Methods and systems to enhance publication information with a communication feature

• US 20070061475A1
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Monahan, Jay, Moissinac, Henri
• Application Number:
  US11/518,667
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061475A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A system comprising a verification module to determine whether publication information satisfies predetermined criterion; and a user interface generator, in communication with the verification module, to electronically publish the publication information in association with communication initiation information if it is determined by the verification module that the publication information satisfies the predetermined criterion, the communication initiation information including identification information to identify a communication module and a network address of a first entity, the communication initiation information being selectable, at a first client computer, to initiate a communication from a second entity to the first entity.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a verification module to determine whether publication information satisfies predetermined criterion; and

a user interface generator, in communication with the verification module, to electronically publish the publication information in association with communication initiation information if it is determined by the verification module that the publication information satisfies the predetermined criterion, the communication initiation information including identification information to identify a communication module and a network address of a first entity, the communication initiation information being selectable, at a first client computer, to initiate a communication from a second entity to the first entity.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first entity includes any one of a group of first entities including a first party and a first software agent, and wherein the second entity includes any one of a group of second entities including a second party and a second software agent.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the communication initiation information is selectable to activate the communication module to initiate the communication from the second party to the first party.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the communication module is any one of a group of communication modules including a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) communication module, an electronic message communication module, and an instant messaging communication module.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the verification module receives a domain that is extracted from a universal resource locater that is used to locate the publication information and to compare the domain of the universal resource locater to a plurality of domains that are respectively associated to a plurality of parties that includes the first party.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the verification module verifies whether the first party satisfies at least one predetermined user criterion.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the verification module reads an account status that is associated with the first party to determine whether the first party has paid to facilitate communication.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the verification module determines whether the first party satisfies any one of a group of predetermined user criterion including whether the first party transacts a predetermined volume of business, exceeds a sales goal, achieves satisfactory reputation criterion, and registers with an affiliation program operated by a publishing system that publishes the publication information.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the communication from the second party to the first party is utilized to communicate criterion information to the first party, and wherein the criterion information includes identification information that identifies the second party as having registered in an affiliate program that is associated with a publishing system.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the user interface generator registers the publication of the communication initiation information in an account that is associated with the first party and maintains a total that is utilized to determine an amount of payment collected from the first party.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the verifying module verifies whether an author of the publication information satisfies the predetermined criterion.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined criterion includes any one of a group of criterion including registration with a publisher of the publication information, payment to the publisher of the publication information, reputation criterion and transaction history criterion.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the verifying module verifies whether the first party satisfies the predetermined criterion.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface generator electronically publishes the publication information to a second client computer that hosts the publication system.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the verification module includes a parser module and the parser module compares the parsed terms to at least one predetermined term that is associated with the first party.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the user interface generator electronically publishes additional communication initiation information in association with the publication information responsive to a verification module that identifies that additional parties are associated with the at least one predetermined term.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the parsing module identifies a first predetermined term in the publication information that is positioned a predetermined number of terms from a second predetermined term in the publication information.

18. A method comprising:

determining whether publication information satisfies a predetermined criterion; and

if so, electronically publishing the publication information in association with communication initiation information, the communication initiation information including identification information identifying a communication module and a network address of a first entity, the communication initiation information being selectable, at a client computer, to initiate a communication from a second entity to the first entity.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first entity includes any one of a group of first entities including a first party and a first software agent, and wherein the second entity includes any one of a group of second entities including a second party and a second software agent.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the communication initiation information is selectable to activate the communication module to initiate the communication from the second entity to the first entity.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the communication module is any one of a group of communication modules including a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) communication module, an electronic message communication module, and an instant messaging communication module.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the determining whether the publication information satisfies the predetermined criterion includes receiving a domain that is extracted from a universal resource locater that is used to locate the publication information and comparing the domain of the universal resource locater to a plurality of domains that are respectively associated with a plurality of parties that includes the first party.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the determining includes verifying whether the first party satisfies at least one predetermined user criterion.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the verifying whether the first party satisfies the at least one predetermined user criterion includes reading an account status that is associated with the first party and determining whether the first party has paid to facilitate communication based on the account status.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the verifying whether the first party satisfies the at least one predetermined user criterion includes determining whether the first party satisfies any one of a group of predetermined criterion including whether the first party transacts a predetermined volume of business, exceeds a sales goal, achieves satisfactory reputation criteria, and registers with an affiliation program operated by a publishing system that publishes the publication information.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the communication from the second party to the first party is utilized to communicate criterion information to the first party, and wherein the criterion information includes identification information that identifies the second party as having registered in an affiliate program that is associated with a publishing system.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein electronically publishing the publication information includes registering the communication information in an account that is associated with the first party and maintaining a total that is utilized to determine an amount of payment collected from the first party.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining includes verifying whether an author of the publication information satisfies the predetermined criterion.

29. The method of claim 18, wherein the predetermined criterion includes any one of a group of predetermined criterion including registration with a publisher of the publication information, payment to the publisher of the publication information, reputation criterion and transaction history criterion.

30. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining includes determining whether the first party satisfies the predetermined criterion.

31. The method of claim 18, wherein the electronically publishing of the publication information includes electronically publishing to any one computer from a group of computers including a second client computer that hosts the publication system and a server computer that hosts the publication system.

32. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining includes parsing terms and comparing the parsed terms to at least one predetermined term that is associated with the first party.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the electronically publishing includes publishing additional communication information in association with the publication information responsive to identifying additional parties that are associated with the at least one predetermined term.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the parsing the terms includes identifying a first predetermined term in the publication information that is positioned a predetermined number of terms from a second predetermined term in the publication information.

35. A tangible machine readable medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

determine whether publication information satisfies predetermined criterion; and

if so, electronically publish the publication information in association with communication initiation information, the communication initiation information to include identification information to identify a communication module and a network address of a first entity, the communication initiation information being selectable, at a first client computer, to initiate a communication from a second entity to the first entity.

36. A system comprising:

a first means for determining whether publication information satisfies predetermined criterion; and

if so, a second means, in communication with the first means, for electronically publishing the publication information in association with communication initiation information if it is determined by the first means that the publication information satisfies the predetermined criterion, the communication initiation information including identification information to identify a communication module and a network address of a first entity, the communication initiation information selectable, at a first client computer, to initiate a communication from a second entity to the first entity.