System and method of accelerating response time to inquiries regarding inventory information in a network

• US 8,856,117 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2005
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OpenTable, Inc. (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Original Assignee: OpenTable, Inc. (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Inventors: McCullough, Charles, Catlin, Bryce, Davis, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Badawi, Sherief
• Assistant Examiner(s): Raab, Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US11/130,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20060095434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,430 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/200, 707/1, 707/5, 707/3, 707/614, 707/618, 707/611, 707/617, 707/623, 707/610, 707/615, 707/736, 707/770, 705/5, 705/1, 705/3, 711/122, 709/234
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24552 Database cache management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method and system for distributing access to inventory items available at vendor locations includes user stations transmitting user inquiries on a communications network. Network-connected location servers access a set of inventory availability information associated with inventory items available at their respective location, for example, tables at a restaurant. The host server receives user inquiries regarding availability of items associated with at least some of the location servers and queries a cache server that locally stores a binary subset of the information from the location servers to determine if the requested item is available without having to separately query the database at each location. Particularly, a web server receives and stores information regarding only whether a requested item is available or not available from a particular location rather than how many items are available at the location. A user, therefore, can access availability of inventory items with less communications traffic.

Claims

1. A system for providing availability information, comprising:

one or more web servers configured to receive a user inquiry regarding availability of one or more inventory items associated with one or more location servers, wherein the availability of one or more inventory items comprises availability of one or more restaurant tables; and

a yes/no change in inventory server configured to store a material change in inventory information regarding at least a subset of the one or more inventory items associated with at least a subset of the one or more location servers, wherein the yes/no change in inventory server is configured to only provide the one or more web servers access to the material change in inventory information, and wherein the material change in inventory information is updated only when there is a material change of availability of the one or more inventory items associated with the one or more location servers, and wherein the material change in inventory information comprises ‘

yes/no’

status of a table availability for a specified table capacity for a specified time at a restaurant;

the one or more location servers, wherein one of the one or more location servers receives a request to reserve one of the one or more inventory items based at least in part on the material change in inventory information and provides an indication that the one of the one or more inventory items has been reserved, and wherein each location server of the one or more location servers determines whether a message has been sent to the yes/no change server within a predetermined time period and in the event that the message has not been sent within the predetermined time period, a heartbeat message is sent to the yes/no change server.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of the one or more location servers stores a complete set of inventory availability information regarding all of the one or more inventory items.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the yes/no change in inventory server is configured to provide at least a part of the material change in inventory information in response to the user inquiry.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the yes/no change in inventory server is configured to keep track of the one or more location servers.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the yes/no change in inventory server is configured to keep track of a last time of contact with each of the one or more location servers.

6. (Previously Presented The system according to claim 1, wherein the material change in inventory information comprises one or more of the following:

availability of a table and no availability of a table.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the material change in inventory information comprises one or more of the following:

availability of a table of a specific capacity, availability of a table within a range of capacities, no availability of a table of a specific capacity, and no availability of a table within a range of capacities.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the material change in inventory information comprises one or more of the following:

availability of a predetermined number of tables and no availability of a predetermined number of tables.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the material change in inventory information comprises one or more of the following:

availability of a table with a preferred location and no availability of a table with a preferred location.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more location servers automatically monitor a material change to availability of the one or more inventory items and, upon detection of the material change, communicate the material change to the yes/no change in inventory server.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the material change in inventory information comprises one or more of the following:

availability of a table at which smoking is allowed, availability of a table at which no smoking is allowed, no availability of a table at which smoking is allowed, and no availability of a table at which no smoking is allowed.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the material change in inventory information comprises one or more of the following:

availability of a table with a predetermined associated variable and no availability of a table with a predetermined associated variable.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

the one or more location servers comprise restaurant reservation availability servers.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein availability of one or more restaurant tables includes one or more of the following:

an available time, an available date, an available capacity, an available table location, an available table with a predetermined associated variable, an available table at which smoking is allowed, an available table at which no smoking is allowed, and an available number of tables.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein availability of one or more restaurant tables includes an available date within a look-ahead period.

16. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises one of the following a change from availability of a table to no availability of a table or a change from no availability of a table to availability of a table.

17. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a table of a specific capacity to no availability of a table of the specific capacity or a change from no availability of a table of a specific capacity to availability of a table of the specific capacity.

18. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a table within a range of capacities to no availability of a table within the range of capacities or a change from no availability of a table within a range of capacities to availability of a table within the range of capacities.

19. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a predetermined number of tables to no availability of a predetermined number of tables or a change from no availability of a predetermined number of tables to availability of a predetermined number of tables.

20. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a table with a preferred location to no availability of a table with the preferred location or a change from no availability of a table with a preferred location to availability of a table with the preferred location.

21. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a table at which smoking is allowed to no availability of a table at which smoking is allowed or a change from no availability of a table at which smoking is allowed to availability of a table at which smoking is allowed.

22. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a table at which no smoking is allowed to no availability of a table at which no smoking is allowed or a change from no availability of a table at which no smoking is allowed to availability of a table at which no smoking is allowed.

23. The system according to claim 10, wherein the material change comprises a change from availability of a table with a predetermined associated variable to no availability of a table with a predetermined associated variable or a change from no availability of a table with a predetermined associated variable to availability of a table with a predetermined associated variable.

24. A method for providing availability information comprising:

storing a material change in inventory information using a yes/no change in inventory server regarding at least a subset of one or more inventory items associated with at least a subset of one or more location servers, wherein the material change in inventory information is updated only when there is a material change of availability of the one or more inventory items associated with the one or more location servers, wherein the availability of one or more inventory items comprises availability of one or more restaurant tables;

providing only access to the material change in inventory information based at least in part on a user inquiry, and wherein the material change in inventory information comprises ‘

yes/no’

status of a table availability for a specified table capacity for a specified time at a restaurant;

receiving a request to reserve one of the one or more inventory items based at least in part on the material change in inventory information; and

providing an indication from one of the one or more location servers that the one of the one or more inventory items has been reserved, and determining whether a message has been sent to the yes/no change server within a predetermined time period and in the event that the message has not been sent within the predetermined time period, sending a heartbeat message to the yes/no change server.

25. A computer program product for providing availability information, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

storing a material change in inventory information using a yes/no change in inventory server regarding at least a subset of one or more inventory items associated with at least a subset of one or more location servers, wherein the material change in inventory information is updated only when there is a material change of availability of the one or more inventory items associated with the one or more location servers, wherein the availability of one or more inventory items comprises availability of one or more restaurant tables;

providing only access to the material change in inventory information based at least in part on a user inquiry, and wherein the material change in inventory information comprises ‘

yes/no’

status of a table availability for a specified table capacity for a specified time at a restaurant;

receiving a request to reserve one of the one or more inventory items based at least in part on the material change in inventory information; and

providing an indication from one of the one or more location servers that the one of the one or more inventory items has been reserved, and determining whether a message has been sent to the yes/no change server within a predetermined time period and in the event that the message has not been sent within the predetermined time period, sending a heartbeat message to the yes/no change server.