System and methods for browsing a database of items and conducting associated transactions

• US 7,080,070 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2000
• Issued: 07/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gavarini, Paul Marie Pierre
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CUONG H
• Application Number:
  US09/607,841
• Time in Patent Office: 2,209 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 27, 705/28, 707/3, 707/5, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/10, 707/2, 707/4, 709/224, 709/219, 709/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

An electronic commerce system provides various features for assisting customers in locating items and generating orders from a merchant'"'"'s electronic catalog, and for assisting customers and merchants in communicating about such orders. A user-definable categories feature allows customers and/or merchants to define search queries for searching the electronic catalog, and to store these search queries under user-defined category names for subsequent use.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating browsing of an electronic catalog, the system comprising:

a database which contains an electronic catalog of items; and

a server system coupled to the database, the server system providing a user interface for browsing the electronic catalog over a computer network, the user interface including functionality for users to at least (1) formulate and submit search queries for searching the electronic catalog, (2) assign category names to individual search queries, and (3) save the search queries and associated category names on the server system for subsequent use as user-defined categories that are selectable via the user interface to browse the electronic catalog of items;

wherein the server system presents to a user that has created one or more user-defined categories a web page that lists the one or more user-defined categories such that each such category may be selected to view a corresponding set of catalog items.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the web page additionally displays, for each of the user-defined categories, a numerical value indicating a current number of catalog items falling within the respective user-defined category.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the server system generates each such numerical value by executing the corresponding search query when the user requests the web page.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic catalog is an electronic catalog of products that are available for purchase, and the user-defined categories are user-defined product categories.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server system maintains the user-defined categories created by a user private to that user, and displays the user-defined categories together with public categories that are also selectable to browse the electronic catalog.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the server system presents each user-defined category and each public category on the web page as a respective hyperlink that is selectable by the user to view corresponding catalog items.

7. The system as in claim 1, wherein the server system automatically compares queries submitted by the same user to identify query resubmission events, and uses the query resubmission events to automatically create and/or suggest categories for users.

8. The system as in claim 1, wherein the user interface provides an option for a user to specify a display order for displaying a personal set of user-defined categories.

9. A computer-implemented method of facilitating browsing of an electronic repository of items, the method comprising:

maintaining a history of search queries submitted by a user to search the electronic repository of items;

analyzing the history of search queries to identify a search query that has been submitted multiple times by the user; and

in response to identifying the search query, creating for the user, or providing to the user an option to create, a persistent link that is selectable by the user to view a current set of items within the repository that match the search query.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising prompting the user to assign a name to the search query, and displaying the name in conjunction with the persistent link.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying, in conjunction with the persistent link, a numerical value indicating a current number of items that match the search query.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of analyzing the history of search queries comprises comparing search queries on a term-by-term basis to locate search queries that are substantially identical.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising including the persistent link within a personal categories page in which the persistent link serves as one of a plurality of item categories that are selectable to browse the electronic repository.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the persistent link is created for the user automatically in response to identifying the search query that has been submitted multiple times.

15. A method for facilitating browsing of a database of items, the method comprising:

receiving a search query from a user;

executing the search query to generate a search results list of items within the database that match the search query;

presenting to the user a first web page that displays at least a portion of the search results list together with an option to save the search query for subsequent use;

in response to election of said option by the user to save the search query, storing the search query in association with a category name specified by the user; and

presenting to the user a second web page that provides an option for the user to select the category name to view an updated list of items within the database that match the search query;

whereby the search query and category name serve as a user-defined category that may be selected by the user over time to browse the database.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the second web page displays, in conjunction with the category name specified by the user, a numerical value indicating a number of items falling within the user-defined category.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the numerical value is generated by re-executing the search query when the user requests the second web page, such that the numerical value accurately reflects a current state of the database.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the user-defined category is maintained private to the user, and is listed on the second web page together with one or more public categories that are selectable by the user, whereby the user can select between the private and public categories to browse the database.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the user-defined category is a user-defined product category that is private to the user, and is displayed on the second web page together with one or more public, merchant-defined product categories, wherein each user-defined and merchant-defined product category is displayed on the second web page as a respective hyperlink that is selectable by the user to view a corresponding set of products represented in the database.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the category name is displayed on the second web page as a hyperlink that, when selected, causes a set of items falling within the user-defined category to be displayed.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

comparing the search query to a history of search queries submitted by the user to identify substantially-identical query submissions; and

using the substantially-identical query submissions to automatically generate or suggest a personalized category for the user.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing to the user an option to accept, and assign a name to, the personalized category.