Patent ID: 8688527

Claim:
A method to facilitate programmatic access to a network-based commerce facility via a network, the method comprising: receiving a request from one of one or more third-party applications via a programmatic access application, wherein the request is based on communication between at least one of a first plurality of users and the respective third-party application, the request requesting an action pertaining to electronic commerce to allow one or more indirect transactions between the network-based commerce facility and the at least one of the plurality of users via the respective third-party application, wherein the communication between at least one of the first plurality of users and the respective third-party application uses a first data format; responsive to the request, performing one or more actions pertaining to electronic commerce, and communicating via the programmatic access application one or more results of the one or more actions to the respective third-party application in a programmatically accessible format; and communicating directly with a second plurality of users via the programmatic access application to allow direct transactions between the network-based commerce facility and the second plurality of users, wherein the direct communications uses a second data format when communicating with the second plurality of users, the second data format being different than the first data format.