Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20090299849 | Methods and Apparatus for Freshness and Completeness of Information - A system that facilitates publishing and consuming information that is of time sensitivity, for example, price information. Methods are employed to achieve completeness and freshness in information for a given domain. A preferred embodiment is a shopping site that is capable of comparing prices, purchasing bundled products and dealing with coupons. | 12-03-2009 |
20090313112 | COOKWARE RECYCLING PROCESS - A method for performing a redemption transaction involves purchasing of new retail cookware, sending used/recyclable cookware to a vender-designated recycling facility, and forwarding a customer bonus item in exchange for the recyclable cookware. The recyclable cookware can be returned in the new cookware retail packaging. The consumer accesses a vender website to select a bonus item and to print out a shipping label for returning the recyclable cookware. The shipping label includes a unique redemption identifier. Upon receipt of the recyclable cookware, the vender facility forwards a customer bonus item to the customer based upon customer preferences and the amount/type of recyclable material returned. | 12-17-2009 |
20100030637 | Universal Methods and Device for Hand-Held Promotional Opportunities - A method and system for auxiliary data detection. Data is received on a hand-held device from a display of a signal on a monitor. The signal is visually displayed on the monitor at a frequency. A modulated video signal is received on the hand-held device from a display device. The modulated video signal contains auxiliary data modulated within a video signal in a substantially invisible way. The modulated video signal is demodulated to obtain the auxiliary data. At least one of the data or the auxiliary data is processed to identify a promotional opportunity available through the hand-held device. The user of the hand-held device is notified of availability of the promotional opportunity through the hand-held device. | 02-04-2010 |
20100036725 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A PREDETERMINED SERVICE TO A DOMAIN REGISTRANT BY A TLD REGISTRY - The present invention relates to a method and system for providing a predetermined service to a domain registrant by a TLD registry through a first service provider The first service provider is required to be used for the predetermined service ( | 02-11-2010 |
20100169172 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIGITAL BROADCASTING SERVICE - A method and apparatus for a digital broadcasting service may allow direct and real-time control of a digital broadcasting receiver. A service providing server inserts a content control access criteria descriptor into a transport stream and transmits content and the content control access criteria descriptor to the receiver through the transport stream. The receiver receives the transport stream and processes the content according to the content control access criteria descriptor, which can contain lock control information and coupon provision information. The lock control information indicates whether a control function of the receiver is locked or unlocked for specific content. The coupon provision information indicates whether a coupon available for the purchase of pay content is granted depending on execution of specific content. | 07-01-2010 |
20100198678 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SHARING OFFERS - A method for stimulating commerce includes the steps of presenting an offer to a consumer, receiving from the consumer an identifier of a mode for sharing the offer, dynamically generating a unique URL, and placing the dynamically-generated URL in the selected mode for sharing the offer, where the dynamically-generated URL is selectable by a user. The unique URL includes at least an identifier of the consumer, the identifier of the mode for sharing the offer, and/or an identifier of the offer. | 08-05-2010 |
20100211453 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BUSINESS INFO PROVIDER-BASED ADVERTISING IN A LOCAL SEARCH MARKET - An online local search system and method utilizes local business info providers to enter and update business information related to local businesses. The online local search system and method uses a territorial listing concept with an optional reservation stage, an editing stage, and a pending stage to reduce overlapping listings and promote robust update of business information. The online local search system and method also uses a territorial advertising concept, which allows a business info provider with more business listing entries to capture a larger portion of pay-per-user-interest (e.g. pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, pay-per-action, and etc.) profits based on in-category or out-category advertising on the online local search system. | 08-19-2010 |
20100228618 | CLOSED-SELLER ONLINE MARKETPLACE FOR LISTING EMPLOYEE-OWNED ASSETS WITH EMPLOYER-FUNDED SALES INCENTIVES - Systems, methods and computer program products for implementing and operating a closed-seller online marketplace for listing employee-owned assets with employer-funded sales incentives are disclosed. In an aspect, an employer who frequently relocates employees minimizes the costs associated with such relocation—employee's moving expenses, expenses related to the employee's current home until it is sold, and the cost of temporary housing for the employee in the new location. Such savings is achieved through an online marketplace where the employer can offer incentives for buyers to purchase real estate or other assets being sold by the (soon-to-be or already) relocated employee. | 09-09-2010 |
20100241506 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING INTERNET ADVERTISEMENT - Provided is a method for providing Internet advertisement. The method provides a plurality of individual Internet advertisements included in an advertisement pool which is configured with a plurality of advertisement groups ‘G | 09-23-2010 |
20100280899 | FEDERAL AMMUNITION AUTHORITY KIOSK - An interactive system for assisting a user in the selection of ammunition based upon user entered parameters. A stand-alone kiosk includes a computer having a microprocessor and a memory, an input device in operative communication with the computer for permitting a user to enter parameters, and an output device in operative communication with the computer for providing information from the system to the user. A program is stored in the computer for execution by the microprocessor, the program interactively displaying a series of prompts on the output device, each prompt eliciting a response from the user concerning hunting parameters. The program stores the user inputted parameters in memory, applies predefined rules and/or recommendations against the user inputted parameters to thereby suggest advantageous ammunition, and displays the selected ammunition to the user on the output device. | 11-04-2010 |
20100280900 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LINK OF UPPER SHOPPING MALL AND INDEPENDENT SHOPPING MALL USING API METHOD - The present invention relates to a link system and link method of an upper shopping mall and an independent shopping mall of API (application programming interface) link method, in particular, to a technology that builds and manages an independent shopping mall having an independent domain address and an user interface besides the upper shopping mall which is registered together with the other sellers. According to the present invention, provided is a link system of an upper shopping mall having a plurality of sellers and an independent shopping mall operated independently by one person among the sellers, of API link method, which comprises a shopping mall database that stores a goods information, a member information, and a payment and delivery information; an independent shopping mall web server receives a goods inquiry or a purchase request from a user to output a factor for extracting data of the shopping mall database, and receives a necessary data from the shopping mall database; and an API server receives a factor from the independent shopping mall web server to analyze, and accesses to the shopping mall database so as to request that the necessary data should be sent to the independent shopping mall web server. | 11-04-2010 |
20100312637 | Method of promoting the goods and services of an advertiser - A method of advertising the goods and/or services of an advertiser on a website on a communications network that can be accessed by consumers with a communications device. Redeemable coupons are provided on the website for free goods and/or services of an advertiser on the website. Also, information is provided on the website on the retail locations of the advertisers closest to the consumer. Consumers can access the website, with a communications device; print or request desired redeemable coupons, visit a desired retail location of an advertiser and redeem a coupon or coupons to obtain the free goods and/or services without having to provide any personal information to the website or the advertiser. | 12-09-2010 |
20100324987 | Certified Email System and Method - A certified email system for providing a time stamp for a presented file, particularly when the presented file is an email. Preferably a demanding party receives the email; generates a unique HASH; digitally signs the unique HASH; and sends the signed HASH and a time-stamp request call to a web services time-stamp conduit (WSTC). The WSTC receives the request and signed HASH from the demanding party and obtains a time stamp. The WSTC sends the time stamp back to the demanding party, which sends a time-stamp notification to the original sender of the email and, optionally, the recipient(s) of the email. Multiple branded or customized demanding servers can efficiently run using one web services time-stamp conduit. | 12-23-2010 |
20110004516 | INTERNET MARKETPLACE FOR VENDORS AND CONSUMERS WITH CENTRALIZED INCENTIVE DISTRIBUTION - An electronic commerce center is provided that includes at least one processor operatively coupled to one or more processor readable media and a communication port. A database that is accessible by the at least one processor and stored on the at least one or more processor readable media is provided. The database comprises electronic vendor information that represents vendors of one or more of goods and services. The database further comprises electronic goods and services information that represents at least one of goods and services offered for sale by the vendors. The database further comprises electronic consumer information that represents consumers of goods and services. An Internet web site provided by the at least one processor includes electronic tools for the vendors to build custom web pages to be included in the Internet web site. The web site further includes interactive options for the consumers to communicate with each other. The processor uses the electronic goods and services information to generate electronic incentive information that represents incentives offered by the vendors, and the incentives relate to the at least one of goods and services offered for sale by the vendors. | 01-06-2011 |
20110015987 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MARKETING TO MOBILE DEVICES - Systems and methods of marketing to mobile devices are provided. Other methods, apparatus, and computer readable media are also provided. | 01-20-2011 |
20110022458 | SYSTEM AND METHOD TO PREVENT TERMINATION OF ON-LINE TRANSACTIONS - An apparatus includes a processor configured to initiate an on-line transaction during a transaction session. The apparatus can identify an attempt to terminate the transaction session prior to completion of the on-line transaction. The apparatus can provide a notification in response to the identified attempt. The notification can include an indication of at least one selection made during the transaction session prior to the completion of the on-line transaction. | 01-27-2011 |
20110029371 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF ALLOCATION OF POPULARITY CREDIT IN A PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK - Disclosed are a system, method, and article of manufacture for allocation of popularity credit in a private communications network. An entity member of the private communications network provides a media content to a website member of the private communications network. Another entity member of the private communications network provides an advertisement content. A server hosts the website. The website includes the advertisement content, the media content and a hyperlink to a vendor website outside the private communications network. An administration server includes a verification module that determines whether a user purchased a good or a service from the vendor website. The administration server includes a popularity credit manager that generates a list of entities that provided the media content or hosted the media content. The popularity credit manager allocates a popularity credit to the each listed entity member if the user purchased the good or the service from the vendor website. The popularity credit manager tracks the allocation and redemption of popularity credits within the private communication network. The popularity credit manager provides a popularity credit database that is available to a member of the private communication network. The popularity credit database comprises popularity-credit allocation data and popularity-credit redemption data. A user access manager controls user access to the private communications network. | 02-03-2011 |
20110029372 | ADVERTISING AND FULFILLMENT SYSTEM - A method is provided for a method of purchasing goods online, which allows end users to receive money in return for browsing the internet and making purchases. According to the features of the invention, the end user enters a profile into YOUniverse, which is uploaded to the database. The user then logs in to search for items and the advertisement search results are specific to the end user's profile. The user controls the amount of information in their profile; however, more information yields better advertisement results and more money. | 02-03-2011 |
20110054996 | Network for Targeting Individual Operating a Microcomputer Regardless of His Location - A network adapted to target an individual operating a microcomputer that is linked to an Internet to offer this individual goods or services appropriate to his needs that are available at a place within reach of the individual's present location. The microcomputer is provided with a GPS receiver that indicates the present location of the individual, this location and the identity of the individual being transmitted from the microcomputer to a web site on the highway. At the web site, a computer associated with a data bank storing the profiles of a multitude of consumers is programmed to find out whether the identified individual is included in the data bank, and to determine from his profile whether there are available at a place reachable from his present location appropriate goods or services. If a match is found, an offer to supply such goods or services is conveyed from the web site to the microcomputer. | 03-03-2011 |
20110078012 | Method for Encouraging Home Ownership - A method of enabling a buyer to transition from renting a home to owning a home is provided. | 03-31-2011 |
20110082740 | Pay Per Stay - Pay Per Stay is a web site that directs traffic to other websites, for a designated period of time. Users are rewarded for spending time at a directed site, with either a coupon, a prize, monetary or other reward. | 04-07-2011 |
20110082741 | ELECTRONIC COUPON DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - A method of secure electronic couponing is disclosed which includes a main server system, and a client system interconnected by a distributed computer network, such as the Internet. Coupon data and advertising data are encrypted to thereby reduce the likelihood that such data may be misused, such as by unauthorized duplication. In addition, the client system is identified by a user identification that is allocated and associated with user information collected from the user of the client system. The user information is indicative of one or more demographic characteristics of the user without being sufficiently personal to specifically identify the user, thus preserving privacy. An icon is provided which, when flashing, alerts the user to the fact that new coupons are available. A hidden URL is utilized, to further prevent unauthorized duplication of coupons. | 04-07-2011 |
20110093327 | Systems and Methods to Match Identifiers - In one aspect, a system includes a transaction handler to process transactions, a data warehouse to store transaction data recording the transactions processed at the transaction handler and to store mapping data between first user identifiers and first account identifiers, a profile generator to generate a profile of a user based on the transaction data, and a portal coupled to the transaction handler to receive a query identifying a second user identifier used by the first tracker to track online activities of a user. The system is to identify a second account identifier of the user from the second user identifier based on the mapping data between the first user identifiers and the first account identifiers to facilitate targeted advertising using the profile of the user and/or to provide information about certain transactions of the user related to a previously presented advertisement. | 04-21-2011 |
20110099057 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING A CARD HAVING A 2D BARCODE TO DIRECT A CONSUMER TO CONTENT ON A GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK - A system and method whereby a card is usable to direct a consumer to content on a global communications network, such as an Internet web page. The card is provided with a 2D barcode having encoded data that is representative of a location on the global communications network, the location having the content. When a device is used to read the 2D barcode from the card, the device is caused to access the content at the location on the global communications network that is associated with the data encoded in the 2D barcode. | 04-28-2011 |
20110106610 | Systems and methods for providing and commercially exploiting online persona validation - Systems and methods for providing and commercially exploiting online persona validation are presented. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, an online persona validation framework suitable for mass adoption is presented. In addition, systems and methods to leverage such framework to create and exploit transactional opportunities, such as, for example, targeted marketing, trend spotting and tracking, and granular data mining, are also presented. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, tiered (i.e., comprising various levels of financial, demographic, lifestyle and other information), opt-in identity validation systems and various methods that authenticate an individual in e-commerce, social networks, job searches and the like, can be implemented. In addition, such exemplary systems and methods can identify precise, granular, and hence, valuable, demographics for advertisers. In comparison to conventional Internet based services, exemplary systems according to the present invention can provide multi-use Internet-wide trusted persona validation, micro-segment targeted ads and offers, and real time, location based, channel integrated ads and offers. The present invention accordingly comprises the various steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the system embodies features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts that are adapted to effect and implement such steps. | 05-05-2011 |
20110131091 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FUNDRAISING - According to some embodiments, a method and an apparatus are provided to display a webpage comprising a fundraising interface and a selection of interactive games and educational programs, receive an indication of an interaction of a user with at least one of the interactive games and educational programs, and provide rewards associated with the user's interaction with the at least one of the interactive games and educational programs. | 06-02-2011 |
20110145055 | BRANDED CONTENT LADEN COMMERCIAL PORTALS - In one embodiment, the present disclosure contemplates a computer system, which, upon being programmed, is configured to perform a method comprising identifying an entity associated with a user of a user computer connected to the computer system; and providing an Internet Portal to the user computer on behalf of the entity such that the entity appears to the user as the provider or primary benefactor of the Internet Portal. In another embodiment, the present disclosure contemplates a method which comprises contacting supporters and potential supporters of an entity, marketing the entity to the supporters and potential supporters as a provider or primary benefactor of an Internet Portal, and providing the Internet Portal on behalf of the entity to each user of the Internet Portal such that the entity appears to each user as the provider or primary benefactor of the Internet Portal. | 06-16-2011 |
20110153410 | DISTRIBUTING COUPON CONTENT AND TRANSACTIONAL ADVERTISEMENTS - A system, method, and computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions recorded thereon is provided for distributing transactional advertisements from a distribution site over a network to online publishers. Transactional data items are rendered by the online publishers, with control elements provided from the distribution site, to control use of the transactional data items on the user terminal. | 06-23-2011 |
20110166922 | PORTAL INCLUDING MERCHANT FUNDED AFFILIATE CASH BACK SERVICE - A system and method for managing a rewards program are provided. The method includes receiving information about a consumer, registering the consumer information and creating unique tracking information associated with the consumer. The method further includes receiving a listing of one or more merchants offering an incentive to the consumer, providing the listing to the consumer, receiving input indicative of selection of a merchant, and directing the consumer to a merchant website associated with the selected merchant. Thereafter, the method includes receiving details about an item purchased by the consumer, receiving a total value of an reward for the item purchased by the consumer, calculating a first share of the incentive to be offered to the consumer, and communicating the first share to an issuer of the payment device used by the consumer to be included in a statement provided to the consumer. | 07-07-2011 |
20110166923 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING PRE-EXISTING AND PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS WITH AN IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE ACCOUNT - A system and method for providing in real-time an immediately accessible customized transaction account via the internet is disclosed. In particular, the system and method recognizes distinct access codes which are correlated to the credit profile of a person accessing an on-line application system via a computer network. During operation of the invention, a party may be driven to the on-line application system via the internet to conduct a transaction in response to an invitation to enroll in a special program. Upon entering the on-line application system, the accessing party may be unilaterally given the opportunity to apply for a special offer, which has been tailored to the accessing party's credit profile. | 07-07-2011 |
20110184799 | Marketing Methods for Goods and Services - A marketing method for goods or services includes assigning at least one telephone number and a web page to at least one user for offering goods and/or services for sale to at least one prospective buyer; contacting the telephone number; and sending a message to the at least one prospective buyer's mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or smart phone, the message providing a web address for the web page for obtaining information about the goods and/or services. | 07-28-2011 |
20110191162 | GUARANTEED MERCHANT PAYMENT IN A CARD-NOT-PRESENT TRANSACTION - Embodiments of the invention provide for systems, devices, apparatus, methods and computer program products for payment card-issuing entities to guarantee merchant payment in card-not-present-transactions and, more specifically, automatically guaranteeing merchant payment in card-not-present transactions based on the payment card-issuing entity authenticating the customer prior to the transactions. By guaranteeing merchant payment in card-not-present transactions, the merchant's risk associated with such transaction is greatly reduced. | 08-04-2011 |
20110191163 | DISTRIBUTION OF CONTENT - Among other things, publishers of digital content are enabled each to define, for each of one or more digital content items, a style in which the digital content item is to be presented to a user and a condition under which the user may have the digital content item presented. The digital content items are stored in a content library, the styles and conditions associated with the digital content items are stored in a server. Each of the digital content items is enabled to be presented to users within presentation contexts that are accessible to the users and controlled by presentation context providers. The presentation of the digital content items includes obtaining the digital content items from the server and controlling the presentation to occur under the conditions and in the styles defined by the publishers. | 08-04-2011 |
20110202403 | Method and system for flexible automated interactions - A computer platform provides a method and system for establishing scenarios for interactions between users (both individually and as a group) and a web site or other software application over a network. The interactions are described in terms of events, actions, and conditions, where a single mechanism may be used to describe events, actions, and conditions for both individuals and a group. One portion of a scenario may apply to the group, while another portion applies to individuals. Time elements and branches also can be employed to describe the scenario. The scenario may describe a non-deterministic process, but be modeled as a deterministic state machine for execution. | 08-18-2011 |
20110208577 | Online Offer Distribution System And Mehtod - An online offer distribution system may convey offer information relating to an offer selected from an offer supply database. The offer information may be conveyed in an electronic form, such as a web page, that may be accessed by a consumer on a client device. Upon receiving a request to print an offer document corresponding to the offer, the system may generate the offer document including at least a portion of the offer information and time indicating indicia associated with the request to print. The time indicating indicia may be a quasi-unique identifier corresponding to a time the request to print is received or the offer document is transmitted to the client device for printing. The time indicating indicia may be encrypted and incorporated into the offer document as an alphanumeric code, barcode, or both. | 08-25-2011 |
20110238484 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CUSTOMIZED ON-LINE SHOPPING AND/OR MANUFACTURING - A system and method for providing a customized on-line shopping interface and/or manufacturing is disclosed. The system uses customer's computer, location, URL, IP address, email domain, embedded promotion code, or other predetermined criteria to provide special product offerings and pricing for a particular class or subclass of customers. If an unauthorized user attempts to access the system, a series of screens containing non-customized pricing is presented to the intruder so as not to alert the intruder that he or she has reached the restricted content. Based on the authentication information, automated manufacturing processes and equipment may be utilized to produce the customized products. | 09-29-2011 |
20110258031 | Method and process for registration, creation and management of campaigns and advertisements in a network system - The presented invention is a method for an advertising sponsor user, using a client computer, or mobile device to be able to register, login and create zip code related local sponsor advertisements, with small advertisements for creating interest in the offers, that link to bigger advertisements with an embedded shopping cart. When a user creates the advertisements, they can upload their images, and create their type for the offers in the same interface form and the advertisements are instantly created and able to be published immediately throughout a network. Utilizing zip codes allows the system to use an intelligent smart decision engine, to make decisions of where advertisements and campaigns should be displayed as related to registered users locations. Also past performance and past advertisement information is utilized by the present invention to make appraisal value judgments as to the value of advertisements for sale, and campaign values for sale. | 10-20-2011 |
20110264505 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO ALLOW INDIVIDUAL SELLERS TO AUTOMATICALLY CLEARANCE ONE-OF-A-KIND LISTINGS - A method and system for conducting electronic commerce that provides for an “auto-clearance” function in which, after expiration of a pre-determined listing period for an item for sale, the item is automatically placed on sale or “clearance” at a reduced price. The present invention allows an online seller of a unique, one-of-a-kind item to automatically place the item on clearance after a period of time. | 10-27-2011 |
20110264506 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SEARCHING, SELECTING, AND DISPLAYING CONTENT - Methods and systems for identifying and presenting information are described. Search results are received from a search engine. An entity associated with a networked site is selected using a selection criterion. A determination is made as to whether the listing includes a link to the networked site or includes the link to the networked site at a list position that fails to satisfy a first criterion. After determining that the link to the site associated with the entity is not included in the search result listing, or that the link to the site associated with the entity is not at a position in the search result listing that satisfies the first criterion, the search listing is modified by causing the link to the site associated with the entity to appear in a first position in the search listing. The modified search listing is displayed on a user terminal. | 10-27-2011 |
20110276386 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR MOBILE DEVICE LOCATION BASED SERVICES - The present invention is directed to a discount service including a system and methods for delivering incentives to a mobile device while the mobile device is in close proximity to a merchant outlet. The presence of a mobile device is detected by receiving communication transmitted from the mobile device to a transmission tower using low wattage receivers placed at or near a merchant outlet. Incentives such as discount coupons and other promotions are sent to the mobile device in the form of an email message, text message, and/or voice message. The incentive may then be redeemed at the merchant outlet. | 11-10-2011 |
20110295676 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR RECOGNIZING COMPACT DISCS AND ISSUING CORRESPONDING CREDITS - For possible use in an electronic content distribution system, automatic recognition of compact discs or other storage media containing particular content, and corresponding account crediting is described. In an electronic content distribution system, such as those providing music available by digital downloading or streaming technologies, a user may ordinarily pay a full price to receive the music. A user who possesses and apparently owns a compact disc containing particular content can be conveniently offered a discount or credit usable towards the purchase of the analogous particular content in a form provided by the electronic content distribution system. Preferably, compact discs are uniquely identified by determining whether their digital fingerprint matches a known reference fingerprint for a compact disc containing the particular content. | 12-01-2011 |
20110307319 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DESIGNING AND DISPLAYING ADVERTISEMENTS - The present disclosure includes a system and method for designing and displaying advertisements. One or more targeted advertising methods include surveying potential customers to ascertain a price sensitivity and a likelihood of the potential customers purchasing products and/or observing venues, and clustering the potential customers according to product clusters based on the likelihood of purchasing products. Potential customers of each product cluster are clustered according to one or more venue clusters based on a likelihood of the potential customers of respective product clusters to observe the venues. An advertisement is designed for a venue corresponding to a particular venue cluster to include at least one product corresponding to a particular product cluster which is promotionally-priced based on the price sensitivity of potential customers of a particular venue cluster. An electronic display of the venue is modified to include the designed advertisement. | 12-15-2011 |
20110313841 | TARGETED DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS - A system, method and computer program product is described that matches commercial incentives to consumers based on targeting data associated with the commercial incentive and user data associated with consumers in a manner that advantageously allows for highly-targeted delivery of commercial incentives to the consumers that are most likely to use them. Because both the targeting data and the user data may include spatial, temporal, social and topical data, matching may be performed based on any or all of these data types, as well as based on any combination of these data types. | 12-22-2011 |
20120010939 | SOCIAL NETWORK BASED ONLINE ADVERTISING - Techniques are provided in which review, comment, or purchase information is obtained, associated with a first user and relating to a product or service, product or service type, or brand. A second user is identified who is in an explicit or implicit social network of the first user. An online advertisement is generated, targeted to a second user and relating to the first product or service, product or service type, or brand. The online advertisement is generated utilizing the review, comment, or purchase information, which may serve as a trusted implicit or explicit recommendation regarding a subject of the advertisement. | 01-12-2012 |
20120010940 | NON-CASH TRANSACTION INCENTIVE AND COMMISSION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - An electronic fund transfer system is disclosed wherein commissions for point-of-sale purchase transactions are determined and distributed to members of an organizational network for promoting use of a non-cash payment device that is tangible for effecting purchase transactions. Purchase data is electronically transmitted from the point-of-sale to an automated clearing house for effecting fund transfers to prepare the purchase, and also to a commission management system. The commission management system maintains an electronic database reflecting the structure of the organizational network, and further determines the distribution of purchase commissions according to a predetermined schedule of proportions relating to the position and business volume of each member of the network. The commission management system further comprises a payment processor for effecting commission payments to the members or to a designated sponsor on a scheduled basis. | 01-12-2012 |
20120016732 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUGMENTING CONTENT IN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS WITH LINKS TO CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT INFORMATION - An electronic document and associated system, methods and apparatus is described. The electronic document is loaded in a user device configured to communicate with an external device that generates instructions for augmenting content contained in the electronic document with links to contextually relevant information. The content can be augmented with one or more user interface elements, and the augmented content can be displayed with one or more attributes which can be selected by a document author. The document author can mark or otherwise designate one or more portions of the electronic document to be excluded from the augmenting process. | 01-19-2012 |
20120036002 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A COMPUTER AUTOMATED CREATION AND DEPLOYMENT OF A COUPON - A process, system and computer implemented method for making and deploying a coupon through a network to a client achieved by first entering coupon data into a plurality of fields by an advertiser; transmitting the coupon data through the network to a web server device where it is then transmitted to a application server device, the application server device transforms the data into the coupon which is stored in a database, where it is stored until retrieved. The application server device retrieves the coupon when parameters defined by the web server device, application server device, or advertiser computer are met. The coupon is then deployed to the web server device where it is then deployed through the network to the client. | 02-09-2012 |
20120036003 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REWARDING APPLICATION ACTIONS - A system and method for tracking performance of an action in an application is disclosed in which a link to perform the application action is transmitted to a client device. In response to receiving an indication of the selection of the link, the performance of the action in the application by the client device is detected. Based on the detected performance of the application action, reward data is associated with a user of the client device. | 02-09-2012 |
20120078705 | ONLINE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRODUCT DISCOUNTS - An online advertising system and method including displaying e-tailers offering a product for sale; displaying a price for the specified product for each e-tailer that offers the product for sale; aggregating information about which e-tailers have an existing revenue sharing arrangement involving the product and the amount of revenue the e-tailers are willing to share with consumers; calculating a price discount for each e-tailer with the existing revenue sharing arrangement, based on the product and an amount of revenue each e-tailer is willing to share; calculating a final price for the product for each e-tailer responsive to the amount of revenue respective e-tailers are willing to share with consumers and the price of the product; and displaying the one or more e-tailers offering the specified product in a list ordered according to the final prices for said specified product calculated for each of the e-tailers. | 03-29-2012 |
20120084136 | EBOOK ADVERTISING, INCLUDING COST-SHARING TECHNIQUES - Techniques are provided that include allowing an ebook reader to select an advertising setting which specifies permissible forms of advertising to be presented to the ebook reader via one or more ebooks. Based at least in part on the selected setting, the ebook reader may be provided with a reduction relating to cost of the one or more ebooks. The reduction may be greater if the selected option indicates more valuable permissible advertising. Permissible advertising may be presented to the ebook reader via at least one of the one or more ebooks. | 04-05-2012 |
20120084137 | Method for Creating, Distributing, and Tracking Variable Coupons - A method and system for generating dynamic coupons for items in which a discount amount of a first product is dependent on other products selected by the consumer. The method and system allows a seller to establish a set of rules for calculating a discount amount for products it sells. On a designated website, the consumer can select a variety of products available at discount prices. Each time the consumer selects a product the amount of the discount for the products may change depending on the rules established by the seller of those products. When the consumer has completed her selection, a coupon can be generated and printed or sent to a mobile device to redeem at the indicated store. A map can be generated to help the consumer locate the most convenient stores. | 04-05-2012 |
20120109736 | Method of and System for Managing Promotions for Purchase Transactions Over a Network - A system for managing promotions over a network includes a promotion server system having a computer processor and associated datastore, the datastore containing data representative of terms and statistics of one or more item promotions, and a commercial server system including a computer processor, the commercial server system being selectively coupleable to the promotion server system over the network. The promotion server system includes promotion code for transferring, to the commercial server system, the data representative of the terms and statistics of the promotions. | 05-03-2012 |
20120116865 | Cooperative Purchasing System That Utilizes SNS, and Method Thereof - What is presented is consolidating purchasing power and points into an SNS with payment of an individual member's shopping covered in advance by the SNS, and providing system and method to return benefits obtained thereby to SNS Members. SNS1's system control computer [ | 05-10-2012 |
20120116866 | CO-BRANDED INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER AND RETAILER INTERNET SERVICE SITE WITH RETAILER-OFFERED INCENTIVES FOR MEMBER USE - A system and method for a retailer to sell merchandise over the Internet in affiliation with an Internet service provider. The co-branded Internet site is accessible through the Internet service site of the Internet service provider. The co-branded Internet site includes designations of both the retailer and the Internet service provider. The co-branded Internet site including one or more links to the Internet shopping site of the retailer. Client software for accessing the co-branded Internet site is distributed at retailer locations. Members of the co-branded Internet site are provided with incentives to access and shop on the Internet shopping site of the retailer through the co-branded Internet site. | 05-10-2012 |
20120143671 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING A RESTRICTED USE IN-STORE PROMOTION TO A CONSUMER - A system and method for delivering a restricted use in-store promotion to a consumer includes storing in an offer database a plurality of offer data items for use in creating an in-store promotion. The method further includes storing in an authorization database an authorization parameter and generating at a server a hyperlink including the authorization parameter. In response to receiving a request from a consumer device to present the in-store promotion, the server verifies that the consumer browser invoked the hyperlink containing the authorization parameter. The server also verifies the status of the authorization parameter. If the consumer browser invoked the hyperlink containing the authorization parameter and the status is active, the server dynamically generates the in-store promotion using at least one of the plurality of data items stored in the offer database. Once generated, the server transmits the in-store promotion to the consumer device. | 06-07-2012 |
20120150619 | GENERATING TARGETED GROUP BASED OFFERS TO INCREASE SALES - A method, system and computer program product for increasing the sales of a retailer. A unit, referred to herein as the “retailer promotions device,” generates a group offer for a set of users/customers to purchase a product based on intelligent analytics (e.g., real-time attributes/dynamics such as the strategy in selling the remaining inventory). A group offer refers to an offer to sell a product at a promotional price if a number of users (e.g., users of mobile devices and/or customers online and/or customers in a physical store) agree to purchase the product at the promotional price within a time period. The group offer is sent to targeted users/customers via online and mobile devices as well as via electronic displays and kiosks in the physical store. By using real-time attributes/dynamics to generate group offers that can be sent to targeted users/customers, the sales of the retailer are likely to be increased. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150620 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING AUTOMATIC REMINDERS FOR SAVED ADVERTISEMENTS - Methods, machine-readable media, apparatuses and systems provide reminders about saved electronic advertisements. A plurality of electronic advertisements selected by a user to be saved is stored. Content of the plurality of electronic advertisements is analyzed. Contextual factors to determine whether at least one predetermined rule is satisfied are assessed. Satisfaction of the predetermined rule is determined. An electronic advertisement from the plurality of electronic advertisements based on satisfaction of the predetermined rule is identified. A reminder about the electronic advertisement is provided to a device of the user. The electronic advertisements may include any type of incentive or offer, including coupons. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150621 | Network for Targeting Individual Operating a Microcomputer Regardless of His Location - A network targets an individual operating a microcomputer that is linked to an Internet to offer this individual goods or services appropriate to his needs that are available at a place within reach of the individual's present location. The microcomputer is provided with a GPS receiver that indicates the present location of the individual, this location and the identity of the individual being transmitted from the microcomputer to a web site. At the web site, a computer associated with a data bank storing the profiles of a multitude of consumers is programmed to find out whether the identified individual is included in the data bank, and to determine from his profile whether there are available at a place reachable from his present location appropriate goods or services. If a match is found, an offer to supply such goods or services is conveyed from the web site to the microcomputer. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150622 | System for Online Sales With Automatic Rebate and Coupon Redemption - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150623 | System for Online Sales With Automatic Rebate and Coupon Redemption - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 06-14-2012 |
20120150624 | System for Online Sales With Automatic Rebate and Coupon Redemption - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 06-14-2012 |
20120203621 | METHOD FOR DEVELOPING SALES FOR PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS - A method is presented for developing sales for promotional items. One or more educational videos are created for one or more promotional items. The educational videos are used as content on one or more web pages that provide information for the promotional items. The web pages are included on a website for the promotional items. Distributor contact information is received from a distributor. The distributor contact information is included on at least one of the web pages, such that a viewer of the website can contact the distributor. | 08-09-2012 |
20120203622 | PROMOTION INFRASTRUCTURE HAVING DISPENSING CONTROLS - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 08-09-2012 |
20120209689 | Process for viewing electronic content potentially at no cost to consumers in exchange for viewing imbedded and possibly interactive advertisements - A structure for creating a facilitator organization to deliver content potentially at no cost to consumers in exchange for viewing advertising that might include an interactive element with the steps of: creating the facilitator organization, by which an entity is created offering intellectual content via any and all available means to the consumer, offering commercial businesses the advertising service, offering intellectual content to the consumer, offering advertising which might include an interactive element to consumers, collecting and distributing revenue by the advertising viewed by the consumers via the Internet or similar means, by which the data is collected and analyzed, by which the advertiser is satisfied that the advertising has reach a specific numerical population of consumers that might include specific demographics that the advertiser has contracted with the facilitator for. | 08-16-2012 |
20120209690 | WATCH AND WIN TECHNIQUES - A watch and win or read and win system in which the user receives information about a subject being advertised, watches or reads it, and then answers questions. If the questions are answered properly, then the user gets a virtual item that can be used in the virtual world. In one embodiment, the virtual item is related to the item being viewed. This can be used to create a more effective form of advertising. | 08-16-2012 |
20120209691 | PROMOTION INFRASTRUCTURE HAVING DUAL INPUT AND DUAL OUTPUT INTERFACE - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 08-16-2012 |
20120209692 | PROMOTION INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORTING SELECTED & EMAILED PROMOTION DELIVERY - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 08-16-2012 |
20120215620 | Message Center Application and System - A message system permits a commercial subscriber to create and store a message accessible by a consumer having the system application installed on his personal communication device for machine readable redemption at a point-of-sale or other redemption center. The system logs the redemption and activates rebates or payments from the commercial subscriber to the point-of-sale or other redemption center, in accordance with any agreement which may exist between the redemption center and the commercial subscriber. | 08-23-2012 |
20120221404 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING AN ADVERTISING PLATFORM - An approach is provided for providing an advertising platform. The advertising platform determines an initiation of a location-based search at a device, and one or more results of the location-based search. The one or more results include at least one listing for at least one merchant. The advertising platform then processes and/or facilitates a processing of the one or more results to determine one or more advertisements associated with the at least one merchant for presentation at the device. The advertising platform then causes, at least in part, tracking of user interaction information in response to the presentation of the one or more advertisements. The advertising platform further determines user characteristic information associated with a plurality of users of at least one application, and then processes and/or facilitates a processing of the user characteristic information to determine at least one recommended value to request for presenting one or more advertisements via the at least one application. | 08-30-2012 |
20120221405 | PROCESSING VALUE-ASCERTAINABLE ITEMS - Techniques are provided for allowing a merchant to process third party closed-loop instruments (such as gift cards) as if the closed-loop instruments were open-loop instruments. A customer provides card data of a third party gift card to a merchant, e.g., online or in a merchant store, for the purchase of one or more items provided by the merchant. The merchant sends the gift card data to an intermediary that deducts at least a portion of the balance of the gift card. The intermediary sends an offer for the gift card to the customer. If the customer accepts the offer, then the merchant applies the offer towards the total purchase price of the one or more items. | 08-30-2012 |
20120232984 | BRANDED REDEMPTION PORTAL - In general terms, embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatuses for creating, storing, and/or presenting branded redemption portals. For example, in some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) receiving, from a holder of a rewards account, a request for redemption information, where the rewards account is maintained by a financial institution; (b) determining that the rewards account is associated with an organization, where the organization is not the financial institution, and where the organization is associated with a brand; and (c) presenting a redemption portal to the holder, where the redemption portal presents one or more products, and where the redemption portal has a theme that conveys the brand (and/or each of the one or more presented products conveys the brand). | 09-13-2012 |
20120239486 | SUGGESTING DEALS TO A USER IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social networking system suggests deals relevant to a user. The deals are selected for suggestion based on social information associated with the user. Social information used for selecting candidate deals for a user includes information describing other users connected to the user and their associations with the candidate deals or with related deals, for example, deals from the same provider. Associations of connections of the user with the candidate deals may be determined based on actions associated with the candidate deals performed by the connections. The actions performed by the connections may be weighted based on types of the actions to determine a measure of relevance of the candidate deal for the user. Candidate deals are selected from a set of deals by applying deal targeting criteria received from deal providers. The deal targeting criteria specify attributes describing users to be targeted for a particular deal. | 09-20-2012 |
20120239487 | TARGETED DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS - A system, method and computer program product is described that matches commercial incentives to consumers based on targeting data associated with the commercial incentive and user data associated with consumers in a manner that advantageously allows for highly-targeted delivery of commercial incentives to the consumers that are most likely to use them. Because both the targeting data and the user data may include spatial, temporal, social and topical data, matching may be performed based on any or all of these data types, as well as based on any combination of these data types. | 09-20-2012 |
20120253917 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING AND PROVIDING USER PURCHASE INFORMATION - A method of managing user purchase information includes parsing information related to a product from a user uploaded data, comparing the parsed information with a purchase data of the product by the user, and linking an indicator to the user uploaded data according to the comparison and a method of providing user purchase data in user equipment. The method also includes purchasing and paying for a product with the user equipment, and posting payment information about the product on a social networking service (SNS). | 10-04-2012 |
20120253918 | ACTIVITY-BASED SOCIAL MARKETING SYSTEM - A user activity-based marketing system includes stand alone computer implemented application or an application within a social network rewarding users for participation in targeted social marketing of a product or service. The computer implemented method allows entities to provide incentives for users to engage in social marketing. Administrators controlling marketing efforts for an entity may define rewards for achievements or badges which recognize a user's level of influence and promote the entity. User activity, including social network activity, is tracked to determine whether a user has completed the achievement and gained access to a reward by engaging in social media activity defined by the achievement. | 10-04-2012 |
20120253919 | ADVERTISING SYSTEM SUPPORTING MULTI-ADVERTISER SYSTEM REMOTE ADVERTISEMENT POSTING - A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer's and merchant's coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity. | 10-04-2012 |
20120259694 | METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR ADVERTISEMENT DELIVERY - Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, an apparatus, and a system advertisement delivery. The method includes: receiving a user request for visiting a local WEB page of a home gateway, where the user request is sent by a user terminal; and obtaining an address of advertisement data corresponding to a stored advertisement parameter, assembling the address of the advertisement data into data on the local WEB page of the home gateway according to the advertisement parameter, and sending the data into which the address of the advertisement data is assembled on the local WEB page of the home gateway. | 10-11-2012 |
20120265602 | MOBILE DIGITAL MEDIA DOWNLOAD INCENTIVE MANAGEMENT THROUGH TRACKING OF ID STORED IN NATIVE FACILITIES OF THE MOBILE DEVICE - A method for tracking downloads to a computer system is disclosed. Digital media content, such as music, games and applications (“apps”) are widely available with the popularity of mobile computing. Suppliers of such digital media content would appreciate it if their works were more widely disseminated and used. Users or customers may receive an incentive to purchase or to download an application. The incentive may be, for example, a free application, rewards points or a virtual currency. In one method, the user downloads digital media content in two stages. In the first stage, the user activates a first web-based link to download the digital media content. In the second stage, after downloading, the user activates a second web-based link to activate the application or other digital media content. The web-based links include user identifiers that are matched for the user to subsequently receive the incentive. | 10-18-2012 |
20120265603 | MOBILE DIGITAL MEDIA DOWNLOAD TRACKING MANAGEMENT UTILIZING STATISTICAL USER FINGERPRINTING TECHNIQUES THROUGH CORRELATION OF WEB-BASED DOWNLOAD USER ACTIONS WITH MOBILE APPLICATION DOWNLOAD USER ACTIONS - A method for tracking downloads to a computer system is disclosed. Digital media content, such as music, games and applications (“apps”) are widely available with the popularity of mobile computing. Suppliers of such digital media content would appreciate it if their works were more widely disseminated and used. Users or customers may receive an incentive to purchase or to download an application. The incentive may be, for example, a free application, rewards points or a virtual currency. In one method, the user downloads digital media content in two stages. In the first stage, the user activates a first web-based link to download the digital media content. In the second stage, after downloading, the user activates a second web-based link to activate the application or other digital media content. The web-based links include user identifiers that are matched for the user to subsequently receive the incentive. | 10-18-2012 |
20120265604 | REWARDING A USER FOR DOWNLOADING A FREE APP WITH THE RIGHT TO USE ANOTHER FREE APP - A method for tracking downloads of digital media content is disclosed. Digital media content, such as music, games and applications (“apps”) are widely available with the popularity of mobile computing. Content suppliers would appreciate it if their works were more widely disseminated and used. Users or customers may receive an incentive to purchase or to download a first portion of content. The incentive may be, for example, a second portion of the content or other incentive. In one method, a user downloads and receives a first portion of digital media content. In the second stage, the user's actions with the first portion of the content are tracked. When the user satisfies one or more conditions of using the first portion, the user is allowed to download the second portion or other incentive. | 10-18-2012 |
20120284110 | METHOD AND COMPUTER MEDIUM FOR FACILITATING A BUYER-INITIATED FEATURE WITHIN A BUSINESS TRANSACTION - A system and method for conducting electronic business between buyers and sellers is provided. The system and method disclose a means for at least one buyer to request and receive online bids from one or more sellers of a particular product according to a price curve or price schedule. A price schedule or curve for a product defining a product's unit price as a function of the volume of product ordered. Upon receipt of a plurality of bids from sellers, a buyer can then select a seller-supplier based at least in part on the price schedule. | 11-08-2012 |
20120296733 | METHOD TO MONITOR AND REWARD THE USE OF A WEBSITE ACTIVITY BASED ON A REWARD SYSTEM - A method for monitoring and rewarding website activities based on a point reward system. The method for monitoring and rewarding a website activity includes the steps of creating a plurality of webpage links on the website, allocating a point value to each webpage link, tallying point values by navigating through at least one of the webpage links, the tallying is performed by a computer-readable program. | 11-22-2012 |
20120296734 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A DISCOUNT - Systems and methods are provided for delivering a discount using a partner-issued currency or a combination of virtual currency and partner-issued currency, offering a high-perceived savings value to an end-user while maintaining the perception of product value. An embodiment of an inventive method includes presenting a display of a price paid by a consumer without access to the virtual currency along with a display of an amount payable by the end-user in actual currency in combination with an amount payable in virtual currency. The end-user perceives a benefit to using the virtual currency and since the price paid in actual currency is less than the displayed price to be paid by a consumer without access to the virtual currency. | 11-22-2012 |
20120303441 | COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM STORING INFORMATION PROCESSING PROGRAM, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD - In an information processing apparatus, when registering the identifier of information acquired via a connection system, a registration unit registers the identifier with discount information attached thereto in the case where a discount applies to a communication charge for the information. The identifier and discount information are transferred to another information processing apparatus and registered in a storage unit. An information acquisition unit of the other information processing apparatus acquires the information identified by an identifier selected from the storage unit, via another connection system, and in the case where discount information has been attached to the selected identifier, receives a discount on a communication charge for acquiring the information. | 11-29-2012 |
20120316952 | STORYTELLING DELIVERY BASED ON REQUEST - A request may be received for information associated with at least one of a plurality of recorded audio stories that each include an audio recording of a human naturally telling a story. Transmission of a list of story attributes associated with the recorded audio story may be initiated. An indication of a story attribute selection associated with the list of story attributes may be received. A selection of one of the recorded audio stories may be initiated based on the indication of the story attribute selection associated with the list of story attributes. A sponsored item may be determined based on at least one of the request, the selected recorded audio story, or a current event. Transmission of the selected recorded audio story to a receiving device via a streaming transmission medium may be initiated. Transmission of the sponsored item to the receiving device may be initiated. | 12-13-2012 |
20120316953 | Reader Network System for Presence Management in a Physical Retail Environment - A customer relationship management system wirelessly detects presence and identity of a customer when the customer enters a business establishment. The system captures a visit pattern of the customer based on communication from the wireless device. A relevant marketing message for the customer is determined based on the customer's presence, visit pattern, identity, and location. The marketing message is delivered directly to a wireless device carried to the customer upon a subsequent entry of the customer to the business establishment. Responses of the customer (e.g., purchasing patterns, etc.) are stored for subsequent use in presenting relevant offers. | 12-13-2012 |
20120316954 | PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING EMAILED PROMOTIONS AND AT SELLER PREMISES TRANSACTION COMPLETION - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 12-13-2012 |
20120323671 | PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING EMAILED PROMOTIONS WITH TRANSACTION ACCOUNTING - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 12-20-2012 |
20120323672 | FEE BASED ADVERTISING SYSTEM SUPPORTING DUAL INPUT INTERFACES - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 12-20-2012 |
20120323673 | SALES PROMOTION SYSTEM WITH SECONDARY SALES SERVER SYSTEM - A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer's and merchant's coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity. | 12-20-2012 |
20120330745 | PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING SELLER PREMISES TRANSACTION COMPLETION - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 12-27-2012 |
20130006748 | DATA SAMPLING AND USAGE POLICIES FOR LEARNING AND PERSONALIZATION WITH PRIVACY - Various embodiments are described for systems and methods for facilitating data sharing between a user of a client device and an online service. The system may include a module configured to display a graphical display of data sharing specifications on the client device. The graphical display may include one or more user-adjustable privacy setting selectors configured to receive input of user-selected privacy level selections. Each of the privacy level selections may be associated with a report of the probability that data attributes will be captured and used and/or with other measures such as the size of the set of people that are identifiable from the revelation. Data attributes may include a data type, a data use purpose, a data use timeframe, and a data storage timeframe. The graphical display may further include a consent selector configured to receive consent from the user. | 01-03-2013 |
20130006749 | PROXIMITY BASED SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEMS AND METHODS - Social networking systems and methods including a server and a user device. The server includes memory and a server processor. The server processor is programmed with instructions to receive current geographic position data for each user, calculate an interaction zone for each user, cross reference the interaction zones for each user and identify users with current geographic positions within other users' interaction zones, and serve to a given user the user profiles of other users within the given interaction zone of the given user. The network capable device includes a display, a geographic positioning device, and a device processor. The device processor is programmed with instructions to upload current geographic position data of the given user to the server, receive user profile data corresponding to other users within the interaction zone of the given user, display the user profile data of the other users within the given user's interaction zone on the display, receive input from the given user to send a message to a selected other user, and send the message to the selected other user. | 01-03-2013 |
20130006750 | CONSUMER CREATED COUPONS - Apparatus and a method create on-line obtainable coupons. The apparatus includes at least a first server enabling communication with a first class of third party on-line communicators. The first server receives proposed content on coupons from the first class of third party communicators, such as consumers, vendees and service users. The first server posts a list of proposed coupons, with or without modification of the proposed coupons after receipt from the first class of third-party on-line communicators. The server then enables access to the server to a second class of third party communicators. The server allows members of the second third party communicators to approve or disapprove of proposed coupons that are dedicated to business. This approval may be based on response in the form of voting, requests, a tally of positive and negative comments, or any other indicator that shows consumer interest in a proposed coupon. | 01-03-2013 |
20130006751 | PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING EMAILED PROMOTIONS AND AT SELLER PREMISES TRANSACTION COMPLETION - An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. | 01-03-2013 |
20130006752 | SALES PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING COUPON LINK IN MULTI-SELLER ENVIRONMENT - A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer's and merchant's coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity. | 01-03-2013 |
20130006753 | SALES PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING A PLURALITY OF SELLERS - A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer's and merchant's coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity. | 01-03-2013 |
20130013391 | Dynamic Frequency Capping with Escalating Offers - There is disclosed a system and method for dynamic frequency capping with escalating offers. The method includes accessing a user identification system to uniquely identify a user and an offer database to identify an offer campaign to be presented to the user. The method then includes determining that the number of times that a first offer has been presented to the user has exceeded a threshold associated with the first offer or that the user has declined a first offer, accessing the offer database to identify an alternative offer to be presented to the user and presenting the alternative offer to the user. The alternative offer may represent enhanced value over the first offer. A counter is incremented in the offer database associated with a number of views of the alternative offer by the user. | 01-10-2013 |
20130024268 | INCENTIVIZING THE LINKING OF INTERNET CONTENT TO PRODUCTS FOR SALE - A method of establishing an association between a content item and an additional content item is disclosed, the content item published by a source that is external to a network-based publication system and the additional content item published by a source that is internal to the network-based publication system. A specification of an association between a portion of the content item and an additional content item is received. A product web tag is generated based on the specification of the association between the portion of the content item and the additional content item. A request is sent to share the product web tag on a server. | 01-24-2013 |
20130030904 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING AND USING A DIGITAL PASS - A system, method, and article of manufacture for generating a digital pass is disclosed. The method may comprise retrieving a plurality of identity attributes, and grouping a subset of identity attributes in the plurality of identity attributes to generate at least one digital pass. The method may further comprise grouping a subset of static identity attributes and a subset of dynamic identity attributes to generate a digital pass. | 01-31-2013 |
20130030905 | User-Initiated Boosting of Social Networking Objects - Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to allowing users of a social networking system to promote specific social networking objects in exchange for payment. In particular embodiments, promoted social networking objects may be exported to a sponsored story system for display in a sponsored story area of the promoting user's friends' home pages. In particular embodiments, the promoted social networking objects may be pinned for a predetermined amount of time, clicks, or impressions at the top of the news feeds for the first degree connections of the promoting user. | 01-31-2013 |
20130041747 | SYNCHRONIZED DIGITAL CONTENT SAMPLES - Aspects of the present disclosure relate to one or more configured computing systems identifying when decoupled content includes a companion content pair (e.g., a first content and a second content) that can be synchronously or interchangeably presented. Further, aspects of the present disclosure relate to providing a limited portion of at least one content item of a companion content pair, such as sample portions or trial use portions, and enabling playback of the limited portion synchronized with or as an alterative to the corresponding item of companion content. In some embodiments, a user may be enabled to acquire the complete content item either during or after consumption of the limited portion. | 02-14-2013 |
20130054345 | DATA MINING - A method, apparatus, computer-readable medium and system are disclosed for acquiring data with respect to a user. In some embodiments, a computational algorithm may determine whether to provide one or more products and/or services to a user. The products and/or services may be related to banking. In some embodiments, a device may receive a request for products/services. After an initial examination of the request, the device may make a determination that more information is needed. A request for the additional information may be transmitted, and the transmitted request may include one or more incentives for voluntarily disclosing the information. In some embodiments, the requested additional information may include verified income and/or expenses. A response to the request for additional information may be received at the device. The device may analyze the response and may extend an offer for products/services. The device may further include in the offer at least one incentive as a function of information included in the response. | 02-28-2013 |
20130054346 | PROVIDING HIPPA COMPLIANT TARGETED ADVERTISING TO PATIENT - A method for providing HIPAA and HITECH compliant targeted advertising to patients. The method including receiving information for posting and target audience criteria from a client entity, identifying, without disclosing any medical information to the client entity, a subset of patients which meet the received target audience criteria by searching the medical records of the plurality of patients, processing the information for the subset of patients, generating and sending an electronic message to the subset of patients identified by the identifying, which notifies the subset of patients that an opportunity exists and is accessible via a website, without specifically identifying the opportunity and in response to the completion of the processing, displaying a portion of the information to each of the subset of the patients which logs into the website and enabling a second portion of the information to be accessed in response to a selection on the website. | 02-28-2013 |
20130060627 | PROXIMITY-DEPENDENT SHOPPING OFFER - This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling a proximity-dependent shopping offer. In some embodiments, the techniques determine, based on information about a user of a mobile device, that the user is likely to be interested in a particular product. The techniques may also determine that the user is conveniently near to a store at which to purchase the product. By so doing, the techniques enable stores to target offers to a person that is likely to be interested in visiting the store. | 03-07-2013 |
20130066703 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS WHEREIN A CENTRAL HUB SELECTS OFFERS BASED ON PRODUCT INFORMATION FROM ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS - According to some embodiments, a central hub may establish a preference profile associated with a user, and the preference profile may include, for example at least some information not provided by the user. Catalogue data may then be exchanged between the central hub and a first and second retailer that store product information in association with a enterprise data management systems. The central hub may receive user information associated with the user (including location information) from a remote user device. Based on (i) the user information, (ii) the catalogue data from the first and second retailers, and (iii) a set of business rules established at the central hub, an offer may be selected and information about the selected offer may be transmitted to the remote user device. | 03-14-2013 |
20130066704 | SHOPPING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PROVIDING SAVINGS USING THE SAME - A savings system that utilizes a website on a server having an administrator that is implemented over an electronic network. The website has software that is able to electrically communicate with a plurality of consumers, product and service provider databases, and product manufacturer databases. Each of the plurality of consumers receive a card that provides consumer information to a database that is communicated to the website and based on the activity of the plurality of consumers or team of consumers savings and discounts are provided to an account. | 03-14-2013 |
20130073374 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COMBINED COUPON/GEOSPATIAL MAPPING/ COMPANY-LOCAL & SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS INFORMATION AND SOCIAL NETWORKING (C-GM-C/L&SC/I-SN) - Alternative computer based systems and methods are provided for mobile device, mobile banking, server and/or cloud based internet access to a geospatial website for a multidimensional representation of information and/or scalable versions of web content that comprises social networking and/or socially conscious information and/or activities, digital coupons and discounts, and multi-dimensional and scalable geospatial mapping associated with entities providing and/or members of the coupons and/or social networking. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073375 | NEAR-FIELD COMMUNICATION ENABLED WEARABLE APPAREL GARMENT AND METHOD TO CAPTURE GEOSPATIAL AND SOCIALLY RELEVANT DATA OF A WEARER OF THE WEARABLE APPAREL GARMENT AND/OR A USER OF A READER DEVICE ASSOCIATED THEREWITH - A method includes providing, through a server device, a number of wearable apparel garments to an entity and monitoring readings of near-field communication tags associated with the number of wearable apparel garments procured from the entity through a number of reader devices of a corresponding number of another human mammals. The method also includes transmitting a profile information of the human mammal wearing the wearable apparel garment to the reader device of the another human mammal and/or a geospatial information of the reader device to the server device configured to collect information from the number of reader devices. Further, the method includes obtaining, through the server device and/or another server device, information related to market intelligence based on the transmitted profile information and/or the geospatial information. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073376 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COMBINATION OF ONLINE COUPONS, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES WITH ADVERTISEMENTS, GEOSPATIAL MAPPING, RELATED COMPANY OR LOCAL INFORMATION, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING - Alternative computer based systems and methods are provided for online, server and/or cloud based internet access to online advertisements, auctions, products, services, service providers, media and entertainment, sports, personal & financial network, real estate, service providers and business owners e.g. for business services, healthcare services, specialty financial services, consumer products, specialty retail and media and entertainment, lenders, mortgage companies, social networking, online dating, gaming, retail stores, virtual communities and virtual goods, microloans or microcredit, humanitarian aid and support other worldly causes through charitable donations or sustainable gifts to those in need (collectively “Products & Services” as any product or service or subgroup thereof), in combination with geospatial website for a multidimensional representation of information and/or scalable versions of web content that comprises social networking and/or socially conscious information and/or activities, and social networking, on a three dimensional geospatial platform using multi-dimensional and scalable geospatial mapping associated with entities providing and/or members of the service and/or social networking. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073377 | MOBILE DEVICE SYSTEM AND METHOD PROVIDING 3D GEO-TARGET LOCATION-BASED MOBILE COMMERCE SEARCHING/PURCHASES, DISCOUNTS/COUPONS PRODUCTS, GOODS, AND SERVICES, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING - Mobile device based systems and methods are provided for combined delivery system that will allow shoppers to search and pay for their purchases, redeem coupons and earn reward points via the web or a mobile device or portable device to engage in social networking integration & mobile: services, payment, wallet, express checkout, money transfer, social media widgets, keywords, coupons, instant messaging marketing, voting, eCards, short codes, commerce, shopping, push content, geo-mobile, and geo-social services (collectively referred to as “Mobile Services”) with access to advertisements, daily deal coupons and free or discounted printable coupons, products & services, clickable advertisements & mobile advertisements by geo-target location from merchants, business owners, B2B business directory, retailers and major brands around the world, in combination with geospatial website for a multidimensional representation of information and/or scalable versions of web content associated with entities providing and/or members of the service and/or social networking. | 03-21-2013 |
20130080242 | Networked Profiling And Multimedia Content Targeting System - A computer implemented method and system for dynamically profiling users for incentivized targeting of multimedia content to the users in a networked environment is provided. A server creates an advertiser network comprising advertisers and member websites, and creates a user network of users. The advertisers submit the multimedia content, advertising information, and targeting criteria to the server. The server and one or more publisher websites acquire marketing data from the users for creating dynamic user profiles for the users. The server and/or the publisher websites target the multimedia content to the users based on the created dynamic user profiles. The server and/or a client device of each of the users confirm viewing of the multimedia content using a challenge, random in content. The server and/or the publisher websites compensate the users by crediting the users with items of value based on confirmation of the viewing of the multimedia content. | 03-28-2013 |
20130085836 | METHOD FOR UNRESTRICTED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN USERS IN A SOCIAL MEDIUM OR NETWORK - A method allows participants of a social medium or network to unrestricted communication with each other (i.e., without first requiring a pre-established connection or relationship between the communicating participants), without an unacceptable risk of unwanted or unwelcomed communications. The method includes (a) allocating to each member an allocation of community currency units; (b) representing all members of the community in a graph in which each member is represented as a node and established relationships among the members are represented as edges; and (c) when a first member initiates an electronic communication with a second member, (i) evaluating a cost of the electronic communication by a measure that takes into consideration available paths in the graph that exist between the first member and the second member, (ii) modifying the cost of the electronic communication according to a set of pre-determined factors; (iii) deducting from the first member's allocation of community currency units the modified cost of the electronic communication; and (iv) effectuating the electronic communication. | 04-04-2013 |
20130091006 | Communication System For Controlling Network Access Through Access Point By Using Advertisement - Provided is a communication system and method that may control a network access through an access point (AP) using an advertisement. The communication system may include an advertisement server to maintain an advertisement database (DB), and an internet sharer to control an access by a terminal to a network. The internet sharer may receive an advertisement from the advertisement server so as to provide the advertisement to the terminal when a request for a network access is received from the terminal, and may allow the terminal to access the network when the advertisement is executed in the terminal. | 04-11-2013 |
20130097005 | ONLINE TECHNIQUES FOR SELLING GROUP COMBO COUPONS - Techniques for providing group discounts are described. A group discount package is configured by associating a plurality of different items with the package, associating a discount price with each item, and associating a threshold value with at least one item. One or more actions that have corresponding threshold values may also be associated with the package. The group discount package may be offered by enabling users to request to purchase items associated with the package. Each user may request to purchase one or more of the items associated with the package at the associated discount price. Furthermore, the users may be enabled to perform any actions associated with the package. A deal with the package is confirmed when each associated threshold value is met. | 04-18-2013 |
20130097006 | ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION SYSTEM WITH ENTITLEMENT AND PROMOTION ENGINES - A system for selling and administering the redemption of travel site access and other privileges to consumers has a computer connected to the Internet that pushes and pulls data to and from a database including site and privilege data, such as, description, cost, purchases, access code, privilege redemption and promotion data. The consumer may purchase access to sites and goods over the Internet and are provided with an access code which can be presented to the consumer in a variety of forms in accordance with the consumer's preference. In one embodiment, the code is sent to a mobile phone or computer. Optionally, the mobile device can communicate with a point of sale device to allow access to a given site. The mobile device may also be used to send promotions, such as discounts, to the consumer, which may be programmatically selected and sent based upon logistical, empirical, timing and marketing criteria. Point of sale devices and human representatives may facilitate non-technical consumer use by conducting selected functions, such as the sale and redemption of privileges and the communication of promotions. | 04-18-2013 |
20130103488 | Gas nozzle advertising platform - An advertising device is provided which can be affixed to a nozzle for dispensing liquid products, such as a gasoline dispensing nozzle of a gasoline pump. This advertising device has a display platform and means for releasable attachment to the gasoline pump nozzle. The information depicted upon the advertising platform can included both text and graphic information, the latter being scannable by a smart phone or comparable device, to thereby direct the customer to the web site of the advertiser. | 04-25-2013 |
20130110613 | ADVERTISEMENT SYSTEM FOR INDEPENDENT SERVICE PROVIDERS | 05-02-2013 |
20130117096 | Internet Protocol Multi-Media System Value Voucher Distribution with Network Storage and Redemption - A system and method may comprise providing, via a computing device, a connection link to an end user device having a network connectivity access network element; extracting, via an advertisement server, an offer of a value voucher unique to the end user from a database connected to the advertisement server and presenting, through the end user device, an offer of the value voucher to the end user; receiving, via the computing device, from the end user an acceptance of the value voucher; and storing the value voucher in a coupon database in an Internet accessible coupon storage locker unique to the end user. | 05-09-2013 |
20130117097 | ADVERTISING OFFERS USING SOCIAL NETWORKS - Systems, methods, and computer-readable media that may be used to present advertisements to a first user based on the first user's interactions with one or more other users are provided. One method includes transmitting an electronic advertisement to a user computing device. The electronic advertisement includes an invitation for the user to receive a non-cash benefit in return for allowing an advertiser associated with the electronic advertisement access to one or more aspects of an account of the user on a social network. The method further includes receiving an indication that the user has accepted the invitation for the non-cash benefit, performing an action on behalf of the advertiser relating to the account of the user on the social network and providing a confirmation message to the user indicating that the non-cash benefit will be provided. | 05-09-2013 |
20130117098 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXTRACTING OFFERS FROM A MARKETING COMMUNICATION - An improved system and method for generating offers from marketing communications is provided. Marketing communications, including marketing emails, may be received, and offer information may be extracted from the marketing communications. A marketing message retrieved may be parsed to identify and extract offer information including the brand, headline text, description, and other content. Offers may be generated from the offer information extracted from the marketing communications, and may be stored in persistent storage for serving to users of an online offer service through a variety of user interfaces. In various embodiments, messages identified from recognized brands may be presented in a graphical user interface for a user to read with messages from unrecognized brands. Furthermore, either the message or an offer generated from a message may be displayed in various embodiments through a variety of user interfaces where its relevance may be specified by a user's interests. | 05-09-2013 |
20130117099 | SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING OFFER GROUPS TO CURATE PROMOTIONAL OFFERS - An improved system and method of providing offer groups to curate an offer list of promotional offers from multiple offer sources in an online service is provided. Components for offer groups support operations accessible through a graphical use interface for creating, editing, joining, and searching for offer groups, as well as curating and viewing offers of offer groups. Such operations may be governed according to rules of membership of an offer group, roles of members of an offer group, rules of visibility of an offer group, and rules of curating promotional offers for the list of promotional offers of the offer group. A user may create an offer group which others may join to participate in curating offers of interest to the group. Or users may identify and join offer groups of interest to browse curated lists of promotional offers pertaining to those interests. | 05-09-2013 |
20130144708 | System and Method for Instant Deals in a Mobile Communication Network - Systems and methods are provided to transmit deals, promotions and other manner of advertisements and offers to users of mobile devices that are relevant to the users' current location and intent. Users' current intent includes actions the user is likely to take in the near future, such as, for example, purchase a specific product or service. Users' probable intent is inferred from activities performed by users on their mobile devices such as, for example, user queries relating to products and services. Businesses set up offers that are directed to specific geospatial locations and specific user intent. When a user enters a geospatial location associated with an offer and manifests intent associated with the offer, the offer is transmitted to the user's mobile device. | 06-06-2013 |
20130151329 | MARKETING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DIRECTING CUSTOMER FOOTFALL - Disclosed is a method of marketing to a prospective customer comprises: creating an offer for submittal to the prospective customer; enabling the prospective customer to access and retrieve at least one of a coupon, a barcode, a data matrix code, a partial numbering sequence, and a password related to the offer; and accepting, from the prospective customer, at least one of the coupon, the barcode, the data matrix code, the partial numbering sequence, and the password at a pre-designated validation site. | 06-13-2013 |
20130173378 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ADAPTIVE MARKETING USING INTERACTIVE FEEDBACK - The invention provides systems and methods of adaptive marketing based on interactive feedback from one or more participants. In particular, a system for adaptive marketing, comprising a participant access device, at least one data management devices, a communication means between the participant access device and the at least one data management device, and one or more sub-platforms for facilitating at least one participant interaction with the system. The one or more sub-platforms may include an Advertising sub-platform, a Redemption sub-platform, an Offer sub-platform, a Social Media sub-platform, and an Education sub-platform. Also included are methods for adapting marketing. The methods include identifying characteristics of a participant, trending the identifying characteristics, and adapting marketing materials based on the trends. The invention provides methods for distributing offers for goods or services including driving viral interactions with an integrated system. | 07-04-2013 |
20130185139 | System, Method and Computer Program Product for Compensating Web Users for Viewing Targeted Ads - A method for matching consumers and advertisements over a network includes matching demographic traits provided by the consumers with demographic targets provided by advertisers. Upon receiving a request for a consumer through a website of a web content provider, the central server provides the requesting consumer with a user interface that includes a slide-bar icon with which the requesting consumer can share a portion of the compensation it will receive for viewing that advertisement with the content provider. | 07-18-2013 |
20130191205 | System and method for electronic retrieval and redemption of coupons - A system and method for retrieving and redeeming product coupons, including the following steps: a) Offering a Web-based coupon retrieval and redemption application for downloading onto a compatible registered mobile device, preferably a mobile phone; b) Once the Web-based application has been downloaded and activated, receiving a coupon prompt from the mobile phone device for at least one item of interest at the store; c) Searching a system database of the Web-based application for at least one coupon corresponding to the item; d) Retrieving and forwarding the coupon to the mobile phone device in response to the coupon prompt at the store; e) Displaying the coupon in a display window of the mobile phone device; and f) Upon selection of the coupon, initiating a system for redeeming the coupon at the store. | 07-25-2013 |
20130191206 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RATING THE VALUE OF ELECTRONIC OFFERS - Methods and systems for providing a value rating for discount coupon offers. | 07-25-2013 |
20130197991 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO PROCESS PAYMENTS BASED ON PAYMENT DEALS - In one aspect, an account identifier is associated with a deal purchased by a user from a deal site. The deal has a face value applicable to a transaction with a predetermined merchant, if the transaction satisfies one or more predetermined criteria. The user pays the deal site an amount smaller than the face value. When the account identifier is used at a transaction terminal to initiate a payment transaction, a transaction handler determines whether the payment transaction satisfies the one or more predetermined criteria; and if so, the transaction handler provides the transaction terminal with an authorization response identifying the remaining balance, which is determined by deducting the face value from the payment transaction. The account identifier may be a one-time account number generated specifically for the deal purchased by the user, or an account number of the user used to purchase the deal from the deal site. | 08-01-2013 |
20130218660 | Networked Incentive System - Incentive systems and methods on computer servers in a communication network, including components such as a user data component configured to receive and store user profile and activity information, a goal page module configured to generate a user interface to allow users of the incentive system to input a goal or need and an associated incentive. A distributor engine configured to allow users to cause the posting of the goal page to a plurality of communication platforms. An opportunity processor configured to process solution opportunities received in response to the posting. A bounty fulfillment module configured to allow the selection of solution opportunities, and a payment system configured to collect a fund based on the associated incentive and distribute the fund based on the selection solution opportunities. | 08-22-2013 |
20130218661 | Networked Solution Opportunity Reward - Incentive systems and methods on computer servers in a communication network, including components such as a goal page module configured to generate an electronic posting on the communication network, where the posting is based on information received from a posting user. Also the received information could include a description of a goal or need. A bounty system module configured to associate an incentive with the posting, the incentive being for a successful submission of a solution opportunity in response to the posting. A distributor engine module configured to disseminate the posting, and a bounty fulfillment module configured to receive solution opportunities from the second user and allow selection of solution opportunities from any received solution opportunity. Further a payment system module configured to associate the selected solution opportunity with recipients and award the incentive to the recipients. | 08-22-2013 |
20130218662 | Reward Creation - Computer-implemented systems and methods for creating a reward on computer servers in a communication network, including generating an electronic posting, based on information received from a posting user, where the received information includes a description of a goal or need. Then associating an incentive with the posting, the incentive being for a successful submission of a solution opportunity in response to the posting. Next, disseminating the posting including information about the incentive to at least one communication platform on the network and causing a display of the disseminated posting in display units. And in response to the posting, receiving at least one solution opportunity from users and allowing a selection of solution opportunities from any received solution opportunity. Then associating, the selected solution opportunity with at least one recipient, and awarding the incentive to the recipient. | 08-22-2013 |
20130226688 | CROWD FUNDING SYSTEM - A method and system to help fund projects, such as business ventures, charitable causes, and those generally in financial need, by providing a website where viewers can browse projects, select projects to fund, and donate money, or goods and services to fund the project. In the spirit of giving, the creator of a new project may also be required to make a donation or pledge to an existing project in order to have the new project published. | 08-29-2013 |
20130246159 | METHODS FOR AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED THIRD PARTY SALES INCENTIVES REDEEMABLE VIA A MOBILE DEVICE - The present invention provides methods and apparatus for providing and redeeming Purchase Incentive Artifacts via a mobile device and independent of a vendor point of sale system. The Purchase Incentive may be used to encourage a Purchaser to make a Purchase. | 09-19-2013 |
20130254012 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING DISCOUNT INFORMATION - A system and method for using a discount display system are provided in which a plurality of purchase option screens are displayed to a user. For each discount-eligible item identifier selected by the user, the price of the item is added to the user's total, the current discount available to the user is recalculated and the updated discount is displayed to the user. | 09-26-2013 |
20130275203 | WEB-BASED SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELLING A REPLACEMENT SUPPLY ITEM BASED ON THE SALES CHANNEL OF THE ORIGINAL ITEM - A method for selling a replacement supply item according to one embodiment includes in response to a scan of an encoded uniform resource identifier provided on a supply item, identifying a product type and a source type of the scanned supply item. A web page specific to the identified product type of the scanned supply item is then displayed that facilitates ordering the replacement supply item. The displayed web page varies depending on the identified source type of the scanned supply item. | 10-17-2013 |
20130275204 | Gift Card Mall in the Home - Systems and methods for distributing and activating gift cards and advertising so as to provide a gift card mall in the home of a gift giver are described. The system can include a unitary single-sheet form, a package envelope, an activation system, a delivery system, and a redemption system. The system can also include a publication. A plurality of the forms can be inserted into the package envelope for delivery to the gift giver. The gift giver can select one or more of the gift cards for activation and delivery to a gift recipient. The gift recipient can then redeem the activated gift received from the gift giver for a redemption item sold or provided by a retailer, service provider, or manufacturer. The redemption item can be a good, service, or money. The redemption item can be purchased at an online shopping mall, by telephone, or in a retail store. | 10-17-2013 |
20130282475 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NOTIFYING AND PROVIDING A COUPON USING SNS INFORMATION - The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a coupon by using SNS information or providing a notification message related to the coupon. More specifically, the present invention rotates to a system and method for providing a coupon or providing a notification message to a receiver by inputting an SNS account or a relation of the receiver, or by inputting location information for using the coupon. | 10-24-2013 |
20130297402 | CONTEXTUAL APPLICATION TRACKING - System and method for trackable applications including an application providing unit, a controller, and an incentive tracker. The application providing unit is adapted to send a trackable application upon request. The controller is adapted to receive interactions from the trackable application. The incentive tracker is adapted to select an incentive based on the interaction data. The controller is further adapted to send the selected incentive to the trackable application. | 11-07-2013 |
20130297403 | MARKETING BASED DISCOUNTS AND LOCAL HEAT CLOUDS - The present invention discloses methods, systems, and technologies leveraging the capabilities of digital device, e-commerce, and social media technologies to expand the product choices and price options available to each purchaser of a product or service, while also increasing the marketing capabilities and general product awareness of creative content in both physical and digital environments. | 11-07-2013 |
20130311267 | METHODS FOR AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING USER SPECIFIC GUIDANCE - The present invention provides methods and apparatus for associating Emotional Motivators with a Product. The Emotional Motivators associated with the Products are correlated with Emotional Motivators associated with a Purchaser. Advice regarding a Purchase may be provided based upon the correlated Emotional Motivators. | 11-21-2013 |
20130332258 | SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIA FOR A CUSTOMIZABLE REDEMPTION HEADER FOR MERCHANT OFFERS ACROSS BROWSER INSTANCES - Systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for a customizable redemption header for merchant offers, such as online coupons, across browser instances are provided. In some embodiments, a user may open a merchant website in a first browser instance executing on a user device. An offers website may provide offers, such as online coupons, in a second browser instance executing on a user device. When a user selects an offer, an offer identifier may be stored in a browser-accessible storage device. The modification to the browser-accessible storage may be detected and a customizable redemption header having an offer redemption identifier, e.g., a coupon code, and instructions may be provided on the merchant webpage in response to the detection. Additionally, the customizable redemption header may provide user feedback requests upon submission of the coupon code. | 12-12-2013 |
20130346181 | CO-BRANDED INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER AND RETAILER INTERNET SERVICE SITE WITH RETAILER-OFFERED INCENTIVES FOR MEMBER USE - A method for a retailer having an Internet shopping website to sell merchandise over the Internet. The method includes using a retailer server computer to manage access to the Internet shopping website of the retailer including providing members access to the Internet shopping website of the retailer via a co-branded Internet site primarily relating to non-retail activities of a first entity, wherein the members are subscribers of the co-branded Internet site. Using the retailer server computer further includes providing members with a discount on any purchases made using the Internet shopping website only when the members access the Internet shopping website via the co-branded Internet site. Providing members with the discount includes taking the discount off a price charged for any purchases made using the Internet shopping website only when the members access the Internet shopping website via the co-branded Internet site. | 12-26-2013 |
20140012655 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PURCHASING WITH A DISCOUNT IN EXCHANGE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING - A method of receiving discounts in exchange for social media advertising for items in a store, including, finding an item of interest at a store by a customer with a mobile device that is configured to execute a discount application; wherein an item code is displayed on or near the item; entering the item code into the mobile device; communicating the item code to a remote server computer to retrieve information about the item; retrieving the information about the item from the server, wherein the information includes one or more discount options that are provided responsive to publication of the item in a social network in which the customer participates; storing the information about the item and the discount options in a list that is accessible by the mobile device. | 01-09-2014 |
20140012656 | Digital Self Service Coupon, Discount Deal And Weekly Ad Application Software Platform - “Self-Service Digital Coupon, Discount Deal and Weekly Ad Publishing and Management Method” is a method or process that in practice is to be used as a software design logic or algorithm, to develop a custom publishing computer software, integrated with a web server and database server for an end to end solution. All solution components for the applied method use an industry standard web server, database server and web development technologies. A user accesses the custom publishing software via a standard web browser, through the web site, to create or manage their digital coupon, discount deal or weekly ad as a self-service solution. This creation and management method uses a pre-built template gallery, eliminating the need for any third party tools, software or human interaction. The integrated web server, database server and custom publishing software process the user requests and instantly publish them to the web site for immediate availability to any internet users. | 01-09-2014 |
20140012657 | CLEARINGHOUSE FOR ELECTRONIC COUPONS - A clearinghouse for electronic coupons is provided to enable retailers to submit electronic coupons for redemption. A clearinghouse for electronic coupons can provide an application programming interface that retailers can use to interface their computer systems, such as a point of sale system, with the clearinghouse. The application programming interface allows retailers to submit electronic coupons for redemption automatically from the retailers' own computer systems thereby minimizing the overhead of accepting and redeeming electronic coupons. The clearinghouse can provide immediate notifications of the validity of a coupon or of the manufacturer's agreement to reimburse the value of the coupon. | 01-09-2014 |
20140019225 | MULTI-CHANNEL, SELF-LEARNING, SOCIAL INFLUENCE-BASED INCENTIVE GENERATION - A social networking action by a user within a social networking website that positively references a marketplace offering of an entity is detected by a processor. In response to detecting the social networking interaction by the user, a social networking influence of the user is determined based upon entity interactions by social network connections of the user with the entity by a number of entity access channels of the entity. A determination is made as to whether the determined social networking influence of the user satisfies a reward threshold defined within a social networking influence incentive rule. In response to determining that the determined social networking influence of the user satisfies the incentive threshold defined within the social networking influence incentive rule, an incentive defined within the social networking influence incentive rule is generated for the user. | 01-16-2014 |
20140019226 | SOCIAL NETWORK LIMITED OFFER DISTRIBUTION - Technologies related to social network limited offer distribution are generally described. In some examples, a limited number of root participants may be allowed to claim an offer, and the offer may be limited to branch participants connected in a social network to the root participants and/or other branch participants in the limited offer. Participants in the limited offer and connections there between may be stored as a limited offer social network graph for use in subsequent marketing efforts. In the absence of social network graph information, participant contact information may be gathered and used to build a social network graph. | 01-16-2014 |
20140025476 | System and method for a game involving the production and transmitting of live performances of selected behaviors - In a method for producing a transmission of a live performance of a selected behavior, a potential participant in a live performance is identified. An image of the potential applicant is posted on a website and associated with at least one behavior. One or more on-line viewers of the website then provide a contribution to a pool from which a reward is to be provided upon performance of at least one specified behavior specified. The potential participant is prompted to perform at least one specified behavior specified, and a reward is associated with each suggested behavior. A live view of a performance by the potential participant of at least one specified behavior is transmitted to the website, at which point the potential participant becomes an actual participant in the live performance. The actual participant is then provided with a reward associated with the performed specified behavior. | 01-23-2014 |
20140025477 | Incenting Answer Quality - Methods, computer program products, and systems are described for online content management. Online content in the form of answer sets are exposed to a user posing a question to a question and answer service. The question and answer service causes an award amount to be debited from an account associated with the user. The question and answer service receives a user input that (i) selects one or more answers from the answer set, and (ii) specifies a distribution of a portion of the award amount among the selected answers. | 01-23-2014 |
20140040005 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVELY PROVIDING VIRTUAL BOUNCE BACK COUPONS - A system for providing virtual coupons to a customer illustratively includes a database having a plurality of virtual coupons stored therein, a virtual coupon repository associated with the customer, and a virtual coupon module to transfer a sequence of selected ones of the plurality of virtual coupons stored in the database to the virtual coupon repository, and to sequentially activate for redemption by the customer each successive virtual coupon in the sequence after a preceding virtual coupon in the sequence has been redeemed by the customer. | 02-06-2014 |
20140046751 | Method and System for Displaying Content on a Display of a Client - Methods, systems, and techniques for providing a benefit in response to being allowed to display content include, for example, displaying, on a portion of the display, a desktop; displaying the content on another portion of the display unoccupied by the desktop; and providing a benefit in exchange for displaying the content. In one example, the content may be advertisements and the benefit may be access to a network such as the Internet. | 02-13-2014 |
20140067515 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRICING ELECTRONIC CONTENT ITEMS - Techniques for facilitating transactions for electronic content items are described. Some embodiments provide a media marketplace system that provides a marketplace for electronic content items, such as songs, videos, electronic books, and the like. In some embodiments, the media marketplace system facilitates group purchase discount transactions. A group discount transaction provides for the sale of an electronic content item at a discounted price if a sufficient number of buyers indicate a willingness to purchase the electronic content item at the discounted price within a limited time period. | 03-06-2014 |
20140067516 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF INCENTIVIZED ADVERTISING - Exemplary embodiments of methods and systems of incentivized advertising are presented. A content identifier identifying a digital content item, such as a song, is displayed on a user computing device. The digital content item is typically of the type available for a purchase price by the general public. A selection icon is provided in visual association with the content identifier. If the icon is selected by the user, an advertisement media item, such as a video advertisement, is presented on the user computing device. If the advertisement media item is presented for at least a requisite ad impression period, the digital content item is imparted to the user for free. Follow-up ad engagement views are typically presented to the user with a button to redeem the earned digital content item. Administrator and server elements are configured to facilitate performance of the method, and to optimize efficient use of advertiser's budget. | 03-06-2014 |
20140074583 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPERATING A WEBSITE - The present invention includes a social networking system wherein the users may be broadly categorized as payor users or payee users. Payor users are generally individuals or students, while payee users generally businesses or charities. Each user in the social networking system of the present invention is associated with financial data. The financial data is thereafter used to facilitate commercial transactions and transfer donations within the social networking system between users, generally from a payee user to a payor user. The payor user is not required to enter financial data or log in to an additional system to facilitate the transaction. The transaction is facilitated entirely within the constructs of the social networking system. Pursuant to this, payee users may add products and services to their associated profiles to vend their products and services from within the social networking system. | 03-13-2014 |
20140074584 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO IDENTIFY AND VALIDATE COUPON CODES - Methods and systems are disclosed which facilitate identification and validation of coupon codes. An example system includes a processor to receive a trigger to initiate a coupon code query based at least in part on a website being viewed. The example system includes a validation engine to search and retrieve coupon codes. The example validation engine is to apply one or more identified coupon codes to a target website to determine validity of each identified coupon code. The example processor is to dynamically provide one or more validated coupon codes to a user in conjunction with the website being viewed. | 03-13-2014 |
20140074585 | METHOD FOR PERSONALLY CURATING AN OFFER LIST - An improved system and method for personally curating an offer list of promotional offers from multiple offer sources in an online service is provided. Components for personally curated offer lists support operations accessible through a graphical use interface for creating, editing, sharing, and updating personally curated offer lists, as well as curating and viewing offers of the offer lists. A user may author and manage a personal list of promotional offers curated from multiple offer sources, such as brands, product types, places, deal clubs, shopping pals, and offer lists. The personally curated offer list may be shared with others such as shopping pals who may have similar interests. New offers may be added to the personally curated offer list, and the present invention may further notify others with whom the list is shared of such updates to the offer list. | 03-13-2014 |
20140095291 | MEDIA DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - A media distribution system ( | 04-03-2014 |
20140100943 | On-Line Advertising with Social Pay - In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an indication of a reward-generating event associated with an advertisement. The reward-generating event includes an action by a user in response to the advertisement being presented to the user. The method also includes determining based at least in part on the action by the user a reward to allocate to the user for the reward-generating event. | 04-10-2014 |
20140108125 | SYSTEMS AND/OR METHODS FOR DEFLECTING PRODUCT RETURNS - Certain example embodiments relate to techniques that seek to reduce the likelihood of a customer actually returning a product. Information about a product presented in connection a return transaction (and optionally the reason why the product is being presented) is received. A determination whether an award should be generated for the customer in exchange for the customer not returning the product under an applicable return policy is made. The award, with a calculated award amount, is presented for the customer, in exchange for the customer giving up the right to actually return the product under the applicable return policy. The determination that the award should be generated for the customer and the calculation of the award amount each are based on a set of one or more rules that are electronically applicable to at least some of the received information. | 04-17-2014 |
20140114739 | Method And System For Providing Digital Coupons in a Social Business Network - A company's coupons or advertisements can be posted on a social business network. A company needs to be registered first with the social business network before it can post its coupons and advertisements; while a consumer can view the coupons and advertisements freely with no requirement of registration. The company can either fill a coupon request form to make the network to generate a coupon for it, or create a coupon themselves and then upload it to the network. The registered company can also post its advertisement. Before anything is posted on the website, it will be reviewed to make sure its content is appropriate. The method also allows a company to purchase a time slot to use a live video screen for marketing. | 04-24-2014 |
20140122217 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING DIGITAL BUNDLES OF SERVICES - Systems and methods are disclosed for bundling digital services for users. In accordance with one implementation, a method comprises storing, in a memory device, information related to a set of digital services, the set digital services being implemented by a plurality of different service providers. The method also includes aggregating, based on the stored information, the set of digital services into a bundle and providing, to a user, access to the bundle of digital services through a graphical user interface. The method may also include generating, with at least one processor, a set of tokens, each token associating the user with at least one digital service in the bundle. Additionally, the method may include providing at least one token, from the set of tokens, to one of the plurality of different service providers in order to activate one of the digital services for the user. | 05-01-2014 |
20140122218 | GENERATING TARGETED GROUP BASED OFFERS TO INCREASE SALES - A method, system and computer program product for increasing the sales of a retailer. A unit, referred to herein as the “retailer promotions device,” generates a group offer for a set of users/customers to purchase a product based on intelligent analytics (e.g., real-time attributes/dynamics such as the strategy in selling the remaining inventory). A group offer refers to an offer to sell a product at a promotional price if a number of users (e.g., users of mobile devices and/or customers online and/or customers in a physical store) agree to purchase the product at the promotional price within a time period. The group offer is sent to targeted users/customers via online and mobile devices as well as via electronic displays and kiosks in the physical store. By using real-time attributes/dynamics to generate group offers that can be sent to targeted users/customers, the sales of the retailer are likely to be increased. | 05-01-2014 |
20140129317 | GENERATING LEADS FOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES VIA AN ACTIVITY STREAM - Techniques for generating leads for a company's products and/or services are presented. A message publishing module provides a means for specifying different member-interest buttons to be presented in connection with messages published to the activity or content streams of members of a social network service, where such messages relate to specific products and/or services of a company. The social network service detects which members interact or select the various member-interest buttons, and in connection with which specific products and services. This information is then provided to authorized administrators or representatives of the company, and made available as member-targeting criteria for targeting members with subsequent messages. | 05-08-2014 |
20140136312 | LOCATION-BASED CONTENT DELIVERY - This disclosure describes systems and methods related to location-based content delivery. Data from one or more indoor position system (IPS) beacons may be received. A location for a user device may be determined based at least in part on the received data. Content, such as advertisements, may be retrieved based at least in part on the location of the user device. A notification generated based at least in part on the content may be transmitted to the user device. | 05-15-2014 |
20140149203 | TARGETED ADVERTISING SYSTEM AND METHODS - Systems and methods are provided for serving targeted advertisements over a communications network and motivating users to view the advertisements by compensating the users after they view an advertisement and verify that they are human and have viewed the advertisement. The targeting is based on target information provided by an advertiser being compared with user information provided by a user who is registered and logged into the system. | 05-29-2014 |
20140156378 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TASK-BASED DECREASING PRICE MARKETS - Embodiments of task-based, decreasing-price markets enable dynamic discounting of items for sale. In one example, users shop for products (e.g., clothing, electronics, or cars) or services (e.g., hotel rooms, plane tickets, or car rentals) using a computing device or mobile device. As the users shop, they view advertisements or perform other tasks, like answering questions, and the system discounts an item's price based on the number or complexity of the performed tasks. Each user who performs a task gets a chance to buy the item at its discounted price. The other users also get a chance to buy the item at the discounted price. If someone buys the item, the item's price returns to its starting value. If nobody buys the item, the system discounts the item's price further as the users perform more tasks until someone buys the item or the item's price reaches a minimum value. | 06-05-2014 |
20140164093 | SYSTEM AND METHOD TO MANAGE AND PUBLISH PROMOTIONS ELECTRONICALLY - A system and method to find, manage, access and share promotions, such as daily deals and gift cards, electronically is disclosed. The promotions may be in hardcopy (physical) or digital media. The system and method include generating data from promotions, storing that data on a cloud server, and having that data accessible to users with an electronic device, such as a mobile phone, tablet, or computer. The promotion data is indexed and organized based on any one of a user's preferences so that the user can easily retrieve and redeem his promotions. Also disclosed is a system and method for targeted promotion marketing, including a targeting algorithm to provide advertisers information such as offer usage and user demographics. Personalized offers or promotions may be made to users based on a plurality of factors including consumer behavior, preferences, promotion usage, stores and websites shopped at, and geographic location of a user or merchant. | 06-12-2014 |
20140172539 | MEDIA STATION WITH CUSTOM BUMPER - Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for providing a custom bumper within a media station. A custom bumper can be created using gathered bumper creation data and a bumper template. Bumper creation data can be any data regarding the media station and can be used to populate an appropriate bumper template. The populated template is a completed custom bumper customized based on the bumper creation data. Further, rewards can be awarded to encourage desired user interactions. Upon a determination that a desired user interaction has occurred a predetermined number of times, a reward can be awarded. The reward can be making available a previously unavailable media item. Bumper creation data indicating the remaining number of times the user interaction has to be performed to achieve the reward to be awarded can be used to create a custom bumper. | 06-19-2014 |
20140188592 | CONTENT RECOGNITION BASED EVALUATION SYSTEM IN A MOBILE ENVIRONMENT - According to a preferred aspect of the instant invention, there is provided a system for an evaluation system based on content recognition in a mobile environment. Content, preferably audio content is recorded by the instant invention. This content is identified and the identification information is transmitted to a remote server. This remote server transfer specific gratifications based on the received identification information to the mobile device, with a particular leveling system providing additional gratifications when a predetermined number or type of content has been recorded and identified. | 07-03-2014 |
20140195327 | Mobile Communication and Coupon-Pushing System and Method - A system and method for providing discount coupons to a customer in a business establishment such as a restaurant. A control server associated with the business establishment is configured to communicate over a wireless communication link with a mobile telecomputing device, such as a smart phone, of the customer. The control server enables the customer to request services utilizing the customer's smart phone. The control server sends the discount coupons to the customer's mobile telecomputing device proactively or in response to customer or waiter requests. | 07-10-2014 |
20140200985 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR USE WITH CODES THAT MAY BE REDEEMED FOR VALUE - Some embodiments of the invention enable users to manage codes which may be redeemed for value. For example, some embodiments provide systems and methods for automatically identifying a code communicated to a user which is redeemable for value, and adding the code to an inventory maintained for the user. When the user later shops at a site which allows a code to be redeemed for value, some embodiments of the invention may automatically detect when the user has navigated to a page on the site which allows redemption of the code, and may make the user aware that the code may be redeemed on the page. If the user opts to redeem the code, the field on the page into which the code is to be input may be automatically identified, and the code may be automatically input into that field. | 07-17-2014 |
20140207557 | ONLINE BARTERING SERVICE - The disclosure is related to providing an online bartering service. The online bartering service may include registering a trading coupon of first user equipment in response to a registration request from the first user equipment, providing information on a list of candidate coupons to the first user equipment based on information on the trading coupon of the first user equipment, receiving a trading offer message with information on a selected candidate coupon from the first user equipment and transmitting the trading offer message to second user equipment having the selected candidate coupon, and automatically processing a difference between the trading coupon and the selected candidate coupon in connection with associated virtual accounts upon receiving a trading acceptance message from the second user equipment. | 07-24-2014 |
20140214522 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING ONLINE EVENTS - Exemplary embodiments of a method and system for providing an online event that can be customizable are provided. In some examples, a method can be provided including the steps of configuring a server to allow one or more users access to an online event having a specific date and time, configuring the server to allow a third party to provide event information to the one or more users related to the online event, and providing the event information from the third party to the one or more users regarding the online event at the specific date and time. | 07-31-2014 |
20140214523 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE PRESENTATION OF ADVERTISEMENTS - A system and method for the presentation of advertisements is present. According to one embodiment, a number of impressions of an advertisement message are presented over a computer network such as the Internet to a variety of viewer computers. Depending on the actions taken by the viewers (e.g., whether the Viewer selects the advertising message and accesses a web-link to the advertiser's web-site), bonus exposure (e.g., an additional number of impressions provided to the viewers) of the advertising message is given. | 07-31-2014 |
20140222547 | PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON USER INFORMATION FROM A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social networking system requests a customizable product from a retailer. The retailer accesses social information associated with one or more additional users connected to the social networking system users and generates recommendations for options to customize the customizable product based on the social information associated with the additional users. When the social networking system orders a customizable product using one of the recommended options, the social networking system is notified and generates a story describing the purchase that is communicated to the additional users of the social networking system. | 08-07-2014 |
20140236704 | INCENTIVIZED MEDIA DELIVERY BASED ON AN EXTERNAL FACTOR - Various example embodiments relate to incentivized media delivery. In example embodiments, a media delivery device has access to a plurality of media. The device may receive an external factor from each of a plurality of remote devices. In response, the device may select media from the media storage based on the received external factors, notify each remote device of the availability of the media, and provide an incentive for acquisition of the selected media. | 08-21-2014 |
20140278907 | Rewarding User Generated Content - Example apparatus and methods concern rewarding a user for making a contribution to a crowd-sourced database. An example apparatus may include logic for acquiring the contribution, where the contribution is data produced by a mobile device concerning a point of interest. The example apparatus also includes logic for producing an evaluation of the contribution and logic for providing a reward based on the contribution, the evaluation, and the user. The contribution may be data about a point of interest. The evaluation may be based on the completeness, timeliness, or contents of the contribution. The reward may be selected based on the evaluation of the contribution and a profile of the user. The reward or user profile may be manipulated based on confirmation or repudiation of the contribution by a different user contribution or by curation of the contribution. Providing the contribution may be free to the user. | 09-18-2014 |
20140297393 | ACTIVITY BASED INCENTIVES - Apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed for activity based incentives. A tracking module may be configured to monitor a user's participation in a physical activity. A data module may be configured to collect activity data in response to monitoring the user's participation in the physical activity. An incentive module may be configured to present one or more retail incentives to the user based on the activity data. | 10-02-2014 |
20140304060 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONDUCTING SEMI-OPAQUE SALES WITH ITEM BUNDLES - Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for semi-opaque sales with bundles of items. An example bundle can include hotel lodging and a bonus service, status, or item associated with that hotel. An system can identify a first bundle of a first base and bonus item, and a second bundle of a second base and bonus item. The system can present a semi-opaque offer comprising the first bundle, the second bundle, and a discount price, wherein the semi-opaque offer does not identify which of the first bundle and the second bundle will be sold at the discount price to the user upon acceptance of the semi-opaque offer, and wherein the discount price is a full price of the first base item. After receiving acceptance of the semi-opaque offer from the user, the system can disclose that the user has purchased the first bundle at the discount price. | 10-09-2014 |
20140324566 | Systems and Methods for Identifying, Categorizing, Aggregating, and Visualizing Multi-Dimensional Data in an Interactive Environment - Disclosed are methods and systems for redeeming virtual coupons by associating the coupons with a consumer and a payment system associated with the consumer. In some embodiments, the method includes distributing the enabled promotional offers, from one or more source sites, via the electronic contact addresses for the plurality of consumers, such that the promotional offers can be electronically accepted by at least some of the particular consumers with whom they are identified without redeeming the accepted offers. The method further includes electronically receiving a redemption of the promotional offer by means of the consumer's presentment of the associated payment system for purchasing the subject matter of the accepted promotional offer. | 10-30-2014 |
20140372200 | Offer Privacy Controls - A user interface that requests offer information for an offer provided by a vendor is provided to the vendor's computing device. The offer information is received from the vendor's computing device where the offer information includes a vendor privacy setting that indicates whether the offer is private. A request is received from a consumer's computing device for available offers and a user interface containing the offer is provided to the consumer's computing device. An indication that the consumer selected the offer is received and the offer and the vendor privacy setting are stored. | 12-18-2014 |
20150032532 | AUTOMATED TARGETING OF INFORMATION INFLUENCED BY GEO-LOCATION TO AN APPLICATION USER USING A MOBILE DEVICE - An example system is configured to compile behavioral data describing past actions including products viewed and purchases made by users while visiting applications hosted by servers accessible by the users via a computer network; segment the behavioral data into clusters of behavior factors according to statistically related actions of the users; compile present user data describing a current action and a geo-location of a user while visiting a merchant application hosted by a server coupled to the computer network and accessible by the user; determine a geo-location of the mobile device of the user; while the user is still using the merchant application, compute a match; generate based on the match targeted information influenced by the geo-location of the user; and transmit the targeted information to the mobile device of the user for display prior to the user leaving the merchant application. | 01-29-2015 |
20150039414 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ISSUING ONLINE REWARDS - The system and method for issuing an online reward disclosed provides a direct way to specifically reward a user for their actions on the internet. For a campaign according to the system and method, a unique code is provided, which could, for example, be a hashtag, and a search of pre-defined internet websites is performed for the unique code. Where the unique code is found on one or more of the pre-defined internet websites, the user associated with that code is validated by checking if the user is in a list of pre-defined users and, if they are approved, a reward is issued to the user. | 02-05-2015 |
20150051964 | PROVIDING OFFERS FOR LOCAL DISCOUNTED GOODS AND SERVICES - A method and data processing system provide offers for discounted goods or services. The method includes generating a list of offers for discounted goods or services. The method includes generating an identification of at least one of a current number of selections of an offer or a number of remaining selections available for the offer. The method includes sending, for a selection of the offer by a user, at least a unique identifier for the offer to the user without requesting payment from the user for the selection of the offer and updating the current number of selections or the number of remaining selections available. The method includes sending a notification of the selection and the unique identifier for the selected offer to a seller of the discounted goods or services. Additionally, the method includes requesting payment from the seller for the selection of the offer by the user. | 02-19-2015 |
20150051965 | MEDIA CONTENT MANAGEMENT - In one example embodiment, a system includes a first device configured to transmit a request for temporary user rights to media content; and a server configured to: receive the request from the first device, transmit, to a second device having full user rights to the media content, a notification that the server will issue the temporary user rights to the media content to a user account authenticated on the first device, receive, from the second device, an approval to issue the temporary user rights to the media content to the user account authenticated on the first device, issue the temporary user rights to the user account authenticated on the first device, and temporarily revoke the full user rights to the media content from a user account authenticated on the second device. | 02-19-2015 |
20150051966 | ADVERTISING AND FULFILLMENT SYSTEM - A method is provided for a method of purchasing goods online, which allows end users to receive money in return for browsing the internet and making purchases. According to the features of the invention, the end user enters a profile into YOUniverse, which is uploaded to the database. The user then logs in to search for items and the advertisement search results are specific to the end user's profile. The user controls the amount of information in their profile; however, more information yields better advertisement results and more money. | 02-19-2015 |
20150066624 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A SOCIAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEM COOPERATIVE MARKETPLACE - A method and system for providing a social media ecosystem cooperative marketplace. To participate in the social media ecosystem cooperative marketplace, a sharing discount percentage is requested from participating social media merchants. The sharing discount percentage is used to provide lower purchase prices for plural goods and services provided to social media purchasers in the social media ecosystem cooperative marketplace and to support the social media ecosystem cooperative marketplace itself on a global scale for social media purchasers and social media merchants. Social media purchasers are searched for with social media index values and with social commerce connections. Social media purchasers are paid to view advertising or complete surveys for the social media merchants. The social media ecosystem cooperative marketplace is provided on a cloud communications network for mobile and non-mobile devices. | 03-05-2015 |
20150066625 | INCENTIVES FOR ACKNOWLEDGING PRODUCT ADVERTISING WITHIN MEDIA CONTENT - A cloud-based service provides incentives for users of devices such as game consoles, personal computers, smartphones, and the like to explicitly acknowledge product placements within media content by offering rewards to the users that may be obtained by performing certain user actions as the media content is being consumed and rendered on the device. The user actions may comprise clicking a button or performing a gesture to an input device, for example, at particular times in the media content presentation in which a branded product is shown, mentioned, or used. A client component on the device captures the user actions as signals which are sent to the service which compares the signals against known reward criteria. If reward criteria are met by the user actions, the service can provide either digital or physical rewards to the user. | 03-05-2015 |
20150095135 | METHOD, SERVER, AND PROGRAM FOR MANAGING APPLICATION - When detecting selection of a source application stored in a storage section in a user device, a controller outputs to the user device an advertisement link related to a destination application associated with the source. When the advertisement link is selected in the user device, the controller guides the user device to the destination application. The controller acquires completion state information on a mission in the destination application associated with the user ID of the user of the user device, and stores the completion state information in the storage section. When the completion state information meets a predetermined condition, the controller provides the completion state information to the source application in order to give an incentive to the user in the source application. | 04-02-2015 |
20150100405 | Communication Device Interface for Merchant Check-In and Shopping Notifications - There are provided systems and methods for a communication device interface for merchant check-in and shopping notifications. A user may enter shopping preferences to a module of a communication device in order to receive notifications and alerts when items matching the shopping preferences are available with one or more merchants. A service provider may receive the shopping preferences with user attributes, such as a user location and/or account balance. The attributes may be determined using applications and/or modules of the communication device or through a check-in by the user at a location. The service provider may determine shopping notifications having purchase offers for the items from available merchants. The purchase offers may include offers to sell the items and discounts for the items. The shopping notifications may be displayed to the user using a user device interface, such as cells within an application or mobile device home screen. | 04-09-2015 |
20150134442 | BEST MONETARY DISCOUNT DETERMINATION METHODS AND SYSTEMS - Methods and systems are described that determine the promotion(s) offering the best monetary discount available to a customer. The methods and systems can be used at the time of checkout during a retail purchase or prior to checkout to inform the customer about the best deal that may be available based on alternative proposed purchases. One method can include defining a promotion combinability matrix that identifies combination logic of the available promotions. In addition, a priority set of the available promotions is established that identifies the priority in which the promotions will be applied. The promotion combinability matrix and the priority set are then used to determine the best monetary discount that is available to the customer. | 05-14-2015 |
20150302457 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF INCENTIVIZING TRANSACTIONS - Methods, devices, and computer program products for processing a mobile payment. In one aspect, a method includes providing an offer for a transaction, the offer contingent upon a social media promotion requirements. The method further includes receiving an authorization for the transaction and the social media promotion requirements based on the transaction. The method further includes performing the social media promotion requirements based on the transaction. The method further includes processing the mobile payment after verifying the social media promotion requirements based on the transaction. | 10-22-2015 |
20150317668 | CUSTOMER VOICE ORDER TRIGGERED MUTUAL AFFINITY MERCHANT DONATION - A customer uses a mobile device to verbally request an offer that includes an incentive to transact at a merchant's brick and mortar store in the customer's local community in exchange for the merchant's agreement to make an auditable donation to a charity serving the local community. Business rules limit the merchant's charitable donations over calendar periods, which donations can be made directly by the merchant to the community charity, or indirectly to the charity by way of a blind donation made by the merchant to a donation disbursement agency acting on the merchant's behalf to satisfy the merchant's commitment to donate. | 11-05-2015 |
20150379553 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MOBILE-DISPATCHER FOR OFFER REDEMPTION WORK FLOWS - Provided is a of dynamically adjusting an online coupon, or other offer, redemption work flow presented to a consumer to mitigate effects from more limited user-interface constraints of mobile computing devices, the process including: obtaining a plurality of mobile-suitability values; receiving from a remote mobile computing device of a user, a request for offer content; ascertaining a selected merchant website at which the offer is redeemable; retrieving a selected mobile-suitability value for the selected merchant website; obtaining, from the mobile computing device, data indicative of user-interface constraints of the mobile computing device; determining to send instructions to present content on the mobile computing device, the determination being based on the user-interface constraints of the mobile computing device and the selected mobile-suitability value for the selected merchant website, and the content being suitable for the mobile computing device; and sending the instructions to present the content. | 12-31-2015 |
20150379554 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MOBILE-DISPATCHER FOR OFFER REDEMPTION WORK FLOWS - Provided is a of dynamically adjusting an online coupon, or other offer, redemption work flow presented to a consumer to mitigate effects from more limited user-interface constraints of mobile computing devices, the process including: obtaining a plurality of mobile-suitability values; receiving from a remote mobile computing device of a user, a request for offer content; ascertaining a selected merchant website at which the offer is redeemable; retrieving a selected mobile-suitability value for the selected merchant website; obtaining, from the mobile computing device, data indicative of user-interface constraints of the mobile computing device; determining to send instructions to present content on the mobile computing device, the determination being based on the user-interface constraints of the mobile computing device and the selected mobile-suitability value for the selected merchant website, and the content being suitable for the mobile computing device; and sending the instructions to present the content. | 12-31-2015 |
20160055518 | SYSTEM, DEVICE AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING RECIPIENT-SELECTIVE MOBILE GIFT COUPON - A system, device and method for providing a recipient-selective mobile gift coupon, and according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprising: an order terminal device through which at least one from a gift coupon list including Moneycon, Quizcon and Choicecon is selected and inputted, and through which a payment is made on a product selected through a reception terminal device; a gift coupon provision device for providing the gift coupon list to the order terminal device, transmitting, to the reception terminal device, a gift coupon inputted by the order terminal device and transmitting, to the reception terminal device, a Gifticon matched with the product selected using the gift coupon to the reception terminal device; and the reception terminal device for selecting the product by using the gift coupon received from the gift coupon provision device, and receiving the Gifticon matched with the product. | 02-25-2016 |
20160110754 | MANAGEMENT DEVICE, MANAGEMENT METHOD, TERMINAL DEVICE, CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM - A management device is provided. A first-information acquisitor acquires a first information which has been transmitted from a terminal in response to that a first target application included in the plurality of target applications had been executed in the terminal. A second-information acquisitor acquires from the first target application a second information which represents that other target application was installed in the terminal. An install information manager manages an install information based on the first and second information. The install information represents which target application included in the plurality of target applications has been installed in the terminal. The third-information notifier transmits, to the terminal, a third information, based on the install information managed by the install information manager. The third information includes an indicative information which indicates at least one target application for which install information with respect to the terminal is not managed by the information manager. | 04-21-2016 |
20160110771 | Internet Protocol Multi-Media System Value Voucher Distribution With Network Storage and Redemption - A system and method may comprise providing, via a computing device, a connection link to an end user device having a network connectivity access network element; extracting, via an advertisement server, an offer of a value voucher unique to the end user from a database connected to the advertisement server and presenting, through the end user device, an offer of the value voucher to the end user; receiving, via the computing device, from the end user an acceptance of the value voucher; and storing the value voucher in a coupon database in an Internet accessible coupon storage locker unique to the end user. | 04-21-2016 |
20160189233 | SERVER, COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND INFORMATION SENDING METHOD - In order to solve a problem that an advertiser cannot know whether an advertisement was actually watched and listened to by a user of a terminal, a communication system of the present invention includes a server and a terminal. The server is a server which sends predetermined first information to the terminal, and which, when sending the first information, sends also second information which prompts the input of a matter related to the first information, and which outputs a first predetermined signal if a response to the second information, that is sent by the terminal, corresponds to a predetermined response. The terminal is a terminal which displays the received first information and the received second information on a screen of the terminal, and then outputs the inputted data as the response to the second information. | 06-30-2016 |