System and method for collecting and distributing reviews and ratings

1. A system for providing ratings, comprising:

a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having a computer readable first program code embodied therein, said computer readable first program code adapted to execute as a browser toolbar in a browser on an end user computing device operable by a first user executable to implement a method comprising:

transmitting a request to a remote computer system in response to a web page being loaded into the browser executing on the end user computing device;

wherein the request includes an identifier (ID) and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the web page loaded in the browser executing on the end user computing device;

in response to said transmitting, receiving a rating value from the remote computer system;

displaying the rating value in the toolbar concurrently with the web page;

receiving a first rating of the first user from the remote computer system;

wherein the first rating comprises a rating previously supplied by the first user prior to the web page being loaded into the browser;

displaying the first rating in the toolbar concurrently with the web page;

receiving a user input comprising a second rating from the first user;

transmitting the second rating to the remote computer system; and

displaying the second rating in the toolbar.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

receive the second rating;

store the second rating;

calculate a new rating value incorporating the second rating; and

store the new rating value in memory.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the URL includes a domain and the remote computer system is configured to:

access coupon content from one or more other remote computer systems;

determine if coupon content is available for the domain;

transmit an alert to the end user computing device if any coupon content is available for the domain; and

wherein the first program code is executable to receive the alert and display the alert in the toolbar.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the URL includes a domain and wherein the remote computer system is configured to

receive the ID;

identify one or more friends of the first user associated with the ID;

determine whether a computer associated with any of the one or more friends has received a web page from the domain within a predetermined time period; and

transmit a friend notification to the end user computing device if a computer associated with any of the one or more friends has received a web page from the domain within the predetermined time period.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the friend notification identifies at least one friend and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the friend notification; and

displaying a visual representation of the at least one friend identified in the friend notification concurrently with the web page.

6. The system according to claim 1 , the remote computer system is configured to:

receive the URL;

determine a domain from the URL;

determine the rating value based on the domain; and

transmit the rating value to the end user computing device that transmitted the request.

7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the remote computer system is further configured to:

retrieve from memory the first rating for the parsed domain and the received ID; and

transmit the first rating to the end user computing device.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

store a plurality of user ratings for each of a plurality of domains in a database;

receive the URL;

determine a domain from the URL;

determine the rating value for the domain based upon the plurality of user ratings for the domain; and

transmit the rating value to the end user computing device.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

receive from a client a search request that includes one or more keywords;

search one or more fields of the database for domains associated with the one or more keywords to provide search results;

sorting the search results, at least in part, in descending order of the rating value associated with each domain of the search results; and

transmitting at least a portion of the sorted search results to the client.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the remote computer system is further configured to:

store a plurality of user reviews for each of a multitude of domains in the database; and

wherein each of the plurality of user reviews for each domain are associated in memory with a different ID.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the remote computer system is configured to:

receive the URL;

parse a domain from the URL;

determine whether the domain comprises a domain on which content may be rated; and

if the domain comprises a domain on which content may be rated:

parse a content identifier from the URL;

search a database for a content rating value associated with the domain and the content identifier; and

transmit the content rating value as the rating value to the end user computing device that transmitted the request.

12. A method of distributing meta data related to websites to an end user, comprising:

transmitting to a remote computer system a first URL of a first webpage with a toolbar executing on an end user computing device, in response to loading of the first webpage into a browser executing on the end user computing device;

with the remote computer system:

receiving the first URL;

determining a first domain of the first URL;

retrieving from memory a first rating value associated with the first domain; and

transmitting the first rating value to the end user computing device; with the end user computing device:

receiving the first rating value;

displaying the first rating value in the toolbar concurrently with the first web page;

receiving a user input comprising a first user rating indicative of a rating of the first domain; and

transmitting the first user rating to the remote computer system;

with the remote computer system:

receiving the first user rating;

storing the first user rating in memory in association with the first domain;

wherein the first rating value comprises an average user rating of the first domain supplied by a plurality of users;

calculating a second rating value for the first domain that incorporates the received first user rating;

storing the second rating value in the memory in association with the first domain; and

transmitting the second rating value to the end user computing device; and

with the end user computing device:

receiving the second rating value; and

displaying the second rating value in the toolbar concurrently with the first web page.

13. The method according to claim 12 ,

with the remote computer system:

retrieving from memory a user rating associated with the first domain supplied by the end user prior to the first webpage being loaded into the browser;

transmitting the retrieved user rating to the end user computing device;

with the end user computing device:

receiving the retrieved user rating; and

displaying the retrieved user rating concurrently with the first webpage.

14. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising with the remote computer system:

receiving a second URL comprising a second request transmitted from an end user computing device;

wherein the second URL includes a second domain;

determining a content identifier from the second URL;

searching a database for a content rating value associated with the second domain and the content identifier; and

transmitting the content rating value as the rating value to the end user computing device that transmitted the second request.

15. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

with the end user computing device, transmitting an identifier (ID) associated with the end user to the remote computer system;

with the remote computer system:

receiving the identifier;

identifying one or more friends of the end user based on the identifier;

determining whether a computing device associated with any of the one or more friends have received a web page from the first domain within a predetermined time period; and

transmitting a friend notification to the end user computing device if a computing device of any of the one or more friends have received a web page from the first domain within the predetermined time period; and

wherein the friend notification identifies at least one friend.