System and method for collecting, associating, normalizing and presenting product and vendor information on a distributed network

• US 20020107861A1
• Filed: 12/07/2000
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Halfcom Incorporated (eBay Inc.)
• Inventors: Robinette, Fred G., Mengerink, Matthew W., McCartney, Michael D., Wilson, David J., Clendinning, Kerry
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/83 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A system and method for collecting and displaying information on a product at a website, and related method for storing a product'"'"'s various identifiers, where the system comprises a database that stores a plurality of identifiers for each product and the relationships between the identifiers. The system recognizes the different identifiers that refer to the same product. The system accepts product information from a variety of sources, regardless of the product identifier used by the sources. The system then sends out the product information to users and to other servers. The information displayed at the website includes: (1) a general description of the product; (2) a numerical user rating of the product; (3) one or more user reviews of the product; (4) one or more industry reviews of the product; (5) one or more comparisons between the product and other similar items; (6) a list of one or more vendors that sell the product; (7) a list price of the product; (8) a price for the product at each of the vendors; (9) an indication of the availability of the product at each of the one or more vendors; (10) a profile on each of the one or more vendors, and (11) a rating and/or review for each of the one or more vendors. The website may further provide access to discussions regarding the product and related products. The website may further suggest complementary products that may be purchased along with the product of interest.

Claims

1. A system for storing and correlating various different identification and attribute information about a product, said system comprising:

a database that stores a plurality of identifiers for each product, relationships between the identifiers, and for each identified product, a plurality of product attributes; and

a data collector for retrieving product information from at least one external source and automatically associating said retrieved product information with the prestored information on the database and normalizing said retrieved product information in accordance with product information already stored in the database.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the identifiers are selected from the following group:

a manufacturer'"'"'s model number or other identifier used by the manufacturer;

a distributor'"'"'s part number or other identifier used by a distributor of said product;

one or more vendor'"'"'s SKUs or other identifier used by the one or more vendors; and

serial number.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the database further stores information about features of the product.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the database assigns a universal SKU to each product.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is a relational database and the relationships between the identifiers is stored as a tuple.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the database is controlled by SQL.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said database is contained in a server connected to a distributed network.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the distributed network is the Internet.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising one or more third party servers connected to the system through the Internet.

10. A method of storing product information in a database comprising the steps of:

gathering product information from diverse external sources;

loading the gathered product information into the database;

for each product in said gathered information, determining whether it is already present in said database, and if so, translating associated product attribute information in said gathered information into a canonical representation as determined by an alias list in said database;

for each product determined as not being already present in said database, adding a product identifier and related product information to said database, wherein the database determines and stores the relationships between the various product identifiers for each new product represented in newly gathered information and stores information regarding the related product information for that product according to alias lists for product information terminology stored in said database.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of transmitting the product information to a third-party server, wherein the transmitted product information contains a product identifier used by the third-party server.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a product/service list identifying a plurality of products/services; and

receiving a user product input selecting one of the products/services from the product/service list, wherein the step of displaying information displays information on the selected product/service.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

displaying a class list identifying a plurality of classes of products/services; and

receiving a user class input selecting one of the classes of products/services from the class list, wherein the step of displaying a product/service list displays the product/service list for selected class.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

displaying a feature list identifying a plurality of product/service features; and

receiving a user feature input selecting one or more of the product/service features from the feature list, wherein the step of displaying a product/service list displays the products that have the one or more selected product features.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein during the step of displaying information on a product, the information further comprises a picture of the product.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of allowing the user to add to the stored information a user review of the product/service.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of allowing the user to add a rating of the product/service, wherein the rating is combined with the existing numerical user rating to form a new numerical user rating.

19. The method of claim 12 further comprising one or more evaluations of the one or more user reviews.

20. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of suggesting one or more complementary products/services that may be purchased along with the product/service of interest.

21. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of assigning unique integer identifiers to each character string contained in said product information, and associating each unique integer identifier with its corresponding string in a look-up table;

creating a file containing product identification information and product attribute information in the form of a listing of said unique integer identifiers;

whereby client queries to said database are traversed across said file, relevant integer identifiers are retrieved, and corresponding character strings are obtained from said look-up table for presentation to a client.

12. A computer-implemented method for providing to a user at a single user-interactive location information relating to a product or service of interest to the user, comprising the steps of:

gathering information on the product or service, including at least two of the following types of information;

(1) a general description of the product or service that includes the product/service'"'"'s features,

(2) a numerical user rating of the product/service,

(3) one or more user reviews of the product/service,

(4) one or more industry reviews of the product/service,

(5) one or more comparisons between the product/service and other similar items,

(6) a list of one or more vendors that sell the product/service,

(7) a list price of the product/service,

(8) a price for the product/service at each of the one or more vendors,

(9) data on the availability of the product/service at each of the one or more vendors,

(10) a profile on each of the one or more vendors, and

(11) a rating and/or review for each of the one or more vendors;

storing the gathered information according to product/service identification; and

outputting said information to said user in a format whereby said user has access to all of the gathered and stored information related to the product/service of interest.

22. A method of carrying out a computer-implemented parameter-based search of a database containing records corresponding to various products, which include information identifying a plurality of definable parameters describing said products, comprising the steps of:

assigning a token integer to each character string corresponding to a particular parameter in said record database, wherein the value of the token integer corresponds to the location of the start of said character string in the database;

creating a look-up table of character strings, each being associated with its assigned token integer;

creating a record search file from said records in said database, wherein information from said database is reorganized sequentially by parameter type, and all token integers for each parameter type are arranged sequentially adjacent to each other;

retrieving a parameter search query from a user; and

carrying out said search query by traversing said record search file.