Method and system for communicating user interfaces between first ...

US008150894B2

(12) United States Patent

(10) Patent N0.: (45) Date of Patent:

Monahan et a].

(54)

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING USER INTERFACES BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND USERS OVER A NETWORK

4,412,287 A 4,674,044 A

4,677,552 A 4,789,928 A 4,799,156 A 4,823,265 A 4,864,516 A

(75) Inventors: Jay Monahan, Campbell, CA (US); Bradley A. Handler, Menlo Park, CA

US 8,150,894 B2 Apr. 3, 2012

10/1983 Braddock, III 6/1987 Kalmus et al.

6/1987 Sibley, Jr. 12/1988 Fujisaki 1/1989 Shavit et al. 4/1989 Nelson 9/1989 Gaither et al.

(Continued)

(Us)

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

(73) Assignee: eBay Inc., San Jose, CA (US) (*)

Notice:

2253543 Al

CA

(Continued)

Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

“US. Appl. No. 09/668,339, Non-Final Of?ce Action mailed Jun. 4, 2002”, 5 pgs.

(21) Appl. No.: 13/160,331 (22)

Filed:

Jun. 14, 2011

(65)

(Continued)

Prior Publication Data

US 2011/0283197 A1

3/1997

Primary Examiner * Diane MiZrahi

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm * Schwegman, Lundberg &

Nov. 17,2011

Woessner, PA. Related US. Application Data

(63)

(57)

Continuation of application No. 11/965,538, ?led on Dec. 27, 2007, which is a continuation of application No. 10/316,628, ?led on Dec. 10, 2002, now Pat. No. 7,509,323, which is a continuation of application No. 09/668,399, ?led on Sep. 22, 2000, now Pat. No.

ABSTRACT

A system and a method for communicating selected search results are described. The system generates a ?rst user inter

face that includes a ?rst plurality of items and a ?rst plurality

of selection functions. The ?rst plurality of items is respec tively associated with the ?rst plurality of selection functions.

6,523,037.

The system presents the ?rst user interface over a communi

(51)

Int. Cl.

cations network. The system receives at least two selections

G06F 17/30

(52) (58)

US. Cl.

(2006.01)

over the communications network. The at least two selections

collectively identify a ?rst plurality of deleted items as deleted from the ?rst plurality of items. The ?rst plurality of

..................................................... .. 707/803

Field of Classi?cation Search ................ .. 707/ 802,

items further include and a second plurality of items that are

707/ 803

See application ?le for complete search history.

not deleted from the ?rst plurality of items. Next, the system

References Cited

plurality of items and a second plurality of selection functions

generates a second user interface that includes the second

(56)

and presents the second user interface over the communica

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 3,573,747 A 3,581,072 A

tions network.

4/1971 Adams et al.

21 Claims, 15 Drawing Sheets

5/1971 Nymeyer

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US 8,150,894 B2 Page 2 6,178,408 6,192,407 6,202,051 6,243,691

US. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,903,201 5,063,507 5,077,665 5,101,353 5,136,501 5,168,446 5,205,200 5,243,515 5,258,908 5,280,422 5,297,031 5,297,032 5,305,200 5,325,297 5,329,589 5,375,055 5,394,324 5,426,281 5,485,510 5,553,145 5,557,728 5,596,994 5,598,557 5,640,569 5,657,389 5,664,115 5,689,652 5,694,546 5,706,457 5,710,889 5,715,314 5,715,402 5,717,989 5,722,418 5,724,567 5,724,576 5,727,165 5,771,291 5,771,380 5,790,790 5,793,497 5,794,219 5,799,285 5,803,500 5,818,914 5,826,244 5,835,896 5,845,265 5,845,266 5,850,442 5,857,188 5,857,201 5,857,203 5,872,848 5,873,069 5,874,412 5,884,056 5,890,138 5,905,974 5,905,975 5,922,074 5,924,072 5,926,794 5,960,406 5,991,739 6,005,565 6,035,402 6,044,363 6,047,264 6,055,518 6,058,417 6,061,448 6,073,117 6,085,176 6,104,815 6,119,137 6,157,935 6,161,082

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B1 B1 B1 B1 B1 B1 B1 B1 B2 B1 B2 B2

7,945,852 B1 *

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A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 A1

2008/0229198 A1*

2008/0320049 A1

1/2001 Copple et a1. Smith et al. Woolston Fisher et al.

2/2001 3/2001 6/2001 8/2001 2/2002 2/2003 3/2003 10/2003 5/2004 10/2006 3/2009 5/2011

10/2001 10/2001 10/2001 10/2001 9/2002 8/2004 5/2008 9/2008

Kumar et al. Reed et al. Monahan et al. Bowman-Amuah Bowman-amuah Aravamudan et al. Chandra et al. Monahan et al. Pilskalns ..................... .. 715/230

HoltZman et al. Fuller Anecki et a1. Powers Chandra et al. Perkowski Monahan et al. Jung et al. ................... .. 715/708

12/2008 Levy et al.

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2658635 9300266 WO-9215174 WO-9517711 WO-9634356 WO-9737315 WO-9963461 WO-0225401

A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 A3

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1996), 3-23. * cited by examiner

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Apr. 3, 2012

Sheet 6 0f 15

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Apr. 3,2012

Sheet 7 0f 15

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Apr. 3, 2012

US 8,150,894 B2

Sheet 9 0f 15

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Apr. 3, 2012

Sheet 10 0f 15

US 8,150,894 B2

FROM FIG. 9A

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Apr. 3, 2012

Sheet 11 0115

US 8,150,894 B2

EDIT DEFAULT SETTING INTERFACE

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Apr. 3, 2012

Sheet 12 0f 15

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US. Patent

Apr. 3, 2012

Sheet 13 0f 15

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US. Patent

Apr. 3, 2012

Sheet 14 0f 15

US 8,150,894 B2

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Apr. 3, 2012

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US 8,150,894 B2 1

2

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING USER INTERFACES BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND USERS OVER A NETWORK

considers the number of products or services that are being

offered by suppliers via such marketplaces. For example, on

the popular online-auction facility developed and operated by Ebay, Incorporated of San Jose Calif., at any one time there may be betWeen tWo and four million items or services avail

able for receiving bids.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of US. patent application Ser. No. 11/965,538 ?led on Dec. 27, 2007 Which is a continuation of US. patent application Ser. No. 10/316,

In order to bring a degree of automation to searching of the vast and ever-dynamic inventory available for purchase on an online marketplace, a number of such online marketplaces offer automated search features. Such automated search fea

628 ?led on Dec. 10, 2002 and Which issued as US. Pat. No.

tures typically alloW the user to de?ne search terms and

7,509,323, Which is a continuation of US. patent application Ser. No. 09/668,399 ?led on Sep. 22, 2000 and Which issued as US. Pat. No. 6,523,037, Which applications are incorpo rated herein by reference.

conditions. The online marketplace Will then, at scheduled times, automatically conduct a search utiliZing the terms and conditions, and automatically communicate the results of these searches to the relevant user. In this Way, the user can

automatically be advised When items of interest to this user

become available for purchase via the online marketplace.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Regardless of the context or environment Within Which an

The present invention relates to the ?eld of netWork-based communications and, more speci?cally, to a method of com

20

municating a selected subset of data items betWeen multiple

(e.g., HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document). To

users over a netWork, such as the Internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 25

The explosive growth of the Internet as a publication and

vieW further details regarding a particular “search hit”, a user selects the hypertext title, responsive to Which a resource to Which the title is linked is invoked (e.g., a further HTML page

may be displayed).

interactive communication platform has seen parallel growth in the volume of resources and materials that may be accessed by the Internet. To enable users to navigate this unprec edented volume of information, a number of so-called

Internet-based search occurs, the results typically take the form of a list of hypertext (or linked) titles or descriptions presented in the context of a markup language document

It often occurs that only a small percentage of a search result set is in fact of interest to the user. 30

“search engine” technologies have been developed and deployed under various brands. Widely deployed search engine technologies have been developed by Alta Vista, Inc., Inktomi, Inc., and Google, Incorporated. Internet search-en

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by Way of example and not limitation in the ?gures of the accompanying draWings, in

portals (e.g., Yahool, Incorporated and Excite) in attracting

Which like references indicate similar elements and in Which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary net Work-based transaction facility in the form of an intemet

users to such portals.

based auction facility.

gine features have been critical to the number of the major

35

Search engine technology is also Widely deployed Within the context of Web sites, so as to alloW visitors to a particular Web site to locate documents or features that may be of

40

FIG. 2 is a database diagram illustrating an exemplary database, maintained by and accessed via a database engine server, Which at least partially implements and supports the

interest. For example, large number of corporate Web sites

auction facility.

that operate as major communication channels to customers

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary stored searches table. FIG. 3B illustrates an exemplary stored search results table. FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram illustrating a sequence of

typically employ search engine technology to alloW a user to, for example, locate technical documents and articles pertain

ing to speci?c products.

45

The use of search engine technology is also Widely evident in Internet-based electronic marketplaces or exchanges. Cur rently, such marketplaces are classi?ed as being business-to

interactions, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, to communicate search results betWeen ?rst and second entities. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary envi

consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), or business

to-business (B2B) according to the types of parties betWeen

50

FIG. 6 is an interface map illustrating a collection of inter

faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, that may be presented to facilitate communication

pliers, these inventories having been published by the relevant suppliers to the online exchange. Similarly, in the B2C and the C2C environments, a potential purchaser is enabled to

55

search product offerings by multiple suppliers utiliZing search engine technology employed by the relevant market place. One form of an electronic marketplace that has proved to be popular is the consumer-oriented online auction mar

ronment in Which the interaction sequence illustrated in FIG.

4 may be employed.

Which they facilitate transactions. In the context of a B2B exchange, a purchaser for a particular company may, via the online exchange, conduct a search of the inventories of sup

60

ketplace, Where suppliers publish product or service offerings

of search results betWeen entities. FIG. 7 is a How chart illustrating a method, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, of commu nicating search results betWeen ?rst and second entities. FIG. 8 is an interaction diagram illustrating an interaction sequence, according to an exemplary embodiment of the

present invention, by Which search results may be communi

to be sold via an auction process. The publication of classi?ed

cated betWeen a netWork-based auction facility and a revieW

advertisements (e. g., via Yahoo! Classi?eds) may also be

ing authority. FIGS. 9-11 illustrate exemplary embodiments of various

classi?ed as publishing to an online marketplace, Where transactions are established.

The value of a search-engine technology Within the context of such online marketplaces is particularly evident When one

65

interfaces that may be generated by a Web server to facilitate the communication of selected search results betWeen enti ties.

US 8,150,894 B2 3

4

FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate a sequence of result set and sub set interfaces that may be presented Within the context of a

Central to the database 23 is a user table 40, Which contains a record for each user of the auction facility 10. A user may

Web search facilitated by a Web search engine.

operate as a seller, buyer, or both, Within the auction facility 10. The database 23 also includes items tables 42 that may be linked to the user table 40. Speci?cally, the tables 42 include

FIG. 13 illustrates a further exemplary embodiment of a result set interface. FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exemplary form of a computer system Within Which a set of instructions may be executed.

a seller items table 44 and a bidder items table 46. A user

record in the user table 40 may be linked to multiple items that are being, or have been, auctioned via the facility 10. A link indicates Whether the user is a seller or a bidder (or buyer) With respect to items for Which records exist Within the items tables 42. The database 23 also includes a note table 48 populated

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A method and system to communicate a selected search result set betWeen ?rst and second entities over a communi

With note records that may be linked to one or more item records Within the items tables 42 and/ or to one or more user

cations netWork are described. In the following description,

records Within the user table 40. Each note record Within the

for purposes of explanation, numerous speci?c details are set

table 48 may include, inter alia, a comment, description,

forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It Will be evident, hoWever, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced Without

these speci?c details.

history or other information pertaining to an item being auc tion via the auction facility 10, or to a user of the auction

facility 10. 20

Transaction Facility FIG. 1 is block diagram illustrating an exemplary netWork based transaction facility in the form of an Internet-based auction facility 10. While an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described Within the context of an auction

facility, it Will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention Will ?nd application in many different types of computer-based, and netWork-based, commerce facilities.

25

purposes of having automated searches conducted by the 30

search servers 20. A stored search results table 62 is consti

tuted by a number of records, each record storing the result of a particular search conducted by, or for, a particular user. In the context of the present exemplary embodiment, the results

types of front-end servers, namely communications servers in the exemplary form of page servers 12 that deliver Web pages 35

interface to the back-end of facility 10, and search servers 20 that handle search requests to the facility 10. E-mail servers

21 provide, inter alia, automated e-mail communications to

ci?cally to enable an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A stored searches table 60 stores records of the terms, parameters and conditions of searches that have been de?ned and saved by users for convenient recall, or for the

The auction facility 10 includes one or more of a number of

(e.g., markup language documents), picture servers 14 that dynamically deliver images to be displayed Within Web pages, listing servers 16, processing servers in the exemplary form of CGI (or ISAPI) servers 18 that provide an intelligent

A number of other tables are also shoWn to be linked to the user table 40, namely a user past aliases table 50, a feedback table 52, a feedback details table 53, a bids table 54, an accounts table 56, and an account balances table 58. The database 23 is also shoWn to include four tables spe

40

of such a search may include a listing of items stored in the items tables 42. A stored messages table 64 stores default and user-select able messages, as speci?ed by a user, to be communicated in conjunction With search results, or a subset of search results, according to the present invention. A stored addressees table 66 includes records for each of a collection of default or

users of the facility 10. The back-end servers include a database engine server 22,

user-selectable addressees of messages embodying search results. Accordingly, the stored addressees table 66 may be

a search index server 24 and a credit card database server 26,

utiliZed to support an online address book for a user.

each of Which maintains and facilitates access to a respective

database.

45

The Internet-based auction facility 10 may be accessed by

65 stores an identi?er for a user that conducted the search, and a default messenger identi?er ?eld 69 stores a key to a mes

a client program 30, such as a broWser (e. g., the Internet

Explorer distributed by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.) that executes on a client machine 32 and accesses the facility

10 via a netWork such as, for example, the Internet 34. Other examples of netWorks that a client may utiliZe to access the auction facility 10 include a Wide area netWork (WAN), a local area netWork (LAN), a Wireless netWork (e.g., a cellular

netWork), or the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) net Work.

50

55

Database Structure

FIG. 2 is a database diagram illustrating an exemplary database 23, maintain by and accessed via the database engine server 22, Which at least partially implements and supports the auction facility 10. The database 23 may, in one embodiment, be implemented as a relational database, and includes a number of tables having entries, or records, that are linked by indices and keys. In an alternative embodiment, the database 23 may be implemented as collection of objects in an

object-oriented database.

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a stored searches table 60. A search identi?er ?eld 63 stores a unique identi?er for each stored search record. A user identify ?eld

60

65

sage stored Within the stored messages table 64 and that should accompany a communication of the search results for the relevant search. A search string ?eld 67 includes one or more search terms (or other conditions) that are utiliZed by the search servers 20 to located items of interest. A date last searched ?eld 68 records the date and time on Which the relevant stored search Was last conducted. Another search parameters ?eld 70 stores other conditions or parameters of ?elds that may be associated With a search (e.g., that the current search is not authorized or is disabled, etc.). FIG. 3B illustrates an exemplary stored search results table 62. A result identi?er ?eld 72 stores a unique identi?er for each stored set of search results. An item identi?er ?eld 74 stores an identi?er that keys to the items table 42, and iden ti?es a unique auction item that Was located by a particular search. A date ?eld 76 records a date on Which the relevant search Was conducted and search identi?er ?eld 78 keys to the stored searches table 60 to identify a search that generated the relevant result.