Method and apparatus to facilitate online purchase of works using paid electronic previews

A method and system is described to facilitate variable pricing for electronically viewing content online. Consumers pay different amounts to view portions of electronically viewable content obtained from a tangible work, where the amount paid is based on a characteristic of the work (e.g., the genre or publisher), the consumer's past viewing behavior or purchases, including the portions of content (e.g., the number of pages or chapters) previously viewed from the same or other work, or the number or amount of purchases made of other works or products, or the aggregated viewing behavior or purchases of a number of consumers.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is generally directed to systems and methods for the online purchase of products over a network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The information age has produced an explosion of content for people to read. This content is available in the form of tangible media such as books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, manuals, guides, references, articles, reports, documents, etc., that exist in print, as well as in the form of electronic media. The Internet has facilitated an even wider publication of content in electronic form through downloading the content in web pages, portable document files, and e-books, among other formats.

The widespread availability of content in electronic form has presented new opportunities for Internet retailers to sell both traditional (i.e., tangible) works and electronic content to consumers. As with any purchase, consumers are unwilling to risk the online purchase of a book or other published work that they may not fully enjoy or that may not otherwise meet their expectations. For works that are purchased online, but do not meet the expectations of the consumer, returning the work is oftentimes a time-consuming process. One way to mitigate the risk that a customer will be unhappy with an online purchase of a work is to allow the consumer to electronically preview sample portions of the digital version of the work, essentially the electronic equivalent of browsing through the pages of a book or other published work in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. By providing limited and free access to digital content, Internet retailers have been able to enhance the online purchase process.

Unfortunately, not all consumers appreciate the value of previewing sample portions of a work before making a purchase. In particular, some consumers are loath to pay for a work when they can view the work for free. They may be tempted to avoid purchasing the work altogether by simply viewing as much of the work as possible electronically and, in some cases, even producing an unauthorized copy of the viewed portions for later consumption. Moreover, like other forms of marketing, allowing viewers to electronically preview works in electronic form costs money. Unless such marketing is shown to increase sales, electronic booksellers may not be able to justify the cost of converting works into an electronic form that may be previewed by consumers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To address the above-described issues, a system, method, and computer-accessible medium are provided to facilitate the online purchase of works using electronic previewing. Prior to making a purchase, consumers are allowed to electronically preview content from the electronic form of a work for a variable fee that is dependent on the work being viewed and/or the consumer's prior purchase or previewing activity. Previewing for a fee allows a consumer to minimize their risk when making a purchase, while at the same time recouping some of the bookseller's cost of providing viewable content. Various incentives can be provided to the consumer to make the payment of the fee more attractive to the user. For example, a method is provided in which the consumer earns various incentives such as credits and/or discounts for viewing content from the electronic form of a work. The incentives may subsequently be applied to the further viewing or purchase of the viewed work or other works or products.

In one aspect of the invention, a method is provided in which consumers pay different amounts to view portions of content from the electronic form of a work. The portions of content may be, among others, one or more chapters, sections, pages, paragraphs, or sentences from a work, including sentences or sentence fragments containing or proximate to words that match a search term entered by the consumer. The amount paid may vary based on a variety of factors, for example, the amount paid may be based on the type or identity of the work, such as the genre or publisher of the work. The amount paid may also be based on a single consumer's or on multiple consumers' past viewing behavior or purchases, including the number of pages previously viewed from the same or other electronic work, or the number or amount of purchases made of other works or products, in either tangible or electronic form.

In still another aspect of the invention, a system is provided to facilitate the management of a viewer account database in which each consumer's viewing credits and discounts are maintained. The system includes a user interface to enable consumers to, among other functions, purchase viewing credits, participate in promotional incentives to earn rewards in the form of viewing credits and discounts, and display the status of a personal viewer account. Viewer account balances in the viewer account database are automatically maintained as credits are consumed and purchased or earned.

In accordance with yet other aspects of the present invention, a computer-accessible medium for facilitating the online purchase of works using electronic previewing is provided. The computer-accessible medium comprises data structures and computer executable components comprising a personal viewer system. The data structures define viewer credit, discounts, and account data in a manner that is generally consistent with the above-described method. Likewise, the computer executable components are capable of performing the actions of a personal viewer system generally consistent with the above-described method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/669,088, filed Sep. 23, 2003, entitled “Personalized Searchable Library with Highlighting Capabilities,” which is incorporated herein by reference.FIG. 1illustrates one environment for implementing an embodiment of the present invention. The environment shown includes a personal viewer system100with a library of viewable content that a consumer can electronically preview as an aid to decide whether to purchase the complete work from which the viewable content is taken. The environment also includes various electronic user devices, such as a computer system102and a PDA104, which individual users can use to communicate with the personal viewer system100. In the environment shown inFIG. 1, the user devices102,104communicate with the personal viewer system100via one or more computer networks, such as the Internet106. Protocols and components for communicating via the Internet are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art of computer network communications. Communication between user devices102,104and the personal viewer system100may also be enabled by local wired or wireless computer network connections.

The personal viewer system100depicted inFIG. 1operates in a distributed computing environment comprising several computer systems that are interconnected via communication links, e.g., using one or more computer networks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the system100could equally operate in a computer system having fewer or greater numbers of components than are illustrated inFIG. 1. Thus, the depiction of the personal viewer system100inFIG. 1should be taken as exemplary, and not limiting to the scope of the claims that follow.

The personal viewer system100, as illustrated, includes a viewer server108, a database server110, and a back-end interface112. Each of the servers108and110is described below in more detail. The back-end interface112allows an operator of the personal viewer system100to monitor and adjust the operation of the servers108and110, as needed.

In brief, the viewer server108is generally responsible for providing front-end user communication with various user devices, such as devices102and104, and back-end personal viewer and viewer account services in cooperation with the database server110. The front-end communication provided by the viewer server108may include generating text and/or graphics, possibly organized as a Web page using hypertext transfer protocols, in response to information and viewer requests received from the various user devices102,104. The viewer server108also is generally responsible for presenting viewable content and viewer account information obtained from the databases in the database server110. The back-end viewer account services provided by the viewer server108may include determining access rights to and charges associated with particular viewable content, incrementing and decrementing viewer accounts as content is viewed, and/or viewing credits as purchased or incurred. The database server110, as described below in reference toFIG. 2, maintains the databases that the viewer server108uses to respond to viewer requests, including a content database116, an access rights database120, and a viewer account database202.

In one suitable implementation, the personal viewer system100enables a user to electronically preview selected content from a library of viewable content in the databases stored in the database server110. The library of viewable content may include various forms of publications, including (but not limited to) books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, manuals, guides, references, articles, reports, documents, etc. Selection of content to view using the personal viewer system100can be accomplished in a variety of ways. For example, a user may manually select content from a general library of content in a manner that positively identifies the content that the user desires to electronically preview with the personal viewer. Automated selection of content to electronically preview based on user actions may also be provided. For example, each time the user selects a particular work for potential purchase, portions of viewable content from the work may automatically be displayed using the personal viewer system100so that the user may electronically preview the displayed content. Further details on ways to select content are described in commonly assigned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/669,088, entitled “Personalized Searchable Library with Highlighting Capabilities.”

Once selected, images of one or more portions (preferably pages) of the selected content are delivered by the viewer server108to the user device102,104for display to the user, e.g., in the form of a Web page, a portable document image, a raster-based image, a vector-based image, etc. Images of content may be stored and delivered in any available image format, including but not limited to .html, .jpg, .gif, .pdf, and/or .tif formats. In an alternate embodiment, non-image based files representing the one or more portions of the selected content are delivered by the viewer server108to the user device102,104for display to the user, e.g., in the form of Word document or a text file.

As will be discussed below, a personal viewer enables a user to electronically preview selected content of a work as an aid to determining whether to purchase all of the remaining electronic content or the corresponding tangible work from which the content was obtained. Preferably, the user establishes a personal viewer account prior to viewing content. The viewer account contains a balance of the credits that a viewer purchases and/or earns when using the personal viewer. In other circumstances, a personal viewer account may be established in real time with the submission or execution of the user's request to electronically preview content using the personal viewer system100. The operation of a personal viewer account in a personal viewer system100will be described in more detail below.

FIG. 2illustrates certain exemplary computing components that are responsible for the operation of the personal viewer system100shown inFIG. 1. The viewer server108, for example, is shown including an operating system114, processor115, and memory122. A personal viewer process200, stored in the memory122, is comprised of executable program instructions that operate in cooperation with the database server110and the Internet106and user device102,104to respond to users' requests to electronically preview content and maintain their personal viewer accounts. The personal viewer process200will be described in more detail below. Suitable implementations for the operating system114, processor115, and memory122are known or commercially available, and are readily implemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly in light of the disclosure herein.

The database server110, as illustrated inFIG. 2, includes a content database116containing viewable content, an access rights database120containing information regarding access rights to the viewable content, and a viewer account database202containing viewer account information, including an amount of available credit a viewer has to electronically preview content. The database server110includes an operating system130, a memory132, and a processor134configured to receive user requests to electronically preview content from the content database116as relayed from the personal viewer process200and viewer server108. As for the viewer server108, suitable implementations for the operating system130, memory132, and processor134are known or commercially available, and are readily implemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly in light of the disclosure herein.

The database server110operates in cooperation with the viewer server108to process the requests in accordance with the information in the access rights database120and viewer account database202, and serves the viewable content as appropriate from the content database116to the viewer server108. The viewer server108, in turn, operates in conjunction with the personal viewer process200to display the served viewable content to the user via the Internet106on a user device102,104.

In one embodiment, the access rights database120may contain information about the viewable content that enables the viewer server108to administer incentive programs provided by a party, such as an online retailer or online merchant to induce users to electronically preview content with the goal of increasing sales. For example, the access rights database120may contain information that reduces or even waives the amount normally charged to view a portion of content from certain works, types of works, and for limited periods of time, e.g., the amount charged to view content from one or more of the top ten bestsellers from the New York Times bestseller list may be discounted for the month of December.

In one embodiment, the viewer account database202may contain information about the user that enables the viewer server108to further administer incentive programs provided by the party to induce users to electronically preview content with the goal of increasing sales. For example, the viewer account database202may contain information about the user's past viewing behavior or purchases that reduces or even waives the amount normally charged to view a portion of content from certain works, types of works, and for limited periods of time, e.g., a user who has purchased Harry Potter books in the past may be eligible to view portions of the newest Harry Potter book at a discount or at no charge for the month of December.

Of course the viewer server108may administer other types of incentive programs alone or in conjunction with either or both of the access rights database120and viewer account database202without departing from the scope of the claims that follow. For example, a party might wish to offer an incentive program that donates the charges that the viewer server108assesses to the user's viewer account to a user-designated charity, e.g., an organization that promotes literacy.

In operation, the viewer server108controls the charges assessed to the user when content is displayed to the user as a result of a request to electronically preview content from a work available for purchase. For example, a user may request to electronically preview a portion of viewable content from a work, such as selected pages or a chapter of a book, for which the user has made payment arrangements by previously setting up a viewer account in the viewer account database202. The amount charged to view the portion of viewable content may vary according to the incentive programs that the viewer server108is administering, the identity of the user, the type of work from which the content is obtained, the access patterns of an aggregate number of users viewing the content, or other factors as determined from information in the access rights database120and/or the viewer account database202.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the viewer server108and database server110will typically employ a memory and processor in which program instructions are stored and executed for operation of the servers. The viewer server108and database server110further include executable program instructions for maintaining and updating the databases116,120, and202, and responding to user requests to electronically preview content and maintain their personal viewer accounts. The executable program instructions may be embodied in the personal viewer process200, shown in the illustrated embodiment as residing on the viewer server108. Alternatively, the executable program instructions and personal viewer process200may be embodied in multiple processes that reside in multiple servers, including both the viewer server108and database server110, or even on the user device102.

For the sake of convenience, much of the description herein is provided in the context of electronically previewing viewable content from books, but it should be well understood that the description herein is also applicable to electronically previewing other forms of content that can be read and displayed to a user. References herein to specific types of content, such as books, magazines, newspapers, etc., are only illustrative and do not serve to limit the general application of the invention.

As discussed, a user may be permitted to view a portion of viewable content from a work, such as selected pages or a chapter of a book. To enable such viewing, the user must have previously opened a viewer account in the viewer account database202(or have such account automatically opened by virtue of an ongoing relationship with the party). In one embodiment, viewer accounts include credits that a user either purchases in advance of making a request to preview content, or earns as part of an incentive program administered by a party to induce users to preview content with the goal of increasing sales of the works from which the content is obtained. The credits may be expended to preview content, the value of which (in the discretion of the party) may be used to obtain discounts on purchases. In one embodiment, the credits may represent actual dollar amounts, such as might be maintained in a credit card account or other form of ledger. Alternatively, the credits may represent a unit value that, in turn, may represent an actual dollar amount. The actual dollar amount represented by the unit value may be fixed or may be variable in accordance with a viewer credit algorithm or payment scheme employed at the party's discretion. Examples of different types of viewer credit algorithms and payment schemes that may be employed by parties to induce users to preview content will be described in further detail with reference toFIG. 4below.

One embodiment of a personal viewer process200by which viewer accounts can be maintained in a viewer account database202is shown inFIG. 3A. For each user who requests an electronic preview of a paragraph, page, chapter, or other portion of content from the content database116, the personal viewer process200preferably establishes a viewer account302against which a particular user's viewing activity is charged. In one embodiment, a user provides a user input306to process304to manually obtain viewer credits, e.g., by purchasing them. In another embodiment, the personal viewer process200may itself generate an input308to process304to automatically grant viewer credits, for credit to a particular user's viewer account, where the credits are earned as an incentive or reward for participating in promotional incentive programs. For example, the user may agree to electronically preview promotional content from or related to a bestseller to earn a reward in the form of viewing credits that may be applied to discount the charges for future viewing of other requested content from works in which the viewer has an interest. Viewer credits may be generic i.e., applicable against any work in the merchants catalog, or tied to specific categories or products, e.g., a fixed credit may be granted towards a new book produced by a bestselling author if the user had previously purchased the last book by that author.

Once the input306and/or308is received, the personal viewer process200determines whether the obtained viewer credits are earned as a reward or incentive for participating in an incentive program, or purchased. When the viewer credits are purchased, the personal viewer process200confirms the payment method at processing block312. When the viewer credits are earned as part of a reward or incentive for participating in a viewing promotion, the personal viewer process200can bypass payment confirmation, as the user has justly earned the credits at no charge. In either case, the personal viewer process200continues at processing block314to increment the user's viewer account with the earned or purchased credits as indicated.

The personal viewer process200repeats the above-described processes as needed, i.e., whenever the user decides to purchase additional viewer credits, or whenever the user participates in promotional programs that entitle him or her to earn viewer credits in exchange for electronically previewing promotional content. Participating in promotional programs generally includes viewing promotional content with the personal viewer, but may also include, for example, other actions, such as making purchases of promotional or other content from the party that is offering the promotion, or visiting Web sites related to the promotion.

Further details of one embodiment of a personal viewer process200by which viewer accounts can be used to preview page images of content are shown inFIG. 3B. In operation, at process block316, the personal viewer process200facilitates a user selection of a portion of viewable content from a content database116. It will be appreciated that the selected portion of content may vary from less than one page to several pages comprising one or more chapters.

In one embodiment, at process block318, the personal viewer process200consults an access rights database120and/or the viewer's account history as obtained from the viewer account database202(should the user have an account), to determine a viewer credit value associated with the selected portion of content. The basis for determining the viewer credit value of the selected portion of content will typically be a unit value that quantifies the selected portion of content, i.e., that indicates the amount of content that the user has selected. For example, the unit value may be a word, a number of words, a phrase, a number of sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters or other discrete amount of content.

In one embodiment, the viewer credit value corresponds to the amount of the selected portion of content, as indicated by the unit value, as well as the type of work from which the content is obtained. For example, as shown in the graph400of a viewer credit algorithm inFIG. 4, when the type of work from which the content is obtained is a work of fiction410, the viewer credit value of the content402will generally increase as the amount of viewed content404increases. However, when the type of work from which the content is obtained is a work of nonfiction406, the viewer credit value of the content402decreases as the amount of viewed content404increases. Thus, in the illustrated embodiment, the viewer credit value assessed to view pages in a work of nonfiction will decrease over time, whereas the viewer credit value assessed to view pages in a work of fiction will increase over time. In other words, using the payment scheme embodied in the viewer credit algorithm depicted inFIG. 4, users are generally charged a smaller number of credits to view smaller portions of fictional works and a larger number of credits to view larger portions of fictional works, at least up to a certain threshold number of credits (after which the user has likely paid more to view the work than would have been paid to purchase a tangible copy of the work outright). In contrast, the value assessed to view selected portions of content from a reference work408may be set to remain the same, regardless of the amount of content viewed, and the value assessed to view selected portions of content from a non-fiction work may decrease, even as the amount of content viewed increases over time.

Returning toFIG. 3Bat process block318, other methods of determining the viewer credit value of a selected portion of content other than the viewer credit algorithm illustrated inFIG. 4may be employed without departing from the scope of the claims that follow. For example, in one embodiment, in an effort to increase sales of works from a particular publisher, a party may offer a discount or even waive the charges normally assessed to display content from works of that publisher, e.g., a party might offer all users the ability to electronically preview all content from Dutton publishers for free during a particular promotional period. In addition, other viewer credit algorithms may be applied that are specific to a particular user. For example, a party may offer a particular user a discount to electronically preview content from works published by Dutton publishers if the user had previously previewed (and paid for) content from a work published by Dutton. Alternatively, the party may track the user's past purchases of works, and reward the user with a commensurate number of viewer credits or with a fixed number of viewer credits once a threshold dollar amount of purchases has been met. The viewer credits rewarded in this way can be used by the purchaser to discount the charges assessed for future requests to display content. Moreover, the party may provide a discounted rate to electronically preview the content of a new work by a particular author if the user had previously purchased a tangible work by that author.

Still other viewer credit algorithms may be dynamically generated based on the observed viewing behavior of an aggregate number of customers. For example, if it is found that the average viewing of a particular reference work is only three pages, then the number of credits assessed to view the first three pages in the reference work may be correspondingly increased, and the number of credits assessed to view all pages after the first three pages may be decreased to incent the user to continue to preview the work. Various algorithms can be envisioned that would automatically measure access to each work over time and generate an algorithm that is unique to that particular work.

Referring again toFIG. 3B, once the viewer credit value for viewing particular portions of content has been determined, at process block320the personal viewer process200compares the balance of the user's viewer account as stored in the viewer account database202to the value of the pages selected for display. At process block322, the personal viewer determines whether there is sufficient credit available in the user's account to display the selected pages. If not, the personal viewer displays a message to the user notifying them that there are insufficient credits in their account to view the requested content. In one embodiment, at termination block330, the personal viewer transfers the user automatically to an account management Web page that enables the user to purchase additional viewer credits if he or she so chooses. Alternatively, the personal viewer may automatically prompt the user to first view a promotional content selection so that the user may earn additional viewer credits. In yet another embodiment, the personal viewer may charge the user to view the content as each piece of content is actually viewed, or may aggregate the cost of all content viewed during a particular session and charge the user in one lump sum at the end of the session.

When the viewer does have sufficient viewer credit in their account, the personal viewer process200displays the portion of content representing the requested content in a personal viewer Web page at block326. As noted earlier, the database server110may include an access rights database120that is used by the personal viewer process200to further control the display of content in response to a user request to view selected content or as part of an incentive program to induce users to view content with the goal of increasing sales of tangible works from which the content is obtained. For example, the access rights database120may include access rules that, when determined to be applicable, act to limit the content in the selected portion that is shown to the user when the user's viewing account balance is insufficient to cover the charges assessed to view the content. The rules may further act to limit the content in the selected portion that is shown to the user in conjunction with other types of limitations embodied in the access rights database120, including limits on the amount (e.g., percentage) of content that can be shown to the user for any given page, title, or collection of content, limits on the total number of pages that can be shown for any given title or collection content, limits on the amount of content based on type of content, limits on the total number of pages that can be shown to a user independent of content-specific limitations, and limits on the total number of pages that can be shown to the user for any given request to electronically preview content. These limits may be imposed on a per request basis or in the aggregate for all of the requests made by the user. These limits may also be imposed for specified time periods. For example, access rules may be written such that a user may not see more than a specified percentage of a given page of content in a specified time frame, such as a 30-day time period or 10 days in a 30-day cycle, or over the lifetime of the user. The personal viewer system100may implement user verification procedures to inhibit users from establishing multiple viewer accounts to circumvent access limitations in the access rights database120.

Access rules in the access rights database120may further be configured to apply differently for each individual user (or groups of users), depending on content-specific information, such as the type of content at issue. For example, access rules may be written to permit viewing of tables of content and indexes of content at no charge, but to impose charges when viewing content obtained from the body of the work itself. User location can also act as a factor that determines which access rules govern a user's access to content at the time the content is produced for display to the user. For instance, different access rules may be written to enable a student in a classroom to access an entire body of content that is being used in the class at no charge, while the same student, at home, is only able to view a limited portion of the content at no charge. The domain of computer connection, for example, may be used to determine user location. Access rules may be written to apply differently based on the time the content is to be provided to the user, e.g., on different days or at different times of day, as well. Access rules may also be prepared and stored in the access rights database120so that once a portion of content has been displayed to a user, the user can always come back to view that portion, without impacting other limits on viewing other portions of content. A description of the types of access rules that may be employed in an embodiment of the present invention is described in commonly assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/669,088, filed Sep. 23, 2003, entitled “Personalized Searchable Library with Highlighting Capabilities.”

Processing continues at process block328to update the viewer account in the viewer account database202to reflect the use of the viewer credits. In one embodiment, the personal viewer200reduces the user's viewer account by the amount of the viewer credit value associated with the viewed content. Alternatively, or in addition, to induce users to pay for the previewed portions of content (or to eventually purchase the work from which the content was obtained, or to purchase other works or products in which the user is interested), the personal viewer200at process block328may instead update the viewer account in the viewer account database202to, among others, reverse the credit or otherwise refund or reimburse the assessed charges to the user's viewing account under certain conditions, to apply the assessed charges towards other viewing credits already expended, to discount future assessed charges, to apply the assessed charges toward the purchase of the work (or other works or products), or to reward the user with viewer credits for viewing promotional material.

For example, the party may decide to guarantee user satisfaction by offering to waive or reimburse any charges assessed to view the requested content that did not meet the user's expectations. Alternatively, if the user was unhappy with a portion of a work that was viewed, the party may allow the user to apply the credit already expended to view that work to other works offered in the same genre or by the same publisher or author (e.g., if a user was unhappy after previewing one work from a publisher, the user would be allowed to use the same number of credits already expended towards the viewing of another work by that same publisher). Moreover, a user may also be offered discounts to electronically preview other content at a lesser or no charge.

A further incentive to induce users to pay for previewing portions of content would be to allow the user to apply the amount previously paid to preview content towards a subsequent purchase of an electronic or tangible purchase of the previewed work or any other work, e.g., a related work by the same author. For example, a user may have previewed a chapter of the sixth book in The Dark Tower series of books by author Stephen King, for which he or she paid $1.00. The normally discounted purchase price of $18.00 for a hardcover copy of the book, The Song of Susannah, would be further discounted to $17.00 when the user subsequently purchases the book from the party. Alternatively, the user may prefer instead to wait and apply the $1.00 to the purchase price of $23.80 for the seventh book in the Dark Tower series, to be published on Sep. 21, 2004. In another example, the user may have previewed portions of all of the first six books of the Dark Tower series sufficient to earn the $18.00 needed to purchase the hardcover copy of The Song of Susannah outright, in which case the user could apply that amount to the purchase price to, in effect, get the book for free.

In yet another example, the party may decide to allow users to earn viewing credits in exchange for viewing promotional material. For instance, during an election year, a party may promote political humor titles by author Al Franken, such as “Lies and Lying Liars Who Tell Them,” or “Still More George W. Bushisms: Neither in French, Nor in English, Nor in Mexican,” as further described with reference toFIG. 5. The amount that would normally be assessed against the user's viewer account is instead accumulated as a viewer credit that the user may apply toward future purchases or future previewing of other works in which the user may be interested, such as Bill Clinton's recent memoir entitled “My Life.”

Returning now toFIG. 3B, the processing at process block328may implement a viewer credit value algorithm such as that illustrated inFIG. 4. For example, at process block328, the personal viewer200may assess users a larger number of viewer credits as they view more content from a particular work of fiction. Conversely, the personal viewer200may assess users a smaller number of viewer credits as more content from a work of nonfiction are viewed. Thus users could, in theory, view the entire content of a work online, although the payment scheme would be calibrated such that viewing the entire content from a work is a more expensive option for the user than purchasing a tangible copy of the work outright. The personal viewer200may also credit users with viewer credits in the form of a reward for viewing promotional content. Of course, to the personal viewer200may implement different viewer credit value algorithms for viewed content without departing from the scope of the claims that follow.

To carry out the above-described viewing limitations, viewer credit algorithms, and incentives, the personal viewer system100may be configured to track user activity for each user, including the identity of the portions of content (e.g. the paragraphs, pages, or chapters) that the user has viewed and the time frame in which the user has viewed the content. The tracked user activity may be maintained in memory122, in the access rights database120or in the viewer account database202, as appropriate.

FIGS. 5-8illustrate a browser program500displaying Web pages in which the user is able to use the personal viewer process200to view content and maintain their viewer account. The Web pages may be generated by the viewer server108and delivered to the user's computing device102,104via the Internet. InFIG. 5, the user enters a desired search term or selection in the box502and uses a pointing device, keyboard, or other input device to initiate the request, e.g., by clicking on the button “GO” identified at reference numeral504. The Web page inFIG. 5may include other hypertext links, such as an “Index” link506and “Frequently Accessed Titles” link508, both providing additional information that can be assembled into one or more additional Web page(s) not illustrated. Clicking on the Index link506, for example, may produce a Web page for the user that lists bibliographic data for all of the viewable content available for display. The Frequently Accessed Titles link508may produce, for example, a listing of the content most frequently accessed by the user.

Another hypertext link that may be included in the personal viewer is a promotional link512that enables the user to view the promoted content and earn personal viewer discounts in the form of earned viewer credits in their viewer account. For example, the illustrated promotional link512“View the Latest Bestseller LIES (AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM), by Al Franken,” when initiated, will take the viewer to another personal viewer Web page, such as that illustrated inFIG. 7, with content displayed from the promoted work. The works that are promoted in the promotional link512may be frequently modified in accordance with the party's marketing goals, and may be based on the user's viewing or purchasing history. In other words, the promotional link may list not only bestsellers, but also other titles targeted to the purchasing or viewing habits of the particular user.

Log-in and log-out routines may be employed by the viewer server108to provide users with secure access to their viewer accounts. Suitable routines for verifying a user requesting access to viewable content (e.g., using a password) or their viewer account information are well known in the art. InFIGS. 5-8, it is assumed the user has been recognized by the system, and, in certain contexts, may have logged in to verify their identity. A Log Out link510is illustrated that, when initiated, enables the user to discontinue the user's current session and log out of his or her account.

FIG. 6illustrates the browser program500displaying a Web page in which a user's personal viewer account summary is displayed at reference numeral602. The viewer account summary602may be displayed in a variety of different formats. By way of example only, the viewer account summary602inFIG. 6includes a listing of the total available credits604in the viewer's account, in this case 20 credits612, as well as a listing of the recently viewed works606and the number of credits expended to view those works614. In the illustrated example, the recently viewed works include “Cryptonomicon” by author “Neal Stephenson” for 4 credits616, and “Perdido Street Station” by author “China Mieville” for 7 credits618. Other information from the viewer's account may be maintained or displayed in the personal viewer without departing from the scope of the claims that follow.

FIG. 7illustrates the browser program500displaying a Web page in which a portion of the content that the user requested to view (or that the party is promoting) is displayed at reference numeral706. For example, when the user has requested to view selected content from the book titled “Ancient Mysteries by Peter James,” the personal viewer displays the title information at reference numeral702along with the available viewer credits remaining to the user at reference numeral704, which the user may expend when viewing the requested content displayed at reference numeral706. Of course, other information may be displayed by the personal viewer as well without departing from the scope of the claims that follow, including, for example, the amount of viewer credits that the user has expended by viewing the currently displayed portion of content.

FIG. 8illustrates a browser program500displaying a Web page for managing a viewer account and, more specifically, a user interface to purchase additional viewer credits. A Web page label identifying the account is illustrated at reference numeral802, shown here as “My Account Manager.” An input box labeled “Enter Number of Viewer Credits,” is provided at reference numeral804, adjacent to an input box at reference numeral806in which the user may enter the desired number of viewer credits or select the desired number of viewer credits from a pull-down list of alternatives, e.g., 10, 20, etc. Another input box labeled “PURCHASE NOW” is provided at reference numeral808, which the user may activate to purchase the selected number of credits. When activated, the “PURCHASE NOW” button causes the user's previously stored payment information (e.g., credit card, debit card, direct withdrawal, etc.) to be charged accordingly. Other interfaces for managing the viewer account may be provided other than that illustrated inFIG. 8, without departing from the scope of the claims that follow. For instance, a Web page showing the amount of viewer credits earned through promotional viewing may be display to the user upon request.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described above, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the present invention should thus be determined from the following claims and equivalents thereto.