive to the second signal, querying a database for images representing the article of clothing; and

providing to the client machine a first response signal representing the desired images for electronically superimposing on the paper doll.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising receiving from the client machine a third signal requesting articles of clothing similar to the indicated article of clothing.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising querying a database for images of articles of clothing similar to the indicated article of clothing and providing to the client machine a second response signal representing images of the articles of clothing that are similar to the indicated article of clothing, for electronically superimposing on the paper doll.

39. The method of claim 13 wherein the paper doll is personalized by one of the group consisting of using a photograph of the face of a user of an electronic system for the head of the paper doll and using a photograph of the user of an electronic system as the paper doll.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embedded therein a set of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a computer, causes the computer to execute the following operations:

receiving one or more first signals identifying content to be transmitted to a social network server for storing at a message space of a user of a social network;

analyzing the one or more first signals; and

responsive to the analysis of the one or more first signals, providing to the social network server one or more second signals identifying the content and requesting the user of the social network to provide an opinion about the content.

17. The storage medium of claim 16 wherein the content identified in the one or more first signals is a commercial item and the one or more first signals comprises information that includes a picture of at least part of a commercial item.

18. The storage medium of claim 17 wherein the commercial item is one of a group consisting, of clothing, shoes and accessories.

19. The storage medium of claim 17, the operations further including enabling the user of the social network to view items similar to the commercial item.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, the operations further including enabling the user of the social network to purchase one or more of the commercial items.

21. The storage medium of claim 16 wherein the opinion is that the user of the social network likes the commercial item.

22. The storage medium of claim 17, the operations further including enabling users of the social network to cast a vote for the commercial item.

23. The storage medium of claim 16 wherein the opinion is one of a group of opinions consisting of:

a two-choice poll and a multiple-choice poll.

24. The storage medium of claim 22, the operations further including enabling a tallying of a plurality of votes;

and responsive to the tallying of the plurality of votes, enabling the tally of the votes to be rendered for viewing by a user.

25. The storage medium of claim 24 wherein the rendering is viewable by the user of the social network.

26. The storage medium of claim 24 wherein the rendering is in at least one of a bar chart, a pie-shaped, or a bell-shaped curve format.

27. The storage medium of claim 16, wherein the content comprises an image resembling a paper doll, the paper doll having a capability of having parts electronically superimposed with images of articles of clothing, the operations further comprising:

receiving from a client machine a second signal indicating an article of clothing desired to be electronically superimposed on the paper doll;

responsive to the second signal, querying a database for images representing the article of clothing; and

providing to the client machine a first response signal representing the desired images for electronically superimposing on the paper doll.

28. The storage medium of claim 27, the operations further comprising receiving from the client machine a third signal requesting articles of clothing similar to the indicated article of clothing.

29. The storage medium of claim 28, the operations further including querying a database for images of articles of clothing similar to the indicated article of clothing and providing to the client machine a second response signal representing images of the articles of clothing that are similar to the indicated article of clothing, for electronically superimposing on the paper doll.

35. The storage medium of claim 16, the operations further including receiving opinions from a plurality of users and the identities of the users rendering the opinions, and providing a signal for displaying the results of the opinions and the identities of the users rendering the opinions.

36. The storage medium of claim 35 wherein the displaying includes displaying the identities of the users rendering the opinions adjacent the results of the opinions.

37. The storage medium of claim 36 wherein the identities of the users rendering the opinions can be highlighted, the operations further including receiving an order to purchase an item represented by the content, the order based on the identity of one or more of the users rendering the opinions.

38. The storage medium of claim 36 wherein the highlighting is by fly-out navigation.

40. The storage medium of claim 27 the paper doll is personalized by one of the group consisting of using a photograph of the face of a user of an electronic system for the head of the paper doll and using a photograph of the user of an electronic system as the paper doll.

30. A system comprising:

one or more computer processors and storage configured to store and execute;

a receiver module for receiving one or more first signals identifying content to be transmitted to a social network server for storing at a message space of a user of a social network, and a request for the user of the social network to render an opinion regarding the content; and

an analysis module including a detector module responsive to the receiver module for detecting the content, an identity of the social network, and an identity of the user of the social network, the analysis module further including a rendering signal module, and a transmission module,

the rendering signal module responsive to the detector module for providing a rendering signal for rendering the content to the user of the social network; and

the transmission module responsive to the detector module for providing to the social network server the rendering signal and a second signal requesting the user of the social network to provide an opinion about the content.

31. The method of claim further including receiving opinions from a plurality of users and the identity of the users rendering the opinions, and providing a signal for displaying the results of the opinion and the identities of the users rendering the opinion.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the displaying includes displaying the identities of the users rendering the opinions adjacent the results of the opinions.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the identities of the users rendering the opinions can be highlighted, the method further including receiving an order to purchase an item represented by the content, the order based on the identity of one or more of the users rendering the opinion.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the highlighting is by fly-out navigation.

41. A computer-implemented method comprising:

using a computer processor, receiving from a user of an ecommerce marketplace one or more first signals identifying content to be transmitted storage space of one or more second users on a networked server;

analyzing the one or more first signals; and

responsive to the analysis of the one or more first signals, providing one or more second signals requesting the one or more second users to provide an opinion about the content, the request being sent by email.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the opinion is one of a group of opinions consisting of:

a two-choice poll and a multiple choice poll.

43. The method of claim 41 wherein the one or more second users are a plurality of second users, the method further including receiving opinions from a set of the plurality of second users and the identity of the set of the plurality of second users rendering the opinions, and providing a signal for displaying the results of the opinion and the identities of the set of the plurality of second users rendering the opinion.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the displaying includes displaying the identities of the set of the plurality of second users rendering the opinions adjacent the results of the opinions.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein the identities of the set of the plurality of second users rendering the opinions can be highlighted, the method further including receiving an order from the user of the ecommerce marketplace to purchase an item represented by the content, the order based on the identity of one or more of the set of the plurality of second users rendering the opinion.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the highlighting is by fly-out navigation.