System and method for listing data acquisition

• US 20060206584A1
• Filed: 03/11/2006
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ting, Joseph, Hyder, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 8,135,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/947 Human resources

Abstract

A method and system of data acquisition by a listing service provider is disclosed. A network address is received from a client computer that is operated by a lister. The network address can be indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network. The listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister. The network address received from the lister is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data. The lister makes available the listing data for retrieval so that the listing data can be posted in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider. The listing data is retrieved from the network address using the computer network connection by copying the listing data onto a listing data database.

Claims

1. A method of data acquisition, comprising:

receiving a network address from a client computer that is operated by a lister, wherein the network address is indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network, wherein the listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister, wherein the listing data is in an information resource definition language;

accessing the network address received from the client computer, wherein the network address is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data, wherein the lister makes available the listing data to a listing service provider for retrieval so that the listing data can be posted in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider; and

retrieving the listing data from the network address using the computer network connection by copying the listing data onto a listing data database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the listing data comprises job listings.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the listing data comprises real estate listings.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the listing data at the listing data database for conformance to predetermined quality criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising categorizing the listing data stored in the listing data database into one or more predetermined categories and storing the categorized listing data in the search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring selected categorized job information data from the search bank through a job search client server to a job searcher in response to a query by the job searcher.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising posting the listing data on an Internet website.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an Internet website wherein a lister can administrate the listing data provided to the listing service provider.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource definition language is unique to the listing service provider.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource definition language is an extension of extensible markup language.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a job element.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the job element comprises an employer company attribute and a job title attribute.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a real estate element.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the real estate element comprises a location attribute and a price attribute.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is provided by any one of entering a uniform resource locator in an Internet web form hosted by the listing service provider, or transmitting the uniform resource locator as part of a hypertext source code tag.

17. A system for data acquisition by a listing service provider, comprising:

an address receiving module that receives a network address from a client computer that is operated by a lister, wherein the network address is indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network, wherein the listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister, wherein the listing data is in an information resource definition language format; and

a web crawling module that accesses the network address received from the lister, wherein the network address is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data, wherein the lister makes available the listing data for retrieval by a listing service provider so that the listing data can be posted in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider, the web crawling module configured to retrieve the listing data from the network address using the computer network connection by copying the listing data onto a listing data database.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the listing data comprises job listings.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the listing data comprises real estate listings.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising a listing manager that analyzes the listing data at the listing data database for conformance to predetermined quality criteria.

21. The system of claim 17, further comprising a listing manager that categorizes the listing data stored in the listing data database into one or more predetermined categories and stores the categorized listing data in the search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

22. The system of claim 17, further comprising a listing manager that transfers selected categorized job information data from the search bank through a job search client server to a job searcher in response to a query by the job searcher.

23. The system of claim 17, further comprising an Internet website wherein the listing data is posted.

24. The system of claim 17, further comprising an Internet website wherein a lister can administrate the listing data provided to the listing service provider.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the information resource definition language is unique to the listing service provider.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein the information resource definition language is an extension of extensible markup language.

27. The system of claim 17, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a job element.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the job element comprises an employer company attribute and a job title attribute.

29. The system of claim 17, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a real estate element.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the real estate element comprises a location attribute and a price attribute.

31. The system of claim 17, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator.

32. The system of claim 17, wherein the network address is provided by any one of entering a uniform resource locator at Internet web form hosted by the listing service provider, or transmitting the uniform resource locator as part of a hypertext source code tag.

33. A computer readable medium encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for data acquisition by a listing service provider, the computer process comprising:

receiving a network address from a client computer that is operated by a lister, wherein the network address is indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network, wherein the listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister, wherein the listing data is in an information resource definition language;

accessing the network address received from the client computer, wherein the network address is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data, wherein the lister makes available the listing data to a listing service provider for retrieval so that the listing data can be posted in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider; and

retrieving the listing data from the network address using the computer network connection by copying the listing data onto a listing data database.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the listing data comprises job listings.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the listing data comprises real estate listings.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising analyzing the listing data at the listing data database for conformance to predetermined quality criteria.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising categorizing the listing data stored in the listing data database into one or more predetermined categories and storing the categorized listing data in the search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising transferring selected categorized job information data from the search bank through a job search client server to a job searcher in response to a query by the job searcher.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising posting the listing data on an Internet website.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising providing an Internet website wherein a lister can administrate the listing data provided to the listing service provider.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the information resource definition language is unique to the listing service provider.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the information resource definition language is an extension of an extensible markup language.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a job element.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 43, wherein the job element comprises an employer company attribute and a job title attribute.

45. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a real estate element.

46. The computer readable medium of claim 45, wherein the real estate element comprises a location attribute and a price attribute.

47. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator.

48. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the network address is provided by any one of entering a uniform resource locator at Internet web form hosted by the listing service provider, or transmitting the uniform resource locator as part of a hypertext source code tag.