System and Method for Web-Based Consumer-to-Business Referral

An online system facilitating commercial interactions between a plurality of registered users and a plurality of participating business entities, the system comprising:

• a profile storage module to store a plurality of user profiles corresponding to the plurality of respective registered users;
• a communication interface to receive a transaction request from a candidate business entity associated with commercial activity and a referral code associated with the transaction request, wherein the referral code corresponds to a referring one of the plurality of registered users;
• and
• an award engine communicatively coupled to the profile storage and the communication interface, the award engine including:
• a first routine to store a referral indication in one of the plurality of user profiles associated with the referring one of the plurality of registered users, wherein the referral indication corresponds to the transaction request;
• a second routine to retrieve an award condition associated with the transaction request;
• and
• a third routine to apply a referral award to the user profile based on the stored indication and the award condition.

A method in a computer system for reliably crediting a registered user of an information gathering system for an entity referral comprising:

• registering a plurality of users for participation in a service provided by the information gathering system, wherein each of the plurality of users receives awards points redeemable for a product or a service for interacting with a plurality of participating entities in a predefined manner;
• assigning a respective referral code to at least some of the plurality of users, wherein each referral code corresponds to exactly one of the plurality of users;
• receiving a transaction request from a candidate entity, wherein the candidate entity is one of a commercial, government, or non-profit entity, and wherein the transaction request is associated with a directed commercial campaign;
• receiving a referral code associated with the transaction request, wherein the referral code corresponds to one of the plurality of users;
• processing the transaction request to generate an award eligibility indication;
• and
• conditionally allocating a referral award to the one of the plurality of users in accordance with the award eligibility indication.