FI113098B - Procedures and systems for billing services delivered through a computer network - Google Patents

Description

113098

A method and system for billing services provided over a data network

The invention relates generally to services provided over a data network. In particular, the invention relates to the billing of such services.

A portal is technically a collection of links to various web site servers, each with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Some of the services related to the portal may be provided by the company that owns the portal, but typically at least some of the services are provided and maintained by different partners. Services provided by partners 10 may reside on their own servers. The portal site has a link to the service URL. The users of the services included in the portal are customers of the portal. Typically, the portal collects billing information and charges the cost of used services from its customers.

In most services, the user will only get the value they want after several steps, for example, after entering the Search Parameters or a set of choices in the menu structure of the partner site. The point at which a user obtains information of the desired value is typically different from the affiliate service landing page. Typically, a portal page will include a link to a partner landing page, whereby a user coming from the portal to the partner site "; 20 will arrive at the landing page.

: · Figure 1 shows schematically an example of services related to the portal and; · · Their delivery to the user. The user downloads 101 portal pages to his or her computer. 110 from the portal server 102 where the portal is located. Local copy of the portal page, ·. 110 'is stored on the user's computer, and when the user selects one of the URLs of the portal page, the computer typically sends information about the selected URL. to the portal server 102 (arrow 1 in Figure 1). Portal server 102 typically returns to computer 101 the URL of the service to which link 111 points (arrow 2 in Figure 1). In Figure 1, URL 111 points to the partner landing page 120, whereby computer 101 downloads the landing page from the partner server 103 (arrow 3 in Figure 1). After this step, the portal server 103 does not know which pages the user is selecting. For example, on page 120, the user can select a URL 121 pointing to page 130 and page 130 selecting a URL 131 which in turn points to page 140. The information contained on pages 130 and 140 is typically sent to computer 101 from portal server 103 (arrow 3 in Figure 1). ).

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One of the sources of income for the portal is the price the user pays for the services related to the portal. When a user enters a paid URL, there is a so-called. transaction whereby the user is billed for the service. The URLs that the user has to pay for are called transaction points. Typically, once a user goes to a partner's site, he or she is no longer inside the portal and the portal is unable to monitor his or her activities. This means that URLs within a partner's website, after the landing page (i.e., the arrival point), cannot be set up as transaction points to charge the user's account. Referring to Figure 1, the URL 111 of portal page 110 can be set as a transaction point because the portal receives information (arrow 1) when the user selects this URL. Partner-side URLs 121 and 131 cannot be set as transaction points.

If a partner site's entry point (for example, URL 111 in Figure 1) is used as a transaction point, the user will be billed even if he or she may not have received the desired service. In most services, a partner's homepage is just a menu page that contains different categories: for example, in a typical news service, they could be "Main News Headlines", "Sports" and "From Abroad". These categories usually have headlines, and behind each headline is the actual news story the user is looking for. In order to read the news, in these 20 examples the user will have to go through several different links and only after the last link will they get the information they are looking for, ready to pay. In Figure 1, the actual information the user is looking for could be, for example, page 140. If the transaction point is' '': URL 111, the user would be billed on arrival at front page 120 - as if he had had the opportunity to read any news on pages 130 and 140. .

«* *» «:" ': 25 In the system shown in Figure 1, the transaction point at which the user's account is charged (I l. ··. Must be set to URL 111 which links to the affiliate service portal. Separate billing for each page hierarchy of the affiliate site. ,, ,: The page is not possible.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method, system and application program for billing services provided through a port. A further object of the invention is to provide a method, system and application program in which the prices of the services provided through the portal are presented to the user, the prices of the services can be easily updated and if necessary the prices of the services are user-specific.

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The objects of the invention are achieved by providing partner pages to the user through a proxy controlled by the portal and by adding price information to the links on the partner pages before submitting the pages to the user.

The method of the invention is a method of billing services comprising the steps of: - receiving a service request request identifying a service, - retrieving information describing the service from a separate server, - modifying the information to provide the changed information, and - providing the changed information to the sender of the service request; and characterized by further comprising the steps of: - determining a set of paid services, - determining the price of the paid service, - if the service is a paid service, storing billing information related to the service upon receipt of the service request, and 15 - examining , and - determining the prices of other services, and that the step of changing the information describing the service comprises the steps of: - including the prices of other services in the information describing the service, and amaan 20 local services.

The invention further relates to a portal system comprising .. 1: '- means for receiving a service unique request for a service,.,; \' - means for retrieving information describing a service from a separate server, , and: '': 25 - Means of providing modified information to the requesting party, and II i. '. characterized by the fact that it also comprises: - means for defining a range of paid services,. - means for determining the price of the paid services, ... means for storing billing information related to the paid services, which are arranged to store the billing information upon receipt of the service request. : after, i - tools to find out if information contains links to other paid services, '. and other services, '. means for including prices for other services in the service description, 35 and 4 113098 means for changing links in the service information to point to local services.

The invention also relates to a computer program comprising computer program coding means arranged to perform all the steps of the method of the invention when executing said program on a computer.

In the method of the invention, after the user enters the partner site (s) through the portal page, the partner site (s) is provided to the user through a proxy server. For example, each page that a user visits to a partner server is searched for on a portal server. After a page is searched, each link on the page is converted to a local URL pointing to it, such as a URL on a portal server. The links on the partner page are treated as referring to the partner service pages retrieved from the partner server to the portal server. This will give each affiliate page a new 15 local URLs. This is not visible to the user. Once the page has been processed, it is delivered to the user from the portal server.

The method of the invention defines a certain set of paid pages / services. This set includes the services / pages the user is expected to pay for. Prices are charged for these paid services. The list of paid services and their prices may be stored, for example, in a pricing system; · Into the database. Each time a user requests a specific page on a partner's page *: · true, the page is reviewed and, if there is a link to a paid page, a .price information is added to the page. Since the portal typically knows the identity of the user, it is possible,. ·· that the prices of the pages are user-specific. For example, discounts may be given to a particular user or group of users 25. In addition, because service prices * · are typically requested online from a portal pricing system, the invention. method allows, for example, that during a campaign a given - i h | affiliate services are priced differently than normal. This can be done without any changes to the affiliate services.

; 30 The page provided to the user shows the prices of the paid services to which the page contains links. The user will see how much the service will cost, i.e. how much the user will be charged when he or she clicks the link. When the user clicks the link, the page is fetched from the partner server and delivered to the user through a proxy server. The cost of the service will be added to the user account when the user tapes the paid service link. Alternatively, the price of the service may be added to the user account after the modified page has been delivered to the user.

With the method of the invention, it is possible to place transaction points (i.e., points at which the user account is charged) on any of the links on the affiliate site. This allows for very flexible pricing for the partner service. The user pays only for the pages he is interested in. This contributes to customer friendliness and the pricing strategy of the portal: the user only has to pay when he gets what he wants, and the portal can price services in small increments and implement genuine service-specific pricing.

In addition, the link price may be displayed to the user along with the link that charges the user account. This is desirable as the service provider has a responsibility to communicate the price of the service to the consumer and also promotes the usability of the service: The authorities require that prices are visible and separate pages for informing consumers 15 make the use of the portal inconvenient.

In addition, this system has the advantage of enabling partners to maintain their service locally without compromising on user-friendliness and functionalities of billing. This greatly simplifies maintenance and management. In addition, it helps to make the affiliate service user-friendly. :: 20 reasons and client-specific modifications - The proxy modifier module can ··· use the portal client database information to modify the client service ·: · on a per-client basis without the inconvenience of transferring information between the portal and the partners,:: between platforms.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to preferred direct embodiments; Figure 1 schematically illustrates an example of a prior art system comprising a portal server and a partner server, Figure 2 schematically illustrates a portal system according to the invention, and: 30 Figure 3 shows a flow chart of a method according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows an example of a portal system according to the invention. In Figure 2, the portal system 200 is part of the portal server 102, but portions of the portal system 200 may also be located on separate hosts, typically controlled by the stepless owner. The portal system 200 comprises a portal application 201 which is responsible for the functions of the portal service, such as registering the users and providing the staged main page and other staged pages to the user. Further, it 5 comprises a pricing system 202, a pricing database 203, a billing system 204, and a billing database 205. The pricing system 202 is used for pricing URLs that refer to services provided by partners or locally on a staircase or staged. The billing system 204 maintains a user account for user transactions and similar prices on partner and cascading pages. Pricing system 202, billing system 204, and associated databases, for example, may reside on different host computers than other port system 200.

The proxy module 206 in the portal system of the invention is responsible for the basic functions of a proxy: receiving service requests from users, retrieving 15 pages from partner servers, storing pages locally to the staging server, and submitting pages to users after the pages have been modified. In addition, Proxy Module 206 is responsible for adding prices to the paid services to which the pages fetched from the affiliate site link. The proxy module 206 is coupled to the stepless pricing system 202 and the billing system 204. In the portal system according to the invention. , the pricing system 202 is able to receive and respond to a price request from the proxy module 206 and the billing system 204 is able to receive billing information from the stepless proxy module 206.

• · # *: ·: The proxy module 206 typically includes a link editor 207 and a price editor 25 208. Link editor 207 is responsible for modifying

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local links as described above. Price editor 208 searches for links to paid services, typically queries the pricing system 202 for the price of the paid service, and then adds the price of the service, for example, to the end of Tonk for the service. Proxy module 206 may also check; For example, when receiving a service request from a user, whether the service requested is chargeable, and recording the price of the service or other transaction logging system 204. When a user clicks on a link to a paid service, the service request may include the price of the service. may also be entered in the billing system 204.

The proxy module 206 according to the invention is typically implemented programmatically and is located on a portal server. Similarly, portal application 201, pricing system 113098, and billing system 204 are typically also software-implemented.

Figure 3 is a flow chart of the method 300 of the invention. In this method, a service request is received (step 301), and the requested service is retrieved in step 530 from a separate server, unless it is already located on the local server. If the user is expected to pay for the service requested, the accounting information may be stored at step 302. The accounting information may also be stored at a later stage of method 300. The requested service is typically a web page or other entity identified by a URL, the service request typically 10 comprises a URL, and the information describing the service is typically an HTML document (HyperText Markup Language).

Step 304 checks whether information describing the requested service contains links to other services. Step 305 checks whether any of the other services are chargeable and, if so, charges for them, at step 306. 15 Typically, prices are requested from a database or pricing system. In step 307, the prices of other services are added to the information describing the requested service. Prices can be added, for example, to an HTML document so that they appear near links to other services mentioned. This allows the user to easily notice the price information. In the case shown in Fig. 1, the prices may be placed so that when the user views pages 120 and 130 on the computer 100 screen, the prices are displayed next to the links 121 and 131.

In step 308, any links pointing to other services are converted to pointing to local services, i.e.. they will be converted to local URLs. This- ♦ ».., which means that when a user clicks on the converted links, on their computer-! '' 25 I am running a browser does not retrieve pages directly from a partner server '···' us 103. The local URL means that computer 101 retrieves the service as a proxy server from a competent portal server 102, which proxy knows which external service the local URL is associated The portal proxy server either retrieves the external service from the partner server 103; 30 (in which case it also handles the service according to steps 304-308 before submitting it to the user) or if the service already exists for the proxy server • · stored local copy, it can deliver the local copy to the user.

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For example, in step 309, the modified web page is provided to the user. The prices associated with the links on the page are shown on the page. When a user clicks on one of these 35 links, his computer sends a service request to the portal proxy server (as described in the previous paragraph) and the method restarts from step 301.

In step 301, the received service request may be, for example, a service request indicating a user's attempt to access a partner site from the main page of the portal. Once a user arrives at a partner site from the portal, all pages can be delivered to him or her using method 300. When a user clicks on a link on an affiliate site, the method begins at step 301.

It will be apparent to one skilled in the art having read the foregoing description that various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention. Although a particular portal system 200 and method 300 according to the invention have been described in detail, it is clear that many variations and variations can be made, all of which are within the scope of the invention.

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Claims (8)

9 113098 A method (300) for billing services, comprising the steps of: - receiving (301) a service request request identifying a service, - retrieving (303) from a separate server information describing the service, 5. modifying the information to produce the modified information, and 309) modified information for the service requesting entity, characterized in that it further comprises the steps of: - defining a set of paid services, - determining the prices of the paid services, 10 - if the service is a paid service, storing (302) the billing information associated with the service; and - determining (305) whether the information includes links to other paid services, and - determining (306) the prices of said other services, and the step of modifying the service description information comprising the steps of: 15. including (307) pricing for other services in the service description information; modifying (308) service ku links to hard information to point to local services. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises the step of determining the user associated with the service request and that the prices of said other services are user-specific. 3. Förfarande enligt patentkrav 1, kännetecknat av att prisema för de nämnda övriga tjänstema hämtas frän en lokal databas. 10 4. Förfarande enligt patentkrav 1, kännetecknat av att det dessutom omfattar steg i litter: - en användare som annyter account tjänstbegäran bestäms, - användarspecifik modifieringsinformation som annyter sig account användaren bestäms, och 15.en användarspecifika modifieringsinformationen. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the prices of said - · other services are retrieved from a local database. ... 4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that it is additionally a * ';; 'Performs the steps of:' .. * 25 - defining a user associated with the service request, - defining user-specific modification information, and: - before submitting the modified information, modifying the information according to the user-specific modification information. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the service in use is a web page and links to other services are URLs. 5. Förfarande enligt patentkrav 1, kännetecknat av att den rädande tjänsten är en webbsida och Link Account with tjänster ur URLresser. 6. The HTML document of the Förfarande enligt patentkrav 5, kännetecknat av att den information som be-20 skriver tjänsten. I> »•: i 7. Portalsystem, flashes omfattar:: '': - organ för mottagning av en tjänstbegäran som personifierar en tjänst, • * * - organ för att hämta information som - beskriver tjänsten frän en separat server, - organ för att omvandla Informationen account en omvandlad information, och 25. organ för att leverera den omvandlade Informationen account sändaren av begäran, • · kännetecknat av att det dessutom omfattar: •; · '- organ (203) för att definiera en playd avgiftsbelagda tjänster,>, - - organ (203) för att definiera prema d'en avgiftsbelagda tjänstema,:': - organ (205) för att lagra factureringsinformation som annyter sig account de avgifts - '. t 30 belagda tjänstema, lively organ har anordnats att lagra fakureringsinformationen ef- ', ter mottagandet av tjänstbegäran, - organ (208) för att undersöka huruvida this information includerar linkar account avgiftsbelagda tjänster, och för attäm 113098 - organ (208) för att inclusera prisema för de nämnda övriga tjänstema i den information som beskriver tjänsten, och - organ (207) för att omvandla de linkar som inderar information som beskriver tjänsten account att indicatorera local tjänster. A method according to claim 5, characterized in that the information describing the service is an HTML document. ίο 113098 7. A portal system comprising: means for receiving a service request unique to the service, means for retrieving information describing the service from a separate server, means for changing the information to produce the changed information, and 5. means for delivering the changed information to the sender of the service request. - means (203) for determining a set of paid services, - means (203) for determining charges for paid services, means (205) for storing billing information relating to a paid service 10, arranged to store billing information after receiving a service request, - means (208) for examining it; whether said information includes links to other paid services, and for determining the prices of said other services, - means (208) for including prices of said other services in a path illustrating the service 15; and means (207) for changing links in the service description information to point to local services. A computer program characterized in that it comprises computer program code means arranged to perform all the steps of one of the methods defined in any one of claims 1 to 6 when executing said program on a computer. • »*> t · • M t ,, '· * 1. Förfarande (300) förakturering av tjänster, omfattande steg i vilka: •;": - en tjänstbegäran som personifierar en tjänst mottages (301), - information som beskriver tjänsten hämtas (303) frän en separat server, 25. Information omvandlas account en omvandlad information, och - den omvandlade Informationen levereras (309) account sändaren av tjänstbegäran,.> kännetecknat av att det dessutom omfattar steg i vilka: '.! - en games avgiftsbelagda tjänster definieras, - prema della avgiftsbelagda tjänstema definieras, 30. om tjänsten & en avgiftsbelagd tjänst lagras (302) factureringsinformation som: annyter sig account tjänsten efter mottagandet av tjänstbegäran, och bestam ". tjänster, och - bestäms (306) prema för de nämnda övriga tjänstema, 35 och att steget för omvandling av den information som beskriver tjänsten omfattar understeg i stops: π 113098 - prema för de övriga tjänstema inkluderas (307esk i den) , och - de linkar som indicator information som beskriver tjänsten omvandlas (308) account att indicatorera local tjänster. 5 2. Förfarande enligt patentkrav 1, kännetecknat av att det dessutom omfattar et steg i flashing en användare bestäms som annyter sig account tjänstbegäran, och att prisema förnd tjänster är användarsspecika. 8. Computer program, kännetecknat av att det omfattar computer programkodorganis, dragged the computer program steg enligt förfarandet on face av patentkraven 1-6 da these programs on the computer. »I t> · * I». · · • · i «t <n {• · • * ·« «• t • · 'i ft • ft