System and method for collecting and distributing reviews and ratings

• US 8,447,643 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2009
• Issued: 05/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Melvin L. Barnes Jr
• Original Assignee: Melvin L. Barnes Jr
• Inventors: Barnes, Melvin L. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Racic, Milena
• Application Number:
  US12/476,910
• Publication Number:
  US 20090299824A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/14.6, 705/7.37, 705/14.19, 705/7.29, 707/E17.116
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for providing ratings related to a plurality of websites is provided. One embodiment of the system may include program code adapted to execute as a browser toolbar to implement a method comprising retrieving an identifier from the end user computing device, transmitting a request to a remote computer system for a rating value in response to a web page being loaded into the browser, receiving a rating value from the remote computer system, displaying the rating value in the toolbar, receiving a first user rating of the user from the remote computer system, displaying the first user rating in the toolbar, receiving a user input comprising a second user rating from the end user, transmitting the second user rating to the remote computer system, and displaying the second user rating in the toolbar. The remote computer system may store user ratings and reviews and transmit user ratings, an average rating, and a review count. The remote computer system may also parse URLs to determine whether the domain of the URL comprises a domain for which content may be rated. By parsing out an identifier of the URL for such domains, the system can be used to rate profiles of people on social networks and dating websites.

Claims

1. A system for providing ratings, comprising:

a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having a computer readable first program code embodied therein, said computer readable first program code adapted to execute as a browser toolbar in a browser on an end user computing device operable by a first user executable to implement a method comprising;

transmitting a request to a remote computer system in response to a web page being loaded into the browser executing on the end user computing device;

wherein the request includes an identifier (ID) and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the web page loaded in the browser executing on the end user computing device;

in response to said transmitting, receiving a rating value from the remote computer system;

displaying the rating value in the toolbar concurrently with the web page;

receiving a first rating of the first user from the remote computer system;

wherein the first rating comprises a rating previously supplied by the first user prior to the web page being loaded into the browser;

displaying the first rating in the toolbar concurrently with the web page;

receiving a user input comprising a second rating from the first user;

transmitting the second rating to the remote computer system; and

displaying the second rating in the toolbar.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

receive the second rating;

store the second rating;

calculate a new rating value incorporating the second rating; and

store the new rating value in memory.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the URL includes a domain and the remote computer system is configured to:

access coupon content from one or more other remote computer systems;

determine if coupon content is available for the domain;

transmit an alert to the end user computing device if any coupon content is available for the domain; and

wherein the first program code is executable to receive the alert and display the alert in the toolbar.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the URL includes a domain and wherein the remote computer system is configured to

receive the ID;

identify one or more friends of the first user associated with the ID;

determine whether a computer associated with any of the one or more friends has received a web page from the domain within a predetermined time period; and

transmit a friend notification to the end user computing device if a computer associated with any of the one or more friends has received a web page from the domain within the predetermined time period.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the friend notification identifies at least one friend and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the friend notification; and

displaying a visual representation of the at least one friend identified in the friend notification concurrently with the web page.

6. The system according to claim 1, the remote computer system is configured to:

receive the URL;

determine a domain from the URL;

determine the rating value based on the domain; and

transmit the rating value to the end user computing device that transmitted the request.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the remote computer system is further configured to:

retrieve from memory the first rating for the parsed domain and the received ID; and

transmit the first rating to the end user computing device.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

store a plurality of user ratings for each of a plurality of domains in a database;

receive the URL;

determine a domain from the URL;

determine the rating value for the domain based upon the plurality of user ratings for the domain; and

transmit the rating value to the end user computing device.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

receive from a client a search request that includes one or more keywords;

search one or more fields of the database for domains associated with the one or more keywords to provide search results;

sorting the search results, at least in part, in descending order of the rating value associated with each domain of the search results; and

transmitting at least a portion of the sorted search results to the client.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the remote computer system is further configured to:

store a plurality of user reviews for each of a multitude of domains in the database; and

wherein each of the plurality of user reviews for each domain are associated in memory with a different ID.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

receive the URL;

parse a domain from the URL;

determine whether the domain comprises a domain on which content may be rated; and

if the domain comprises a domain on which content may be rated;

parse a content identifier from the URL;

search a database for a content rating value associated with the domain and the content identifier; and

transmit the content rating value as the rating value to the end user computing device that transmitted the request.

12. A method of distributing meta data related to websites to an end user, comprising:

transmitting to a remote computer system a first URL of a first webpage with a toolbar executing on an end user computing device, in response to loading of the first webpage into a browser executing on the end user computing device;

with the remote computer system;

receiving the first URL;

determining a first domain of the first URL;

retrieving from memory a first rating value associated with the first domain; and

transmitting the first rating value to the end user computing device;

with the end user computing device;

receiving the first rating value;

displaying the first rating value in the toolbar concurrently with the first web page;

receiving a user input comprising a first user rating indicative of a rating of the first domain; and

transmitting the first user rating to the remote computer system;

with the remote computer system;

receiving the first user rating;

storing the first user rating in memory in association with the first domain;

wherein the first rating value comprises an average user rating of the first domain supplied by a plurality of users;

calculating a second rating value for the first domain that incorporates the received first user rating;

storing the second rating value in the memory in association with the first domain; and

transmitting the second rating value to the end user computing device; and

with the end user computing device;

receiving the second rating value; and

displaying the second rating value in the toolbar concurrently with the first web page.

13. The method according to claim 12,

with the remote computer system:

retrieving from memory a user rating associated with the first domain supplied by the end user prior to the first webpage being loaded into the browser;

transmitting the retrieved user rating to the end user computing device;

with the end user computing device;

receiving the retrieved user rating; and

displaying the retrieved user rating concurrently with the first webpage.

14. The method according to claim 12, further comprising with the remote computer system:

receiving a second URL comprising a second request transmitted from an end user computing device;

wherein the second URL includes a second domain;

determining a content identifier from the second URL;

searching a database for a content rating value associated with the second domain and the content identifier; and

transmitting the content rating value as the rating value to the end user computing device that transmitted the second request.

15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

with the end user computing device, transmitting an identifier (ID) associated with the end user to the remote computer system;

with the remote computer system;

receiving the identifier;

identifying one or more friends of the end user based on the identifier;

determining whether a computing device associated with any of the one or more friends have received a web page from the first domain within a predetermined time period; and

transmitting a friend notification to the end user computing device if a computing device of any of the one or more friends have received a web page from the first domain within the predetermined time period; and

wherein the friend notification identifies at least one friend.