Third party certification of content in electronic commerce transactions

A method for providing third-party certification of content in an electronic commerce transaction, comprising:

• receiving a first set of attribute values from a first party, the first set of attribute values being associated with one or more products that are the subject of an electronic commerce transaction between the first party and a second party;
• verifying that the first set of attribute values matches, at least in part, a second set of attribute values maintained by the second party, the second set of attribute values being associated with the one or more products that are the subject of the electronic commerce transaction between the first party and the second party;
• storing the first set of attribute values;
• generating a key identifying the stored set of attribute values, the key providing a holder of the key read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values;
• communicating a copy of the key to the first and second parties;
• and
• in response to presentation of the key, providing read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values.

Software for providing third-party certification of content in an electronic commerce transaction, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and when executed operable to:

• receive a first set of attribute values from a first party, the first set of attribute values being associated with one or more products that are the subject of an electronic commerce transaction between the first party and a second party;
• verify that the first set of attribute values matches, at least in part, a second set of attribute values maintained by the second party, the second set of attribute values being associated with the one or more products that are the subject of the electronic commerce transaction between the first party and the second party;
• store the first set of attribute values;
• generate a key identifying the stored set of attribute values, the key providing a holder of the key read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values;
• communicate a copy of the key to the first and second parties;
• and
• in response to presentation of the key, provide read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values.

A system for providing third-party certification of content in an electronic commerce transaction, comprising:

• means for receiving a first set of attribute values from a first party, the first set of attribute values being associated with one or more products that are the subject of an electronic commerce transaction between the first party and a second party;
• means for verifying that the first set of attribute values matches, at least in part, a second set of attribute values maintained by the second party, the second set of attribute values being associated with the one or more products that are the subject of the electronic commerce transaction between the first party and the second party;
• means for storing the first set of attribute values;
• means for generating a key identifying the stored set of attribute values, the key providing a holder of the key read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values;
• means for communicating a copy of the key to the first and second parties;
• and
• means for providing, in response to presentation of the key, read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values.

A computer-implemented system for providing third-party certification of content in an electronic commerce transaction, comprising one or more servers collectively operable to:

• make accessible to a first party a directory structure comprising a plurality of hierarchically organized product classes, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and defining one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, there being one or more pointers associated with one or more of the product classes, each pointer identifying a seller database in which product data enabling a product transaction is stored for products categorized in the product class;
• communicate, in response to selection of a product class, a search query for product data to one or more seller databases identified by the one or more pointers associated with the selected product class;
• receive a plurality of search results from the one or more seller databases in response to the search query, the search results comprising product data for one or more products available from a second party;
• receive a first set of attribute values from the first party, the first set of attribute values being associated with one or more products that are the subject of an electronic commerce transaction between the first party and a second party;
• verify that the first set of attribute values matches, at least in part, a second set of attribute values maintained by the second party, the second set of attribute values being associated with the one or more products that are the subject of the electronic commerce transaction between the first party and the second party;
• store the first set of attribute values;
• generate a key identifying the stored set of attribute values, the key providing a holder of the key read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values;
• communicate a copy of the key to the first and second parties;
• and
• in response to presentation of the key, provide read-only access to at least certain portions of the stored set of attribute values.