Method and system for distributing product information

Abstract

A method and system of associating product codes with product characteristics, and using those product codes to send and receive information about those characteristics to destinations on a network when the values of those characteristics change.

1 . A method of providing product information over a network comprising: 
 associating product codes with the values of a characteristic,    associating product codes with destinations on the network such that a first product code is associated with a first destination and a second product code is associated with a different second destination, the first product code and second product code further being associated with different characteristics of the same product,    storing the product codes, values, destinations and associations,    receiving a first request over the network, the request including the first product code and identifying a destination, and    sending the value associated with the first product code to the destination if the stored association indicates that the destination identified in the request is associated with the first product code.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said step of associating product codes with destinations on the network includes associating an identifier of a destination with the network address of the destination, and wherein the step of sending the value to the destination includes sending the value to the network address of the destination.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the request is sent from an address on the network different from the address to which the value is sent.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein 
 the second product code is also associated with the first destination,    the request identifies the first destination and also includes the second product code, and    the value associated with the second product code is sent to the first destination with the value associated with the first product code.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the value is sent in tagged format.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the tagged format is XML.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the characteristic is the product's appearance and the value is a picture of the product.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the characteristic is a description of a feature of the product and the value is a string.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the characteristic is the current price of the product and the value is a number.