Fare compare—a system for collecting and displaying price information

US8751272B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Expedia, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Charles A. Seybold · Issaquah, US
• Jon P. Zimmerman · London, GB

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 28, 1999
• Grant date: Jun 10, 2014
• Expiry date: Sep 27, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/02
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A service for pricing items of inventory contained in a searchable database is available for access via the Internet. Where multiple items can satisfy a consumer's request, it is typical for a service to perform an inventory search for items that match a consumer's request. When the inventory is stored in an inventory database, the inventory database is queried for the purpose of retrieving a result set which matches the consumer's request. A separate fare server database containing inventory recently known to be available, located local to the Internet server for fast and efficient access, can also be provided for performing searches related to the consumer's request. Some inventory, even though recently known to have been available, is filtered out before being stored in the fare server database and inventory is removed when outdated, no longer available or purchased. Searches that are less specific than the search performed in the inventory database based on the consumer request can be performed in the fare server database to retrieve information about similar inventory. In addition to displaying the result set from the inventory database to the consumer, a market summary can be…