Facilitating electronic commerce transactions using buyer profiles
First Claim
1. A system for sorting search results according to a buyer profile during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction, comprising:
- a database containing a buyer profile associated with a buyer, the buyer profile comprising a record of the number of times each of a plurality of sort criteria has appeared in at least some previous events involving the buyer; and
a server operable to;
receive a plurality of search results communicated from one or more seller databases in response to an under-constrained search query in which exact attribute values are not specified for one or more attributes;
access the buyer profile to determine an order of display based on the number of times one or more sort criteria in the buyer profile applicable to the search results have appeared in the previous events involving the buyer;
sort the search results according to the determined order of display; and
communicate the sorted search results to the buyer;
the server further operable to;
delete a record for a sort criterion from the buyer profile if the sort criterion has not appeared within a predetermined period of time or within a specified number of recent events;
notify the buyer before deleting the sort criterion; and
not delete the sort criterion if the buyer indicates the sort criterion should not be deleted.
19 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system (10) for sorting search results according to a buyer profile (47) during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction includes a database containing a buyer profile (47) associated with a buyer (20), the buyer profile (47) comprising a record of the number of times each of multiple sort criteria has appeared in at least some previous events involving the buyer (20). A server (40) receives multiple search results communicated from one or more seller databases (32) in response to an under-constrained search query in which exact attribute values are not specified for one or more attributes. The server (40) accesses the buyer profile (47) to determine an order of display based on the number of times one or more sort criteria in the buyer profile (47) applicable to the search results have appeared in the previous events involving the buyer (20). The server (40) sorts the search results according to the determined order of display and communicates the sorted search results to the buyer (20).
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A system for sorting search results according to a buyer profile during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction, comprising:
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a database containing a buyer profile associated with a buyer, the buyer profile comprising a record of the number of times each of a plurality of sort criteria has appeared in at least some previous events involving the buyer; and
a server operable to;
receive a plurality of search results communicated from one or more seller databases in response to an under-constrained search query in which exact attribute values are not specified for one or more attributes;
access the buyer profile to determine an order of display based on the number of times one or more sort criteria in the buyer profile applicable to the search results have appeared in the previous events involving the buyer;
sort the search results according to the determined order of display; and
communicate the sorted search results to the buyer;
the server further operable to;
delete a record for a sort criterion from the buyer profile if the sort criterion has not appeared within a predetermined period of time or within a specified number of recent events;
notify the buyer before deleting the sort criterion; and
not delete the sort criterion if the buyer indicates the sort criterion should not be deleted. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of sorting search results according to a buyer profile during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction, comprising:
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receiving a plurality of search results communicated from one or more seller databases in response to an under-constrained search query in which exact attribute values are not specified for one or more attributes;
accessing a buyer profile associated with a buyer, the buyer profile comprising a record of the number of times each of a plurality of sort criteria has appeared in at least some previous events involving the buyer;
determining an order of display based on the number of times one or more sort criteria in the buyer profile applicable to the search results have appeared in the previous events involving the buyer;
sorting the search results according to the determined order of display;
communicating the sorted search results to the buyer;
determining that a sort criterion has not appeared within a predetermined period of time or within a specified number of recent events;
notifying the buyer that the record for the sort criterion may be deleted;
deleting the sort criterion if the buyer indicates the sort criterion be deleted; and
not deleting the sort criterion if the buyer indicates the sort criterion should not be deleted. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. Software for sorting search results according to a buyer profile during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and when executed operable to:
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receive a plurality of search results communicated from one or more seller databases in response to an under-constrained search query in which exact attribute values are not specified for one or more attributes;
access a buyer profile associated with a buyer, the buyer profile comprising a record of the number of times each of a plurality of sort criteria has appeared in at least some previous events involving the buyer;
determine an order of display based on the number of times one or more sort criteria in the buyer profile applicable to the search results have appeared in the previous events involving the buyer;
sort the search results according to the determined order of display;
communicate the sorted search results to the buyer;
notify the buyer before deleting the sort criterion; and
not delete the sort criterion if the buyer indicates the sort criterion should not be deleted. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification