METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNITY-BASED COMPARISON SHOPPING BASED ON SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

摘要

A method and apparatus for sharing product information among users of a computer network (108) using productmarks (202). A productmark (202) for a product is created by a user of the network (108) and includes a product identifier (204), an annotation containing user comments, a username that identifies the creator of the productmark (202), and a categorization tag (208) that identifies the user's level of interest in purchasing the product. Productmarks (202) are stored in a database (110) that may be queried using a product identifier (204), a username, a categorization tag (208), or any combination of these to retrieve productmarks (202). A user network device (104) provides access to the database (110) and includes modules for creating (138) and uploading (140) productmarks (202) to the database (110) and for querying and downloading (142) productmarks (202) from the database (110). A peer-to-peer communication session may be formed relating to a particular product or geographical location.