Community based network shopping

• US 7,996,270 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Sundaresan, Neelakantan
• Primary Examiner(s): ZURITA, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US11/278,113
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,958 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37, 705/26.1, 705/27.1
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A system receives item data corresponding to an item list from a user. The item list may include one or more items. The system communicates the item list to a community group associated with the user and the system then receives member data from one or more members of the community group, wherein the member data is associated with the one or more items on the item list.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving from a user, item data corresponding to an item list including one or more items, at least one of the items being a category of product, a category of service, an occasion associated with the user, or a person associated with the user;

communicating the item list, using one or more processors, to a community group associated with the user;

receiving member data from one or more members of the community group, the member data being associated with one or more items on the item list, the member data comprising a review or a recommendation of an item of the one or more items included in the item list; and

updating the item list based on the received member data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the community group based on receiving, from the user, member identification data, the member identification data being based on a selection of one or more groups defined by the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the member identification data corresponds to at least one of one or more other users and one or more other community groups.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more items include a product or a service, at least one of the items included in the item list being the category of product, the category of service, the occasion associated with the user, or the person associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving member data corresponding to a review of the one or more items of the item list.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving member data corresponding to a recommendation of a specific product or service associated with the one or more items of the item list.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving a request to add the product or the service to an electronic shopping cart.

8. The method of claim 4, further including creating an electronic shopping cart indicating that the product of the service from the item list has been selected for purchase, wherein the electronic shopping cart is accessible by each member of the community group.

9. The method of claim 8, further including:

performing an automatic search of online vendors item the product or the service indicated in the electronic shopping cart;

automatically selecting one or more vendors having item the product or the service based on one or more thresholds associated with the purchase of the product or the service; and

automatically purchasing the product or the service available from the one or more vendors based on a single input received from one of the user and a member of the one or more members of the community group.

10. The method of claim 1, further including creating one or more rules associated with at least one of the items of the item list and one or more members of the community group.

11. The method of claim 10, further including preventing one or more selected members from viewing one or more of the items by setting a visibility attribute associated with the one or more items to invisible for the selected members.

12. The method of claim 1, further including creating one or more roles associated with at least one or more members of the community group.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more roles determines a level of accessibility to attributes and functions of the item list.

14. A system comprising:

an item list module to receive item data from a user, the item data corresponding to an item list including one or more items, at least one of the items being a category of product, a category of service, an occasion associated with the user, or a person associated with the user;

a community group module, having one or more processors, to communicate the item list to a community group associated with the user; and

user input module to receive member data from one or more members of the community group, the member data being associated with one or more items on the item list, the member data comprising a review or a recommendation of an item of the one or more items included in the item list, the user input module further to update the item list based on the received member data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the receiving of the member data includes receiving a request to add an item to an electronic shopping cart.

16. The system of claim 14, further including a transaction module to create an electronic shopping cart to indicate which of the items from the item list have been selected for purchase by one or more members of the community group.

17. The system of claim 16, further including:

a search module to;

perform an automatic search of online vendors for each item indicated in the electronic shopping cart; and

select one or more vendors that indicate saleable inventory for each item based on one or more thresholds associated with the purchase of each item; and

the transaction module to automatically purchase each item available from the one or more vendors based on a single input received from one of the user and a member of the community group.

18. The system of claim 17, further including a rules and roles module to create one or more rules associated with at least one of the items of the item list and one or more members of the community group.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the rules and roles module is to set a visibility attribute associated with one or more items to invisible for the selected members to prevent the one or more selected members from viewing one or more of the items.

20. The system of claim 14, further including a rules and roles module to create one or more roles associated with at least one or more members of the community group.

21. The system of claim 20, including the rules and roles module to determine a level of accessibility to attributes and functions of the item list based on the one or more created roles.

22. The system of claim 14, further including the community group module to receive member identification data from the user and to create a community group based on the received member identification data.

23. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving from a user, item data corresponding to an item list including one or more items, at least one of the items being a category of product, a category of service, an occasion associated with the user, or a person associated with the user;

communicating the item list to a community group associated with the user;

receiving member data from one or more members of the community group, the member data being associated with one or more items on the item list, the member data comprising a review or a recommendation of an item of the one or more items included in the item list; and

updating the item list based on the received member data.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 23, further including instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine further:

perform an automatic search of online vendors for each item indicated in the electronic shopping cart;

select one or more vendors having each item based on one or more thresholds associated with the purchase of each item; and

automatically purchase each item available from the one or more vendors based on a single click from one of the user and a member of the community group.