SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ONLINE ITEM PUBLICATION AND MARKETPLACE WITHIN VIRTUAL WORLDS

Abstract

A system and method for publishing information about items and allowing internet shopping within virtual worlds. A server based application for internet commerce has been designed to integrate with virtual world servers and the client programs that work with the virtual world servers. For example, a consumer within a virtual world may approach a billboard that will allow the user to interact with a real internet-based marketplace that is available in the real world. Both real world and virtual world items may be purchased from the internet-based marketplace after locating a desired item within the virtual world.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of internet commerce. In particular, but not by way of limitation, the present invention discloses techniques for allowing existing internet commerce sites to made easily available to the participants of virtual worlds.

BACKGROUND

The World Wide Web aspect of the global internet has become a vast commercial marketplace where a consumer can find just about every type of product available. Even the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving known as “Black Friday”, now has an internet corollary: Cyber Monday, the first Monday after the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Although internet commerce has been taking place for many years now, the industry is still in a relative infancy compared to normal retail stores and open air markets. Many people still do not use internet retail web sites since they are not as omnipresent as normal retail stores that are present in every urban area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals describe substantially similar components throughout the several views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes represent different instances of substantially similar components. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of machine in the example form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

FIG. 2 illustrates a high level block diagram of a networked system that may be used to implement an internet commerce system.

FIG. 3 illustrates a high level block diagram of a possible architecture for integrating an internet commerce system with a virtual world system using an internet commerce translation application.

FIG. 4 illustrates a high-level flow diagram that illustrates how a virtual world user may interact with a portal object in forth in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5A illustrates a simplified display screen view of an avatar approaching a marketplace portal object in the form of a billboard within a virtual world

FIG. 5B illustrates the display screen view of FIG. 5A wherein a user interface for a shopping search engine is displayed.

FIG. 5C illustrates the display screen view of the marketplace portal object with a set of results from the search query of FIG. 5B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description includes references to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawings show illustrations in accordance with example embodiments. These embodiments, which are also referred to herein as “examples,” are described in enough detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specific details in the example embodiments are not required in order to practice the present invention. For example, although the example embodiments are mainly disclosed with reference to the HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP), the teachings can be used with other types of data transport protocols or other types of electronic communication systems. The example embodiments may be combined, other embodiments may be utilized, or structural, logical and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope what is claimed. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patent documents, to include one or more than one. In this document, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that “A or B” includes “A but not B.” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unless otherwise indicated. Furthermore, all publications, patents, and patent documents referred to in this document are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, as though individually incorporated by reference. In the event of inconsistent usages between this document and those documents so incorporated by reference, the usage in the incorporated reference(s) should be considered supplementary to that of this document; for irreconcilable inconsistencies, the usage in this document controls.

Computer Systems

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system 100 within which a set of instructions 124, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, the machine may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a network server, a network router, a network switch, a network bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated in FIG. 1, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a processor 102 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) or both), a main memory 104, and a static memory 106. Any of these elements may communicate with each other via a bus 108. The computer system 100 may further include a video display adapter 110 that drives a video display system 115 such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). The example computer system 100 also includes an alphanumeric input device 112 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 114 (e.g., a mouse or trackball), a disk drive unit 116, a signal generation device 118 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 120. Note that various embodiments of a computer system will not always include all of these peripheral devices.

The disk drive unit 116 includes a machine-readable medium 122 on which is stored one or more sets of computer instructions and data structures (e.g., instructions 124 also known as ‘software’) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 124 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 104 and/or within the processor 102 during execution thereof by the computer system 100, the main memory 104 and the processor 102 also constituting machine-readable media.

The instructions 124 for operating computer system 100 may be transmitted or received over a network 126 via the network interface device 120 utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

While the machine-readable medium 122 is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies described herein, or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such a set of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media, flash memory, and magnetic media.

For the purposes of this specification, the term “module” includes an identifiable portion of computer code, computational or executable instructions, data, or computational object to achieve a particular function, operation, processing, or procedure. A module need not be implemented in software; a module may be implemented in software, hardware/circuitry, or a combination of software and hardware.

Internet Commerce Systems

FIG. 2 illustrates a network diagram depicting a client-server system 200, within which one example embodiment may be deployed. In the client-server system 200 of FIG. 2, a network-based marketplace system 202 provides server-side functionality through a network 204 (e.g., the Internet or Wide Area Network (WAN)) to one or more client computer systems.

The network diagram of FIG. 2 illustrates two possible client computer systems: a web client 206 and a programmatic client 208 executing on respective client machines 210 and 212. The web client 206 may be a common web browser program such as the Internet Explorer browser developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. State or the Firefox browser developed by Mozilla. A web client program may include one or more “plug-in” modules 207 that provide additional functionality to the web browser such as an Internet Explorer Browser Helper Object (BHO) or a Firefox extension.

An Application Program Interface (API) server 214 and a web server 216 are coupled to, and provide programmatic and web interfaces respectively to, one or more application servers 218. The application server(s) 218 host one or more marketplace applications such as commerce applications 220 and payment applications 222. The application server(s) 218 are, in turn, shown to be coupled to one or more database servers 224 that facilitate access to one or more databases 226.

The commerce applications 220 may provide a number of marketplace functions and services to users that access the network-based marketplace system 202. The payment applications 222 may likewise provide a number of payment services and functions to users. The payment applications 222 may allow users to accumulate value (e.g., in a commercial currency, such as the U.S. dollar, or a proprietary currency, such as “points”) in accounts, and then later to redeem the accumulated value for products (e.g., goods or services) that are made available via the marketplace applications 220. While the marketplace and payment applications 220 and 222 are shown in FIG. 2 to both form part of the network-based marketplace system 202, it will be appreciated that, in alternative embodiments, the payment applications 222 may form part of a payment service that is separate and distinct from the network-based marketplace system 202.

Further, while the system 200 shown in FIG. 2 employs a client-server architecture, the present invention is of course not limited to such an architecture, and could equally well find application in a distributed, or peer-to-peer, architecture system. The various marketplace application(s) 220 and payment application(s) 222 could also be implemented as standalone software programs that do not necessarily have networking capabilities.

The web client 206 accesses the various commerce application(s) 220 and payment application(s) 222 via the web interface supported by the web server 216. Similarly, the programmatic client 208 accesses the various services and functions provided by the marketplace and payment applications 220 and 222 via the programmatic interface provided by the API server 214. The programmatic client 208 may be a seller application to enable sellers to author and manage listings on the network-based marketplace system 202 in an off-line manner, and to perform batch-mode communications between the programmatic client 208 and the network-based marketplace system 202. One example of such an application is the TurboLister application developed by eBay Inc., of San Jose, Calif.

FIG. 2 also illustrates a third party application 228, executing on a third party server machine 230, as having programmatic access to the network-based marketplace system 202 via the programmatic interface provided by the API server 214. For example, the third party application 228 may, utilizing information retrieved from the network-based marketplace system 202, support one or more features or functions on a website hosted by the third party. The third party website may, for example, provide one or more promotional, marketplace or payment functions that are supported by the relevant applications of the network-based marketplace system 202.

Virtual Worlds

In recent years, many new three-dimensional virtual worlds have been created and made available on the global internet. These virtual worlds attempt to create a world with a user-interface that is similar to the three-dimensional world of normal life. In this manner, these virtual worlds can often be more engaging to many users.

Some of the new three-dimensional virtual worlds are designed to provide an intuitive three-dimensional interface to existing internet resources such as search engines, databases, and web sites. Other three-dimensional virtual worlds, such as the Playstation 3 virtual world known as ‘Home’ and the personal computer based ‘SecondLife’ virtual world, are designed provide a world of social interactions that is to some degree related to the real world (hence the name “SecondLife”). For example, some real world entities, such as government offices, have a virtual representation within the SecondLife virtual world. Other three-dimensional virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft online, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Tabula Rasa, and Everquest, are primarily fantasy game virtual worlds wherein the participants are engaged in co-operative or competitive game play.

The users that are participants within a virtual world can engage in virtual exploring, meeting other virtual world residents, socializing, participating in individual and group activities, creating and trading items of virtual property, etc. An example of virtual property can include vehicles/mounts used for transportation in the virtual world, objects used as furniture in virtual residents, and virtual real estate within the virtual world. Conditions of scarcity, specialization, and comparative advantage may create an economic system with properties similar to those seen in contemporary economies. Further, the user identities or characters themselves are virtual items themselves. Some of these high-level characters may be most valuable form of capital in a virtual world.

Whether a three-dimensional virtual world is designed to represent the existing world, supplement the existing, or act as a completely alternative world, there are needs for marketplaces in such virtual worlds. Participants within a three-dimensional a virtual world may wish to remain within that virtual world and use that virtual world's user interface while shopping for real world items. Furthermore, participants within a virtual world may wish to buy or sell goods or services from the other participants within the virtual world. For example, within a fantasy game world, players may wish to purchase weapons, mounts/vehicles, or other items from other players. Thus, the participants of virtual worlds may wish to use real world marketplaces in order buy or sell both real items in the real world and/or virtual items from within the virtual world.

Virtual services that may be offered for sale include, for example, building help, businesses management, entertainment, and other personal services. Virtual goods may include, for example, buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, and works of art. Because a virtual world may allow real property transactions in virtual land, there may be, for example, an active virtual real estate online market. Because the sale of property and services is often a source of revenue for virtual world creators, an online marketplace may act as a retailer of the virtual world property and services. In yet another example, an online marketplace, may be integrated into a virtual web-based world as to provide a marketplace or the only marketplace for the residents of the virtual world.

To provide virtual world users the ability to use real world internet commerce markets to perform transactions, the present disclosure introduces an internet commerce translation system. The internet commerce translation system provides a bridge between virtual worlds and a real world internet commerce system.

Example Embodiment Architecture

FIG. 3 illustrates the architecture of one embodiment of an internet commerce translation system. The specific embodiment disclosed in FIG. 3 is just one possible architecture for implementing the teachings of the present disclosure.

In embodiment of FIG. 3, a virtual world server 330 is illustrated coupled to a network 304 such as the internet. The virtual world server 330 runs a virtual world server application 331 to provide a three-dimensional virtual world to client systems that connect to the virtual world server 330. The virtual world server application 331 illustrated in FIG. 3 includes a virtual world database 335 in order to provide a persistent virtual world to its users. The virtual world database 335 may include information such as a virtual world model, character models, virtual world items, textures, and sound samples.

Note that the embodiment presented in FIG. 3 represents a simplified view of one possible virtual world system. The virtual world server 330 may actually be implemented with multiple computer clusters wherein each computer cluster is implemented with multiple individual computer systems.

To access the virtual world hosted by virtual world server application 331 a user with a client machine 210 runs a virtual world client application 332. The virtual world client application 232 acts as a conduit into the virtual world hosted by the virtual world server application 331. Specifically, the virtual world client application 232 renders a view of the virtual world hosted by virtual world server application 331 for the user at client machine 210. The virtual world client application 332 accepts inputs from the user at client machine 210 and uses that input to control an avatar associated with the user within the virtual world. Depending on the implementation of the virtual world, the user may see the avatars of other users and those other users may see the avatar of the user at client machine 210.

To provide access to an external market such as the network-based marketplace system 202, the present disclosure uses an internet commerce translation application 382. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the internet commerce translation application 382 is illustrated running on its own translation server 380. However, the internet commerce translation application 382 may be implemented on virtual world server 330 or even as part of the virtual world server application 331 itself. In another embodiment, the internet commerce translation application could be implemented as one of the applications on application servers 218 as part of the networked system 202 that implements an internet commerce site. In some example embodiments, both marketplace and virtual world may allow their respective servers to access each other's application programming interfaces and use shared user information. For example, virtual world users may be allowed to trade after logging in with either marketplace or virtual world credentials. Such functionality may be implemented by synchronizing virtual world and the marketplace user accounts and enabling currency exchange that may make the process entirely transparent to users. As an example workflow, before users are allowed to transact in virtual items, they may be required to log into their marketplace account to match their marketplace credentials to their virtual world credentials unless both accounts were matched previously.

The internet commerce translation application 382 acts in a manner that provides an interface into the network-based marketplace system 202 from within the virtual world that is rendered using the virtual world client application 332 and the virtual world server application 331. To best disclose operation of the internet commerce translation application 382, an example of operation will be describe with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5A to 5C.

FIG. 4 illustrates a high-level flow diagram that describes how the system of the present disclosure provides the user of a virtual world access to a traditional internet commerce site such as network-based marketplace system 202. Initially, at stage 410, a user enters the virtual world using the virtual world client application associated with the virtual world. Thus, in the embodiment of FIG. 3, a user of client system 210 executes virtual world client application 332. Virtual world client application 332 establishes communication path 334 with the virtual world server application 331 to obtain the necessary information such that virtual world client application 332 can render a view into the virtual world. Note that a large amount of information may be replicated in a virtual world cache 339 on client system 210 such that large amounts of information do not need to be repeatedly transmitted from the virtual world server application 331 to the virtual world client application 332.

Once the user is within the virtual world that is created by the virtual world client application 332 and virtual world server application 331, the user then navigates the user's avatar to a location near a marketplace portal object within the virtual world, as set forth in stage 415. FIG. 5A illustrates a simplified display screen view of an avatar 510 approaching a marketplace portal object 550 in the form of a billboard. Many other types of objects may be used as a portal object such as a newspaper, a television, etc. As the avatar approaches the portal object 550, the portal object 550 may make sounds at stage 420 to entice the customer to approach the portal object 550 and interact with it. Similarly, the portal object 550 may display various images or video that represent the services that may be may available to the user through the portal object 550. If the portal object is unsuccessful in enticing the user at stage 425, then system returns to stage 415 to entice another avatar.

When the portal object 550 is successful in enticing a user to interact with it, the system proceeds to stage 430 wherein the system presents an interactive user interface to the user. One example embodiment of an interactive user interfaced is illustrated in FIG. 5B wherein billboard portal object 550 now displays a prompt asking “What are you interested in purchasing?” and provides a text entry box 555.

The user may then interact with the billboard portal object 550. In the example of FIG. 5B, the user has entered text indicating that the user is interested in purchasing an “Ipod Nano 4 GB”. As set forth in stage 440, the system accepts the information entered by the user and transmits this information to the internet commerce translation application 382 along data path 384. In one embodiment, this information is transmitted to the internet commerce translation application 382 with a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) “GET” command with the user's input as a parameter. For example, an HTTP GET command may be transmitted with the string “http://vworld.emarket.com/query?input=Ipod+Nano+4GB”.

Next, at stage 450, the internet commerce translation application 382 processes the user input in a manner to create a request for the network-based marketplace system 202. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the request will be made along data path 394 to the API Server 214 that has been created to accept and respond to requests from applications other than simple web browsers. (Requests from web browsers are handled by web server 216.)

The request from internet commerce translation application 382 may specify various parameters in order to obtain results that will be most appropriate for presentation within the virtual world server application 331 that the internet commerce translation application 382 is working with. For example, the virtual world server application 331 may only allow certain types of products to be offered for sale within that world such as virtual items for that virtual world or only specific types of virtual items that do not upset the balance of play within the virtual world. Furthermore, the user interface within the virtual world may be limited such that only a few items can be displayed such that the request may only a few items. In an auction type of marketplace, the internet commerce translation application 382 may request that items within auctions ending very soon be excluded such that items the user may not be able to purchase due to time constraints will not be displayed. If a search is for real items, the search may be limited to items from a geographic location near the user such as within the same country.

After the network-based marketplace system 202 has processed and responded to the request from the internet commerce translation application 382, the results from that request are received by the internet commerce translation application 382 at stage 460. The internet commerce translation application 382 processes the received information to put the information into better form for the virtual world. This process may entail reducing the amount of information that will be sent back to the virtual world server application 331. The information selected for display will be sent back to the virtual world server application 331 along data path 384. Note that if the network-based marketplace system 202 fails to respond to the request or responds to the request with unexpected or in appropriate results then the internet commerce translation application 382 will need to generate an appropriate response to send to the virtual world server application 331 that conveys the error the user.

In one particular embodiment, the virtual world server application 331 only accepted images for display on portal objects. For such a system, the internet commerce translation application 382 must take the information received back from the network-based marketplace system 202 and create an image file that contains the results of the request. Furthermore, the internet commerce translation application 382 may need to create an image click-zone map that will be able to translate any user selections on that image (such as mouse clicks after placing a cursor on the image) into appropriate additional actions that will be performed. In one particular embodiment, the creation of an image file was accomplished by creating a screen display on a local console of the internet commerce translation application 382, capturing that display screen display with a screen-grab routine, and then returning the image file generated by the screen-grab routine to the virtual world server application 331.

When the virtual world server application 331 receives the information back from internet commerce translation application 382, then the virtual world server application 331 passes that information along to the virtual world client application 332 running on the user's client system 210. The virtual world client application 332 will display the received information to the user. Following along in the example of FIGS. 5A and 5B with a billboard portal object 550, the results may be displayed on the billboard portal object 550 as illustrated in FIG. 5C.

Upon receiving the result information as illustrated in FIG. 5C, the user may select one of the displayed items or request to make another search in stage 470. In the embodiment that uses an image to display the information, a click zone map may be used to determine if the user wishes to obtain additional information on a displayed item. If the user elects to make a new search, the system may return back to step 430 to perform another search. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5C, the user may enter a new search by typing search terms into the text entry window 555.

If the user selects an item at stage 470, the system then proceeds to obtain more information about the selected item to allow the user to determine if the user wishes to purchase the selected item. In the embodiment set forth in FIG. 4, the system launches a traditional web browser with a link directed to the selected item at stage 480 such that the user may easily purchase the selected item in the traditional manner. Referring to FIG. 3, this may be implemented by having the virtual world client application 332 in client system 210 provide a Uniform Resource Locator to an item listing (URL) to web client 206 such that web client 206 contacts the network-based marketplace system 202 using its web interface 216 along data path 314.

No further interaction between the network-based marketplace system 202 and the virtual world may be required as users are transferred to the network-based marketplace system 202 website to complete the transaction. In some embodiments, some interaction with the virtual world server application 331 may occur as a completed transaction requires users to deliver possession of a virtual item in the virtual world similar to real life shipments. In one embodiment, the users may be provided with the other party's virtual world name and/or address to facilitate the transfer of items in the virtual world upon completion of a transaction. In another embodiment, code within the virtual world server application 331 will be used to automatically transfer a virtual world item upon the completion of a transaction.

Referring back to stage 480, in an alternate embodiment the virtual world client application 332 itself may handle a transaction with the network-based marketplace system 202 instead of using an external web browser 206. For example, the virtual world client application 332 may use information from the user's selection to directly access the network-based marketplace system 202 through either the web server interface 216 or the API server interface 214 to handle the transaction with the network-based marketplace system 202 completely from within the virtual world.

In yet another embodiment, the system may use external methods of communicating with the virtual world user if no method exists to launch an external web browser from the virtual world client application 332 or conduct a transaction within virtual world. For example, the internet commerce translation application 382 may send an email message to an email address associated with the virtual world user. Such a notification email may contain a URL for the item selected by the virtual world user. Thus, when the virtual world leaves the virtual world and checks his email, the user will be able to follow up on the item of interest on the network-based marketplace system 202 that was located within the virtual world by simply clicking upon the URL that is in the email message.

Virtual Market System refinements

In one embodiment, the marketplace portal object 550 may ask the user if the user is interested in shopping for items in the real world or items in the virtual world. In this manner, the two different shopping experiences may be handled in a different manner. For example, the interface for shopping for real world items may use a search engine based interface as set forth with reference to FIGS. 4, 5B, and 5C since so many different items exist in the real world whereas shopping for virtual items may be performed with a menu based interface since their may be fewer items available in the virtual world and the user may be navigating with a game controller that does not make text input easy.

Furthermore, by initially asking the user if the user is interested in shopping for items in the real world or items in the virtual world, different code modules may be used to implement the two different shopping experiences. Shopping for virtual items may use code within the virtual world client application 332 and the virtual world server application 331 whereas shopping for real world items may use the external interface and code of the internet commerce translation application 382.

In another embodiment of the virtual market system, a virtual market participant may create a virtual retail store that contains various virtual items that are related to real world items that are available for sale on an external marketplace such as the network-based marketplace system 202. Inhabitants of the virtual world may then browse the virtual retail store in the traditional manner done in the real world. If a user is interested in a particular item, the virtual world user may indicate that more information is desired. This may then cause the system to launch an external web browser with a URL to a web page allowing purchase of a real version of the virtual item as set forth in the previous description of stage 480.

Integrated Monetary Conversion Systems

Referring to FIG. 3, the network-based marketplace system 202 includes payment applications 222 in order to provide a number of payment services and functions to users. As set forth earlier, the payment applications 222 may allow users to accumulate value (e.g., in a commercial currency, such as the U.S. dollar, or a proprietary currency, such as “points”) in accounts, and then later to redeem the accumulated value for products (e.g., goods or services) that are made available via the marketplace applications 220.

In one embodiment, the payment applications 222 include currency conversion capabilities. For example, a purchaser from one country that uses a first currency may wish to purchase an item from a seller in another country that uses a second currency unit. In such a situation, the payment applications 222 may handle the currency conversion in a transparent manner such that neither the buyer nor the seller needs to handle or even know about the other form of currency. The currency conversion may be performed with the aid of external currency markets.

These currency conversion capabilities created for handling different forms of real national currencies may be used to handle currency transactions for forms of currency used within a virtual world. For example, in the virtual world SecondLife the participants use a currency named the Linden and in the online game World of Warcraft the players use a form of currency known as World of Warcraft gold. Within these virtual worlds, these virtual currencies have real value. Thus, the currency conversion capabilities of the payment applications 222 for the network-based marketplace system 202 may be used to perform currency conversions into these virtual currencies in order to handle transactions in any form of currency whether real or virtual. In order to perform such abilities, free exchange markets may need to exist for these virtual currencies.

With such a currency conversion system that is easily available to a network-based marketplace system 202, the users of a virtual world will be able to buy and sell virtual world items with either real currency or virtual currency. Thus, users that create items or otherwise obtain items within a virtual world may sell those virtual items for real currency. The system would be so flexible that a user that participates in multiple different worlds may be able to purchase (or sell) a virtual item in one virtual world using the virtual currency of another virtual world!

The preceding description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described embodiments (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the claims should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system, device, article, or process that includes elements in addition to those listed after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within the scope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b), which requires that it allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in the above Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. A method of providing access to a networked commerce site from within a virtual world, said method comprising: receiving a first request of shopping information from a virtual world user;transmitting said first request of shopping information to a networked commerce site translation application;transmitting a second request of shopping information from said networked commerce site translation application to said networked commerce site;processing a first set of results received back from said networked commerce site within said networked commerce site translation application to create a second set of results; andtransmitting said second set of results to a virtual world server application for display to said virtual world user.

2. The method of providing access to said networked commerce site as set forth in claim 1, said method further comprising: receiving a designation of a product displayed in said second set of results from a virtual world user; andlaunching a web browser program with a destination address of a web page associated with said product designated by said virtual world user.

3. The method of providing access to said networked commerce site as set forth in claim 1, said method further comprising: receiving a designation of a product displayed in said second set of results from a virtual world user; andsending an email message containing a Uniform resource Locator associated with a web page associated with said product designated by said virtual world user to an email address associated with said virtual world user.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said second request of shopping information specifies a limitation of only items associated with said virtual world.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said second request of shopping information specifies a limitation that excludes items that will be sold within a short period of time.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said second set of results comprises an image file.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said second set of results further comprises a click map of said image file.

8. A system for providing marketplace capabilities from within a virtual world, said system comprising: a networked commerce site, said network commerce site having an application programming interface for receiving search requests;a networked commerce site translation server, said networked commerce site translation server comprising a request processing module, said request processing module receiving a first request of shopping information from a virtual world user, processing said first request into a second request and transmitting said second request to said networked commerce site, anda response processing module, said response processing module processing a first set of results received back from said networked commerce site to create a second set of results and transmitting said second set of results to a virtual world server application for display to said virtual world user.

9. The system as set forth in claim 8 wherein a virtual client application receives a designation of a product displayed in said second set of results from a virtual world user and launches a web browser program with a destination address of a web page associated with said product designated by said virtual world user.

10. The system as set forth in claim 8, wherein a virtual client application receives a designation of a product displayed in said second set of results from a virtual world user and sends an email message containing a Uniform resource Locator of a web page associated with said product designated by said virtual world user to an email address associated with said virtual world user.

11. The system as set forth in claim 8 wherein said second request of shopping information specifies a limitation of only items associated with said virtual world.

12. The system as set forth in claim 8 wherein said second request of shopping information specifies a limitation that excludes items that will be sold within a short period of time.

13. The system as set forth in claim 8 wherein said second set of results comprises an image file.

14. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said second set of results further comprises a click map of said image file.

15. A machine-readable medium, said machine-readable medium comprising a set of computer instructions that provide method for accessing a networked commerce site from within a virtual world, said method comprising: receiving a first request of shopping information from a virtual world user;transmitting said first request of shopping information to a networked commerce site translation application;transmitting a second request of shopping information from said networked commerce site translation application to said networked commerce site;processing a first set of results received back from said networked commerce site within said networked commerce site translation application to create a second set of results; andtransmitting said second set of results to a virtual world server application for display to said virtual world user.

16. The machine-readable medium as set forth in claim 15 wherein said method further comprises: receiving a designation of a product displayed in said second set of results from a virtual world user; andlaunching a web browser program with a destination address of a web page associated with said product designated by said virtual world user.

17. The machine-readable medium as set forth in claim 15 wherein said method further comprises: receiving a designation of a product displayed in said second set of results from a virtual world user; andsending an email message containing a Uniform resource Locator associated with a web page associated with said product designated by said virtual world user to an email address associated with said virtual world user.

18. The machine-readable medium as set forth in claim 15 wherein said second request of shopping information specifies a limitation of only items associated with said virtual world.

19. The machine-readable medium as set forth in claim 15 wherein said second request of shopping information specifies a limitation that excludes items that will be sold within a short period of time.

20. The machine-readable medium as set forth in claim 15 wherein said second set of results comprises an image file.

21. The machine-readable medium as set forth in claim 20 wherein said second set of results further comprises a click map of said image file.