Associating an online publication with a print publication

• US 8,589,252 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Ho, Yuan Der, Chong, Choon, Law, Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): FADOK, MARK A
• Application Number:
  US11/964,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157415A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,154 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/27.1, 705/14.67, 705/26.62
• US Class Current: 705/26.62
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

This document discusses, among other things, a system and methods for associating an online publication with a print publication. Example embodiments may include receiving a request from a publisher that may identify first data that is to be published over a network, in an online publication. In response to the request, example embodiments may include fetching the first data and generating further data based on the first data. The further data may include an address to locate the online publication as published. The publisher may be allowed to publish the further data as a print publication. Subsequent to the print publication of the further data, example embodiments may include receiving the string of characters over the network from a user. Example embodiments may include presenting the online publication to the user based on the string of characters.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving from a publisher, a request that identifies first data comprising first content to be published as at least part of an online publication at an online publication address;

obtaining the first data responsive to the request;

using one or more processors, generating second data based on the first data, the second data including at least a portion of the first content and including a string of characters other than the online publication address, the string of characters to facilitate access to the online publication by a user providing the string of characters without modification, the second data configured to be printed with the string of characters;

storing a mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address in a data structure;

providing the second data to the publisher to allow the publisher to publish the second data as a printed publication receiving the string of characters from the user; and

presenting the online publication to the user based on the string of characters and the mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting a transaction associated with the online publication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises a listing for an item for sale, and the second data comprises at least one of a title, a keyword, a price or an item description.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving from the publisher, a publisher identifier identifying the publisher, and wherein the generating of the second data including the string of characters encoding the publisher identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the second data comprises populating the data structure associating the string of characters with the online publication address.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the second data comprises populating the data structure associating the string of characters with the online publication address and the publisher identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the second data includes providing a printable electronic document including a plurality of sub-divisions, wherein each sub-division is arranged to be detached from the printed publication and includes the string of characters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the second data includes generating a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) including the string of characters.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the generating of the second data includes generating a bar code that encodes the URL.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the presenting of the online publication and the identifying of the publisher of the second data includes:

parsing the URL for the string of characters; and

accessing the data structure to decode the string of characters for the online publication address and the publisher identifier.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a transaction associated with the online publication, and detecting a transaction type of the transaction;

associating the online publication with the printed publication and the publisher of the printed publication; and

compensating the publisher based on the transaction type.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the detecting of the transaction type includes detecting at least one of a sale transaction and an account registration transaction, and the compensating of the publisher includes paying a higher compensation for the sale transaction than for the account registration transaction.

13. A system comprising:

a network interface to receive from a publisher, a request that identifies first data comprising first content to be published as at least part of an online publication at an online publication address;

a data fetcher coupled to the network interface to receive the request from the network interface and to fetch the first data in response to the request;

a data generator coupled to the data fetcher to receive the first data from the data fetcher and to generate second data based on the first data, the second data including at least a portion of the first content and including a string of characters other than the online publication address, the string of characters to facilitate access to the online publication by a user providing the string of characters without modification, the second data configured to be printed with the string of characters, the data generator being further configured to store a mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address in a data structure;

a rendering module coupled to the data generator to receive the second data from the data generator and to render the second data to allow the publisher to publish the second data as a printed publication and

a publication mapper coupled to the network interface to receive the string of characters from the user and to cause an online publication application to present the online publication to the user based on the string of characters and the mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a transaction application coupled to the online publication application to facilitate a transaction associated with the online publication.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a web server publishes the first data on a web page at the online publication address, wherein the first data includes a listing for an item for sale, and wherein the rendering module renders the second data including at least one of a title, a keyword, a price or an item description.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a publisher identifier coupled to the network interface to receive from the publisher, a publisher identifier identifying the publisher, wherein the data generator is further to generate second data that includes the string of characters to encode the publisher identifier.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein, based on the second data, the data generator is further to populate the data structure to associate the string of characters with the online publication address.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein, based on the second data, the data generator is further to populate the data structure to further associate the string of characters with the publisher identifier.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the rendering module is further to render the second data to provide to the publisher a printable electronic document including a plurality of sub-divisions, each sub-division arranged to be detached from the printed publication and includes the string of characters.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein each sub-division includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that includes the string of characters.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the data generator is further to generate second data that includes a bar code that encodes the URL.

22. A machine-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving from a publisher, a request that identifies first data to be published via a network as an online publication;

in response to the request, obtaining the first data and generating second data based on the first data, the second data including a string of characters to facilitate access to the online publication as published, via the network, the string of characters to facilitate access to the online publication by a user providing the string of characters without modification, the second data configured to be printed with the string of characters;

storing a mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address in a data structure;

providing the second data to the publisher to allow the publisher to publish the second data as a printed publication;

receiving the string of characters from the user, via the network; and

automatically presenting the online publication to the user based on the string of characters and the mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address.

23. A print publication system, comprising:

interface means for receiving, from a publisher, a request that identifies first data to be published via a network as an online publication, and for receiving from a user, a string of characters to locate the online publication as published when the string of characters are provided by the user without modification, via the network;

fetching means for obtaining the first data, and in response to the request;

data generating means for automatically generating second data based on the first data, the second data including the string of characters, the second data configured to be printed with the string of characters;

storing a mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address in a data structure;

rendering means for providing the second data to the publisher to allow the publisher to publish the second data as a printed publication; and

web interface means for presenting the online publication to the user, based on the string of characters and the mapping of the string of characters to the online publication address.