Method and computer readable medium storing executable components for locating items of interest among multiple merchants in connection with electronic shopping

• US 7,162,443 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2004
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shah, Darshatkumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEVINE, ADAM L
• Application Number:
  US10/893,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20040254855A1
• Time in Patent Office: 904 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A shopping basket system includes a shopping basket component and a wish or gift list component. The functionality of the shopping basket system may be invoked via a graphical image, such as an icon, on a web browser or a desktop of the client computer. The user may browse registered sites on the Internet and drag and drop products into the user'"'"'s shopping basket. All products may then be purchased concurrently regardless of the site that the product was found. The drag and drop capability is provided by the programmability of the shopping basket. A common schema can be employed for describing items (e.g., products and services) to be purchased from registered sites. In one aspect of the invention the common schema is provided in the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The shopping basket system is provided with a search engine for searching for products on a user'"'"'s wish or gift list over the Internet. The search results are provided to the user, which can be added to the user'"'"'s shopping basket list. In one aspect of the invention, the shopping basket system is programmable, such that any application program may access a user'"'"'s shopping basket system and add items to the user'"'"'s shopping basket based on items found in a user'"'"'s wish list.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components that locates items of interest in connection with electronic shopping, comprising:

a first component that stores a plurality of items of interest selected by a user from a wish list, the wish list includes items of interest from a plurality of sources;

a second component that searches for sources that provide the plurality of items of interest and returns search results based on the sources identified as providing the plurality of items of interest, the results are utilized to purchase the items of interest;

a shopping basket component that provides for the plurality of sources to access the wish list;

the shopping basket component allows one or more application programs associated with at least one of the plurality of sources to automatically add one or more of the plurality of items of interest to a shopping basket associated with the user if the one or more applications programs determines the one or more of the plurality of items of interest can be provided by the at least one of the plurality of sources, the shopping basket component can retain items of interest from a plurality of sources; and

an ordering component that concurrently orders at least two items of interest from the shopping basket, at least one item of interest is from a first identified source and at least one item of interest is from a second identified source.

2. The system of claim 1, the second component is a search engine.

3. The system of claim 1, farther comprising a filter component that limits the number of sources that are identified.

4. The system of claim 1, the shopping basket component comprises application program interfaces that support access to the shopping basket from a plurality of applications, the application programming interfaces provide secured access to the shopping basket to application programs associated with sources based upon user defined permissions.

5. The system of claim 4, the shopping basket component is programmable.

6. The system of claim 4, the second component adds descriptions associated with each of the plurality of identified items of interest to the shopping basket.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a third component associated with at least one potential source of at least one item of interest, the third component accesses the list of plurality of items of interest and determines if the at least one potential source provides at least one item of interest.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a fourth component that is associated with one of a desktop application and a browser, the fourth component receives a description associated with the at least one item of interest.

9. The system of claim 8, the description provides an association between the at least one item of interest and a source thereof.

10. The system of claim 8, the description conforms to an XML schema.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising the third component adding the at least one item of interest provided by the at least one potential source to the shopping basket.

12. The system of claim 1, the first component contains a plurality of wish lists for a plurality of users.

13. The system of claim 1, the second component is an application program.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising an authentication component that provides information to identified sources to facilitate purchasing at least one of the plurality of items of interest.

15. A computer-implemented method for locating a first item of interest to a user, comprising the following computer executable acts:

listing the first item of interest in a wish list;

searching for electronic merchants that provide the first item of interest, the search is performed over a network;

returning via a computer implemented component results that are based on identifying an electronic merchant associated with the first item of interest;

providing access to the wish list to a plurality of electronic merchants that potentially provide the first item of interest; and

allowing a first electronic merchant that provides the first item of interest to automatically add the first item of interest to an electronic shopping basket list associated with the user.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising securing access to the wish list to a limited number of electronic merchants.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising adding at least a second item of interest to the user to the wish list.

18. The method of claim 15, the plurality of electronic merchants access the information in the wish list by querying an application program interface associated with the wish list and receiving information from the application program interface based on the query.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing access to the electronic shopping basket list to a second electronic merchant, which adds the second item of interest to the electronic shopping basket list.

20. The method of claim 15, farther comprising associating the electronic shopping basket list with a graphical image on one of a desktop application and a browser on a client.

21. The method of claim 15, farther comprising locating a plurality of electronic merchants that provide a plurality of items of interest in the wish list, adding the plurality of items of interest to the electronic shopping basket, and concurrently ordering the plurality of items of interest in the electronic shopping basket list from the electronic merchants, at least one item of interest is from a first electronic merchant and at least one item of interest is from a second electronic merchant.

22. The method of claim 17, farther comprising locating at least one electronic merchant that provides the plurality of items of interest in the wish list, adding the plurality of items of interest to the electronic shopping basket, and concurrently ordering the plurality of items of interest in the electronic shopping basket list from the electronic merchant.

23. The method of claim 15, farther comprising providing authentication information to the electronic merchant, the information facilitates purchasing the item of interest from the electronic merchant.

24. The method of claim 15, the item of interest is listed in the wish list with associated price information.

25. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components that facilitates locating items of interest to a user, comprising:

a component that stores a list of items of interest to the user;

a component that searches a network for sources that provide the items of interest;

a component that returns information indicative of the items of interest and at least one of the sources that provide the items of interest;

a component that provides access to the list of items of interest to a plurality of electronic merchants that potentially provide the items of interest; and

a component that allows at least one of the plurality of electronic merchants that provides at least one of the items of interest to automatically add the at least one item of interest to an electronic shopping basket associated with the user.

26. A computer executable program embodied on a computer readable medium that when executed by one or more processors facilitates obtaining user items of interest, comprising:

computer implemented means for identifying items of interest on a wish list;

computer implemented means for locating networked sources that provide the identified items of interest;

computer implemented means for providing a plurality of network sources access to the wish list;

computer implemented means for allowing a plurality of networked sources that provide the items of interest to access an electronic shopping basket associated with the user;

computer implemented means for the plurality of networked sources to add the at least one item of interest to the electronic shopping basket without any user intervention; and

computer implemented means for concurrently ordering the items of interest in the electronic shopping basket from the networked sources, at least one item of interest is from a first networked source and at least one item of interest is from a second networked source.