Identifying, soliciting, selecting and scheduling service providers

Abstract

A system facilitates identifying service providers capable of performing services for users and enable the pricing and scheduling of services to be performed by the service providers. A user submits a service request including a service description and optionally service constraints such as a required service location and service time. The system matches the service request with service providers potentially suitable for performing the requested service. The system sends bid solicitations to matched service providers, who may then respond with requests for additional information or bids. The bids are presented to the user, who then selects the bid best suited for his or her needs. The service provider associated with the selected bid is notified of the user's selection, thereby scheduling the service. A social graph associated with the user may be used to assist users in selecting bids.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of scheduling a service, the method comprising:
 receiving a service request from a user, wherein the service request includes a service description of a service to be performed;   selecting a subset of potential service providers matching the service request;   sending bid solicitations to the subset of potential service providers;   receiving bids from at least a portion of the subset of potential service providers;   presenting the bids to the user;   receiving a selection of at least one of the bids from the user; and
 notifying a first one of the subset of the potential service providers corresponding with the selected one of the bids, wherein the notification indicates an acceptance of the bid by the user. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the service description includes at least one constraint on performance of the service. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the constraint includes a service location. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the constraint includes a service time. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the service time is immediately upon selection of the first one of the bids. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the bids include prospective acceptances of the service time by the service providers and the acceptance of the bid by the user completes a scheduling of the service. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 receiving a service provider evaluation from the user; and   associating the service provider evaluation with a service provider profile of the first one of the subset of the potential service providers.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the subset of potential service providers comprises analyzing service provider profiles associated with the potential service providers for suitability with the service request. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the suitability of service provider profiles includes satisfying hard constraints associated with the service request. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the suitability of service provider profiles includes ranking service providers according to soft constraints. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein ranking service providers comprises:
 determining service match scores based on weighted sums of the soft constraints.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein analyzing the service provider profiles comprises:
 using natural language processing to identify a portion of the service provider profiles relevant to the service description.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the subset of potential service providers comprises:
 identifying at least one previously received service request similar to the service request from the user;   identifying at least one service provider associated with the previously received service request; and   including the identified service provider in the subset of potential service providers.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 charging a matching fee to an account of the first one of the subset of the potential service providers in response to receiving the selection of the one of the bids from the user.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein presenting the bids to the user comprises:
 presenting previously received evaluations of the portion of the subset of potential service providers.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein presenting the bids to the user comprises:
 presenting social graph connections between the user and the portion of the subset of potential service providers.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the service description includes data in at least one data format selected from a group consisting of text, pictures, video, audio, electronic documents, and multimedia data. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 providing a service request notification to at least one peer of the user via a social graph interface;   receiving a peer response to the service request notification from at least a first peer; and   presenting the peer response to the user.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein providing the service request notification comprises:
 retrieving at least a portion of the social graph of the user via the social graph interface, wherein the portion of the social graph of the user includes the peer; and   sending the service request notification to the portion of the social graph of the user.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein providing the service request notification comprises:
 providing the service request notification to a peer notification service via a social interface, wherein the peer notification service is adapted to select at least a portion of the social graph of the user including the peer to receive the service request notification based on a preferences of at least the peer.