Patent ID: 7386483

Claim:
A method for selling web services based on a quality of service, the method comprising: receiving, by at least one customer, a first set of offers from a plurality of providers for web services based on a quality of service for each of the web services, wherein the customer receives from at least one of the plurality of providers offers for one or more of the web services with multiple combinations of criteria including the quality of service; obtaining, by the at least one customer, at least one of the web services having the quality of service for the at least one of the web services from a first of the providers; using, by the at least one customer, the at least one of the web services through transactions with a proxy in accordance with a configuration, wherein the proxy communicates the transactions between the customer and the first of the providers and records information on the transactions corresponding to the quality of service for the at least one of the web services; receiving, by the at least one customer, a second set of offers from a plurality of providers for web services based on the quality of service for each of the web services; in response to the second set of offers, obtaining, by the at least one customer, the at least one of the web services from a second of the providers without change to the configuration; and subsequent to obtaining the at least one of the web services from the second of the providers, using, by the at least one customer, the at least one of the web services through transactions with the proxy in accordance with the configuration, wherein the proxy communicates the transactions between the customer and the second of the providers instead of communicating the transactions between the customer and the first of the providers.