Patent ID: 7870109

Claim:
A method executed at a hosting site, said method comprising the steps of: the hosting site receiving from a web site owner (WSO) that provides products information to register said WSO with said hosting site; establishing identifier (ID) information for said WSO; said hosting site guiding said WSO to create customization data representing a set of customization characteristics, which data is configured to be combined with a program module that creates an add-on element within a window of a browser of a computer, and which data imparts specific look and functionalities to said add-on element; said hosting site storing the created customization data, in a manner that: (a) provides for downloading said customization data to said computer that contains said program module, in response to said computer requesting said customization data, (b) permits modifying said customization data when said ID information is supplied, and (c) receives periodic requests from said computer to check for updates; comparing a current version of the add-on element at said computer with the most updated version of the add-on element at the hosting site, and, if the current version of the add-on element is not the same with as the most updated version of the add-on element, sending an add-on element update message for updating the add-on element's look and functionality; storing changes of customization data in a customization parameters table; and increasing version number of the add-on element; wherein the customization parameters table includes one or more from a set that includes logo, Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, search boxes, icons, messages, promotions, extensions, and related Uniform Resource Locators (URLs); and wherein the step of storing changes of customization data is based on the comparing.