Mall server with product search capability

A computer readable medium encoded with software causing a computer to perform the following actions:

• maintaining a table of products offered for sale via an electronic store front including fields containing an indication of each product's name and at least two categories of the product;
• maintaining a table of categories including fields containing an indication of each category name and an effective period of time for which the category is to be available to shoppers;
• and
• upon a request from a shopper for a list of available categories, forming the list by searching the table of categories to find categories having an effective period of time containing the date upon which the request was made.

A method of presenting products to customers in a virtual shopping mall comprising:

• creating a table of products offered for sale via an electronic store front including fields containing an indication of each product's name and at least two categories of the product;
• creating a table of categories including fields containing an indication of each category name and an effective period of time for which the category is to be available to shoppers;
• upon a request from a shopper for a list of available categories, forming the list by searching the table of categories to find categories having an effective period of time containing the date upon which the request was made;
• displaying the list of categories to the customer;
• upon the selection of a category, displaying the products from the table of products having the selected category.