Auction notification system
First Claim
1. A method in a computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to a user, the method comprising:
- receiving from the user a selection specification for selecting auctions;
receiving from the user a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user;
when the timing indication indicates that a notification is to be provided to the user, identifying auctions that satisfy the selection specification; and
notifying the user of the identified auctions.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for generating notifications of auctions based on user notification requests. In one embodiment, the notification system receives from users selection specifications that specify the types of auctions for which the user is to be notified. The selection specifications may include a category of the auctions, keywords for identifying auctions, and values for attributes associated with the category. When the notification system receives a selection specification, it determines whether that selection specification is the same as or nearly the same as other selection specifications that have been received. The notification system periodically determines whether any new auctions satisfy a selection specification by submitting a query to an auction database and then notifies the users when new auctions are identified. The notification may include a list of auctions that is sorted based on access patterns of users who are presented with lists of auctions using selection specifications with similar category, attribute, or keyword values.
123 Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A method in a computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to a user, the method comprising:
-
receiving from the user a selection specification for selecting auctions;
receiving from the user a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user;
when the timing indication indicates that a notification is to be provided to the user, identifying auctions that satisfy the selection specification; and
notifying the user of the identified auctions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method in a computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to a user, the method comprising:
-
providing a categorization of the auctions;
receiving from the user a selection of a category and a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user;
identifying an auction that is within the selected category and for which the user has not yet been notified; and
when the received timing indication indicates that a notification is to be provided to the user, notifying the user that the identified auction is within the selected category. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
-
-
10. A method in a computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to users, the method comprising:
-
for each of a plurality of users, receiving a selection specification for selecting auctions and a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user;
normalizing the received selection specifications;
generating a mapping from each user to the normalized selection specification, wherein at least two users are mapped to the same normalized selection specification;
identifying auctions that satisfy a normalized selection specification; and
notifying users who are mapped to the normalized selection specification of the identified auctions in accordance with the received timing indication for each user. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
-
-
13. A method in a computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to a user, the method comprising:
-
receiving from the user a selection specification and a timing indication that indicates when a notification is to be provided to the user;
identifying auctions that satisfy the received selection specification and for which the user has not yet been notified; and
notifying the user that the identified auctions satisfy the selection specification, the identity of the auctions being ordered based on access patterns in accessing results of queries, the notifying occurring when the timing indication indicates that a notification is to be provided to the user. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method in a computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to a user, the method comprising:
-
receiving from the user a selection specification for identifying auctions and a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user;
identifying auctions that satisfy the selection specification; and
sending an electronic mail notification to the user that provides an indication of the identified auctions when the timing indication indicates that a notification is to be provided to the user. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A method in a computer system for receiving notifications of auctions, the method comprising:
-
receiving from a user a selection specification for auctions, the selection specification including a category, and receiving a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user;
sending the received selection specification and the received timing indication to a server;
receiving notifications from the server that identify auctions that satisfy the selection specification and for which notifications have not yet been received by the user, the notifications being sent from the server in accordance with the sent timing indication; and
providing those received notifications to the user. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A computer system for generating notifications of auctions to be provided to users, comprising:
-
means for identifying auctions that are within a category specified by a user and for which the user has not yet been notified; and
means for notifying the user that the identified auctions are within the selected category when a timing indication specified by the user indicates that the user is to be notified. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
-
-
32. A method in a computer system for notifying users of auctions, the method comprising:
-
receiving from a user a selection specification for auctions and a timing indication that indicates when notifications are to be provided to the user; and
after receiving the selection specification, determining whether a new auction that was opened after the selection specification was received satisfies the selection specification; and
when the new auction satisfies the selection specification, notifying the user of the new auction when the timing indication that the user is to receive a notification. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
-
Specification