Shopping scouts web site for rewarding customer referrals on product and price information with rewards scaled by the number of shoppers using the information
First Claim
1. A searchable database of information submitted by rewarded users comprising:
- a plurality of records, each record containing information presented to a searcher when search terms input by the searcher match terms in the record;
a data-entry module for receiving information from a rewarded user, the information being written to a target record in the plurality of records;
a rewards database containing account records for users including a reward count for each user; and
a reward module, coupled to the rewards database, activated when the searcher views information in the target record, the reward module increasing a reward count for the rewarded user when the searcher views the information in the target record submitted by the rewarded user;
a verifier, coupled to the data-entry module, for verifying information submitted by the rewarded user, the verifier re-fetching a web page containing the information submitted by the rewarded user from a network, the verifier locating the information submitted on the web page and entering the information into the target record when information on the web page matches the information submitted by the rewarded user, wherein the reward count for the rewarded user increases in proportion to a number of times that a searcher or another searcher views the information submitted by the rewarded user, whereby rewards for submitting information depend on a number of times the information is viewed by others and whereby information submitted is verified by refetching the web page before information is added to the searchable database.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A web site on the world-wide-web allows users to search a product/price database. The database contains product and price information for a wide variety of products from many different suppliers such as online and offline stores. Information in the database is collected and corrected by submitting users who are rewarded for product submissions. A submitting user inputs data on new product, price, supplier, or rating information using an online form. The user highlights coordinates of the model, make, and price on the supplier'"'"'s web page, so that automated software can later check the supplier'"'"'s web page for price and product updates. The submitting user is rewarded for submitting product and price information. When other consumer-users search the database and find the product, the submitting user is again rewarded. When these other consumer-users follow a link to the supplier'"'"'s web page for that product, the submitting user is further rewarded. Thus future rewards depend on the number of consumer-users viewing the information submitted. Higher rewards are granted for more popular products. Correcting-users can correct errors when viewing the supplier'"'"'s web page by pressing a correct-error button. The correcting user is rewarded and future rewards are shared among the submitting user and the correcting user as consumer-users view the corrected information.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A searchable database of information submitted by rewarded users comprising:
-
a plurality of records, each record containing information presented to a searcher when search terms input by the searcher match terms in the record;
a data-entry module for receiving information from a rewarded user, the information being written to a target record in the plurality of records;
a rewards database containing account records for users including a reward count for each user; and
a reward module, coupled to the rewards database, activated when the searcher views information in the target record, the reward module increasing a reward count for the rewarded user when the searcher views the information in the target record submitted by the rewarded user;
a verifier, coupled to the data-entry module, for verifying information submitted by the rewarded user, the verifier re-fetching a web page containing the information submitted by the rewarded user from a network, the verifier locating the information submitted on the web page and entering the information into the target record when information on the web page matches the information submitted by the rewarded user, wherein the reward count for the rewarded user increases in proportion to a number of times that a searcher or another searcher views the information submitted by the rewarded user, whereby rewards for submitting information depend on a number of times the information is viewed by others and whereby information submitted is verified by refetching the web page before information is added to the searchable database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
a network connection, coupled to the data-entry module, for receiving information from the rewarded user on a remote node of a network, and for sending information to the searcher on a different remote node of the network, whereby the searchable database is accessed through the network.
-
-
3. The searchable database of information submitted by rewarded users of claim 2 wherein the network is an Internet, the searcher accessing the searchable database though a web page search form and the rewarded user accessing the data-entry module through a web page entry form.
-
4. The searchable database of claim 1 wherein the information submitted by
the rewarded user includes the location of an advertisement, wherein when the advertisement is replaced by another advertisement, the person is rewarded when the advertisement is viewed. -
5. The searchable database of claim 4 wherein the information submitted by the rewarded user includes at least a portion of a uniform-resource-locator (URL).
-
6. The searchable database of claim 5 wherein the information submitted by the rewarded user further includes one or more items from the group consisting of a price, a product name, a manufacturer, a supplier, and a model name.
-
7. The searchable database of claim 6 further comprising:
-
a URL queue containing a plurality of URL'"'"'s;
an automated data acquirer, coupled to the plurality of records, receiving a starting URL from the URL queue, for fetching a web page pointed to by the starting URL, the automated data acquirer parsing the web page for links to other web pages, the automated data acquirer extracting URL'"'"'s for the links and writing the URL'"'"'s to the URL queue;
wherein the automated data acquirer also searches the web page for product and price information, the automated data acquirer writing the product and price information to a target record in the plurality of records, whereby links on a web page are followed to other web pages and product and price information is acquired automatically by the automated data acquirer and manually by the rewarded user.
-
-
8. The searchable database of claim 7 wherein a URL submitted by the rewarded user is input to the URL queue, the automated data acquirer searching the web page submitted by the rewarded user for links to other web pages, whereby links to other web pages from a user submission are followed to find other product and price information.
-
9. The searchable database of claim 3 further comprising:
-
a correction module, coupled to the plurality of records, for allowing the searcher to correct information viewed from the target record, the correction module updating the target record to a corrected record;
wherein when another searcher views the information in the corrected record, the reward count for the searcher that submitted the correction increases, whereby the searcher receives future rewards when others view the corrected record.
-
-
10. The searchable database of claim 9 wherein the reward count is decreased when a user redeems a reward for a prize, a discount, money, or stock in a company that operates the searchable database.
-
11. A computer-implemented method for receiving new product and price data from consumer-users that are rewarded, the method comprising:
-
receiving an address of a supplier web page that shows a product and a price for the product from a first user;
fetching the supplier web page from an Internet using the address received from the first user;
finding the price and a product name on the supplier web page;
storing the address, the price, and the product name in a first record in a price database when the price is verified;
increasing a first reward count for the first user when the price is verified;
notifying the first user when the price cannot be verified;
searching the price database for a product matching a search request by a second user;
displaying a portion of the first record to the second user when the first record matches the search request;
increasing the first reward count for the first user when the first record is displayed to the second user;
wherein the first reward count is increased as other users view the first record;
whereby the first user is rewarded when the second user and other users views the first record with information submitted by the first user. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
displaying the supplier web page to the second user when the second user activates a link displayed for the first record; and
increasing the first reward count for the first user when the second user activates the link for the first record, whereby the first user is rewarded when the second user or other users follow links to the supplier web page.
-
-
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 further comprising:
-
receiving a formatted file from the first user, the formatted file containing the address of the supplier web page, the price, and the product name for the first record, and other addresses, prices, and product names for other records in the price database, whereby the first user submits multiple product information using the formatted file.
-
-
14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 further comprising:
-
displaying a submission form to the first user, the submission form for receiving the price, the product name, and the address of a supplier web page that shows a product and the price for the product;
whereby the first user submits information using an online form.
-
-
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising:
-
the first user identifying the product name and the price on the supplier web page;
creating pointers to locations of the product and price identified by the first user on the supplier web page;
storing the pointers in the first record;
refreshing the price database by re-fetching the supplier web page from the Internet using the address stored in the first record;
locating the price and the product name on the supplier web page using the pointers stored with the first record;
extracting the price and product name values from the supplier web page at locations identified by the pointers; and
updating the first record with the price extracted from the supplier web page when the price has changed from the price submitted by the first user, whereby pointers locate the price and product name on the supplier web page, allowing for automatic database refreshing.
-
-
16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 further comprising:
-
correcting an error in the price or product name in the first record by;
displaying the price and product name from the first record to a third user;
displaying the supplier web page to the third user;
receiving a corrected price or a corrected product name from the third user;
sending the first user a notice of correction of the first record;
updating the first record using the information from the third user;
wherein when subsequent users view information from the first record;
increasing the first reward count for the first user and a third reward count for the third user when the first record is displayed to a subsequent user;
wherein the first reward count and the third reward count are increased as other users view the first record after the third user makes a correction;
whereby the first user and the third user share future rewards when the third user corrects information submitted by the first user.
-
-
17. A computer-program product comprising:
-
a computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code means embodied therein for creating and maintaining a product/price database, the computer-readable program code means in the computer-program product comprising;
database means for storing product records, each product record containing a price, a product name, and a supplier web-address;
data-input means for receiving supplier web-addresses from submitting users;
record store means, coupled to the database means, for storing the price and name fields and the supplier web-address to a record in the database means when the data-input means receives the supplier web-address from a submitting user;
submission reward means, activated by the record store means, for adding a reward to a submitting user when the record is stored in the database means;
data verification means, coupled to the data-input means, for verifying price and product information received from submitting users by fetching a supplier web page using the supplier web-address, and extracting price and name fields from the supplier web page;
search means, coupled to the database means, for retrieving matching records from the database means that meet search criteria from searching users, the search means displaying information from matching record to the searching users; and
use-reward means, coupled to the search means, for adding another reward to the submitting user when a portion of the record is viewed by the searching user;
whereby submitting users are rewarded for submitting price or product information and are rewarded when searching users view the price or product information submitted. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
correction means, coupled to the search means, for receiving a correction from a correcting user, the correction means updating a record in the database means in response to the correction;
correction-rewards means, activated by the correction means, for adding a reward to the correcting user when the record in the database means is updated with the correction and when searching users view the corrected information.
-
-
19. The computer-program product of claim 18 wherein the computer-readable program code means further comprises:
-
split-rewards means, coupled to the search means, for splitting a reward among the submitting user and the correcting user when a corrected record is viewed by a searching user, whereby rewards are split among a submitting user and a correcting user.
-
Specification