Patent ID: 7826829
Filing Date: 2010-11-02
Classification: G06Q,H04M

Abstract:
1. A method for billing a user for the use of a network-enabled application that is integrated with a social networking site having a plurality of users and a plurality of communication channels with a respective plurality of wireless carriers, the method comprising: a web page establishment step of establishing, on the social networking site, a user profile web page associated with each of the plurality of users; an application access step of making a plurality of network-enabled applications available, in the social networking site, to the plurality of users via an area on the social networking site and allowing each of the plurality of users the ability to place one of the plurality of network-enabled application on their web page and to access or use the network-enabled application on the web-page; a billing event detection step of detecting, in the social networking site, a billing event generated by a network-enabled application for access to or use of the network enabled application by a user, the billing event containing an identification code corresponding to the user; a billing validation step of validating, in the social networking site, the billing event generated by the network-enabled application by determining if the billing event is in accordance with a predetermined pricing structure corresponding to the network-enabled application; a billing message step of sending, in the case that the billing event is determined to be valid in the billing validation step, a billing message from the social networking site to an external billing mechanism, the billing message containing a billing amount which the external billing mechanism is to bill the user; and a billing event discard step of discarding, in the case that the billing event is determined to be invalid in the billing validation step, the billing event from the social networking site.