Method and system for presenting on-line "Yellow Pages" particularly in association with location data

• US 20020065691A1
• Filed: 05/16/2001
• Published: 05/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Whitemaps Israel Limited
• Inventors: Arad, Amit, Twig, Ilan
• Granted Patent: US 6,665,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A method for doing business, wherein a web server maintains a commercial subscriber database including a plurality of records each containing data relating to commercial subscribers including at least name, address and category, and imposes a periodic subscription fee on at least some of said commercial subscribers. On receiving from a client machine connected thereto a request to download data relating to at least one specified category of commercial subscriber, it extracts from the commercial subscriber database respective records and sends to the client machine for display thereby, allows receipt of an update from one or more commercial subscribers in respect of substitute or supplementary data to that contained in the respective database record of the commercial subscribers, and updates the commercial subscriber database as required. The web server may check whether a client machine is on-line and has extracted data from the respective database record of one or more commercial subscribers, and if so uploads to the client machine the update in respect of each of the commercial subscribers for display on the client machine.

Claims

1. A method for doing business, including the following steps all carried out by a web server:

(a) maintaining a commercial subscriber database including a plurality of records each containing data relating to commercial subscribers including at least name, address and category,

(b) receiving from a client machine connected thereto a request to download data relating to at least one specified category of commercial subscriber,

(c) extracting from the commercial subscriber database respective records and uploading to the client machine for display thereby,

(d) allowing receipt of an update from one or more commercial subscribers in respect of substitute or supplementary data to that contained in the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers,

(e) updating said commercial subscriber database as required,

(f) checking whether a client machine is on-line and has extracted data from the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers, and if so

(g) downloading to the client machine the update in respect of each of said one or more commercial subscribers for display on the client machine.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the subscription fee includes a component that varies according to one or more categories associated with said records.

3. The method according to claim 1, further including:

(h) imposing a periodic subscription fee on at least some of said commercial subscribers.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the subscription fee includes a supplementary component that is applied whenever a commercial subscriber updates a database record in respect thereof.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the subscription fee is levied only against commercial subscribers whose data includes supplementary promotion data.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the subscription fee includes a further supplementary component that is applied whenever a client machine is on-line and has extracted data from the respective database record of said commercial subscriber.

7. The method according to claim 1, further including levying a subscription charge against a commercial enterprise in respect of data stored in the database.

8. The methods according to claim 7, wherein the subscription charge is graded according to at least one specified criterion.

9. The method according to claim 1, further including:

(i) receiving a request from a user of the client machine to join a consumer club associated with a business enterprise whose data has been uploaded to the client machine, and

(j) recording said user as a member of the consumer club.

10. The method according to claim 9, further including:

(k) receiving promotional data from said business enterprise, and

(l) forwarding to a client machine whose user is a member of said consumer club.

11. The method according to claim 9, further including:

(m) deriving statistics of consumer club members belonging to one or more consumer clubs, and

(n) forwarding the statistics to the respective consumer clubs.

12. The method according to claim 9, further including extracting from the commercial subscriber database specified records answering selection criteria received from the client machine.

13. The method according to claim 12, further including targeting specified consumers according to a user profile of the members of consumer clubs associated with one or more selected criteria.

14. The method according to claim 9, further including:

(o) receiving from a business enterprise information to be conveyed to consumer club members having specified selection criteria,

(p) extracting from the commercial subscriber database records of consumer club members answering said selection criteria, and

(q) conveying said information to said to consumer club members.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein in step (q) the information is conveyed on-line when the consumer accesses the web server.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein in step (q) the information is conveyed off-line using an independent communication channel pre-selected by the consumer.

17. The method according to claim 1, further including:

(r) uploading to the client machine map data for displaying on the client machine a detail of a map for showing thereon respective locations of commercial subscribers within an area covered thereby.

18. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for doing business, including the following steps:

(a) maintaining a commercial subscriber database including a plurality of records each containing data relating to commercial subscribers including at least name, address and category,

(b) receiving from a client machine connected thereto a request to download data relating to at least one specified category of commercial subscriber,

(c) extracting from the commercial subscriber database respective records and downloading to the client machine for display thereby,

(d) allowing receipt of an update from one or more commercial subscribers in respect of substitute or supplementary data to that containing in the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers,

(e) updating said commercial subscriber database as required,

(f) checking whether a client machine is on-line and has extracted data from the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers, and if so

(g) downloading to the client machine the update in respect of each of said one or more commercial subscribers for display on the client machine.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein computer readable program code for causing the computer to perform a method for doing business, including the following steps:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to maintain a database including a plurality of records each containing data relating to commercial subscribers including at least name, address and category,

computer readable program code for causing the computer to receive from a client machine connected thereto a request to download data relating to at least one specified category of commercial subscriber,

computer readable program code for causing the computer to extract from the database respective records and downloading to the client machine for display thereby,

computer readable program code for causing the computer to allow receipt of an update from one or more commercial subscribers in respect of substitute or supplementary data to that contained in the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers,

computer readable program code for causing the computer to update said database as required,

computer readable program code for causing the computer to check whether a client machine is on-line and has extracted data from the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers, and

computer readable program code responsive to the client machine being on-line and having extracted data from the respective database record of said one or more commercial subscribers for causing the computer to download to the client machine the update in respect of each of said one or more commercial subscribers for display on the client machine.

20. A method for obtaining information relating to at least one specified category of commercial enterprise, including the following steps all carried out by a client machine:

(a) downloading from a web server data relating to said at least one specified category of commercial enterprise for storage and display thereby,

(b) during a connection with the web server receiving from the web server substitute or supplementary data to that downloaded to the client machine, and

(c) displaying data representative of the substitute or supplementary data.

21. The method according to claim 20, further including:

(d) receiving from the web server consumer club data applying to members of a consumer club operated by the web server on behalf of commercial enterprises whose data is displayed, and

(e) displaying the consumer club data.

22. The method according to claim 20, further including:

(f) downloading from the web server map data for displaying a detail of a map for showing thereon respective locations of commercial enterprises within an area covered thereby.

23. The method according to claim 20, further including:

(g) receiving promotional data associated with commercial enterprises whose data is displayed, and

(h) displaying the promotional data.

24. The method according to claim 20, wherein step (c) is performed is off-line after disconnecting from the web server.

25. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for obtaining information relating to at least one specified category of commercial enterprise, including the following steps all carried out by a client machine:

(a) downloading from a web server data relating to said at least one specified category of commercial enterprise for storage and display thereby,

(b) during a connection with the web server receiving from the web server substitute or supplementary data to that downloaded to the client machine, and

(c) displaying data representative of the substitute or supplementary data.

26. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for causing the computer to obtain information relating to at least one specified category of commercial enterprise, including:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to download from a web server data relating to said at least one specified category of commercial enterprise for storage and display thereby,

computer readable program code for causing the computer during a connection with the web server to receive from the web server substitute or supplementary data to that downloaded to the client machine, and

computer readable program code for causing the computer to display data representative of the substitute or supplementary data.