Patent ID: 7877353
Filing Date: 2011-01-25
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A system comprising: a network-based interaction environment including a plurality of peer-to-peer nodes being able to communicate directly with each other using a peer-to-peer protocol and a peer-to-peer client application, the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes including a first peer-to-peer client and a second peer-to-peer client; a first peer-to-peer client application running on the first peer-to-peer client to maintain persistent buddy information on the first peer-to-peer client, the persistent buddy information including a buddy list identifying trusted peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the first peer-to-peer client application to maintain a first categorized list of items for sale on the first peer-to-peer client; and a second peer-to-peer client application running on the second peer-to-peer client to maintain persistent reputation information on the second peer-to-peer client, the persistent reputation information including information related to the reputation of the first peer-to-peer client in the network-based interaction environment, the persistent reputation information being a function of a feedback score related to prior user experience in conducting ecommerce transactions at the first peer-to-peer node, the persistent reputation information being specific to a particular item category, the second peer-to-peer client application to maintain a second categorized list of items for sale on the second peer-to-peer client, the second peer-to-peer client application to enable a user at the second peer-to-peer client to purchase an item from the first categorized list of items if the reputation of the first peer-to-peer client is above a pre-determined threshold, wherein a reputation of a particular peer-to-peer node is relative to reputations of others of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, and wherein the reputation of a particular peer-to-peer node is different from the reputations of others of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes.