System, program product, and methods for online image handling

• US 10,423,997 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2013
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Overstock.com Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Overstock.com Incorporated
• Inventors: MacDonald Korth, Holly C., Peterson, Samuel Jacob
• Primary Examiner(s): Campen, Kelly S
• Application Number:
  US13/903,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20140164168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,310 Days
• Field of Search: 705 37, 705 27, 705 3, 705 36 R, 705 265, 705 267, 705 261, 705 11, 705 711, 705 729, 705 141, 705 263, 705 271
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Electronic commerce over a computer network is facilitated by a computer system that forms a community of computers that enable the users to buy and sell items in an online marketplace. To list the item on an online marketplace website, for example, the selling user posts an item with a seller marketplace item management website by completing an online-item marketplace item creation form. The form requires input related to the item, such as a description, sale price or minimum bid, shipping instructions, and the like, and an image file or image file location illustrating the marketplace item. The seller marketplace item management server provides a marketplace administrator server the marketplace item data including original image file or image file location. The server contains a random image size generator that generates at least two additional images of the marketplace item for display in a seller marketplace item web page to advertise the marketplace item.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate electronic commerce associated with an online marketplace between a plurality of selling users and a plurality of potential buyers over a computer network, the system comprising:

a first computer accessible to the computer network to host the online marketplace to thereby define a marketplace administrator server, the marketplace administrator server having a processor and memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein;

a marketplace administrator server database accessible to the processor of the marketplace administrator server and having database records related to a plurality of marketplace items by the plurality of selling users, each item database record including a unique item identification number, item title, item description, and at least two unique item image file names corresponding with at least two associated item image files;

a marketplace administrator image file server accessible to the processor of the marketplace administrator server and having image files related to the plurality of items to be sold by the plurality of selling users, each image file having a unique image file name;

a lookup table organized by image file name accessible to the processor of the marketplace administrator server and mapping image files stored in the image file server;

a second computer positioned remote from the marketplace administrator server and each of the plurality of selling users and accessible to the computer network to provide seller marketplace item management services to the plurality of selling users to thereby define a seller marketplace item management server, the seller marketplace item management server having a processor and memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein;

a seller marketplace item management server database accessible to the processor of the seller marketplace item management server and having database records related to the plurality of marketplace items to be sold by the plurality of selling users;

a seller marketplace item management image file server accessible to the processor of the seller marketplace item management server and having image files related to the plurality of marketplace items to be sold by the plurality of selling users;

a plurality of seller user computers each positioned at a separate seller user site remote from the marketplace administrator server and the seller marketplace item management server, accessible to the computer network and having a processor and memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein, each seller user computer positioned to transmit data related to a marketplace item including an item title, item description, and scheduled item posting time and duration, and positioned to transmit a uniform resource locator providing an address for an original item image file including an item image of the marketplace item;

a plurality of potential buyer computers each positioned at a separate potential buyer user site remote from the marketplace administrator server and seller marketplace item management server, and each accessible to the computer network to access a plurality of seller marketplace item web pages through the computer network;

seller marketplace item management program product stored in the memory of the seller marketplace item management server to facilitate seller marketplace item management between the plurality of selling users and the online marketplace, the seller marketplace item management program product including instructions that, when executed by the seller marketplace item management server, cause the seller marketplace item management server to perform the operations of;

receiving data related to a respective one of a plurality of marketplace items,

defining database record data from each of the plurality of seller user computers over the computer network,

storing in the seller marketplace item management server database the database record data received from each of the plurality of seller user computers to define a corresponding plurality of database records,

queuing each of the plurality of database records for sending to the marketplace administrator server, and

sending each of the plurality of database records to the marketplace administrator server, responsive to each respective scheduled item posting time; and

an online e-commerce program product stored in the memory of the marketplace administrator server to facilitate electronic commerce over the computer network between the plurality of selling users and the plurality of potential buyers, the online e-commerce program product including instructions that, when executed by the marketplace administrator server, cause the marketplace administrator server to perform the operations of;

receiving each of the plurality of database records from the seller marketplace item management server over the network,

storing each of the plurality of database records in the marketplace administrator server database,

receiving over the network the original item image file for each of the plurality of marketplace items,

forming from each of the original item image files a set of at least two item image files to provide image size variations of the item image of each respective marketplace item to thereby represent each respective marketplace item, the set of at least two item image files including a first item image file providing a first image sized randomly based on a first preselected size range and a second item image file providing a second image sized randomly based on a second preselected size range, the second image being substantially larger than the first image,

storing each set of first and second item image files in the marketplace administrator image file server, each of the first and the second item image files assigned a unique name,

accessing one of the plurality of database records responsive to a received item identification number for a selected marketplace item to thereby determine an item title and description of the selected marketplace item and the item image file name for each of the first and the second item images of the selected marketplace item,

determining a location of the first image associated the selected marketplace item and a location of the second image associated with the selected marketplace item using the look-up table organized by image name responsive to the accessing, and

adding the image file location for the first and the second item image and associated title and description of the selected marketplace item to an associated seller marketplace item web page;

wherein the seller marketplace item management program product and the online e-commerce program product are accessible to multiple concurrent users at a single time.

2. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the seller marketplace item program product further includes instructions to perform the operation of sending each of the plurality of the original item image files to the marketplace administrator server responsive to each respective scheduled item posting time.

3. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of database records received over the computer network from the seller marketplace item management server includes a uniform resource locator providing an address for the original item image file of the respective marketplace item;

wherein the seller marketplace item management program product further includes instructions to perform the operations of;

receiving over the computer network the plurality of original item image file each relating to one of the plurality of marketplace items, each original item image file including an item image of the respective marketplace item, and

storing the plurality of original item image files in the seller marketplace item management image file server; and

wherein the instructions to perform the operation of receiving over the network the original item image file for each of the plurality of marketplace items further includes those to perform the operations of;

retrieving the original item image file for each of the plurality of marketplace items responsive to receipt of the respective uniform resource locator, and

discarding each original image file responsive to forming each respective set of at least two item image files to reduce marketplace administrator image file server storage requirements.

4. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of potential buyer computers includes a potential buyer web browser;

wherein the online e-commerce program product further includes instructions to perform the operations of;

receiving search criteria presented by a potential buyer web browser,

accessing a plurality of marketplace item database records of a respective plurality of marketplace items satisfying the search results criteria responsive to the search criteria to thereby determine an associated item title for each of the plurality of marketplace items satisfying the search results criteria and an item image file name of a first item image of the at least two item image files for each of the plurality of marketplace items satisfying the search results criteria,

determining the item title and the image location of the first item image associated therewith for each of the plurality of marketplace items satisfying the search results criteria,

providing data to the potential buyer web browser, the data including the item title and the image location of the first item image associated therewith for each of the plurality of items satisfying the search results criteria and instructions to display a search results web page including those to display within the search results web page each item title and each first item image,

receiving a request from the potential buyer web browser for each respective first item image of each of the plurality of items satisfying the search results criteria, and

providing to the potential buyer web browser each requested first item image; and

wherein the first image is substantially larger than a thumbnail sized image defined as an image including an image size having a maximum of approximately 96 pixels by 96 pixels.

5. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the first image is larger than 100 pixels by 100 pixel.