Abstract: A method for assisting buyers in selecting a supplier of a good or service begins by receiving a price quote for the good or service from the supplier. A request is then submitted to an insurance company requesting the company to issue a policy for reimbursing the buyer for economic damage the buyer may realize as a result of purchasing the good or service from the supplier. The insurance company assesses the risk of insuring the buyer based on information about the buyer and supplier stored in a database. Preferably, the information about the buyer is conveyed electronically to the insurance company over the internet. Also, the risk assessment is preferably all performed in software. A decision on whether to offer the insurance policy to the buyer is then made if a favorable risk assessment is returned.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for identifying and creating persistent object fragments from a named object. For example, a digital content description of a named digital object can be dynamically parsed, and persistent fragment identities created and maintained to facilitate caching. Named digital objects include but are not limited to: Web pages described in XML, SGML, and HTML. The object description is revised by replacing each object fragment with its newly created persistent identity. The revised object description is then sent to the requesting node. Depending upon the properties of a fragment, this can either enable the fragment or the revised object description to be cacheable at the server and/or client device. For example, the object description can include a dynamic part which would otherwise prevent the object from being cached. The dynamic part can be recognized and treated as a separate fragment from the object description.