Abstract: The Online Buyers Club System (OBCS) is a mechanism for the online purchasing of goods and services. The mechanism is targeted at user communities consisting of a large number of small-volume buyers (the “Buyers Club”). The primary function of the mechanism is to automatically aggregate the buying power of these buyers. The present invention provides a mechanism to promote competition among vendors as well as a mechanism to incent buyers to make a purchase.

Abstract: An enhanced system and method for carrying out online transactions and auctions using a “shopping games” mechanism module is disclosed. The shopping games system provides for a mechanism scheme allowing “game moves” as well as bidding and message exchanging moves. The participants of the system may engage in game play in conjunction with an auction process, wherein the game play affects the auction process to provide a entertaining and amusing environment for participants to carry out online transactions without limiting the participants to traditional auction “moves”.

Abstract: An enhanced system and method for carrying out online transactions and auctions using a “shopping games” mechanism module is disclosed. The shopping games system provides for a mechanism scheme allowing “game moves” as well as bidding and message exchanging moves. The participants of the system may engage in game play in conjunction with an auction process to provide an entertaining and amusing environment for participants to carry out online transactions without limiting the participants to traditional auction “moves”.

Abstract: An enhanced system and method for carrying out online transactions and auctions using a “shopping games” mechanism module is disclosed. The shopping games system provides for a mechanism scheme allowing “game moves” as well as bidding and message exchanging moves. The participants of the system may engage in game play in conjunction with an auction process, wherein the game play affects the auction process to provide a entertaining and amusing environment for participants to carry out online transactions without limiting the participants to traditional auction “moves”.

Abstract: A system for online virtual collections is disclosed. The online collection system having at least one participant, the online collection system comprising an online collection distribution module configured to allocate items to at least one participant. The online collection system having an online collection bank module operatively coupled to the online collection distribution module, the online collection bank module configured to maintain online collectibles in a database of the at least one participant. The online collection system having an online collection exchange module operatively coupled to the online collection distribution module, the online collection exchange module configured to trade online collectibles. The online collection system having an online collection redemption module operatively coupled to the online collection distribution module, the online collection redemption module configured to redeem the online collectibles for prizes.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for a universal auction specification system is disclosed. The universal auction specification system comprises a network accessible set of trading primitives. A script generator is used for combining the set of trading primitives into a temporal protocol script representing a particular auction specification.

Abstract: A system and method for adaptively traversing a network of linked textual or multi-media information utilizes one or more heuristics to explore the network and present information to a user. An exploration or search heuristic governs activity while examining and exploring the linked information resources, while a presentation heuristic controls presentation of a manageable amount of information resources to the user. The system and method accept relevance feedback from the user which is used to refine future search, retrieval, and presentation of information resources. The user may present an information query of various degrees of specificity or the system and method may search and present information resources based entirely on relevance feedback from the user.