Patent ID: 7881954

Claim:
A system for enabling users to interactively select seats and to purchase tickets for events, the system comprising: a database that stores seat availability information for a plurality of events; and a server programmed, via executable program instructions, to provide web-based access to the seating availability information via web pages of a web site, and to enable users to select seats and purchase associated tickets for said events via browser-based interaction with the web site, said server additionally programmed to: query the database to obtain seat availability information for an event selected by a user; and generate a web page for presentation to the user, said web page including an interactive seating chart for said event, said interactive seating chart graphically depicting a physical arrangement of seats, and graphically indicating, for each seat, whether the seat is available, as determined from said seat availability information, said web page including coding that enables the user to hover a mouse pointer over a graphical representation of a seat on said interactive seating chart to obtain additional information regarding said seat, said web page additionally including coding that enables the user to interactively select individual seats by clicking on the corresponding graphical representations of the seats in the interactive seating chart, said web page capable of being displayed by a web browser running on a computing device of the user.