Method and system for finding and aggregating reviews for a product

• US 20060129446A1
• Filed: 12/14/2004
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ruhl, Jan Matthias, Datar, Mayur D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

The embodiments disclosed herein include new, more efficient ways to collect product reviews from the Internet, aggregate reviews for the same product, and provide an aggregated review to end users in a searchable format. One aspect of the invention is a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of portions of reviews for a product and a search input area for entering search terms to search for reviews of the product that contain the search terms.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

at a server,

a. collecting information containing product reviews for a plurality of products;

b. automatically extracting product reviews from the collected information;

c. for at least some of the extracted product reviews, identifying a particular product that is associated with the extracted product review; and

d. for each particular product in at least a subset of the plurality of products, generating aggregated review information for the particular product based on a plurality of extracted product reviews that are associated with the particular product, and

e. storing the extracted product reviews and the aggregated review information.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the collecting comprises selectively crawling review-related Web sites or portions thereof and retrieving information containing product reviews.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the collecting comprises receiving product reviews in a predetermined digital format.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the collecting comprises selecting information from a repository of information collected by a web crawler.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information containing product reviews comprises Web pages.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information containing product reviews comprises Web pages of review-related Web sites.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information containing product reviews comprises Web pages of review-related Web sites and product-related Web sites.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information containing product reviews comprises forum postings.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a particular product that is associated with the extracted product review comprises associating a unique number in the extracted product review with a particular product.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the unique number is a product model number.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the unique number is an ISBN number.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a particular product that is associated with the extracted product review comprises associating a brand name and a model number in the extracted product review with a particular product.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a particular product that is associated with the extracted product review comprises associating a brand name, a model number, and a product category in the extracted product review with a particular product.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated review information for the particular product comprises a total number of reviews for the product.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated review information for the particular product comprises an average rating for the product.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated review information for the particular product comprises a distribution of ratings.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated review information for the particular product includes frequently appearing phrases in the extracted product reviews associated with the particular product.

18. A computer-implemented method comprising:

at a server,

a. collecting product reviews for a plurality of products;

b. automatically identifying particular products that are associated with particular product reviews;

c. for each particular product in at least a subset of the plurality of products, automatically generating aggregated review information for the particular product including frequently appearing phrases in the product reviews associated with the particular product, and

d. automatically storing the product reviews and the aggregated review information.

19. A system comprising at least one server, wherein said at least one server is configured to:

a. collect product reviews for a plurality of products;

b. automatically identify particular products that are associated with particular product reviews;

c. for each particular product in at least a subset of the plurality of products, automatically generate aggregated review information for the particular product including frequently appearing phrases in the product reviews associated with the particular product, and

d. automatically store the product reviews and the aggregated review information.

20. A machine readable medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions, which when executed by a server, cause the server to:

a. collect product reviews for a plurality of products;

b. automatically identify particular products that are associated with particular product reviews;

c. for each particular product in at least a subset of the plurality of products, automatically generate aggregated review information for the particular product including frequently appearing phrases in the product reviews associated with the particular product, and

d. automatically store the product reviews and the aggregated review information.

21. A system, comprising:

a. means for collecting product reviews for a plurality of products;

b. means for automatically identifying particular products that are associated with particular product reviews;

c. for each particular product in at least a subset of the plurality of products, means for automatically generating aggregated review information for the particular product including frequently appearing phrases in the product reviews associated with the particular product, and

d. means for automatically storing the product reviews and the aggregated review information.