Patent ID: 6968513

Claim:
An on-line, interactive web site information system for increasing access to localized business and markets, the system having one of more functions for displaying advertising, information and business listings and referring users such as shoppers or merchants to the web sites of merchants listed with respect to certain localized geographic locations such as town and cities, and certain categories, comprising: means for substantially automated creation and entry of said business listings and advertising by users of said system, wherein the users have direct access to modify, add or remove the advertising information and/or business listings; means for substantially automated selection by said merchants of said categories and said localized geographic locations wherein said advertising, information and/or business listings will appear so as to enable geographic targeting of said users of said system and to allow merchants in the geographic areas to direct the advertising, information and/or business listings to localized geographic locations so as to provide greater exposure to said merchants within the localized geographic locations; means for displaying said advertising, information and/or business listings for a duration of time based on said selected categories and said localized geographic locations; means for viewing said advertising, information and/or business listings based on the selection by the user of at least one of said localized geographic locations and at least one of said categories in which the merchant advertisements, business listings and/or information is displayed; means for linking said advertising, business listings and/or information to the web pages of others; at least one-hyper link corresponding to a category to link users to the web site of at least one merchant; means for building databases from the information provided by users of the system; means for recording and providing account review information to users of the system; means for users to access the system to add and delete said information, business listings and advertisements for display on the system; extended services means; means for recording statistics about usage of the system; marketing analysis means for monitoring activity among the various functions of the system; and means for generating revenue through the selection by the merchants of one or more of said functions.