Automatic Search of Local Inventory

摘要

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining which of multiple vendors have a product in stock. One of the methods includes maintaining a central database that includes information about respective inventories of multiple vendors, receiving information from a first user device identifying a requested commerce object, and a geographical area, identifying a plurality of sources of available inventory data, searching the plurality of sources for available inventory of the requested commerce object, the searching comprising performing all three of the following processes substantially in parallel: performing real-time searching in the central database, performing sub-real-time searching in respective databases maintained by individual vendors, and initiating manual-assisted searching, asynchronously receiving and aggregating search results into groups, and serving, for each of the groups of search results, instructions for a presentation of the respective composite user interface to a second user device.

主权项

1. A method performed by data processing apparatus controlled by a central entity, the method comprising:
maintaining a central database that includes information about respective inventories of a plurality of different vendors, wherein the central database is kept up-to-date via automated data integration with inventory systems maintained by the plurality of vendors; receiving information from a first user device identifying (a) a requested commerce object for which available inventory is sought, and (b) a geographical area; identifying a plurality of sources of available inventory data for the vendors that are located within a specific distance of the geographical area; searching the plurality of sources for available inventory of the requested commerce object in response to receiving the information from the first user device identifying the requested commerce object for which available inventory is sought, the searching comprising initiating all three of the following processes in parallel: performing real-time searching for inventory data of the requested commerce object in the central database that has been maintained with up-to-date information about potential vendors' respective inventories via data integration by communicating with the central database in response to receiving the information from the first user device identifying the requested commerce object for which available inventory is sought; searching for inventory data of the requested commerce object in respective databases maintained by individual vendors by communicating over a network with the respective databases in response to receiving the information from the first user device identifying the requested commerce object for which available inventory is sought; and determining, for each of one or more vendor locations that do not maintain inventory databases accessible by the data processing apparatus controlled by the central entity, contact settings to initiate manual-assisted searching for the requested commerce object by automated communication with one or more entities located at the respective vendor location, the automated communication using the contact settings to prompt the one or more entities to respond with information about whether the respective vendor location has available inventory of the requested commerce object in response to receiving the information from the first user device identifying the requested commerce object for which available inventory is sought; asynchronously receiving and aggregating search results into groups as the search results become available from each of at least a portion of the searched plurality of sources; generating, using the aggregated search results, a respective composite user interface having inventory information from each of the sources in the portion of the searched plurality of sources; and serving, for each of the groups of search results, instructions for a presentation of the respective composite user interface to a second user device, different from the first user device, the composite user interface displaying the aggregated search results.