Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8180689 | Services for enabling users to share information regarding E-commerce transactions Various computer-implemented services are disclosed for assisting users in selecting items from an electronic catalog, and for selecting merchants with which to conduct transactions. One such service enables users to share information about their respective purchase... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8165923 | Contextual presentation on electronic catalog pages of information reflective of prior orders An interactive system personalizes pages of an electronic catalog with information reflective of related orders placed by the user. In one embodiment, when a user requests a category page (such as a browse node page, author page, or artist page) of an electronic cat... | 04/24/2012 |
| 8160935 | Payment service capable of being integrated with merchant sites A computer-implemented service acts as an intermediary between merchant sites and users thereof, and enables the users to purchase items on the merchant sites without having to create accounts with such sites. A user may invoke the service from a web page of a merch... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8140391 | Item recommendation service A computer-implemented recommendation service uses item-to-item relationship mappings to select items to recommend to the user. The item-to-item relationship mappings may reflect user-behavior-based (e.g., purchase-based) item relationships, content-based item relat... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8140380 | Creating an incentive to author useful item reviews A facility for rewarding the provision of useful item reviews is described. The facility receives a plurality of item reviews, each from a source. The facility publishes each of the plurality of received item reviews, and assesses the usefulness of the published ite... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8136089 | Predictive prefetching to improve parallelization of document generation subtasks In a system in which documents are generated dynamically in response to user requests, historical data is collected regarding data retrieval subtasks, such as service requests, that are performed to generate such documents. This data is used to predict the specific ... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8126784 | Automatically initiating product replenishment A facility for automatically initiating product replenishment is described. The facility receives an indication of an order by a consumer for a first item having a first date, such as the date on which the first item was placed or fulfilled. The facility then determ... | 02/28/2012 |
| 8099361 | Transaction processing system that applies user-specified rules to divide payment amounts among multiple payment instruments A network-based transaction processing system allows online users to flexibly and efficiently make payments using a combination of different payment instruments. The system includes a user interface through which each user can define one or more personal payment pla... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8027884 | Contextual presentation on electronic catalog pages of information reflective of prior orders An electronic catalog system, which may be implemented as a web site or another type of interactive system, presents context-sensitive information to customers reflective of their prior orders. In one embodiment, when a customer requests an item detail page for a pa... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8024222 | Computer processes for identifying related items and generating personalized item recommendations A computer-implemented service analyzes purchase histories and/or other types of behavioral data of users on an aggregated basis to detect and quantify associations between particular items represented in an electronic catalog. The detected associations are stored i... | 09/20/2011 |
| 8010415 | System for interactive participation by remote bidders in live auctions A distributed auction system allows remote bidders to interactively participate by computer in live auctions conducted on-site by an auctioneer. A client program that runs on the computers of the remote bidders displays real time auction status information extracted... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7970664 | Content personalization based on actions performed during browsing sessions Various methods are disclosed for monitoring user browsing activities, and for using such information to provide item recommendations to users. In one embodiment, a monitoring component of a merchant's Web site maintains a record of products viewed by each user duri... | 06/28/2011 |
| 7966259 | System and methods for facilitating transactions on, and personalizing web pages of, third party web sites Customers make purchases from online merchants using personal information, such as payment and shipping information, stored with an online information service. The merchants may optionally report information about each customer's purchases back to the information se... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7958009 | Method and system for bidding on multiple auctions A method and system for bidding on multiple auctions. The multiple auction bidding system allows a user to define various models for bidding at multiple auctions. The bidding system then automatically places bids on behalf of the user. The bidding rules may specify ... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7945475 | Computer processes for identifying related items and generating personalized item recommendations A computer-implemented service analyzes purchase histories and/or other types of behavioral data of users on an aggregated basis to detect and quantify associations between particular items represented in an electronic catalog. The detected associations are stored i... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7925546 | Services for increasing the utility of electronic wish lists Various computer-implemented services are disclosed for increasing the utility of electronic wish lists, and for assisting users in making gift purchases. One such service automatically notifies a user when an item being accessed in an electronic catalog is on, or i... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7921042 | Computer processes for identifying related items and generating personalized item recommendations A computer-implemented service analyzes purchase histories and/or other types of behavioral data of users on an aggregated basis to detect and quantify associations between particular items represented in an electronic catalog. The detected associations are stored i... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7912756 | Method and system for electronic commerce using multiple roles A computer system for conducting electronic commerce. The system provides multiple electronic shopping carts for each user. Each electronic shopping cart has an indication of items currently within the electronic shopping cart and billing and shipment information. T... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7908183 | Recommendation system A computer-implemented service analyzes purchase histories and/or other types of behavioral data of users on an aggregated basis to detect and quantify associations between particular items represented in an electronic catalog. The detected associations are stored i... | 03/15/2011 |
| 7877299 | Payment service capable of being invoked from merchant sites A computer-implemented service acts as an intermediary between merchant sites and users thereof, and enables the users to purchase items on the merchant sites without having to create accounts with such sites. A user may invoke the service from a web page of a merch... | 01/25/2011 |
| 7827055 | Identifying and providing targeted content to users having common interests A computer process is disclosed for selecting items to present or recommend to users based on the referring sites accessed by such users. The process includes tracking referrals of users from referring sites to a target site, and recording the item selections of the... | 11/02/2010 |
| 7805336 | Anonymous delivery of digital products over a network via a link Processes and systems are disclosed for enabling a user to purchase a digital product from a first computer system (e.g., a merchant web site), and to then initiate electronic delivery of the digital product from a second computer system without revealing personal i... | 09/28/2010 |
| 7801775 | Method and system for authenticating users when conducting commercial transactions using a computer A method and system for authenticating users while conducting an auction via a computer system. The system can automatically authenticate users who have previously registered with the auction system and who have enabled automatic authentication. When a user is regis... | 09/21/2010 |
| 7792705 | Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network Coordinating delivery of a gift from a gift giver to a recipient when sufficient information to deliver the gift is not provided in the gift order is disclosed. The gift order is placed by a purchaser at a client system and received by a server system. The server sy... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7765130 | Personalization using multiple personalized selection algorithms Various computer-implemented methods are disclosed for selecting items, including but not limited to user-submitted blurbs, to present to users. One such method comprises using a plurality of personalized selection algorithms to select items to nominate for presenta... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7747649 | Use of browser cookies to store structured data A system and process are disclosed for encoding selected data structures in browser cookies. The data structures may contain a variety of different types of data elements, including N-bit integers and other non-character elements. A version tracking scheme provides ... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7720712 | Placing a purchase order using one of multiple procurement options A method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via the Internet. The order is placed by a user at a client system and received by a server system. The client system can display information identifying the item and, for each of multiple procurement opti... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7716088 | Method and system for electronic commerce using multiple roles A computer system for conducting electronic commerce. The system provides multiple electronic shopping carts for each user. Each electronic shopping cart has an indication of items currently within the electronic shopping cart and billing and shipment information. T... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7689487 | Computer-assisted funds transfer system A funds transfer system is disclosed that is responsive to a receipt of a payment request by performing a risk management assessment of an associated payer and payee. If the risk management assessment produces an adverse indication, the payment request is declined. ... | 03/30/2010 |
| 7685074 | Data mining of user activity data to identify related items in an electronic catalog Various methods are disclosed for monitoring user browsing activities that indicate user interests in particular products, or other items, represented in an electronic catalog, and for using such information to identify items that are related to one another. In one ... | 03/23/2010 |
| 7685067 | Computer-assisted funds transfer system A payment request associated with a transfer of funds is received and a risk management assessment for both sides thereof is performed. If the risk management assessment procedure produces an adverse indication, the payment request is declined. Otherwise, the paymen... | 03/23/2010 |
| 7672874 | Contextual presentation of information about related orders during browsing of an electronic catalog An electronic catalog system, which may be implemented as a web site or another type of interactive system, presents context-sensitive account information to customers during browsing of an electronic catalog of products. In one embodiment, when a customer accesses ... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7672868 | Creating an incentive to author useful item reviews A facility for rewarding the provision of useful item reviews is described. The facility receives a plurality of item reviews, each from a source. The facility publishes each of the plurality of received item reviews, and assesses the usefulness of the published ite... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7664669 | Methods and systems for distributing information within a dynamically defined community One embodiment of the present invention distributes data via a network to remotely located individuals. Evaluation feedback by one or more of the individuals is transmitted to others so that the feedback may be used by others to quickly locate the more useful data. ... | 02/16/2010 |
| 7660816 | Use of browser cookies to store structured data A system and process are disclosed for encoding selected data structures in browser cookies. The data structures may contain a variety of different types of data elements, including N-bit integers and other non-character elements. A version tracking scheme provides ... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7660744 | Method and system for integrating transaction mechanisms over multiple internet sites A method is provided for effecting transactions across multiple vendors in an integrated environment, wherein the user may purchase each of a plurality of items the user finds independent of the vendors. The user's selections are received from the user and mapped to... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7660738 | Collecting competitive pricing information via a merchant web site for use in setting prices on the merchant web site A facility for collecting pricing information is described. The facility serves a web page to a client computing system. The served web page contains a first control operable to order a selected item from a selected vendor. The web page further contains a second con... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7614552 | Marketplace system that supports user-to-user sales via a definitive product catalog An electronic marketplace system embodies various inventions for assisting users in listing products for sale, locating the listings for a product, and performing related actions. A user wishing to sell a product can browse to an existing description of the product ... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7614547 | Marketplace system capable of using purchase history data to generate listing request messages An electronic marketplace system provides various features for assisting users in listing products for sale, locating the listings for a product, and performing related actions. A user wishing to sell a product can browse to an existing description of the product in... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7600682 | Marketplace system in which users generate preorder listings via a definitive product catalog An electronic marketplace system provides various features for assisting users in listing products for sale, locating the listings for a product, and performing related actions. A user wishing to sell a product can browse to an existing description of the product in... | 10/13/2009 |
