Facilitating performance of tasks via distribution using third-party sites

• US 9,697,486 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cohen, Peter D., Smoak, Christopher E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Goldberg, Ivan R
• Application Number:
  US11/537,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,931 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management

Abstract

Techniques are described for facilitating performance of tasks by human users. A task exchange server system acts an intermediary to facilitate performance by human task performer users of tasks provided by other task requesters, such as by providing information about tasks via an electronically accessible site. The task exchange server may further cause information about tasks to be provided to at least some users as they interact with third-party sites not provided by the task exchange server, such as third-party sites operated by entities unrelated to the task exchange server'"'"'s operator. The third-party sites may include information about tasks along with other information that the third-party sites provide to users, or instead a separate client-side program executing on computing devices of certain users may obtain and present information about tasks to the users, such as in conjunction with information provided by unaffiliated third-party sites.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for a task exchange server to facilitate performance of tasks by task performers, the method comprising:

receiving information at a task exchange server about tasks submitted by task requesters as being available for performance by human task performer users; and

distributing, by one or more programmed computing systems of the task exchange server, information about at least some of the submitted tasks via one or more information services that are not provided by the task exchange server, wherein the one or more information services each provides a Web site accessible to users, the distributing including, for each of the one or more information services,

receiving a request for task information that is to be presented along with other information to a task performer user interacting with the information service, at least some of the other information to be presented being provided by the information service;

determining one or more available tasks based at least in part on the at least some other information being provided by the information service and on additional information specific to the task performer user from one or more previous interactions between the task exchange server and one or more client computing devices of the task performer user; and

sending information about the determined one or more available tasks for presentation to the task performer user via the Web site provided by the information service and on a client computing device of the task performer user that is executing a client application to access the Web site, to enable the task performer user to perform at least one of the determined tasks.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the task exchange server provides an Internet site to facilitate performance of tasks, and wherein the method further comprises facilitating performance of some of the submitted tasks based on interactions of task performer users with the task exchange server Internet site, the interacting including providing information about tasks to task performer users and receiving results of performance of tasks by task performer users.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein, for one of the one or more information services, the sending of information about the determined one or more available tasks for presentation to the task performer user service is performed such that those determined tasks are available for performance by the task performer user based on one or more interactions between the task performer user and the information service and without interactions of the task performer user with the task exchange server Internet site.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least one of the one or more information services, the sending of information about the determined one or more available tasks for presentation to the task performer user is performed such that those determined tasks are able to be performed by the task performer user via interactions of the task performer user with the information service.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the client application executing on the client computing device is a Web browser.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more information services are operated by one or more entities unaffiliated with an operator of the task exchange server.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the one or more available tasks for the request is performed in a manner based at least in part on previously specified preferences of the task performer user.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the one or more available tasks for the request is further based on preferences of the information service, the one or more task requesters that submitted the one or more tasks, or information about how performance of the one or more tasks is to occur.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least one of the information services, the request for task information is received from the information service.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one request received from at least one of the information services is made by that information service as part of preparing a group of information to be presented to a task performer user.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one request received from at least one of the information services is made by that information service before receiving interactions from one or more task performer users in order to gather information about tasks for later use during those interactions.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least one of the information services, the request for task information to be presented along with other information to a task performer user is received from a client computing device of the task performer user to whom the task information is to be presented.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein at least one request received from a client computing device of a task performer user is initiated based on information provided by one of the information services to the client computing device.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein at least one request is received from a first client computing device of a task performer user and is initiated by a client application executing on the first client computing device.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the client application executing on the first client computing device is provided to the first client computing device by the task exchange server.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the client application executing on the first client computing device provides a toolbar within an executing Web browser, and wherein the information presented to the task performer user of the first client computing device is part of one or more Web pages displayed via the executing Web browser.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the request received from at least one of the information services is based on invocation by the information service of a Web service provided by the task exchange server.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising, for each of at least one of the determined tasks whose information is provided to a task performer user via one of the information services, receiving results of performance of the task by the task performer user and providing the received results to the task requester that submitted the task.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein, for each of at least one of the task performance results for a task whose information is provided to a task performer user via one of the information services, the task performance results are received via the one information service.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising, for each of the at least one determined tasks whose information is provided to a task performer user via one of the information services, before the receiving of the results of the task performance by the task performer user, receiving an indication that the task performer user will perform the determined task and assigning the determined task to the task performer user such that the determined task is not available to other task performer users.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of information about determined tasks includes supplying the information as at least one of images containing descriptions of the determined tasks and Really Simple Syndication feeds.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored contents that configure a computing system to provide an electronically accessible information service that facilitates performance of tasks by tasks performers, by performing a method comprising:

receiving a request from a task performer user for information available from a Web site that is provided by an electronically accessible information service and is accessible to users, the available information not including information about tasks available to be performed;

interacting, by the configured computing system, and with a remote task exchange server that acts as an intermediary to facilitate performance by task performer users of tasks available from task requesters, to obtain information about at least one available task selected from one or more tasks available at the task exchange server, wherein selecting of the at least one available task is based at least in part on the information available from the electronically accessible information service that is requested by the task performer user and on additional information specific to the task performer user from one or more previous interactions with one or more client devices of the task performer user; and

responding to the request by sending information to a client computing device of the task performer user for presentation via a client application executing on the client computing device to access the Web site, the sent information including information about the selected at least one available task and the information available from the electronically accessible information service that is requested by the task performer user, to enable the task performer user to use the sent information to perform one or more of the selected at least one available tasks.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the method further comprises receiving requests from one or more users who are not task performer users for the task exchange server, each of the requests being for information available from the electronically accessible information service, and responding to each of the requests from the one or more users by providing information retrieved from the electronically accessible information service without providing information about any available tasks.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein a user is not one of the task performer users for the task exchange server if the user has not registered with the task exchange server to perform tasks, and wherein the method further comprises determining that at least one of the one or more users is not a task performer user for the task exchange server by interacting with the task exchange server.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the information provided to the task performer user about the at least one available tasks is in a form that allows the task performer user to generate and provide to the task exchange server results of performance of each of one or more of the at least one available tasks without the results being accessible to the computing system.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the Web site of the electronically accessible information service is unaffiliated with the task exchange server other than regarding obtaining and using task information from the task exchange server, and wherein the information provided to the task performer user includes one or more Web pages sent to the client computing device of the task performer user.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the information provided to the task performer user about the at least one available tasks includes one or more references to each of at least one of the one or more available tasks such that the task performer user may select a reference to a task to obtain additional information about the task from the task exchange server.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the information provided to the task performer user about the at least one available tasks causes the client computing device of the task performer user to automatically obtain additional information about the at least one available tasks from the task exchange server.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the selecting of the at least one available task is further based on the selected at least one available task being previously submitted by the electronically accessible information service for performance.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the configured computing system.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the stored contents are instructions that, when executed, cause the configured computing system to perform the method.