초록 ▼

A system for electronic commerce (10) having personal agents (12 and 13) that represent consumers and providers in a virtual marketplace (28). Consumer personal agents conceal the identity of the consumer and are capable of creating decision agents (14) that shop for products and assist consumers in

A system for electronic commerce (10) having personal agents (12 and 13) that represent consumers and providers in a virtual marketplace (28). Consumer personal agents conceal the identity of the consumer and are capable of creating decision agents (14) that shop for products and assist consumers in comparing and ranking products. Provider personal agents are capable of creating demand agents (16) that quantify demand and target specific consumers without learning the identity of the consumers. Based on data generated by the activities of the decision agents and on preference data maintained by consumer personal agents, provider personal agents can quantify current, historical, and future demand, simulate demand, and target specific consumers for advertising and other messages. Provider personal agents can cooperate with consumer personal agents to collect data about reasons for sales and lost sales and to offer consideration payments to consumers. Consumer personal agents can automatically reject unsolicited messages that do not satisfy the consumer's preferences.

대표청구항 ▼

The invention claimed is: 1. A method, comprising:a first computer system storing electronic product advertisements corresponding to products from two or more providers, wherein the electronic product advertisements are associated with respective values that are indicative of one or more time period

The invention claimed is: 1. A method, comprising:a first computer system storing electronic product advertisements corresponding to products from two or more providers, wherein the electronic product advertisements are associated with respective values that are indicative of one or more time periods during which ones of the electronic product advertisements are active;the first computer system determining a set of currently active product advertisements from the plurality of electronic product advertisements based on the associated respective values;the first computer system receiving a query specified by a consumer, wherein the query includes one or more search terms;the first computer system matching the query against the set of stored currently active product advertisements, wherein said matching uses one or more of the search terms and produces one or more matched advertisements; andthe first computer system sending at least one of the matched advertisements to a second computer system, wherein the sent advertisements are displayable on the second computer system in response to the query, and wherein the sent advertisements include at least a first advertisement advertising a website associated with a first of the two or more providers.