Patent ID: 7702562

Claim:
A computer-implemented system for generating an order in an electronic marketplace, the system comprising: one or more databases coupled with a plurality of seller computer systems, the one or more databases storing transactional data; a server system coupled with the one or more databases, the server system configured to: receive from at least one of the plurality of seller computer systems one or more offers, and store the one or more offers as transactional data in the one or more databases, the one or more offers reflecting values specified for a plurality of seller offer variables; a buyer computer system coupled with the server system, the buyer computer system configured to: receive a buyer request, the buyer request comprising values for a plurality of buyer offer variables; access the one or more offers stored as transactional data in the one or more databases; generate a display comprising: a buyer request display comprising one or more patterns representing the buyer request, the one or more patterns of the buyer request comprising a plurality of bars, each bar representing a particular buyer offer variable and comprising a set of one or more geometric display elements, the particular one of the plurality of buyer offer variables encoded by the buyer computer system according to a predefined encoding scheme, wherein each geometric display element in the set of geometric display elements has a color according to the value being represented; and an offers display of the one or more offers, the offers display comprising a plurality of patterns, each pattern of the plurality of patterns representing a particular one of the one or more offers and comprising a plurality of bars, each bar representing a particular one of the plurality of seller offer variables and comprising a set of one or more geometric display elements, the particular one of the plurality of seller offer variables being encoded by the buyer computer system according to the predefined encoding scheme, wherein each geometric display element in the set of geometric display elements has a color according to the value being represented; compare the one or more patterns of the buyer request display with the plurality of patterns of the offers display to determine a best fit match between at least one of the plurality of patterns representing the one or more offers and the one or more patterns representing the buyer request; and generate an order based on the best fit match and communicate the order to the server system.