ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM FOR CONDUCTING COMMERCE

• US 20100262477A1
• Filed: 04/07/2010
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Transform Sr Brands, LLC (ESL Investments, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sears Brands LLC (Sears Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Wical, Kelly Joseph, Hillerbrand, Eric Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 10,410,223 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.160
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

An online social networking system for conducting commerce utilizes a grid environment, a widget architecture including a widget operating system, and semantic integration technologies to provide personalized bundling of products and services tied to an individual'"'"'s life, emergent marketplaces that support collaboratively-based product and service development, merchandising, and recommendations, emergent user experiences, emergent gaming, emergent behavior predictions, collaborative discovery, i.e., social searching, and content and/or people voyeurism. These features are achieved through the use of various techniques including emergent programming, emergent widget processing, emergent computations, emergent applications, widget composition, data integration and exchange, complex system management, security graphs, trust/reputation management, intersecting graphs, database sharding, use of fractal graphs (which may be thinned and expanded), and content mashups.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for allocating royalties to vendors, comprising:

providing a database of data items including a first data item and a second data item, the second data item having a particular vendor and a particular product or service associated therewith, and the first and second data items being connected to each other through a number of links;

providing a graphical representation of a plurality of the data items including the first data item but not including the second data item;

enabling access to the second data item via the first data item and the links;

facilitating a purchase of the particular good or service; and

charging the particular vendor a royalty that is based at least in part on the number of links connecting the first data item to the second data item.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the particular vendor is a second vendor and the first data item has a first vendor associated therewith, the method further comprising:

paying the first vendor a portion of the royalty charged to the second vendor based at least in part on the number of links separating the first data item and the second data item.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein each of the links have associated link strengths, and wherein further the royalty is also based at least in part of the associated link strengths of the links between the first data item and the second data item.

4. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for a causing a computer to perform a method for allocating royalties to vendors, the method comprising:

providing a database of data items including a first data item and a second data item, the second data item having a particular vendor and a particular product or service associated therewith, and the first and second data items being connected to each other through a number of links;

providing a graphical representation of a plurality of the data items including the first data item but not including the second data item;

enabling access to the second data item via the first data item and the links;

facilitating a purchase of the particular good or service; and

charging the particular vendor a royalty that is based at least in part on the number of links connecting the first data item to the second data item.

5. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 4 wherein the particular vendor is a second vendor and the first data item has a first vendor associated therewith, and wherein the method further comprises:

paying the first vendor a portion of the royalty charged to the second vendor based at least in part on the number of links separating the first data item and the second data item.

6. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 5 wherein each of the links have associated link strengths, and wherein further the royalty is also based at least in part of the associated link strengths of the links between the first data item and the second data item.

7. A computer-implemented method for managing user profiles in an electronic social network, comprising:

providing a database of data items including user profiles;

establishing a first user profile corresponding to a first user;

establishing a second user profile corresponding to a second user;

receiving a first request from the first user to create a first catalog;

creating the first catalog;

receiving a second request from the first user specifying at least one of the data items to be included in the catalog;

updating the first catalog to include at least one data item specified in the second request;

receiving a third request from the second user to create a second catalog,

creating the second catalog;

receiving a fourth request from the second user specifying that the first catalog shall be included in the second catalog;

updating the second catalog to include the first catalog;

receiving a modification request to modify the first catalog;

modifying the first catalog in accordance with the modification request; and

reflecting the modification of the first catalog in the second catalog.

8. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 7, wherein creating the first catalog comprises creating one or more links in the first catalog to the at least one of the data items specified in the first request.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein creating the second catalog comprises creating a link in the second catalog to the first catalog.

10. A system for managing user profiles in an electronic social network, comprising:

a database of data items including user profiles;

a user profile manager for establishing a first user profile corresponding to a first user and a second user profile corresponding to a second user;

a communications interface operable to receive a first request from the first user for the creation of a first catalog; and

a catalog manager operable to create the first catalog in response to the first request, wherein the communications interface is further operable to receive a second request from the first user specifying at least one of the data items to be included in the catalog,

wherein the catalog manager is further operable to update the first catalog to include at least one data item specified in the second request in response to the second request, wherein the communications interface is further operable to receive a third request from the second user to create a second catalog,

wherein the catalog manager is further operable to create the second catalog,

wherein the communications interface is further operable to receive a fourth request from the second user specifying that the first catalog shall be included in the second catalog, wherein the catalog manager is further operable to update the second catalog to include the first catalog,

wherein the communications interface is further operable to receive a modification request to modify the first catalog, and

wherein the catalog manager is further operable to modify the first catalog in accordance with the modification request and cause the modification of the first catalog to be reflected in the second catalog.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein during creation of the first catalog the catalog manager is further operable to create one or more links in the first catalog to the at least one of the data items specified in the first request.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein during creation of the second catalog the catalog manager is further operable to create a link in the second catalog to the first catalog.

13. A system for heuristic searching, comprising:

a database of data items including user profiles, the user profiles including a particular user profile associated with a particular user;

a search engine for searching the database, wherein the search engine is operable to receive a query from the particular user, search the database for data items that are relevant to the query, and generate search results comprising one or more relevant data items, wherein the relevance of a given data item is based at least in part on the particular user profile;

a user interface for receiving a selection of a particular search result; and

a profile manager operable to update the particular user profile to reflect the selection of the particular result.