FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The instant disclosure generally relates to online peer to peer buy and sell system, in particular to a method for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services and system thereof
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART
Social network and Internet commerce are well known in the art. A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes. The resulting structures are often very complex.
Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.
In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modem electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at

some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. Currently, we have:
A. Social Network:
1. There are buddy and presence system where two persons after authenticating become buddies.
2. Social networking sites have enabled the facility to see the buddies or buddies to a pre specified extent. Example Buddy of a Buddy of a buddy (this is 2 degrees).
3. They use this system for exchanging profiles and email addresses.
B. Internet Commerce (eCommerce)
1. There are sites that enable buy and sell.
2. They enable anonymous transactions.
3. This does not involve any buddy methods and the buyer and seller need not be buddies of each other.
4. Buyer and seller are introduced to each other through search on the websites.
For example, reference 1: United States Patent 7069308 - System, method and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks
This reference discloses a method and apparatus for calculating, displaying and acting upon relationships in a social network is described. A computer system collects descriptive data about various individuals and allows those individuals to indicate other individuals with whom they have a personal relationship. The descriptive data and the relationship data are integrated and processed to reveal the series of social relationships connecting any two individuals within a social network. The pathways connecting any two individuals can be displayed. Further, the social network itself can be displayed to any number of degrees of separation. A user of the system can determine the optimal relationship path (i.e., contact pathway) to reach desired individuals. A communications tool allows individuals in the system to be introduced (or introduce themselves) and initiates direct communication.

The reference 1 discusses on how to build a social network. How to arrange the connections, and How to maintain and build the connectivity. In the reference 1, the invention fix number of hops (degrees of separation), exchange the invitation and the profiles of each registered user. It shows a method where the two users are connected by at least one friend. However, this reference has no information about the buy and sale. This reference does not talk about any transactions apart from bringing two users together.
The instant invention is however differentiated with the reference 1 by the points mentioned below
1. The instant invention doesn't connect two persons who are not immediate friends who are explicitly added.
2. The instant invention uses the cormections for not exchanging profiles and email addresses.
3. The instant invention doesn't build the connection at all.
4. The instant invention crawl the links using the friend of a friend concept to reach others.
5. The instant invention does pass the information about buy and sale on the
infrastructure that is built on the system as in this patent.
6. The instant invention does it anonymously (don't disclose the identities). Everything
happens anonymously, such as, seeing the object, bargaining through chat, calls, etc.
Even the deal ends without the notice of each other.
6(b). The instant invention can also pass on the information non-anonymously, where disclose the identities of users involved.
7. A buyer or seller would look for what depth (degrees) he/she wants to crawl the buddies of buddies.
8. The instant invention implicitly provides the security feature since the buyer and seller are connected through their friends.
9. In the art, the depth is set by the administrator/computer system operator (i.e., centrally set); In the instant invention buyer/seller sets it.

Reference 2: United States Patent 6704716 Method and system for conducting an online transaction that allows the seller and bidder to negotiate
This reference discloses a method and system for conducting an online transaction that allows a seller and a bidder to negotiate a final sale price. The system displays information about the item. An offer is received from at least one bidder. The system enables the seller and bidder to negotiate by allowing each party a predetermined number of responses. After the predetermined number of responses is met without a sale, the system enables the seller and a subsequent bidder to negotiate.
This reference discusses on how to do online transactions. This does not talk about the Friend of a Friend type of connection at all. However, this is about Ebay concept of online trading.
The instant invention is however differentiated with the reference 1 by the points mentioned below
1. The instant invention uses a social network platform and build on it a secure and anonymous buy and sell.
2. The difference is that any one can see and buy in this (reference 2) system. However, in the instant invention case the persons are to be some how connected (degree or depth can be anything set by Buyer/Seller).
3. The instant invention implicitly provides the security feature since the buyer and seller are cormected through their friends.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a unique mixture of both
internet commerce and social network.
Yet another object of the present invention is anonymous introduction of buyer and seller.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a Security by restricting the
buyer and seller to be connected and/or linked to each other.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide Internet anonymous calls and
PSTN anonymous calls.

STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides for A method for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services, said method comprising acts of creating a web page comprising details of the goods to be sold by seller; transmitting link of said web page along with tags to the seller's buddies; receiving of the transmitted link by buddies network including potential buyer, followed by storing of details of the goods of his interest; and contacting of the seller by the potential buyer using predefined applications provided on the web page for the buying and the selling of the goods, and also provides for a system for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services, said system comprising plurality of computers connecting buddies; a server system with web-link and/or plug-in with call server to enable anonymous call and/or conference call; and server-based packet switching means to hide IP numbers of buyers and sellers and to enable buyers and sellers to interact if they are behind firewalls.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The features described in this disclosure are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. These features and attendant advantages will become apparent from consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Wherein Figure 1 shows the Schematic of the Setup of instant invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The primary embodiment of the present invention is a method for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services, said method comprising acts of creating a web page comprising details of the goods to be sold by seller; transmitting link of said web page along with tags to the seller's buddies; receiving of the transmitted link by buddies network including potential buyer, followed by storing of details of the goods of his interest; contacting of the seller or buyer by the potential buyer/seller using predefined applications provided on the web page for the buying and the selling of the goods;

In yet another embodiment of the present invention the web link or the information in any form about goods to be bought/sold travels automatically to a buyer when the buyer sends a request with plurality of tags to all the friends in his buddy list and said request from the potential buyer reaches the seller.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the web link or the information in any form about goods to be bought or sold travels automatically to a seller when the seller sends a request with plurality of tags to all the friends in his buddy list and said request from the potential seller reaches the buyer.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the method enables the buyer and the seller to communicate using PSTN and/or Mobile and/or Satellite Telephone connections enabled by the applications provided on the web, or other applications running on the computer or the PSTN Gateways or PSTN and/or Mobile and/or Satellite Telephone on one end and Web or application running on PC on the other end.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the method enables multiple buyers to perform audio and/or video conference with the seller with any means as mentioned in the claim 3.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the seller and/or buyer sets a limit on the number of levels in the buddies' network to transmit data, while forwarding the data to his friends.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the limit on number of levels of indirections in the buddies' network is either default or user is capable of setting the limit. In still another embodiment of the present invention the user is a seller or a buyer or an intermediate buddy who passes the information from the buyer to the seller or seller to buyer.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the users are grouped according to their common interest.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the web page comprises a plug-in and/or an activex control button, and/or a link that enables to receive calls from the buyer and/or seller who is seeing the web page.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the calls are anonymous calls or non-anonymous calls and optionally includes anonymous or non-anonymous conference calls.

In still another embodiment of the present invention the anonymity is secured through a server-based packet switching mechanism to hide the IP numbers.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the method provides a handle for the user to set the level of the penetration to their buy/sell request to penetrate in the buddies' network and to mention their interests using text tags or pictures, or videos, or audios or combinations thereof
In still another embodiment of the present invention the level is represented by the number of users to be reached.
Another important embodiment of the present invention is a system for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services, said system comprising plurality of computers cormecting buddies; a server system with web-link and/or plug-in with call server to enable anonymous call and/or conference call; and server-based packet switching means to hide IP numbers of buyers and sellers and to enable buyers and sellers to interact if they are behind firewalls.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the server system comprises buddy servers, web-hosting servers, and call servers, telephone servers, hardware for switching calls.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the buddy server provides the Internet Presence service and is configured to act as a web-based database that connect plurality of users who are friends in the buddies network.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the user is a seller or a buyer or an intermediate buddy who passes the information from the buyer to the seller or seller to buyer..
In still another embodiment of the present invention the users are grouped according to their common interest.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the web-hosting server is configured to display sellers' and/or buyers' articles and their description either anonymous or non-anonymous.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the system comprises an enabler to support data dissemination among peers.

In still another embodiment of the present invention the goods are selected from a group
comprising objects, information and entities which is to be selected and/or searched.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the system enables the users to form
their own known cluster of friends with a prefixed number of degree or without any
limits or limit on the number of unique friends reached.
In still another embodiment of the present invention the buyer and the seller are
communicated through audio and/or video calls or audio and/or video conference calls
using internet and/or mobile and/or satellite phone connections and the calls are either
anonymous or non-anonymous.
In still another embodiment of the present invention a method on the servers and/or
applications running on users PCs enables text or voice or video prompts are shown or
played automatically I the begirming or at the end or during the calls/conference.
In the current situation around the world, the security has become an important issue. People are not in favour of dealing with others who they don't know or who are not somehow proven to be 'believable'. This aspect stems from the fact that there are more and more clandestine activities taking place around by people. Even a small slip up can lead to being questioned by law enforcement authorities.
Corporate establishment would usually, deal with the customers who are known and established since they have the resources to ascertain the credibility of the clients before hand. In this case there is no necessity of keeping the two parties anonymous too. However, any individual business, for example selling and buying, with known people would lead to embarrassing situations quite often. Thus parties will not be able to bargain when executing the business deal. Further, for example. Party-A buys a car from Party-B that was used for a criminal purpose and is sold on the Internet anonymously (say Ebay). As we can see that Party-B will be in a muddle and though his/her innocent can be proven, the deal will lead to uncomfortable situations. In fact it true even otherwise, i.e., the buyer has some unlawful intentions. Therefore, while anonymity is very useful, one should also like to deal with persons of credibility.

The idea presented here takes into account the presence services available on the Internet. For example, Google, Orkut, Yahoo, MSN, etc. We would like to give the users the comfort that she/he is dealing with a friend of a friend of a friend of.... the friend. While allowing them to be anonymous, we enable a closed group of friends - who are known to each other for a longer period of time - to interact and do business, of course anonymously. While people do usually connect to and add to their buddy lists only those who are known to them personally. If for example, Party-A knows 25 people and one of them (Party-B) knows, say 15, then Party-A's reach can be already 40. In fact this sort of connectivity can have a very large number of people. Thus if the data is sent through this type connectivity it reaches a large number of parties. Now this cormectivity is highly secure since, people don't have completely unknown people have their buddies. Moreover, one can still keep their identity intact.
The system consists of a Buddy server that provides the Internet Presence service. It can also be a web-based database that can connect many users who are friends. The essential system is to have a mechanism such that recursively we reach many people. A web-hosting server, which can display Sellers' articles and the descriptions of the article. An enabler to support data dissemination between peers. Each peer will store data, which he is interested in, or all the data that is exchanged in the P2P mesh formed from the crisscrossing of the friends' lists. Tags are used for efficient search. A method for avoiding loops at the clients or at the servers as the case may be.
Terms
• Item: The object/information/entity, which is on sale.
• Buyer; The person who is interested in buying an item.
• Seller: The person who wants to sell an item.
• User: A buyer or seller or an intermediate buddy who passes the information from the Buyer to Seller.
• Tag: Items/goods described with Textual, audio, or video means it can also be mix of some or all of them.

Implementation
The seller creates a web page and leaves the details of the goods. Along with the details
he will also put some of the relevant tags for the same so that the searching can be fast.
He will be helped with a code and his identity will not be revealed. The subsequent steps
can be in two ways.
Push: In this case a Seller will send the link to the web page that contains all the details to his friends. The details will also have the tags. The data will be sent to all his friends of the first level. While forwarding the data to his friends Seller can also set a limit on the number of levels one can transmit. If the messages go over too many indirections then the implicit trust would be almost zero.
Pull: In this case, the Buyer will send a request with some tags to all the friends in his/her buddy list. This can go across many levels and again a limit can be set. In this case when the request from the potential Buyer reaches a Seller the link will travel automatically to the Buyer. The limit on the number of levels of indirections can be default or the User (it can be Buyer or Seller as the case may be) himself can set a value.
When push is used, the tags and the link to the web pages (containing the details) will be disseminated to all the users along the path. Each user will store what he usually is interested in. This list is crucial since a lot of filtering happen here. The learning and the past activities, and Tags are also stored so that the messages that pass through would be filtered and kept in the cache maintained at each user. This list is updated on the basis of:
a. Period: How many days before an item on sale was received
b. Interest: Whether something is of interest to the user.
c. Hops: How many hops this information about an item has already traveled.
When the Buyer gets the link to the web page containing the item of interest he would be
seeing only the web page but not anything about the person who wants to sell. The
interaction will happen anonymously.
The web page will have a plug-in (such as Flash) or an activex control button, or a link, which can be used to receive calls from the person who is seeing the web page. The

Seller will have an application that is waiting to receive the calls. The caller will not have to install any thing.
The voice enabling happens anonymously, where some random numbers represents the
callee and caller.
The anonymity can be secured through a server in between since the IP numbers can also
reveal the identity. The server switches the stream between the callee and caller.
The set up can also provide the conferencing facility with anonymity using the server.
The setup is as shown in Fig. 1. It is shown that a Seller and a Buyer connected through Buddies. This case depicts "Push" type of connectivity. For "Pull" it is similar but the direction of the arrows is opposite. The information is stored on the web servers but using the buddy server the information and the tags are transferred. This information is stored at each and every intermediate user.
When buyer and sellers are connected with audio or video chat using P2P methods, though the names/identities are not revealed, their Internet connection or service provider's IP numbers may be revealed in some cases. In case users need complete anonymity the text/audio/video calls or conferences will be routed through a central server. The packets or the connections in the case of PSTN/Satellite calls will be switched/joined with the help of a server. Thus buyer/seller will not see each others IP numbers/phone numbers while doing the transaction. Both of them would be seeing the IP number or phone numbers of the server. This makes this system completely anonymous. The server that switches the packets between the users or connects them will be provided by the service deployers.
The idea of anonymous interaction is present already in the Internet, the famous example is Ebay. However, it can be any person with whom the interaction can happen. However, here it is through the Buddy list where we can see that it will reach only those who know each other or connected to each other somehow instead of completely strangers and random. The buy and sell information travels only through the known person who are buddies to each other. This will transitively ensure that buyer and seller are ultimately connected through some common friends of some degree. While users being anonymous.

they will also feel that they are secure since we use only friends to pass on the
information.
This application enables people to form their own known Cluster with a fixed number of
degree or without any limits (till the end). Or there can be a limit on the number of
unique friends reached.
The reach can be farther with this application spanning all the users if required with the
help of the Server(s) or community itself Usually, users are grouped according to their
common interests then the Buy and Sell can be more effective. So cliques are the
commonly used dissemination method.
An anonymous text/voice/video interaction or call or conference is an added feature to
enable Buyer and Seller to have a better communication. There can be an anonymous
conference as well. A server system with the weblink/plugins with servers enables
anonymous call/conference.
The instant invention secures the anonymity through a server-based packet switching to
hide the IP numbers. The calls made through the PSTN through a switch using Callback
can make it anonymous. The invention also enables a handle for the buyer and Seller to
set the level of the penetration their buy/sell request to penetrate in the buddy of buddy of
buddy list. This level is represented by an absolute number such as N or the qualitative
level such as Low security, Medium security or High security. User can also set the
number of users that can be reached independent of the levels.

1. A method for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy
services, said method comprising acts of:
a. creating a web page comprising details of the goods to be sold by seller
b. transmitting link of said web page along with tags to the seller's buddies;
c. receiving of the transmitted link by buddies network including potential
buyer, followed by storing of details of the goods of his interest;
d. contacting of the seller or buyer by the potential buyer/seller using
predefined applications provided on the web page for the buying and the
selling of the goods;
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the web link or the information in any form about goods to be bought/sold travels automatically to a buyer when the buyer sends a request with plurality of tags to all the friends in his buddy list and said request from the potential buyer reaches the seller.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the web link or the information in any form about goods to be bought or sold travels automatically to a seller when the seller sends a request with plurality of tags to all the friends in his buddy list and said request from the potential seller reaches the buyer.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method enables the buyer and the seller to communicate using PSTN and/or Mobile and/or Satellite Telephone connections enabled by the applications provided on the web, or other applications running on the computer or the PSTN Gateways or PSTN and/or Mobile and/or Satellite Telephone on one end and Web or application running on PC on the other end.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method enables multiple buyers to perform audio and/or video conference with the seller with any means as mentioned in the claim 3.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seller and/or buyer sets a limn on the number of levels in the buddies' network to transmit data, while forwarding the data to his friends.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the limit on number of levels of indirections in the buddies' network is either default or user is capable of setting the limit.
8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the user is a seller or a buyer or an intermediate buddy who passes the information from the buyer to the seller or seller to buyer.
9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the users are grouped according to their common interest.
10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the web page comprises a plug-in and/or an active control button, and/or a link that enables to receive calls from the buyer and/or seller who is seeing the web page.
11. The method as claimed in the claim 10, wherein the calls are anonymous calls or non-anonymous calls and optionally includes anonymous or non-anonymous conference calls.
12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the anonymity is secured through a server-based packet switching mechanism to hide the IP numbers.
13. The method as claimed in any of the previous claims, wherein the method provides a handle for the user to set the level of the penetration to their buy/sell request to penetrate in the buddies' network and to mention their interests using text tags or pictures, or videos, or audios or combinations thereof
14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the level is represented by the number of users to be reached.
15. A system for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services, said system comprising;
i. plurality of computers connecting buddies;
ii. a server system with web-link and/or plug-in with call server to enable
anonymous call and/or conference call; and iii. server-based packet switching means to hide IP numbers of buyers and
sellers and to enable buyers and sellers to interact if they are behind
firewalls.

16. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the server system comprises buddy servers, web-hosting servers, and call servers, telephone servers, hardware for switching calls.
17. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the buddy server provides the Internet Presence service and is configured to act as a web-based database that connect plurality of users who are friends in the buddies network.
18. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the user is a seller or a buyer or an intermediate buddy who passes the information from the buyer to the seller or seller to buyer..
19. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the users are grouped according to their common interest.
20. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the web-hosting server is configured to display sellers' and/or buyers articles and their description either anonymous or non-anonymous.
21. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the system comprises an enabler to support data dissemination among peers.
22. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the goods are selected from a group comprising objects, information and entities which is to be selected and/or searched.
23. The system as claimed in any one of the previous claims, wherein the system enables the users to form their own known cluster of friends with a prefixed number of degree or without any limits or limit on the number of unique friends reached.
24. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the buyer and the seller are communicated through audio and/or video calls or audio and/or video conference calls using internet and/or mobile and/or satellite phone connections and the calls are either anonymous or non-anonymous.
25. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein a method on the servers and/or applications running on users PCs enables text or voice or video prompts are shown or played automatically I the beginning or at the end or during the calls/conference.

26. A method for peer to peer online buying and selling of goods through buddy services and system thereof is substantially as herein above described with reference to the accompanying drawings.