Patent ID: 7660746

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for assisting a user in acquiring an item for a recipient, the method comprising: receiving information related to previous item acquisitions; at a first time, receiving from a user an indication of a potential acquisition of an item for a recipient; retrieving from the received information indications of items acquired for the recipient by others; after the first time, automatically determining based on the retrieved indications whether the item for the potential acquisition is appropriate to be acquired for the recipient, the determining being based at least in part on an amount of time that has elapsed since at least one of the indicated items was previously acquired for the recipient, the determining being performed by an automated system being executed by one or more computer systems and being performed without using any indication specified by any user prior to the first time of whether the item for the potential acquisition is appropriate to be acquired for the recipient; and if the item for the potential acquisition is determined to not be appropriate to be acquired for the recipient, automatically providing by the automated system a warning for presentation to the user that indicates inappropriateness of the item for the recipient, and otherwise not providing the warning.