WO2001035315A2 - Systeme d'indication de resultats d'une gestion en ligne - Google Patents

Systeme d'indication de resultats d'une gestion en ligne Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2001035315A2
WO2001035315A2 PCT/US2000/042029 US0042029W WO0135315A2 WO 2001035315 A2 WO2001035315 A2 WO 2001035315A2 US 0042029 W US0042029 W US 0042029W WO 0135315 A2 WO0135315 A2 WO 0135315A2
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
site
status
merchant
information
recited
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2000/042029
Other languages
English (en)
Other versions
WO2001035315A3 (fr
Inventor
Travis A. Morgan
Scott Jones
Theodore R. Schenberg
Original Assignee
Webassured.Com
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Webassured.Com filed Critical Webassured.Com
Priority to AU32684/01A priority Critical patent/AU3268401A/en
Publication of WO2001035315A2 publication Critical patent/WO2001035315A2/fr
Publication of WO2001035315A3 publication Critical patent/WO2001035315A3/fr

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
    • G06F16/957—Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Definitions

  • the present invention is directed to a system for informing on-line purchasers concerning the business record of e-commerce merchants and, more particularly, to a system that immediately informs on-line buyers as to the business record status of an on-line vendor.
  • Some such systems will refund rrjoney directly to a consumer when a transaction is not consummated, if the on-line merchant is a member of the system's customer protection group. Even with the existence of such watch-dog systems, when browsing the Internet, it is difficult to obtain any timely and meaningful information about the background and legitimacy of the owner of any given web-site.
  • the visual design of a web-site may or may not bear any reflection on the underlying company's (or person's) character, physical location, business experience, or intentions.
  • What is needed is a system, independent of merchant websites, that will inform an on-line shopper of the status of a merchant's e- commerce business record when the shopper accesses the merchant's website.
  • a further object of the present invention is to persuade vendors using an e-commerce network, such as, the Internet, to employ the highest standards of ethics and customer service to maintain a favorable reliability rating.
  • the above objects can be attained by a system that loads independently provided status information about the business record of a web-site into a browser each time a customer browses a merchant's website.
  • the status information is obtained by sending a query to an independent on-line database using the universal resource locator (URL) of the merchant as the search term.
  • the status information returned based on the query indicates whether the merchant has a good record with respect to completing e-commerce transactions.
  • the browser is provided with an icon or button which indicates the business record status and which can be used to link additional information about the merchant describing the bases for the status.
  • Figure 1 illustrates a system according to the present invention.
  • Figure 2 depicts operations with a customer's browser.
  • Figure 3 shows operations performed at a web assurance database site.
  • Figure 4 depicts button appearances based on site conditions.
  • the present invention provides Internet users an immediate independent indication of a web-site's business record including it's authenticity, integrity and background.
  • One part of the invention which can be stored in and distributed using a computer readable storage or via the Internet, functions as an application plug-in (or applet) 8 (see figure 1) to a standard browser application 10 and is presented to the user as an integral part of the browser 10.
  • the plug-in When the plug-in is loaded it also includes a fixed query link which provides an Internet address of a web assurance company web site, as will be discussed in more detail below.
  • the plug-in also includes a hyperlink which is initially set to a generic page of the web assurance company site but which dynamically changes as will also be discussed in more detail later.
  • Another part of the invention which can also be stored in a computer readable storage or distributed via the Internet, resides at an independent web assurance site and provides the applet 8 with information about the site being visited by the user.
  • the present invention works as follows (see figure 1). Each time a vendor web-site 12 located on a merchant's computer 14 (or another computer on behalf of the merchant) is loaded over a network 16 by a user's browser 10 on a user's computer 20, a query is made using the website universal resource locator (URL) 22 via the network 16 to a merchant assurance database 24, on a web assurance company's computer 26, such as that maintained by WebAssured.com. The query is made to the site identified by the fixed query link loaded via the applet 8.
  • URL website universal resource locator
  • the query is used to search the database 24 for data related to the web address (URL) of the site 12 being loaded. Based on the results of this query, one of a number of status conditions 28 is, returned to the user's browser 10, and a dynamic hyperlink 29 is established to a corresponding detailed information database entry 32 using a button or control icon 30 associated with the web assurance company.
  • the button or control 30 appears in the browser's application's toolbar and immediately visually conveys the condition 28 to the user or customer, discussed in more detail below, as indicated by the database 24. For example, if the site 12 being viewed is on a watch-list (companies identified as being unscrupulous), the button 30 may appear as a red flag or other indicator, indicating that a high degree of caution should be used when purchasing from this vendor.
  • the user can click directly on this icon or control 30 and, using the hyperlink 29, link to the detailed information 32 about the merchant, such as, a business background report, maintained by the on-line database 24 of the web assurance web-site 34.
  • This report can detail or describe why the site 12 has been "red flagged. " If the site 12 in question is a member in good standing of the web assurance company, the flag of the icon 30 would preferably appear as green although another way of indicating the good standing status, such as text or a special seal could be used. If the site is not a member, the flag would preferably appear as white. Additional conditions also preferably include yellow, for a member with some outstanding complaints, or for an expired member, and so on. Green flags also can include a "valid through" date similar to the current certification seal provided by companies, such as WebAssured.com, along with an indication of the level of coverage offer by the web assurance company's on-line purchase protection program.
  • the present invention includes business record conditions that can be provided from the database 24 to the browser 10 and change the appearance of the icon 30.
  • These conditions preferably include: Condition Meaning Icon Appearance Hyperlink
  • GS indicates the vendor is a member in good standing
  • OC indicates that outstanding complaints exist for this merchant
  • BBR indicates that the link is to a business background report.
  • the end result is that consumers using a browser enabled with the present invention have a continuous independent verification of the character of the site they are viewing.
  • the condition indicated by the icon 30 allows consumers to make immediate buying judgements aided by the "recommendation" of a trusted independent third party.
  • a green flag tells the user that any purchase made from this site is guaranteed by the web assurance company, while a red flag indicates that the web assurance company has accumulated information which should deter the user from making a purchase from the site.
  • the present invention will help increase acceptance of the
  • Internet as a medium for conducting commerce, and will further enhance the efficacy of web assurance services as a self-policing mechanism.
  • Internet web-sites whether members of a web assurance company or not, will be strongly motivated to maintain the highest possible standards of customer service when they know that any misconduct will be immediately recognized by all users of the present invention.
  • the operations of the portion of the present invention application running within or under the browser 10 include detecting 42 that the user's computer 20 has loaded a page of a new web-site into the browser 8.
  • the URL of the site is loaded into a buffer, ⁇ ommonly implemented as a file, that lists the most recent web-sites visited.
  • the system obtains 44 the URL of the loaded site from the buffer and sends 46 a query to the database 24 using the URL as a search term where the address of the web assurance database site loaded with the applet 8 is used as the address of the query.
  • the system sets 50 the icon condition to the default value.
  • the system sets 52 the icon condition to that returned by the query.
  • the assurance company computer 26 the query is received
  • the URL supplied with the query can be a number of characters long, many of which identify the particular page that the user is viewing.
  • the computer 26 strips the unnecessary information from the query to identify the root of the merchant site and it is this root that is used to identify the status information for the site.
  • a number of different techniques can be used to identify the root, such as deleting lower level descriptors of the URL until a match to a database entry occurs or nothing remains of the URL, which indicates that there is no match within the database.
  • a condition of "0" corresponding to the merchant not being found is returned 66 along with a hyperlink to a generic page of the web assurance company web-site 34.
  • the generic page can describe the assurance company benefits provided to consumers when merchants are members and typically also indicates that the company has no information about the particular company having the URL. Otherwise, the condition corresponding to the URL is returned 68, along with a hyperlink corresponding to specific information about the merchant having that URL, When the hyperlink returned by a query is used to access the specific information about a merchant, that is, when the user "clicks on" the " button 30, the specific information is accessed, via a conventional browser page request which uses the hyperlink.
  • the specific information in addition to a business background report, includes; telephone numbers and/or addresses of the owners of the specific URL; credit ratings for B2B transactions, an indicator of the type of site content, a content rating like G, PG, R, or X; links to other similar "sites of interest" based on the context of the viewed site (for example, if the site being viewed is a gardening merchant site, the links could be to other gardening information sites); and other commerce related sites associated with the merchant, such as a bank that can issue a credit card to the user, a digital wallet provider, a virtual cash site where the user can obtain "cash" to use in e-commerce transactions with this merchant.
  • Figure 4 shows examples of what a browser 10 having the icon or button 30 would preferably look like, for the conditions particularly discussed above.
  • the browser 10 in addition to displaying the icon 30, also displays the contents (not shown in this figure) of the web-site 12 being browsed by the customer.
  • the icon 30 indicates that there is no information on the site being accessed by the user.
  • the icon indicates that the site is a member site and indicates that an amount ($200.00) in product coverage is provided for this site when an order is not consummated in accordance with the criteria promoted by the seller.
  • Condition "2" indicates that the site is a member but caution is warranted.
  • a non-member site receives a "3 " condition and a text indication of this non-member status.
  • a "4" condition results in the icon text indicating that the site is watch listed.
  • An alternative embodiment of the present invention uses standard browser frame technology whereby the icon or button 30 is located in a browser frame rather than appearing in the browser's toolbar. In this situation, users would set the home page of their browser to a frame URL maintained on the web assurance company's server 26 (or would surf to the frame site), and all merchant sites would be viewed through this frame.
  • a vendor web-site 12 located on a merchant's computer 14 (or another computer on behalf of the merchant) is loaded over a network 16 by a user's browser 10 on a user's computer 20, it is loaded within the frame rather than in a new browser page. That is, the merchant's page passes through the server 26 of the web assurance company.
  • the icon status is updated using the merchant URL and the database 24, as previously discussed. The specific information on the merchant is obtained by accessing the hyperlink using the icon.
  • buttons or icons can be provided, for example, that: convey whether a business had been reviewed by the EPA and deemed environmentally friendly; indicate whether a business uses animal testing or other product testing performed to develop it's products; disclose whether a companies privacy policy is adequate and/or satisfies a standard; indicate whether the site security and/or encryption protocols follow a standard; and provide the actual name of the business or individual who owned a particular URL.
  • These icons are implemented by the query accessing the database for status information on each of the subjects and returning the status as well as hyperlink to specific database information about the merchant and the subject using the same logic as previously described.
  • the present invention has been described with respect to notifying the user of the status of the site being visited using the icon and related additional information. It is possible to use other notification mechanisms such as a screen flash or color change or audio feedback that indicates the site is a watch listed site or with a screen notification or audio feedback that the business is one in good standing.
  • the system provides the user access to the more specific information about the site being visited when the hyper link is used to access the information.
  • the applet could instead open a side window in the browser where the more specific information could be displayed simultaneously with the surfing of the merchant web sites.
  • the specific information could also include audio or video feedback of complaints received about a web site by the web assurance company that could be streamed to the user.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
  • Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
  • Finance (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
  • Development Economics (AREA)
  • Economics (AREA)
  • Marketing (AREA)
  • Strategic Management (AREA)
  • General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)
  • Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un système d'enregistrement de gestion commerciale électronique chargeant des informations d'état relatives à l'enregistrement de gestion d'un site Web dans un navigateur d'un client chaque fois que le client balaye un site Web commercial. L'information d'état est obtenue en envoyant une demande à une base de données en ligne, en utilisant le système universel de localisation des ressources (URL) comme terme de recherche. L'information d'état ou de condition indique l'enregistrement commercial par rapport à l'achèvement des transactions commerciales électroniques. L'information en retour de la recherche comprend également une hyperliaison à l'information de gestion supplémentaire concernant le site. L'information supplémentaire indique pourquoi le site présente un état particulier. Le navigateur comporte une icône ou un bouton qui indique l'état et qui peut être utilisé pour l'hyperliaison à l'information commerciale supplémentaire.
PCT/US2000/042029 1999-11-12 2000-11-09 Systeme d'indication de resultats d'une gestion en ligne WO2001035315A2 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU32684/01A AU3268401A (en) 1999-11-12 2000-11-09 An on-line business performance indication system

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US43898599A 1999-11-12 1999-11-12
US09/438,985 1999-11-12

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2001035315A2 true WO2001035315A2 (fr) 2001-05-17
WO2001035315A3 WO2001035315A3 (fr) 2002-05-02

Family

ID=23742817

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/US2000/042029 WO2001035315A2 (fr) 1999-11-12 2000-11-09 Systeme d'indication de resultats d'une gestion en ligne

Country Status (2)

Country Link
AU (1) AU3268401A (fr)
WO (1) WO2001035315A2 (fr)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN102456056A (zh) * 2010-11-01 2012-05-16 阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司 一种信息输出方法和装置
US10066948B2 (en) 2010-06-04 2018-09-04 Nokia Technologies Oy Method and apparatus for generating map-based snippets

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5855020A (en) * 1996-02-21 1998-12-29 Infoseek Corporation Web scan process
WO1999022488A2 (fr) * 1997-10-28 1999-05-06 D & I Systems, Inc. Procede et systeme permettant d'acceder a des informations sur un reseau
US5935210A (en) * 1996-11-27 1999-08-10 Microsoft Corporation Mapping the structure of a collection of computer resources
WO1999042935A1 (fr) * 1998-02-23 1999-08-26 Ip Warehouse, Inc. Systeme de recherche et de controle d'informations sur reseau informatique
EP0955589A1 (fr) * 1996-02-28 1999-11-10 Aim Corporation Systeme de communication de messages du type publicitaire a l'utilisateur d'un equipement terminal

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5855020A (en) * 1996-02-21 1998-12-29 Infoseek Corporation Web scan process
EP0955589A1 (fr) * 1996-02-28 1999-11-10 Aim Corporation Systeme de communication de messages du type publicitaire a l'utilisateur d'un equipement terminal
US5935210A (en) * 1996-11-27 1999-08-10 Microsoft Corporation Mapping the structure of a collection of computer resources
WO1999022488A2 (fr) * 1997-10-28 1999-05-06 D & I Systems, Inc. Procede et systeme permettant d'acceder a des informations sur un reseau
WO1999042935A1 (fr) * 1998-02-23 1999-08-26 Ip Warehouse, Inc. Systeme de recherche et de controle d'informations sur reseau informatique

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US10066948B2 (en) 2010-06-04 2018-09-04 Nokia Technologies Oy Method and apparatus for generating map-based snippets
CN102456056A (zh) * 2010-11-01 2012-05-16 阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司 一种信息输出方法和装置
CN102456056B (zh) * 2010-11-01 2013-07-03 阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司 一种信息输出方法和装置

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Publication number Publication date
AU3268401A (en) 2001-06-06
WO2001035315A3 (fr) 2002-05-02

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