Local item availability information
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for an item availability information service to identify merchants local to a consumer that are currently able to provide an indicated item to the consumer, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from a consumer for information about one or more merchants that are geographically local to the consumer and currently available to provide an indicated item from current local inventory of the merchant;
automatically determining at least one geographically local merchant that is currently available to provide the indicated item to the consumer from the current local inventory of the merchant, the automatic determining being performed by one or more programmed computing systems of the item availability information service and including;
automatically identifying one or more merchants geographically local to the consumer that at least potentially provide the indicated item by;
determining a location of the consumer and a type of the indicated item; and
determining merchants near the determined location of the consumer that are each likely to provide items of the determined type based at least in part on one or more of a name of the merchant, a category of merchants to which the merchant belongs, and a group to which the merchant belongs; and
automatically contacting a human representative of each of at least one of the identified merchants to query if the merchant is currently available to provide the indicated item from the current local inventory of the merchant and to query for a current price of the indicated item from the merchant; and
providing information to the consumer to indicate one or more of the determined at least one geographically local merchants and to indicate the current price for the indicated item for each of the indicated one or more merchants.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are described for determining merchants that are able to provide items of interest. In some situations, consumers or other users supply requests for information about particular items of interest, and appropriate local merchants that are currently available to provide those items are identified and indicated to the users who made the requests. The identification of such appropriate local merchants may include automatically contacting human representatives of potentially appropriate merchants in order to automatically solicit information about the merchant, such as quantity and pricing information for items currently available in local inventory and current operating hours. The described techniques may be performed in an automated manner by an item availability information system, such as to provide a corresponding item availability information service to users (e.g., in exchange for fees from users).
-
Citations
58 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method for an item availability information service to identify merchants local to a consumer that are currently able to provide an indicated item to the consumer, the method comprising:
-
receiving a request from a consumer for information about one or more merchants that are geographically local to the consumer and currently available to provide an indicated item from current local inventory of the merchant; automatically determining at least one geographically local merchant that is currently available to provide the indicated item to the consumer from the current local inventory of the merchant, the automatic determining being performed by one or more programmed computing systems of the item availability information service and including; automatically identifying one or more merchants geographically local to the consumer that at least potentially provide the indicated item by; determining a location of the consumer and a type of the indicated item; and determining merchants near the determined location of the consumer that are each likely to provide items of the determined type based at least in part on one or more of a name of the merchant, a category of merchants to which the merchant belongs, and a group to which the merchant belongs; and automatically contacting a human representative of each of at least one of the identified merchants to query if the merchant is currently available to provide the indicated item from the current local inventory of the merchant and to query for a current price of the indicated item from the merchant; and providing information to the consumer to indicate one or more of the determined at least one geographically local merchants and to indicate the current price for the indicated item for each of the indicated one or more merchants. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A computer-implemented method for an item availability information service to identify merchants local to a consumer that are currently able to provide an indicated item to the consumer, the method comprising:
-
receiving a request from a consumer for information about one or more merchants that are geographically local to the consumer and currently available to provide an indicated item from current local inventory of the merchant; automatically determining at least one geographically local merchant that is currently available to provide the indicated item to the consumer from the current local inventory of the merchant, the automatic determining being performed by one or more programmed computing systems of the item availability information service and including; automatically identifying one or more merchants geographically local to the consumer that at least potentially provide the indicated item, wherein the identifying of the one or more geographically local merchants that at least potentially provide the indicated item is based on information obtained from human representatives of merchants near the consumer regarding types of items that the merchants have selected to include in inventory; and for each of at least one of the identified merchants, automatically contacting a human representative of the merchant to query (i) if the merchant is currently available to provide the indicated item from the current local inventory of the merchant, (ii) for a current price of the indicated item, and (iii) if the merchant currently has one or more copies of the indicated item in inventory; and providing information to the consumer to indicate one or more of the determined at least one geographically local merchants and to indicate the current price for the indicated item for each of the indicated one or more merchants.
-
-
11. A computer-implemented method for determining local merchants having current availability to provide an indicated item, the method comprising:
-
receiving a request from each of one or more advertising merchants to provide information to users whose requests match specified criteria, such that the advertising merchant will pay an indicated fee in exchange for providing the information; receiving a request from a user to identify one or more local merchants that have an indicated item in current inventory; determining that the received request from the user matches the criteria specified by each of at least one of the advertising merchants; providing an opportunity to one or more of the at least one advertising merchants to provide information to the user in response to the received request from the user; determining at least one local merchant that has the indicated item in current inventory by, for each of one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, automatically contacting a human representative of the merchant to query if the merchant has the indicated item in the current inventory of the merchant, the automatic contacting of the human representative being initiated by a programmed computing system; providing information to the user to indicate one or more of the at least one determined merchants that have the indicated item in current inventory, the providing of the information to the user including, after at least one of the one or more advertising merchants elects to accept the provided opportunity, including information from each of the at least one advertising merchants in the information provided to the user; and obtaining from each of the at least one advertising merchants the indicated fee for that advertising merchant.
-
-
12. A computer-implemented method for determining local merchants having current availability to provide an indicated item, the method comprising:
-
receiving a request from a user to identify one or more local merchants that have an indicated item in current inventory; determining at least one local merchant that has the indicated item in current inventory by, for each of one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, automatically contacting a human representative of the merchant to query if the merchant has the indicated item in the current inventory of the merchant, the automatic contacting of the human representative being initiated by a programmed computing system, and wherein the determining of the at least one local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory further includes, for each of one or more other local merchants that are distinct from the one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, selecting the other local merchant as one of the determined local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory, the selecting being based on information previously obtained from contacting a human representative of the other local merchant on behalf of another user, and wherein, for at least one of the one or more other local merchants, the previously obtained information was obtained for the indicated item in response to a request from another user for the indicated item; and providing information to the user to indicate one or more of the at least one determined merchants that have the indicated item in current inventory. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
-
-
37. A computer-implemented method for determining local merchants having current availability to provide an indicated item, the method comprising:
-
receiving a request from a user to identify one or more local merchants that have an indicated item in current inventory; determining at least one local merchant that has the indicated item in current inventory by, for each of one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, automatically contacting a human representative of the merchant to query if the merchant has the indicated item in the current inventory of the merchant, the automatic contacting of the human representative being initiated by a programmed computing system, and wherein the determining of the at least one local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory further includes, for each of one or more other local merchants that are distinct from the one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, selecting the other local merchant as one of the determined local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory, the selecting being based on information previously obtained from contacting a human representative of the other local merchant on behalf of another user, and wherein the selecting of an other local merchant as one of the determined local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory is performed only if the information previously obtained from contacting the human representative of the other local merchant on behalf of the another user was obtained within a specified prior period of time; and providing information to the user to indicate one or more of the at least one determined merchants that have the indicated item in current inventory.
-
-
38. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents program a computing device of an item availability information service to identify merchants local to a consumer that are currently able to provide an indicated item to the consumer, by performing a method comprising:
-
receiving a request from a consumer for information about one or more merchants that are geographically local to the consumer and currently available to provide an indicated item from current local inventory of the merchant; automatically determining at least one geographically local merchant that is currently available to provide the indicated item to the consumer from the current local inventory of the merchant, the automatic determining being performed by the programmed computing device of the item availability information service and including; automatically identifying one or more merchants geographically local to the consumer that at least potentially provide the indicated item by; determining a location of the consumer and a type of the indicated item; and determining merchants near the determined location of the consumer that are each likely to provide items of the determined type based at least in part on one or more of a name of the merchant, a category of merchants to which the merchant belongs, and a group to which the merchant belongs; and automatically contacting a human representative of each of at least one of the identified merchants to query if the merchant is currently available to provide the indicated item from the current local inventory of the merchant and to query for a current price of the indicated item from the merchant; and providing information to the consumer to indicate one or more of the determined at least one geographically local merchants and to indicate the current price for the indicated item for each of the indicated one or more merchants. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41)
-
-
42. A computing system of an item availability information service that is programmed to identify merchants local to a consumer that are currently able to provide an indicated item to the consumer, comprising:
-
one or more processors; one or more modules configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors; receive a request from a consumer for information about one or more merchants that are geographically local to the consumer and currently available to provide an indicated item from current local inventory of the merchant; automatically determine at least one geographically local merchant that is currently available to provide the indicated item to the consumer from the current local inventory of the merchant, the automatic determining including; automatically identifying one or more merchants geographically local to the consumer that at least potentially provide the indicated item by; determining a location of the consumer and a type of the indicated item; and determining merchants near the determined location of the consumer that are each likely to provide items of the determined type based at least in part on one or more of a name of the merchant, a category of merchants to which the merchant belongs, and a group to which the merchant belongs; and automatically contacting a human representative of each of at least one of the identified merchants to query if the merchant is currently available to provide the indicated item from the current local inventory of the merchant and to query for a current price of the indicated item from the merchant; and provide information to the consumer to indicate one or more of the determined at least one geographically local merchants and to indicate the current price for the indicated item for each of the indicated one or more merchants. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44)
-
-
45. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents program a computing device to determine local merchants having current availability to provide an indicated item, by performing a method comprising:
-
receiving a request from a user to identify one or more local merchants that have an indicated item in current inventory; determining at least one local merchant that has the indicated item in current inventory by, for each of one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, automatically contacting a human representative of the merchant to query if the merchant has the indicated item in the current inventory of the merchant, the automatic contacting of the human representative being initiated by the programmed computing device, and wherein the determining of the at least one local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory further includes, for each of one or more other local merchants that are distinct from the one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, selecting the other local merchant as one of the determined local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory, the selecting being based on information previously obtained from contacting a human representative of the other local merchant on behalf of another user, and wherein, for at least one of the one or more other local merchants, the previously obtained information was obtained for the indicated item in response to a request from another user for the indicated item; and providing information to the user to indicate one or more of the at least one determined merchants that have the indicated item in current inventory. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
-
-
52. A computing system programmed to determine local merchants having current availability to provide an indicated item, comprising:
-
one or more processors; one or more modules configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors; receive a request from a user to identify one or more local merchants that have an indicated item in current inventory; determine at least one local merchant that has the indicated item in current inventory by, for each of one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, automatically contacting a human representative of the merchant to query if the merchant has the indicated item in the current inventory of the merchant, and wherein the determining of the at least one local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory further includes, for each of one or more other local merchants that are distinct from the one or more local merchants that potentially may have the indicated item in current inventory of the merchant, selecting the other local merchant as one of the determined local merchants that has the indicated item in current inventory, the selecting being based on information previously obtained from contacting a human representative of the other local merchant on behalf of another user, and wherein, for at least one of the one or more other local merchants, the previously obtained information was obtained for the indicated item in response to a request from another user for the indicated item; and provide information to the user to indicate one or more of the at least one determined merchants that have the indicated item in current inventory. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
-
Specification