Patent ID: 7162436

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining a database of personal information relating to a consumer, the database associated with a plurality of domain names and the personal information including a list of preferred providers identified by the consumer or by prior purchases thereby; receiving a request initiated by the consumer and transmitted over a global communication network to a system associated with the plurality of domain names, wherein the request includes one of the plurality of domain names and the domain name included in the request includes an identification of a subject of the request without identifying a specific provider thereof; identifying, responsive to the received request initiated by the consumer and based upon the request and the preferred providers in the database, at least one name of at least one provider; forwarding the identified at least one name of the at least one provider from said system to said consumer, wherein said consumer is subsequently capable of choosing a provider from the identified at least one provider to communicate therewith; completing a transaction between the consumer and a provider selected from the identified at least one provider; and updating the personal information based on the completed transaction, wherein the updated personal information is accessible by the system for use in connection with a subsequent request initialed by the consumer that includes a different one of the plurality of domain names, with the domain name included in the subsequent request including an identification of the subject of the subsequent request.