Network-based sales system with customizable user interface

• US 8,601,373 B1
• Filed: 11/16/1999
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Ackley, Matthew, Aparo, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Roswell, Michael
• Application Number:
  US09/441,388
• Time in Patent Office: 5,131 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/609, 715/718, 715/746
• US Class Current: 715/718
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A sales system is disclosed for coupling to a communications network. The sales system includes a first sales interface at a first network address, with the first sales interface including a first set of user interface elements. The system also includes a second sales interface at a second network address, with the second sales interface including a second set of user interface elements. A customization interface is responsive to user input to define the first and second sets of user interface elements.

Claims

1. A sales system for coupling to a communications network, comprising:

a sales server at a network address that operates a plurality of sales interfaces including first and second sales interfaces, each of the plurality of sales interfaces having a unique network address, each of the plurality of sales interfaces including a corresponding set of user interface elements, the sales server includes a customization interface to receive user inputs for an arrangement of a plurality of user interface elements, the plurality of user interface elements defining display attributes for at least one of the plurality of sales interfaces, the sales server is operative to create an impression to a first user that the first user is still using a first member site through which the first user accessed the first sales interface by mapping the first sales interface to a first domain, the sales server is operative to create the impression to a second user that the second user is still using a second member site through which the second user accessed the second sales interface by mapping the second sales interface to a second domain different from the first domain, the first domain being a sub-domain of an address mapped to the first member site, the second domain being a sub-domain of an address mapped to the second member site, the sales server to receive a first bid for a listing of an item for sale in an auction that is presented to the first user via the first sales interface and receive a second bid for the listing of the item for sale in the auction that is further presented to the second user via the second sales interface; and

a central database system that stores the listing,

the sales server further comprising;

an object model representation of the central database system that is stored in memory; and

a publisher subsystem to scan the central database system to identify records in the central database system that have changed, the sales system includes an auction system and responsive to the identification of the records in the central database system that have changed the publisher subsystem to modify a representation of the central database system in memory based on the records identified in the central database system as changed and to generate the first and second networked interfaces based on the modified representation of the central database system in memory, the publisher subsystem to automatically and periodically scan the central database system to generate the first and second networked interfaces while the auction system operates live.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the sales server further operates to generate a domain name server (DNS) mapping of sub-domain names for the first and second sales interfaces, wherein at least a portion of each of the sub-domain names is consistent with the unique network addresses of the corresponding first and second sales interfaces.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second sales interfaces presented are each operative to present a plurality of linked pages.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first sales interface includes elements that are also included in a first set of pages and wherein the second sales interface includes elements that are also included in a second set of pages.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the first sales interface includes a header that is also included in the first set of pages and wherein the second sales interface includes a header that is also included in the second set of pages.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first sales interface presented includes interface elements that include at least part of a name of the first domain, and wherein the second sales interface presented includes interface elements that include at least part of a name of the second domain.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the sales server is further operative to:

provide a customizable user interface for the plurality of sales interfaces;

receive a user arrangement of a plurality of user interface tokens, the plurality of user interface tokens defining display attributes of at least one view of at least one of the plurality of sales interfaces, wherein the plurality of user interface tokens represent parts of the sales interface that are moveable or customizable.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the items for sale are auction items, wherein the first and second sales interfaces are auction interfaces.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the auction server is adapted to receive a listing file from a user and merge the listing file into the listings stored in the central database system as a series of listing items.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the publisher subsystem is adapted to generate at least a portion of the first or second sales interfaces prior to receiving a user request.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the publisher subsystem maintains a dirty bit to indicate a change since the last generation of the first or second sales interfaces.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein each auction interface corresponds to an auction site, and wherein the central database system is adapted to store auction items available on the auction sites.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the auction server is further adapted to store the received bids in the central database system.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the auction server is further adapted to index the received bids.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the received bids are stored as part of a series of item bidding histories in the central database system.

16. The system of claim 15, upon expiration of an auction period for an item, the auction server determines a highest bid and compares the bid to a reserve price, wherein if the highest bid is above the reserve price the bid is successful.

17. The sales system of claim 1, wherein the sales server provides an auction service on the plurality of sales interfaces.

18. The sales system of claim 1, wherein the sales server generates a web page for each of the plurality of sales interfaces.

19. A sales system for coupling to a communications network, comprising:

a first sales interface at a first network address, the first sales interface includes a first set of user interface elements;

a second sales interface at a second network address, the second sales interface includes a second set of user interface elements;

a sales server at a third network address that operates the first and second sales interfaces while providing an impression that the first and second sales interfaces are being operated by different entities, the sales server is operative to create the impression to a first user that the first user is still using a first member site through which the first member accessed the first sales interface by mapping the first sales interface to a first domain, the sales server is operative to create the impression to a second user that the second user is still using a second member site through which the second user accessed the second sales interface by mapping the second sales interface to a second domain different from the first domain, the first domain being a sub-domain of an address mapped to the first member site, the second domain being a subdomain of an address mapped to the second member site, the sales server includes a customization interface responsive to user input to define the first and second sets of user interface elements,

the sales server to receive a first bid for a listing of an item for sale in an auction that is presented to the first user via the first sales interface and receive a second bid for the listing of the item for sale in the auction that is further presented to the second user via the second sales interface;

a central database system that stores the listing,

the sales server further comprising;

an object model representation of the central database system that is stored in memory; and

a publisher subsystem to scan the central database system to identify records in the central database system that have changed, the sales system includes an auction system and responsive to the identification of the records in the central database system that have changed the publisher subsystem to modify a representation of the central database system in memory based on the records identified in the central database system as changed and generate the first and second networked interfaces based on the modified representation of the central database system in memory, the publisher subsystem to automatically and periodically scan the central database system to generate the first and second networked interfaces while the auction system operates live.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first sales interface is used to receive a bid from a user.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the auction system includes an auction server that is to generate the first sales interface.

22. A method, comprising:

receiving a first plurality of customization commands from a first accountholder;

receiving a second plurality of customization commands from a second accountholder;

presenting, by a sales server, a first networked sales interface accessed through a first member site by a first user, the first networked sales interface being generated by the sales server based on the first plurality of customization commands received from the first accountholder;

presenting, by the sales server, a second networked sales interface accessed through a second member site by a second user, the second networked sales interface being generated by the sales server based on the second plurality of customization commands received from the second accountholder, the presenting of the first and second networked sales interfaces being performed by a provider for the first and second accountholders that operates the sales server, the presenting the first networked sales interface is operative to create an impression to the first user that the first user is still using the first member site, through which the first user accessed the first networked sales interface, by mapping the first networked sales interface to a first domain, the presenting the second networked sales interface is operative to create an impression to the second user that the second user is still using the second member site, through which the second user accessed the second networked sales interface, by mapping the second networked sales interface to a second domain different from the first domain, the first domain being a sub-domain of an address mapped to the first member site, the second domain being a sub-domain of an address mapped to the second member site;

receiving a first bid for a listing of a first item for sale in an auction that is presented to the first user via the first networked sales interface;

receiving a second bid for the listing of the first item for sale in the auction that is further presented to the second user via the second networked sales interface;

scanning a central database system that stores the listing to identify records in a central database system that have changed, the sales system includes an auction system and responsive to the identifying of the records in the central database system that have changed;

modifying a representation of the central database system in memory based on the records identified in the central database system that have changed; and

generating the first and second networked interfaces based on the modified representation of the central database system in memory, the scanning being performed automatically and periodically to generate the first and second networked interfaces while the auction system is operating live.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein addresses of the first and second networked sales interfaces are mapped using DNS mapping.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the steps of presenting are operative to present each of the first and second networked sales interfaces as including a plurality of linked pages.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the steps of presenting present the first networked sales interface as including interface elements that include at least part of a name of the first domain, and present the second networked sales interface as including interface elements that include at least part of a name of the second domain.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein the first accountholder includes a first administration user that administrates a first member organization, and wherein the second accountholder includes a second administration user that administrates a second member organization, and wherein the first and second organizations are different legal entities.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving a third plurality of customization commands from the first accountholder;

receiving a fourth plurality of customization commands from the second accountholder;

presenting, by the sales server, a third networked sales interface accessed through the first member site by the first user, the third networked sales interface being generated by the sales server based on the third plurality of customization commands received from the first accountholder; and

presenting, by the sales server, a fourth networked sales interface accessed through the second member site by the second user, the fourth networked sales interface being generated by the sales server based on the fourth plurality of customization commands received from the first accountholder.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

receiving a second listing of an item for sale in the auction that is presented to the first user via the first networked sales interface; and

receiving a third listing of an item for sale in the auction that is further presented to the second user via the second networked sales interface.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein the representation of the central database system in memory includes an object model of the central database system for the auction system.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the identifying the records have changed include identifying a first record that has changed based on the first item being sold, and wherein the generating the first and second network sales interfaces includes generating the first and second networked sales interfaces to not display the first item.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein the records in the central database system include a first item record that describes the first item for sale in the action, a first category record that describes a first category that is utilized to categorize the first item for sale in the action and a first site information record that affect the appearance of the plurality of the networked sales interfaces.