US 12,450,639 B2
Browser plug-in for identification and display of alternative products for purchase
Dani Arnaout, San Francisco, CA (US); and Jihad Kawas, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to MERCARI, INC., Palo Alto, CA (US)
Filed by MERCARI, INC., Palo Alto, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 12, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/886,800.
Application 17/886,800 is a continuation of application No. 16/357,754, filed on Mar. 19, 2019, granted, now 11,449,915.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/744,497, filed on Oct. 11, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2023/0016483 A1, Jan. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/0601 (2023.01); G06F 16/25 (2019.01); G06F 16/9535 (2019.01); G06F 16/9538 (2019.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0629 (2013.01) [G06F 16/252 (2019.01); G06F 16/9535 (2019.01); G06F 16/9538 (2019.01); G06Q 30/0603 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0627 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
determining that an active webpage on a browser is from a primary website of a plurality of supported sites, each of the plurality of supported sites comprising a website for which a plug-in application operating on the browser is aware of where price and product information is located on the active webpage based on layout information retrieved from a layout database, and wherein an icon corresponding to the plug-in application is visible on the browser;
identifying a current product displayed on the active webpage on the browser;
identifying one or more related products from one or more secondary websites, different from the primary website, the identified one or more related products corresponding to the current product displayed on the active webpage of the primary website;
determining a count of how many of the identified one or more related products from the one or more secondary websites were identified;
updating the icon of the plug-in application displayed in the browser with a visual indication of the count; and
displaying a list of at least a subset of the identified one or more related products as a drop down from the icon, responsive to detecting a selection of the updated icon, wherein the identified one or more related products displayed in the list are ordered based on a similarity of each of the identified one or more related products, of the subset, to the current product.