Multi-search infrastructure supporting advertising and internet search term reuse

• US 8,463,643 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Inventors: Bennett, James D., Winslade, Christopher C.
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US13/523,383
• Publication Number:
  US 20120271716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 362 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/203, 709/216, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 705/14.4, 705/26.1, 705/28, 705/14.1, 705/54, 705/80, 370/30, 370/31, 370/252, 370/253, 370/352, 715/202, 700/1, 235/376, 235/383
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 : Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 : Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance

Abstract

A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer'"'"'s and merchant'"'"'s coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity.

Claims

1. A multi-search infrastructure comprising:

a first search service that couples with a web database system, the web database system storing representations of Internet data collected from a plurality of Internet servers;

a second search service that couples with a multi-promoter database system, the multi-promoter database system storing a plurality of groups of promotion data, each group of the plurality of groups of promotion data including description data, limitation data, link data, and price reduction data;

a third service that interacts with a first user computer of a first user to receive single search input;

the first search service, based at least in part on the single search input, produces first search results based on selected content from the web database system;

the second search service, based at least in part on the single search input, produces second search results based on selected content from the multi-promoter database system, the second search results supporting selected vectoring of the first user computer based on the link data; and

the second search service having an associated service fee.

2. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the third service comprises a web browser or page.

3. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the first search results are associated with at least a portion of the second search results in one or both of the web database system and the multi-promoter database system.

4. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the first search results are associated with at least a portion of the second search results in a database.

5. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the first search results comprises an identification of one or more goods and/or services.

6. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 5, wherein second search results are related to a given good and/or service, and are used in acquiring the given good and/or service.

7. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 6, wherein the second search results comprise one or both of a coupon and a rebate selected from the plurality of groups of promotion data.

8. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the second search results comprise link data from one or more of the plurality of groups of promotion data, the link data enabling vectoring of the first user computer to one or more web sites corresponding to the first search results.

9. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 8, wherein the first search results comprise an identification of a plurality of products from a corresponding plurality of sellers.

10. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein each group of the plurality of groups of promotion data includes data used in constructing a visual representation of a promotion for display on the first user computer.

11. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the first search service and second search service are enacted on differing servers.

12. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 11, wherein the third service is enacted on one of the differing servers.

13. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the first search service and second search service are enacted on a same server.

14. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 13, wherein the third service is enacted on the same server.

15. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the associated service fee corresponds to a charge levied on a third party seller.

16. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the associated service fee corresponds to a charge levied on an affiliated seller.

17. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein at least one group of promotion data further comprises an expiry date.

18. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the limitation data comprises a geographic region code.

19. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein at least one group of promotion data further comprises a product code.

20. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the limitation data comprises an expiry date.

21. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the price reduction data comprises a promotion value.

22. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the link data comprises manufacturer/merchant link data.

23. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the link data comprises product information link data.

24. The multi-search infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the link data comprises image link data.