Web-based customer prospects harvester system
First Claim
1. A method of providing customer lead information from Internet sources to a client, comprising:
- receiving criteria describing prospective customers and specified Internet web sites;
retrieving web site data from the specified Internet web sites over the Internet;
storing the web site data in a first database;
searching the first database for one or more prospective customers matching the criteria, wherein said searching produces the customer lead information for the one or more prospective customers matching the criteria; and
delivering the customer lead information to the client.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A web-based customer lead harvesting system. The system is based on an application service model, with the programming for the system being accessible to users of the system via web browsers and the Internet. The users, who are typically business enterprises, may access the system to search unstructured Internet data to obtain leads for prospective customers. The system accepts criteria from the user that describes a type or types of potential customers, as well as addresses of Internet sites of interest. A crawler process retrieves the web site data, and stores the data in a web archive. A harvester process then searches the Internet data according to the client-provided criteria. The system returns the names or the identifying information about the prospect together with a link to the document that verifies the prospect'"'"'s match to the criteria.
31 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of providing customer lead information from Internet sources to a client, comprising:
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receiving criteria describing prospective customers and specified Internet web sites;
retrieving web site data from the specified Internet web sites over the Internet;
storing the web site data in a first database;
searching the first database for one or more prospective customers matching the criteria, wherein said searching produces the customer lead information for the one or more prospective customers matching the criteria; and
delivering the customer lead information to the client. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A memory medium comprising program instructions for providing customer lead information from Internet sources to a client, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor to:
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receive criteria describing prospective customers and specified Internet web sites;
retrieve web site data from the specified Internet web sites over the Internet;
store the web site data in a first database;
search the first database for one or more prospective customers matching the criteria, wherein in searching the first database the program instructions are executable to produce the customer lead information for the one or more prospective customers matching the criteria; and
deliver the customer lead information to the client. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A system, comprising:
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a network interface for coupling to the Internet;
at least one memory medium which stores;
information specifying criteria describing prospective customers and specified Internet web sites, wherein the information is received from a customer;
first program instructions executable to retrieve web site data from the specified Internet web sites over the Internet;
a first database for storing the web site data;
second program instructions executable to search the first database for one or more prospective customers matching the criteria, wherein said searching produces customer lead information for the one or more prospective customers matching the criteria; and
wherein the customer lead information is operable to be provided to the client. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A prospects harvesting system for providing, to a client, customer lead information from Internet sources, comprising:
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a web database for storing web page data retrieved from the Internet;
a crawler coupled to the web database, operable to receive specified Internet web site addresses and to download web page data from the specified web pages to the web database; and
a harvester coupled to the web database, operable to search the downloaded web page data for prospects, based on criteria provided by the client, and to provide the results of the search to the client with a link to a document that verifies the prospect'"'"'s match to the criteria;
wherein the harvester is operable to receive the criteria from the client via a client browser system and the Internet. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification