Cross domain customer interface updates

• US 7,860,751 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mangalick, Piyush, Dierks, Timothy M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pond; Robert M.
• Application Number:
  US11/476,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20070299735A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,645 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• 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

Abstract

A methodology and system for allowing a third-party system to institute online commerce services such as a shipping service. In the described embodiments, a third-party web page and/or a third party server sends and receives information from a merchant server to seamlessly update information used in the display without requiring the customer to perform additional mouse clicks. In some embodiments, sending and receiving information can be performed across address domains.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

presenting, by a customer device, a third-party web page having transaction information describing a transaction between a customer and a merchant, the transaction information provided by the merchant and the third-party webpage served to the customer device by a third-party server;

receiving, by the customer device from the customer, order information relating to the transaction;

asynchronously sending, by the customer device as instructed by the third-party web page, the order information to a database server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent, the third-party server serving the third-party web page and the database server being in different domains; and

receiving, by the customer device from the database server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information sent.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying, by the customer device through the third-party web page, the customer for an address; and

wherein asynchronously sending the order information to the database server includes asynchronously sending the address to the database server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein querying the customer for an address includes having the customer fill out the address online.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein querying the customer for an address includes receiving the address as a parameter in an http call.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein asynchronously sending the address to the database server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent includes calling a method of an AJAX object that calls the database server.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein asynchronously sending the address to the database server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent includes the customer device as instructed by the third-party web page calling a method of an AJAX object that calls the database server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction information identifies an item that the customer has selected to purchase from the merchant.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein asynchronously sending the order information includes sending content of a shopping cart involved in the transaction.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein asynchronously sending order information includes sending an address received from the customer.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein asynchronously sending order information includes identifying at least one item selected for purchase by the customer from the merchant.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a shipping cost for the transaction.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a final tax value.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a tax amount incorporating information about what types of items are taxable.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a coupon amount.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information includes a catalog code.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining by the third-party web page, the customer'"'"'s total in accordance with a transaction cost and the merchant-specific information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information is tax information.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant-specific information is received via an http request from the database server.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein asynchronously sending, by the third-party web page, the order information to a database server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent comprises communicating the order information relating to the transaction by the customer device to the third party server and the third party server communicating the information to the database server.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving, by the customer device from the database server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information sent comprises receiving the information from the database server by the third party server and communicating the information from the third party server to the customer device.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, by the customer device, the merchant-specific information in the third-party web page, the presented merchant-specific information replacing estimated shipping information.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, by the customer device, the merchant-specific information in the third-party web page, the presented merchant-specific information replacing a blank shipping cost field.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising charging the merchant for the method performed by the third-party web page.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party server stores credit card information for the customer and processes credit card transactions without sharing the credit card information with the database server.

25. A computer implemented method performed by a customer device, comprising:

presenting a third-party webpage having item information describing an item that a customer has selected to purchase from a merchant, the item information provided by the merchant;

querying the customer for an address;

receiving the address from the customer;

asynchronously sending, by the customer device as instructed by the third-party web page, the address to a third-party server in the same domain as the third-party web page without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the information to be sent, the third-party server forwarding the address to a database server, the database server in a different domain than the third-party server and third-party webpage

receiving, from the third-party server, merchant-specific information for the item in accordance with the address, the merchant-specific information provided to the third-party server by the database server; and

presenting the merchant-specific information.

26. A computer program product, including computer instructions stored on a computer readable medium, the instructions when executed performing steps comprising:

presenting, by a customer device a third-party web page having transaction information describing a transaction between a customer and a merchant, the transaction information provided by the merchant and the third-party webpage served to the customer device by a third-party server;

receiving, by the customer device from the customer, order information relating to the transaction;

asynchronously sending, by the customer device as instructed by the third-party web page, the order information to a database server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent, the third-party server serving the third-party web page and the database server being in different domains; and

receiving, by the customer device from the database server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information sent.

27. A system, comprising:

a merchant device configured to allow a customer to initiate a transaction between the customer and a merchant;

a third-party server, for receiving from the merchant device, transaction information describing the transaction, for querying the customer for an address and for asynchronously sending the address to a database server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the information to be sent, the third-party server and the database server in different domains;

the database server receiving the address from the third-party server, for determining merchant-specific information in accordance with the address, and for sending the merchant-specific information to the third-party server.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising a second database server sending to the third-party server, second merchant-specific information determined in accordance with the address, the second merchant-specific information having a different value than the merchant-specific information sent by the database server.

29. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a third-party web server from a merchant, transaction information describing a transaction between a customer and the merchant;

transmitting, by the third party web server to a customer device, a third party web page for display on the customer device, the third party web page including the transaction information and prompting the customer to enter order information;

receiving by the third party web server from the customer device, order information entered by the customer, the order information asynchronously sent by the customer device to the third party-web server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent;

sending, by the third-party web server, the order information to a database server without requiring a request by the customer for the order information to be sent, the third-party web server and the database server being in different domains;

receiving, by the third-party web server from the database server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information sent; and

sending, by the third party server to the customer device, the merchant-specific information for display in the third party web page.

30. A computer implemented method performed by customer device, comprising:

presenting a third party web page having transaction information describing a transaction between a customer and merchant, the transaction information received from the merchant;

querying the customer for personal information;

receiving the personal information from the customer;

asynchronously sending, by the customer device as instructed by the third-party web page, the personal information to a third-party server in the same domain as the third-party web page without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the information to be sent, the third-party server forwarding the personal information to a database server, the database server in a different domain than the third-party server and third-party webpage;

receiving, from the third-party server, merchant-specific information for the transaction in accordance with the personal information, the merchant-specific information provided to the third-party server by the database server.

31. A computer implemented method, comprising:

transmitting, by a merchant server to a third-party web server, transaction information for the third-party web server to forward to a customer device for display in a third party web page, the transaction information describing a transaction between a customer and the merchant, the merchant sever and the third-party web sever in different domains;

receiving, by the merchant server from the third-party web server, order information entered by the customer, the order information asynchronously sent by the customer device to the third party-web server without requiring a synchronous request by the customer for the order information to be sent; and

sending, by the merchant server to the third-party web server, merchant-specific information in accordance with the order information received for the third-party web server to forward to the customer device for display in the third party web page.