Patent ID: 8521656

Claim:
A method for providing access to extended shipping options, the method comprising: in a computing system, providing access to extended shipping options via a computer-based shipment information specification user interface component that is otherwise not configured to facilitate specification of the extended shipping options, the shipment information specification user interface component including a field, wherein the field is configured to electronically store text data and to specify a first shipment information item of a first type, by: providing a module, distinct from the shipment information specification user interface component, for specifying the extended shipping options, the module configured to generate an indicator of a second shipment information item of a second type, that is not the same as the first type, for submission via the field; receiving, via the field, the text data including the first shipment information item of the first type and the indicator of the second shipment information item, the second shipment information item of the second type not processed as shipment information of the first type, wherein the indicator of the second shipment information item includes a tag or a uniform resource identifier that identifies a shipping provider and causes the shipping provider to determine the second shipment information item; and causing, by the computing system, the shipping provider to process a shipment by: extracting the first shipment information item and the indicator of the second shipment information item from the text data; processing the first shipment information item according to the first type; and processing the second shipment information item according to the second type, thereby determining one of the extended shipping options; wherein the shipment information specification user interface component communicates that the field is for input of the first shipment information item and does not communicate that the field is for input of the indicator of the second shipment information item.