AU739409B3 - System and method for providing information to users of a communication network - Google Patents

Description

APPLICANT: CROWN IN RIGHT OF COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Cl- DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Form COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA The Patents Act 1990 PETTY PATENT SPECIFICATION FOR AN INVENTION ENTITLED: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION TO USERS OF A COMMUNICATION

NETWORK

The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: -1- "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION TO USERS OF A COMMUNICATION

NETWORK"

Technical field This invention relates to a method of and a system for providing information to users of a communication network. The invention has particular application where the communications network is a global communications network such as the Internet, and the information provides consumer protection in the context of dealings on the Internet, such as an E-commerce transaction.

The invention also relates to software for providing information to users of a communication network.

The invention has particular but not exclusive application to a method of and a system for apprising users of relevant information regarding a prospective dealing at the time the user is contemplating the dealing and before the dealing is made. The relevant information is tailored to the prospective transaction.

Background of Invention It is known to use comparison software for E-commerce to check currently displayed online prices against a range of other outlets.

It is also known to use customer feedback/seal software to assist consumers in E-commerce.

Two such software systems are Alexa (www.alexa.com) which recognises URLs and allows users to rate the URL while feeding back previous user ratings and similarly themed sites and ShopAssurred (www.webassured.com) in which a seal program recognises seal-member URLs and also allows consumer feedback.

Summary of Invention The present invention aims to provide an alternative to known methods of and systems for providing information to users of a communication network.

This invention in one aspect resides broadly in a method of providing information to a user of a communication network, the method being controlled by a program selectively installed by a user on the user's computer and including:monitoring at the user's computer the traffic flowing between the user and the network; analysing at the user's computer the traffic thus monitored in accordance with criteria related to a plurality of subject categories to assess if it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category, and providing to the user information relating to a subject category if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in the subject category.

As used herein the expression "dealing" is to be given a broad meaning and includes transactions, the making of decisions, and any other activities utilising the communications network which could result in an obligation or commitment, whether financial or not, on the user.

/In one preferred embodiment the dealing is an E-commerce transaction.

As used herein the expression "E-commerce transaction" is to be given a broad meaning and includes not only on-line purchasing per se, but also any transaction which if entered into imposes an obligation or commitment, whether financial or not, on the user.

It is preferred that the information is provided to the user substantially simultaneously with it being assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing.

It is also preferred that the traffic between the user's browser and the network is monitored.

It is also preferred that the method includes building a profile of the user's current online activity.

It is also preferred that the method includes checking the profile against a consumer information database.

It is also preferred that the information provided to the user if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category is tailored in accordance with the profile.

It is also preferred that the information provided to the user is provided as a screen based pop-up window.

It is also preferred that the criteria includes a plurality of algorithms relating to the subject categories.

It is also preferred that algorithms are based on selected key words and/or phrases and/or patterns.

In another aspect this invention resides broadly in a system for providing information to a user contemplating a dealing on a network, the system including:monitoring means for monitoring the traffic flowing between the user and the network; analysing means for analysing the traffic thus monitored in accordance with criteria related to a plurality of subject categories to assess if it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category, and information means for providing to the user information relating to a subject category if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in the subject category.

It is preferred that the information means provides the information to the user substantially simultaneously with it being assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing.

It is also preferred that the monitor means monitors the traffic between the user's browser and the network.

It is also preferred that the system includes profiling means for building a profile of the user's current online activity.

It is also preferred that the system includes checking means for checking the profile against a consumer information database.

It is also preferred that the information means provides to the user information tailored in accordance with the profile if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category.

It is also preferred that the information means includes a screen based pop-up window.

In a further aspect this invention resides broadly in a computer program embodied on a machine readable medium that provides a system as defined above for providing information to a user contemplating a dealing on a network.

Description of Drawings In order that this invention may be more easily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein:- FIG 1 is a schematic flow chart illustrating the method of the present invention; FIG 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the system of the present invention; FIGS 3 and 4 illustrate typical information displayed to a user; FIG 5 illustrates an overview of system maintenance activities; FIG 6 is a representative view of a typical administration page; FIG 7A represents a typical list of Shopping Tips which could be displayed if the user is buying books online, and FIG 7B is a representative view of a typical window seen by a user; FIGS 8A, 8B and 8C illustrate the actions available to an agent and the resultant response from the server; FIG 9 illustrates maintenance of Criteria on the server in the subject category of buying books online, and FIG 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating the testing of changes to information held at the server.

Description of Preferred Embodiment of Invention As can be seen in the schematic flow chart in FIG 1, a method in accordance with the present invention of providing information to a user contemplating a dealing on a network includes the steps of monitoring the traffic flowing between the user and the network; analysing the traffic thus monitored in accordance with criteria related to a plurality of subject categories to assess if it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category, and providing to the user information relating to a subject category if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in that subject category.

The information is provided to the user substantially simultaneously with it being assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing. The traffic between the user's browser and the network is monitored.

The method of the preferred embodiment further includes building a profile of the user's current online activity, and checking the profile against a consumer information database. If it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category, the information provided to the user is tailored in accordance with the profile and is provided as a screen based popup window.

The criteria includes a plurality of algorithms relating to the subject categories, with the algorithms being based on selected key words and/or phrases and/or patterns.

Turning to FIG 2 which is a schematic block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be seen that the system for providing information to a plurality of users 10a, lOb contemplating a dealing on a network 20 has monitoring means 11 which monitor the traffic flowing between the user and the network, preferably between the user's browser and the network.

Analysing means 12 analyses the traffic thus monitored in accordance with criteria 13 which are related to a plurality of subject categories 14a, 14b 1 4n. Analysing means 12 assesses if it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category.

Information means 15 provides to the user information 16 relating to a subject category if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in the subject category. The information is provided to the user substantially simultaneously with it being assessed that this is likely.

The system also includes profiling means 17 which builds a profile of the user's current online activity. Checking means 18 checks the profile against a consumer information database 19, and the information 16 is tailored in accordance with this profile if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category. The tailored information is provided in a screen based pop-up window.

It will be seen in the detailed description of the preferred embodiment which follows that the method and system of the present invention brings together a number of technical elements to achieve the desired functionality. The system and method utilise a PC based program that synchronises its locally held information with a central server each time it is run. This synchronisation is through checksum validation and the transfer of XML formatted data to update the locally held information.

The system uses a local adaptation of the Microsoft Layered Service Provider (LSP) technology to monitor all traffic between the user's browser and the network. The contents of web pages delivered to the browser are matched against sets of criteria. Multiple processing threads are activated to examine the content against each criteria set and, when a match occurs, a specially developed reactor module is notified to inform the user (eg through flashing an icon in the system tray).

The criteria checking uses a unique algorithm for analysing words and phrases within successive page contents to determine a match. The algorithm is based on word/phrase frequencies, thresholds and moving windows of pages to determine the relevance of the pages being viewed to categories of interest.

Operation of the system is enhanced by the inclusion of a plugin capability to enable other programs to be registered and receive information during operation. Plugin communication is handled through the Windows messaging system.

Another enhancement provided within the system is the ability to modify the presentation through the use of 'skins'. The system of the invention uses a unique XML format as the basis for its skin definition.

Criteria information used within the system is maintained on the central server through a set of Cold Fusion scripts acting on an ODBC database. An administrator uses a client program to present the criteria and other information in a tree structure, which allows the user to make local modifications and to commit any change to the server as appropriate.

Turning now to a more detailed description of one preferred embodiment of the invention:- Introduction The present invention makes available to the general public a PC application that they can download to provide them with consumer information related to purchasing on the Internet at the time when the application perceives that they may be considering such a purchase.

Outline of the system The system consists of two parts: a client application (the agent) which monitors the text contained within the user's browser and provides the opportunity to display consumer information if it detects that the user is likely to undertake a purchasing transaction; and a server application and administration client that maintains the consumer information and provides it to the agent as required.

The user can download and install the agent with an option to include it in the start-up file so that execution is started automatically whenever the user boots or logs onto their workstation.

Whenever it is first activated, the agent checks the currency of the information it holds and updates it from the server as required. If there is no current connection to the server (eg a user has not connected their modem to the Internet), the agent will 'sleep' and try again later when it detects this connection occurs.

The agent appears as an icon on the user's system tray. It uses a set of rules, or criteria, maintained at the server to determine that the user may be about to make a purchase and then flashes the icon to gain the user's attention. Relevant information will then be displayed if the user chooses to select the flashing icon.

The user is able to configure the agent so that it automatically displays information if it detects that the user is accessing a site for which there is special information available (eg alerting the user that the site has been involved in a scam).

Information to be displayed The agent is resident as an icon on the Windows system tray and indicates to the user that it has some information to display by flashing the icon. On double clicking this icon the user can see a window with three frames as outlined in FIG 3.

The user is able to click on a button in the banner area and display the general shopping checklist as illustrated in FIG 4.

A check of the currency of the Banneri General Checklist and Shopping Tips is undertaken each time the agent is loaded. The agent requests the server to return the date/time values it holds for each of these items of information. The agent checks these against those it holds and requests new versions of the information if required.

The agent always requests the most up-to-date versions of the Topical Information at the time it needs to display this.

Information required to be maintained In order to support the client application, the following information is maintained on the server: The Banner This consists of an image to display the banner. The agent superimposes a button on top of the Banner image to allow the user to display the General Checklist.

The General Checklist This is the information that is displayed if the user chooses to show the ten tips by selecting the appropriate button displayed with the Banner. This will consist of text in Rich Text format entered via the administration client (see below).

Shopping Tips A single 'page' of Shopping Tips can be displayed for each category of purchase that the user might undertake (eg buying books, CDs, etc). Each set of Shopping Tips consists of text in Rich Text format entered via the administration client (see below).

Topical Information This consists of frequently updated information that is displayed in conjunction with the Shopping Tips for a particular product category. Each 'page' of Topical Information is built from individual Topical Records. A Topical Record consists of the following fields: A text field of information to be displayed as a Topical.lnformation item.

The product category to which this item is relevant. This normally contains values such as 'books', 'cds', etc. However, a value of 'url' indicates that this item is not related to a particular product but is to be displayed if the user views a specific web site (indicated by the URL field).

An optional URL for use by the agent to indicate the availability of specific information related to the site being viewed by the user. The agent triggers the display if a page is visited at or below the level specified by the URL. Note that a value in this field is ignored unless the product category field has a value of 'url'.

A priority number that determines the placing of this item when the overall list for this product category is displayed to the user.

An agency indicator that specifies which agency 'owns' this record. Only the owning agency and authorised personnel of the Central Controller are able to amend this record.

Criteria This is the information used by the agent to determine whether a dealing, such as for example a product purchase, is likely. The criteria are described by specially formatted text (see below). There is a set of criteria associated with each product category.

Information held at the server An application developed in Cold Fusion is used to maintain the information held on the server. Much of this maintenance will be undertaken by the Central Controller. The server system will make use of at several tables, including: A table to hold the Banner image and the associated General Checklist data.

A table to hold the Shopping Tips data.

A table to hold data related to the Topical Information.

A table to hold criteria for the agent to use to detect possible purchases for each product category (there is one record in this table for each category).

Maintaininq the information on the server An administration system uses Cold Fusion to maintain information on the server. This provides authorised users (administrators) with the ability to choose the type of information to be maintained (Banner, General Checklist, Shopping Tips, Topical Information or Criteria) and the appropriate product category, to delete all the information associated with an existing product category (ie deleting the whole category) or to add a new category.

A client for the administration system is developed in Visual Basic, primarily to support the input and editing of Rich Text formats for the General Checklist and Shopping Tips. This client supports the following functions: Maintenance of the Banner and General Checklist Authorised Central Controller personnel upload new versions of the Banner image and/or update the text for the associated General Checklist. This function enables browsing of the local file system to identify the file to be uploaded to replace the existing Banner image and provide a Rich Text box for editing the currently held associated text. There is also the ability to import an existing Rich Text Format file to load contents for the General Checklist.

Maintenance of the Shopping Tips The Rich Text related to the Shopping Tips for a chosen product category is maintained by the Central Controller through the selection of the appropriate product category and the use of a text box to edit the associated text. Text associated with a new product category is entered directly into a Rich Text box within the Visual Basic administration client.

Maintenance of Topical Information Authorised Central Controller staff maintain any of the items of Topical Information.

Authorised staff from external agencies maintain only those items that relate to their agency. Users are able to select the product category that they wish to maintain and are presented with the records that they are allowed to maintain for that category. They then edit or delete the information for particular items or add new items. Each item consists of basic text (ie not Rich Text) and is entered or edited through a Visual Basic text box.

Maintenance of the criteria Authorised Central Controller staff edit the criteria for an existing product category or add criteria information for a new category.

FIG 5 provides an overview of the flow of these maintenance activities. However the actual presentation of the server administration interface is provided by the Visual Basic administration client and can differ from the diagrammatic flow outline shown in FIG A left-hand frame provides a tree menu that can be expanded or contracted in a similar manner to the directory list in the Windows file system browser. This menu allows the administrator to choose to work with the Banner, the General Checklist, any existing product categories.

If the administrator chooses to work with a particular product category they will be presented with a main frame that allows maintenance of the associated Shopping Tips, Topical Information or Criteria, or the deletion of that product category.

FIG 6 is a representative view of a typical administration page.

The administration client will handle locking of records while they are being edited and also support an appropriate timeout for inactivity against a locked record.

Access control at the server Access to the server based functions to maintain the information is strictly controlled through user-id, password and group security. Only authorised Central Controller personnel will be able to maintain all information and authorised members of external agencies will only be able to maintain Topical Information items related or 'owned' by their agency.

Administration of users of the server based system will be undertaken centrally at the Cold Fusion level.

Each user is entered as a Cold Fusion recognised user belonging to a group associated with the Central Controller or one of the external agencies. The Cold Fusion system ensures that the user is asked for the appropriate logon information (user-id and password). The server application confirms with Cold Fusion that the user is authenticated to access the application and obtains the group to which the user belongs. This group is checked to control the information that the particular user is able to maintain (all or only that applying to a particular agency).

Display of information text The agent is developed in Visual Basic and uses Rich Text aware control for the display of information such as the General Checklist, Shopping Tips and Topical Info. Use of these controls means that appropriate formatting is required to achieve a look and feel beyond just the display of text (eg to get headings, lists of dot-points, etc).

FIG 7A represents a typical list of Shopping Tips which could be displayed if the user is buying books online, and FIG 7B is a representative view of a typical window seen by a user.

Note that any text of the form http:// occurring in the General Checklist, Shopping Tips or Topical Info is automatically included as a hyperlink. The user's default browser will be launched to display the appropriate web page if the user clicks on such a hyperlink.

Communication between the agent and the server The agent communicates with the server through normal HTTP requests that invoke an appropriate Cold Fusion script. The server only sends information to the agent as a result of a request. The diagrams of FIG 8 provide an overview of the protocols by the agent and the resultant response by the server.

Agent functions When the agent is first loaded it displays a splash screen and then resides as an icon in the Windows system tray. If a trigger is detected (ie it determines that a relevant purchase is about to be made) it flashes and a double-click results in the relevant information being displayed as previously described. A context sensitive menu is displayed if the user right-clicks on the icon. This menu includes the following options: Open Opens the agent for viewing.

Options Provides a set of options for the user to influence the way the agent operates.

About Displays an About Box describing the agent.

Plug-Ins Options Displays a Plug-Ins options window.

Help Launches the user's default browser to display HTML formatted help pages that are shipped with the agent application.

Exit Closes the agent program.

The following Options are available to the user: Set Proxy This allows the user to specify a proxy server that the agent will need to know about to communicate with the server. The Agent will attempt to ascertain the existing proxy automatically and use this if possible.

Appearance This allows the user to set formatting options including specific sound and icon files.

Reaction This allows the user to specify how the agent will react when it detects a trigger. For example: flash in the system tray whenever anything of potential interest is detected; automatically pop-up relevant information if the user goes to a page that corresponds to a URL specified in the Topical Information (a site warning); always automatically pop-up relevant information without the user having to double-click the icon.

The agent has at least three icons that may be displayed on the system tray to indicate: the agent is at rest; the agent has something to show related to a product category; the agent has detected a site warning.

The user is able to change the graphics used for each of these icons and to choose particular sound files to be invoked when the agent signifies that relevant consumer information is available or when a known URL is accessed by the user's browser.

The user is also able to select a particular 'skin' for the agent display. To support this facility, the display of the agent is limited to two fixed sizes (the user can switch between these sizes as required). Each skin is available as graphics for these two sizes.

In addition to the structure of the agent for displaying consumer information (outlined previously), the user is also able to invoke some 'personal organiser' functions, through side tabs, as follows: Saving email addresses This allows the user to enter (eg through a copy and paste) an email address along with a title (eg the name of the organisation or a general title such as 'Complain about an Insurance Company') and short description or associated note. The user is able to save this information and later obtain a list of all saved email addresses. Selection of an email address launches the user's default email system with the appropriate address. The user is also able to delete selected email addresses that have been previously saved.

Bookmarks In a similar manner to email addresses, the user is able to enter and save a URL along with a title and a note. A list of all saved URLs is available, from which the user can make a selection to launch their default web browser with the appropriate URL. The user is also able to delete selected bookmarks that have been previously saved.

Notepad This enables the user to enter and save a text note, along with a suitable title, for later retrieval. The user is able to delete selected notes that have been previously saved.

The agent also supports the development and installation of simple third-party plugins.

The plugins need to follow specific rules regarding their installation (eg under a sub-directory within the agent's plugin directory, along with information about the way in which it is to be started by the agent such as the name of the program to be started).

The agent also notifies plugins of various functions and informs all plugins when it is shutting down so that they can also shut down at the same time. The plugins largely operate as separate applications that are started and stopped along with the agent and are provided with some basic notifications.

Criteria to be used by the agent The agent needs to use a set of criteria to determine whether the user is likely to be about to make a purchase within a known product category. The system is developed so that these criteria can be modified at the server (by the Central Controller) and the agent picks up the latest version for each product category when the agent is loaded.

The Criteria for each product category are stored by the server and communicated to the agent. It consists of four parts as follows: Threshold The agent accumulates scores for each page using the criteria described below. If this accumulated score goes above the Threshold the agent considers that the user is about to make a purchase relevant to this product category.

Page Window The scores for each page examined by the agent will be accumulated across the number of pages specified by the Page Window. For example, if Page Window is 3, the accumulated score reflects the scores from the current and the previous two pages. In this way the accumulated scores for each product category rise and fall as pages are examined. If the combined scores exceed the specified Threshold a trigger will occur for that product category.

Key words or phrases This is a list of words and phrases and the scores that are associated with each.

Examples could be: books 8 cart 13 shopping cart etc The agent adds the associated score whenever it detects that a specified word or phrase occurs within the page being examined.

Patterns This provides a multiplier for the scores for any key word or phrase that is found between the specified patterns. This enables more emphasis to be placed on the occurrence of the key words or phrases within particular parts of the page.

For example, 1.5 indicates that words or phrases found within Level 1 Headings would score 11/2 times their specified score.

2 indicates that words or phrases found within metadata tags would score twice their specified score.

Note that the sequence of three dots is used to indicate the text that occurs between the start and end patterns.

The Visual Basic administration client supports the maintenance of the Criteria on the server as outlined in FIG 9.

Testing of changes to the information held at the server Unless special provisions are made, changes to the information held at the server are immediately available for use by all agents. This provides a risk of inadvertent changes or problems to occur through there not being an opportunity to properly test changes to information before they are made available to agents.

To help alleviate this risk, any changes made to the Banner, General Checklist, Shopping Tips or Criteria are only able to be made on 'test' versions of the relevant database tables. A special facility is available to the Central Controller to modify their copy of the agent program to refer to the test tables instead of the normal production tables.

The agent as shipped normally invokes copies of the Cold Fusion scripts that act on the production database tables. However, it will be possible to 'point' the agent at alternative scripts by specifying the appropriate command line argument. This will enable Central Controller staff to invoke the agent so that it refers to the test tables rather than the production tables. This allows changes made to the Banner, General Checklist, Shopping Tips or Criteria to be tested before being made available in production.

An option is provided to Central Controller staff only, to migrate the information from the test tables to the production tables or to copy the production tables back onto the test tables. This is illustrated in FIG A lock is set during a migration to production to prevent any Banner, General Checklist, Shopping Tips or Criteria information being sent from the server to agents while the migration is underway. This prevents partial information being sent to agents. The server sends a 'TryAgain' response to the agent in this circumstance. The agent waits for sometime before requesting the information again from the server.

Security considerations The system incorporates appropriate security features.

It will be appreciated that the present invention has a number of advantages. It provides consumer software that delivers information to consumers relevant to what they are viewing on the Internet. For example, the invention can detect when a consumer is about to buy a book and deliver relevant consumer information about that type of purchase.

The invention intelligently monitors Internet traffic to the user's browser and builds a profile of what the consumer is doing. It then checks this profile against a database of consumer information and tailors a package of information relevant to the profile. This is then transmitted to the consumer in a pop-up window on their desktop.

It will be appreciated that the invention sets a balance between establishing standards for consumer protection and not impeding the growth of e-commerce. It provides an innovative response to delivering information to consumers engaging in e-commerce. Information is one of the key pillars of consumer sovereignty but unfortunately, consumers do not always seek out information that can help them. This can be due to laziness in seeking out information, confusion on where to find information or an inability to navigate information to find the advice that is relevant to their circumstances.

The present invention greatly facilitates the dissemination of consumer information by supplying information to the consumer in the marketplace when they need it and in a format that is relevant to their circumstances. The invention detects when a consumer may need information, assembles specific information and delivers it immediately to the consumer before critical decisions are taken.

The invention is freely available for consumers to download from a Web site.

It is possible to change the graphic look of information provided by the invention and to add new functionality through software plug-ins.

16 A number of security measures prevent external tampering and misuse of data. Additional checksum routines ensure that the system of the invention always monitors the data it transmits to ensure it is accurately sourced from the database.

It will of course be realised that whilst the above has been given by way of an illustrative example of this invention, all such and other modifications and variations hereto, as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art, are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as is herein set forth.

Claims (3)

1. A method of providing information to a user of a communication network, said method being controlled by a program selectively installed by a user on the user's computer and including:- monitoring at the user's computer the traffic flowing between the user and the network; analysing at the user's computer the traffic thus monitored in accordance with criteria related to a plurality of subject categories to assess if it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in a subject category, and providing to the user information relating to a subject category if it is assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing in said subject category.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information is provided to the user substantially simultaneously with it being assessed that it is likely that the user is contemplating a dealing.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the traffic between a browser on the user's computer and the network is monitored..